KOG Water Dragon

I'm very sad Wave didn't do it when they did the others. I'd be more than happy if Hasegawa decided to fill the gap if their other new 1/72s sell well.

You know, back in the day, I paid $80+ for the MG Gp02 when it was first released. Not like it was P-Bandai or anything. I think the yen price was about 4000y. That was just how buying japanese kits from specialty import shops worked. That's what drove me to buying everything from HLJ for a lotta years. P-Bandai could be worse.

If the Gamlin kit has extra runners, added effects parts, and waterslide decals, it's easy to see why it's costing a fair bit more than the YF-21 release. I'm seeing reports that the japanese price on it is 8000yen. So the $70-ish price on P-Bandai makes sense. If you could buy it direct from Japan, using dollars to buy it at the 8000yen price, you'd be getting it for way less than $70. But I don't know anywhere to buy P-Bandai in that manner. I don't think westerners can buy direct from P-Bandai Japan, and any western retailers with the kits are selling them at a markup. You'd pretty much have to travel to Japan and shop local stores to get that low price. Shops like HLJ of course do not sell P-Bandai merch. As for whether the kit, at 8000yen, is worth as much as one of the newer 8000yen Master Grade kits... that's another question altogether. All in all, I blame the high prices on modern Bandai kits being needlessly partsy and over-complicated. To be honest I much prefer Hasegawa's traditional style 1/72 models over Bandai's 1/100 partsformers.

It's inflation. MG Sinanju Stein Narrative Version Ver, Ka is about 8000yen, MG Narrative Gundam Ver Ka was about 7000yen, I believe MG FAZZ ver Ka was around 11000yen. MG Zeta Ver Ka was 6500yen, MG Virtue was 8000yen. Some simpler MGs like Kyrios and Eclipse are down around 5000yen. Aside from inflation? This is getting into personal belief territory, but I think a big factor in the rising cost of these kits is absolutely down to the demands consumers are placing on Bandai for increased color separation and accuracy out of the box, as well as increased detail (internal structures and such) and poseability (kneeling, joints with multiple ranges of motion). Just look at the RG RX-78 2.0 for example. It's a small 1/144 kit but SO many small intricate parts, layer upon layer. The need for everything to be moulded in correct color and be super articulated absolutely drives up the parts count, which drives up the sprue count, which increases the investment in required toolings, and the increased size and weight of the final kit is going to drive up associated logistical and shipping costs. If you look at the larger 1/72 Macross kits from Hasegawa and Plamax, they are priced similarly to the Bandai 1/100 kits despite being much 'larger' kits. Hasegawa 1/72 YF-19 Battroid - 5390yen, Plamax 1/72 VF-1J Battroid - 4180yen, Plamax 1/72 VF-1S Strike Fighter - 5940yen. Bigger kits, but less rigid demands for hyper parts color separation and hyper articulation, so they can be made simpler with less sprue count inflation. And they even comes with waterslide decals while Bandai makes you buy those extra. Obviously the parts forming nature of the Bandai 1/100 kits is also driving up sprue count as well. It gets even worse when Bandai is giving you kits with multiple duplicate sprues in different colors just to account for small color changes which one could easily paint oneself. It doesn't cost them a ton to pop some extra sprues, but they will absolutely charge you extra for the added sprue count.

There's a reason for the price differences, as I discovered through discussion with my local hobby shop owner. The original yen price on the YF-21 for example is somewhere around 4700 or 5000 yen (I don't have the exact number handy). Right now, because the yen is weak against the dollar, the price to buy from japan (i.e. HLJ) is just over $30. But Bandai doesn't want westerners buying up japanese stock (either for personal use, or in too many cases, scalping). Bandai wants us to buy our stock through domestic retailers. And through western retailers, they've set MSRP as closer to what prices would have been when the yen was stronger, closer to the $1 = 100yen range. So that's why your Amazon or whatever price is a lot higher than what you can pay buying from HLJ right now. If the yen strengthens against the dollar, then that HLJ price will go up. As we've seen, Bandai is making it harder for shops based in Japan to sell to the western market. Hobbysearch doesn't carry Bandai at all anymore, and HLJ only gets much more limited amounts of stock than it used to. So while it may be cheaper to buy from HLJ, it will also take a lot more waiting to actually get any Bandai stuff from there. I have only managed to get 1 YF-29 Max and 1 YF-21 from HLJ. I never could get a YF-29 or YF-19 or the new Fire Valkyrie from there. Similarly, I've been unable to get most new Gundam kits from HLJ before I could just buy them local. Was never able to get MG Narrative Gundam ver Ka, MG Sinanju Stein Narrative ver Ka, RG Force Impulse Spec II, etc from HLJ and just gave up and bought local. And in all cases I had preordered almost immediately after the items were posted for preorder. As for the Gamlin VF-22, it may seem a lot more than what you paid at HLJ for the YF-21, but consider two things. First of all it's probably a little more expensive than vanilla VF-21 to begin with. It may come packed with waterslides, whereas they are an extra expense when you buy the YF-21. I don't know if it has any extra sprues compared to YF-21 vanilla, but that could also affect price. And then remember you're seeing on P-Bandai an MSRP based on converting the japanese retail yen price at something closer to the $1 = 100yen rate, so you're not going to see a price close to that $30something you paid at HLJ. In effect, P-Bandai is just charging prices that reflect what kits used to cost us here, before the yen value dipped so low. And realize, getting a kit at a straight $1 = 100 yen valuation is still a MUCH better deal than having to buy kits at a 2x $1 = 100yen valuation, which is what we used to be stuck with in the old days, when all stuff stocked locally was imported from Japan and then marked up significantly. We won't always be able to count on getting stuff cheap from Japan with the benefit of a severely weakened yen. On the bright side, we can at least still get Macross and other series kits made by other companies (Wave, Max Factory, Hasegawa, Kotobukiya, etc) pretty cheap from HLJ still. (Also, shipping from Japan has gotten super expensive. A simple kit like the YF-21/VF-22 could cost a TON to ship. I just checked, and the Hasegawa YF-19 w/ fastpack in my private warehouse has a lowest quoted shipping rate of $26.12 for 2-6 week non trackable delivery. Around $40 shipping if you want something faster like EMS, DHL, or FedEx. With shipping that high, cheap HLJ prices aren't such a bargain anymore. That $30something YF-21 is now close to $50 after shipping is factored in.)

