Anasazi37
-
Posts
2060 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Gallery
Everything posted by Anasazi37
-
Yeah, for WWM items, it's now largely by choice that I put myself through this. Purchasing from a US seller means a significant markup (courtesy of our friends at Bandai) and waiting at least two more months for delivery, but at some point I'm going to tell myself that I'm getting too old for PO Madness. There is a bit of a triumph/disappointment nostalgia feeling, plus it keeps my skills sharp for purchasing non-WWM items!
- 206 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- hmr
- macross zero
- (and 1 more)
-
I got back super-late from a business trip last night and managed to snag one from HLJ, which I didn't think would happen. Landed at the airport, dashed through the terminal, took the shuttle to where my car was parked, and got to it a few minutes before PO Madness started. Refreshed the HLJ site a few times on my phone, the 0A showed up, got cart jacked three times (HLJ tradition), but still somehow managed to get a PO. Thank goodness for 5G service. Would have stayed in the terminal to do it, but the cell and wifi reception there is terrible. This was too important to leave to chance.
- 206 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- hmr
- macross zero
- (and 1 more)
-
Wish I could say that I did something special to keep him that white. I've had him sitting on an open shelf for years, but I live in a really dry place at high elevation and keep the display room fairly dark. Some or all of that environmental stuff probably helped. I did have a wing on another 1/48 start to go yellow on me, but I think that happened a long time ago when I was living somewhere far more humid.
-
I'm calling my Yamato 1/48 VF-1 adapters for Archi Stands complete. Tinkered with them a bunch over the long weekend, after not working on them for a few months. They can be printed in something more durable like PETG, but PLA does just fine with the way that I designed the structural reinforcements. There are four available: Battroid, Gerwalk, Fighter, and Armored Fighter. There are two Fighter versions because of how low the legs, arms, and gunpod sit with the armor attached. Plus the Armored Fighter is a lot heavier. They attach to the Archi Arcadia-A adapter. There's a tab that sits inside the Arcadia-A and a sleeve that goes around the outside for added stability. Even under extreme banking scenario tests they've held up just fine. They are cradles, in other words they do not clip onto the valk. They leverage gravity and valk weight distribution in each mode, which eliminates worries about paint scraping (helpful for customs). I would not recommend tilting the valk 90 degrees or holding it upside down with the adapter attached. Not sure why you'd want to do that, but I'm putting the disclaimer out there anyway. I'll be putting them up on Cults3D or another site soon. Will likely sell them as a set for a small amount, mainly to recover the cost of all the material I went through while designing them.
-
I think there might be an "intentional scarcity" aspect to this as well, where limited releases are exactly the point: they're here for a moment, then they're gone. I've seen a few articles on the topic over the past few years, which seem to focus on the idea of valuable things being ephemeral and hard to obtain on purpose, so they will be cherished over time. It's an interesting idea, that scarcity is accepted and perhaps expected in this context. There's also the cold, hard financial side of it, where limited supply boosts overall demand and profits while minimizing risk, which you highlighted so nicely. A quick search turned up this article: https://www.statista.com/topics/8446/toy-market-in-japan/#topicOverview
-
Both options definitely get the point across.
-
I'm starting to refer to this version as the "Null Set" instead of the "Full Set" since it comes with no accessories except for those egg-beater pinpoint barrier punch attachments.
-
Same with me: that (so far) was the only time I've had an issue with DHL. Sounds like our DHL customer service experiences were almost identical (they don't want to work with the recipient, just the shipper), but your experience with AE seems better. I will say that they were consistently polite and apologetic, but they kept pushing me to file a claim with DHL. Maybe they've learned that it doesn't work so they just file the claim themselves. I'm betting that they'll at least refund the shipping cost.
-
That's horrible! If you got them from AE, you should at least be able to get your shipping cost refunded. My VF-25F Alto Super came like that. AE said talk to DHL since they damaged the package, DHL said talk to AE since they owned the shipment and get them to sign a waiver so DHL could work directly with me. I sent the waiver form to AE but they apparently didn't want to reveal any information about themselves or sign a document, so they finally just offered to refund my shipping cost after they spoke with DHL on their end (not sure if that actually happened). Took about two months of hounding them for the refund, but it finally showed up. FedEx and UPS seem happy to work directly with the person receiving a damaged package. DHL, apparently not so much.
-
We might have to do some coordination within this community. For folks that have the YF-19 Full Set, all we'd need is the fold attachment for the YF-21. I'd be open to selling the rest of the add-on to someone who has the "null set" YF-19 reissue but doesn't want the YF-21. Maybe that's a small group of people. If Bandai really wants to stick it to us, the YF-21 fold attachment will be sold on its own...and for the same price as the add-on set for the YF-19 that has a lot more pieces (including the same fold attachment).
