KOG Water Dragon

Odd that the VF-1D is missing from the fighter lineup though.

Thank goodness it was a Hasegawa release, not Bandai.

Yeah. I've had no trouble getting Hasegawa, Wave, and Plamax stuff through HLJ. Normally get my pre-orders for that stuff filled on the first delivery.

I dunno. I have a pre-order on the Bandai fire valkyrie which is still unfulfilled to this day. I just think it's a good idea to investigate other sources and not place all reliance on HLJ these days.

They fill pre-orders in the order received. So they must not have received enough stock to fill all pre-orders. You're in the queue waiting for 2nd batch delivery. Pre-ordering is never a guarantee that you'll get your order on release date at HLJ these days. I always try to pre-order as soon as something is posted, and this time fortunately I was early enough in the queue to get a batch 1 fulfillment of my order, It's probably time to start thinking about requesting shipment for me - in addition to the YF-21 w/ booster, I have a plamax VF-1J battroid, VF-1J fighter, 2 VF-1A fighters, a Queadluun Rau Max, and a YF-19 battroid waiting to ship.

Counting on it. Please Hasegawa, don't disappoint. (and I'm still waiting for a VF-1J Max Super Battroid to match the Miria release)

I see. Well that's fine, assuming they have a lineup of vf-0 gerwalk variants in the pipeline.

I wonder if this will include option to build as standard vf-0 gerwalk without ghost.

Oh I know. It's just frustrating. I'm sure HLJ would love to get more stock allocation if they could. It's just annoying to be able to get Hasegawa, Wave, Kotobukiya, Max Factory, Tamiya, and whatever else I want in a timely manner from HLJ, but I have to go back to how it was in the 90s and just wait and wait for Bandai stuff.

So far the only things I've gotten from HLJ were 1 YF-29 Max, 1 YF-21, and one set of YF-21 decals. Everything else I've picked up local. Pretty bad track record.

Soooo.... not Macross related, but ,my HLJ pre-orders for the Bandai 30mm Armored Core 6 kits have gone straight to backorder. I pre-ordered right when they were posted for pre-order. I should not be surprised. It's been like this with HLJ for the Bandai Macross kits, recent Gundam releases... I should have expected the same with Bandai Armored Core. It's interesting because they say they try to only accept pre-orders for stock they expect to have at release. So clearly they are getting less stock than expected. For every. Single. Release. I dunno why I bothered to pre-order the Max and Miria VF-22s with HLJ. I'll surely have to get them elsewhere. Just like I'll have to get the Armored Core 6 stuff elsewhere. Right now I still have a Bandai Fire Valyrie pre-order sitting in my order history that's never been fulfilled. Going to cancel that as soon as I pick up a 3rd copy locally.

Hey, if milking the existing molds means generating additional low investment profit that can be re-invested in new toolings... I'm all for it.

But the point of variant repops like this is to generate more sales of the main kit. 😄

Sure it conveys what it's trying to convey. I just think the overall sickly green is hard to look at and I prefer the art for the yf-19 w/ fold booster.

This might be the first Hasegawa box art I really don't care for. I don't think it's the most flattering angle for the YF-21, even if it's rendered well. And the bright acid green background isn't super exciting or visually appealing. Sorry, this is one I wouldn't want a poster for. Unlike a lot of the others.

I've got 3 (vanilla, Lightnings, Ravens) but I'd gladly take another if they released their Dullahans version in 1/48. My primary hope for next all-new 1/48 fighter kit would be YF-21 to pair with the YF-19. Anything else after that is welcome. VF-0, VF-25, and VF-31 all make sense since they can be milked as several variants. But imagine the shelf space needed to display all 4 main VF-25s or all 5 main VF-31s... 1/48 VF-0 would be fun but I'd mostly be interested if they did VF-0A or VF-0D. I do wonder if VF-11 is popular enough and milkable enough to warrant a 1/48. Thought a 1/48 Super VF-11 would be really cool.