I'd prefer that (and a vanilla VF-11 battroid) from Hasegawa. Heck, do a super VF-11 battroid too. Seems like a good way to get extra mileage from a set of moulds... On a side note, I hope YF-19 battroid sells great so we can maybe get YF-21, VF-11, and other battroids later. It would actually be pretty cool to get a Hasegawa rendition of VF-25 and VF-31 battroids. All leading to getting an Armored VF-31 which has gotta be my most desired kit at the present time.

Is anything ever coming of this?

Oh man I love mecha kits based on games. I have all the Zone of Enders, Metal Gear Solid, Armored Core kits. I'm wanting to get the Assault Suit Leynos/Valken kits, Ikaruga kits, Silpheed kits, and maybe some from Gradius and Darius.

Vic Viper, Assault Suit Leynos, Orguss, Mospeada... a man of culture.

It does help! Thank you. Very interesting. I think of all these, maybe the Bandai DX VF-19 Advanced makes the best attempt at feet that look OK in both fighter and battroid modes.

Does anyone have pics of the heel part for the various YF-19 toys that have come out over the years? I don't own any myself and it's been hard to find good pics of just the heels when searching images on google. I'm curious how Hasegawa's interpretation compared to all the various transforming toys which really do have to balance how the part looks in different modes.

It has 2 sets of heel parts and you choose which one you want to use. I think it's an attempt to reconcile the differences in how the heel part looks in fighter mode vs battroid mode. One set is 'this looks OK for battroid mode but we know it would look weird compared to the fighter mode part' and the other part is 'this is closer to the look of the fighter mode part but it doesn't really sit right in battroid mode'. I don't really get it, there's been lots of variable YF-19 figures before, so how did they achieve a heel part that looks OK in both modes and why didn't Hasegawa draw from that? Personally I think the heel that sits on its edge looks terrible and I'll definitely use the other set of heel parts... even though they look nothing like the corresponding parts on Hasegawa's own fighter kit. As for panel lining... sure. It's like any Hasegawa kit. Tons of detail but it's delicate so it needs a wash to bring it out. Small issues aside, I'm really excited for this kit. Having a dedicated battroid kit in 1/72 of the YF-19 with this level of detail is something of a dream come true. I just hope Hasegawa sells enough to find it worthwhile to follow it up with a YF-21 battroid and then maybe a VF-11. I don't do pre-finished figures/toys, so battroids of these designs are something that's been missing from my (model) collection for a long long time.

And super fighters.

Very different from the movie version box artworks. I wonder if these TV edition boxes are meant to evoke a retro feeling?

Same, I've got those plus the plamax VF-1J fighter and some older Hasegawa restocks ready to go, so it's really time to arrange a shipment,

Oh, I know. I just find Hasegawa's variant releasing strategy weird. We've had 2 distinct releases of the VF-1D fighter, and also a VF-1D gerwalk, but not VF-1D battroid even though the battroids came out way before the gerwalks started. Also odd (to me): The Max and Miria VF-1Js are vanilla as fighter releases, but super configuration for gerwalk and battroid releases. And there's still no VF-1J super max battroid to go with the miria type, even though they made sure to release max and miria queadluun rau in quick succession. There seems to be little love the battroid line in general, as they've really only done a couple variants (VF-1J miria super, and the minmei guard super) since the original launch lineup of regular and super/strike battroids. For consistency, I'd really like to have a pair of max and miria VF-1J super fighters, and a max VF-1J super battroid. Obviously I can wait a bit, but I really hope I won't have to buy another max/miria fighter set PLUS 2 more super VF-1s to make the max/miria super fighter pair, and an extra VF-1J super batt which I will then have to source max decals for. I'm hoping I could source relevant max specific decals from a max gerwalk, but that still means having to buy 2 kits to make 1. And heck, I'd rather have a dedicated max VF-1J super battroid so we can have an excuse to get a sweet new boxart. The art for the miria super battroid was really nice. And then of course the artwork can wind up in one of the artwork compilation books... Sorry, rant over.

Well, it's out. HLJ just charged me for my YF-19 battroid.

I apologize in advance. Not much news to comment on. And I'm bored. So... VF-1J Max Super Battroid WHEN HASEGAWA? WHEEEEEEN?????????? (Oh and also, VF-1D Battroid when please?)

I've got a bunch in 1/72 and 1/48, but I could see these as being useful for displaying next to Bandai's newer 1/100 kits. I haven't heard anything about Bandai doing a 1/100 VF-1 yet.

Yep, I see HLJ has charged me and added it to my private warehouse.

Not gonna lie, this boxart kinda gives me some feels.

Oh I agree. My username is from FSS so I may be biased.

Nice to see some FSS action! If I'm not mistaken, I think most of the complaints were about the 1/100 version of the volks plastic Bang Doll kit?

To be fair there are far less battroid kits and far FAR less gerwalk kits than there are fighter kits. For Hasegawa especially, they released far more variants and decal swaps for fighter kits. Most of the special variants available as fighter kits aren't available in the other modes.

Paint?