-
Usually between four and six months
-
Nice! I have a large backlog of 1/55 customs that I need to work on and designing/printing some of these parts was on my to-do list. Especially the part that slides inside the forearm and has the fist attached.
-
My proxy just received the Max and now both are ready to ship. Looking forward to having the whole squadron!
-
After the really big showing at last year's event because of 40th anniversary of Macross, where more than 30 new items were previewed, this year was disappointing. Just a small handful of items, some of which were already previewed last year or have been teased for several years. Apart from the Super Ostrich prototype, which was a genuine surprise, it seems like they phoned it in this time. I'd like to think that Bandai's designers and engineers are hard at work on toys like the 1/2000 SDF-1 and the remaining HM-R Destroids, so they couldn't put much time or energy into the event, but we're talking about Bandai. They're focused on other, more lucrative properties. At this point I'm just hoping that most of what they showed last year gets released...eventually.
-
Saving my money for the DX Super Ostrich...and I had to prepay for my PO of the RIOBOT Voltron Legendary Defender. It set me back ¥92120. That hurt. A lot. But it's the first decent version anyone's made. The Playmates version sucked.
-
If you are willing to send me files to work with (STL is fine), I'll see what I can do. Not difficult to convert the can mesh back to a set of parametric objects so I can do more with them.
-
I might be able to help with decals for it, too, if you weren't already thinking about making them yourself. The yellow and white banner wouldn't take too long to design, and based on how you made the top piece, all you really need is the white text since the rest can be painted yellow. The red and blue artwork with the black lines on it, that spans the six cans, would be a little more challenging due to the curved surfaces and how everything has to line up, but is feasible. I'd need the print files for the machine to do everything correctly. You could include the decal artwork file with your print files. I wouldn't want any compensation, just offering to help another fan. I could probably print a few decal sets for folks who are interested.
-
Every time I look at my plush gunpod, it makes me smile because of how patently ridiculous and fun it is. Still one of my all-time favorite Macross purchases. I'd very much like to see an Sv-303 release, too.
-
Heads up: release date for Alto has moved from October to December. Just noticed the change on Good Smile's web site. I'd been holding off on shipping items in my HLJ Private Warehouse until this released, putting up with their seemingly endless onslaught of "SHIP NOW" emails, but it could be another two months....
-
Tamashii site says "November 2023" for Max: https://tamashiiweb.com/item/14457/?wovn=en I hope it's closer to the beginning of November, or even 10/31. Don't want to wait too long to complete the squadron.
-
Got an email from my proxy service this morning that my Kakizaki is ready to ship. I'm going to have them hold onto it until the Max releases next month. They went up for PO at the same time, as Tamashii Web Exclusive (TWE) items, but their release dates are about a month apart. You can keep track of the latest announcements using this site: https://tamashiiweb.com/item_character/macross_series/?wovn=en (be sure to select "Japan" for the region, using the floating button in the lower right corner of your screen) There's also a well-maintained PO announcement thread: A few stores like Anime Export are still willing to take POs for TWE items and then act as proxies for you, but Bandai is really starting to crack down on proxies. The proxy service I like to use recently had to switch to a process where orders are shipped to a third party and then shipped to their warehouse, to get around Bandai's latest "defenses." Not a huge additional cost, maybe $4 in postage and a bit longer wait time for me, but this whole situation is beyond ridiculous.
-
He's been restocking pretty regularly. Recommend you 1) check the site often as @starkiller239 recommended, 2) join the Macross Fan Central group on Facebook (he announces restocks there), or 3) message him here and request an update on restocking (his username is BroTaku79). When I need stands...and I keep finding reasons to buy more of them...I tend to check the site a few times a week. That way I don't have to sort through a bunch of "sorry if someone already posted this or already asked this question" noise in the Facebook group to find his updates. With that said, when an update does show up in the group, he sometimes includes a discount code.
-
It's definitely a partsformer
-
I've continued to refine my Yamato 1/48 adapters for the Archi Stands. Battroid is done now, but I'm still tweaking the ones for Gerwalk, Fighter, and Armored Fighter. As mentioned above, the gunpod sits lower in Armored Fighter, and it's a lot heavier when displayed, so I made a separate adapter just for that case. Required some reinforcement. Here's the result. Printed in PLA for rapid prototyping, not ABS, but it's still very strong. You can do some extreme banking poses. The adapters are really cradles, no clipping on to anything. The valk just sits in them and gravity does the rest. I'm avoiding the clip-on approach because that is more difficult to print reliably, but also because I plan to use these adapters on 1/48 customs I'm creating and don't want to scratch the paint jobs.
-
If it released in Japan in late August, it could arrive at BBTS right before the end of October. That would be two months. As others have said, BBTS is responsive to inquires about arrival times, so I'm sure they'll give you the best estimate they have right now. I'd prepare to hand over $200 before the end of next month, just to be safe.