I'm a little surprised they haven't done more with the VF-1 gerwalk, to be honest. I would have liked to see alternate livery versions like they've done with the fighters. Had also hoped for VE-1/VT-1 gerwalks. An armored VF-11 battroid would be really nice, but I'd like an armored VF-31 even more. But we need the plain VF-31 battroid first.

Very true. We just got the YF-19 battroid so maybe a gerwalk is feasible a little down the road.

Unexpected. I wonder if there's hope for gerwalks of their other 1/72 subjects. YF-19, YF-21, VF-11, VF-25, VF-31, etc. But of course the near future will probably bring a string of VF-0 gerwalk variations. Interested to see if they can do VF-0A or VF-0D gerwalk. The 1/48 YF-19 with fast packs is a little less surprising, and also a little less interesting. But I guess easy for them to do since they have done the fast pack parts recently in 1/72. Makes me wonder if they'll re-release the 1/48 yet again with a fold booster later on. I'm kinda interested in seeing the 1/48 fast packs kit painted up in an alternate squadron scheme.

Yeah... really would have preferred 1/72 to be in scale with all the Hasegawa, Plamax, Wave, and older Bandai stuff. Hoping Hasegawa will do some new fighters in 1/72 eventually, but at least Plamax said something about a YF-29 right?

Ok, didn't realize they still had some dribs and drabs of Bandai product. But all the Gundam stuff is unavailable, all the Macross stuff is unavailable, the 30mm Armored Core line is unavailable, and I don't see residual listings for Bandai's Patlabor or Dunbine stuff (though those are old and could have been delisted previously perhaps). There's a few other Bandai lines I don't follow, but I suspect they're unavailable as well.

Just have to wait and see I guess. In addition to the Macross items, I have quite a few other Bandai items on pre-order at HLJ. The RG RX-78 ver 2.0 (pre-ordered early but I never got one and it's backordered now), RG Akatsuki, MGSD Wing Zero, MG Gundam Vidar, and all the upcoming Armored Core VI kits. Will be interesting to see if any of those pre-orders get filled in a timely way (if at all). The limit of 3 on the new VF-22s could be a mistake or it could be a sign they expect a large allotment. I'm genuinely curious to see what happens. I'm seeing that all the Gundam and Armored Core stuff I have on pre-order is also limited to max 3 per person.

It's not likely anything will change. Bandai just simply doesn't want businesses based in Japan to sell their products overseas. That's why Hobbysearch flat out doesn't carry Bandai on their website anymore. HLJ was able to defy this, maybe because their FOCUS is on selling overseas (and don't really focus on selling to Japanese customers), so they still carry Bandai product, but my understanding is their stock allocations were greatly reduced. So yeah, I'm sure HLJ would get more stock to sell if they could, but they can't. They can only sell whatever stock they are alotted. So yeah of course they are losing money on Bandai sales. But they sell way more than Bandai so they'll be OK. We just have to accept the fact that it is no longer easy or convenient to buy recently released Bandai kits from HLJ. If you look for MG Gundam kits on HLJ, virtually nothing is in stock. Big change from the old days. I still use HLJ heavily for all the non-Bandai Macross stuff though. I got the Queadlunns, Regult series, 1/72 YF-19 battroid, YF-19 w/ fold booster, Armored VF-1 kits, Wave VF-171 kits, and all the Plamax stuff there no problem. Orders filled as soon as kits released.

Nothing a little paint can't solve. I've always thought the paint jobs on the Max and Miria VF-22s were exceedingly plain, so I'm glad to have a lot of stenciling to spice things up. The eternal question is will I actually be able to get any from HLJ or will I have to buy local as usual. I've bought 2 of the Fire Valkyrie locally and HLJ still hasn't filled my pre-order for the Fire Valkyrie which I placed as soon as it was listed for pre-order.

They still routinely include waterslides in most p-bandai MGs (PGs?) and Ver Ka kits though, so the waterslides seem to be somewhat synonymous with premium/limited. I just wish all the p-bandai RGs had waterslides too.