Paco Grande

I have one of the regular releases if anyone needs one. I’m in Canada but willing to ship anywhere.

I completely agree that it's cheaper buying from Japan and I buy all my Transformers related stuff there or China. But the Macross items I typically want are too difficult to buy there because of pre-order madness and having to pay up front for pre-orders that show up out of nowhere. For Masterpiece Transformers you can order at your leisure and pay when the figure releases 6 to 8 months later. It's fantastic. For Macross stuff they announce a new item a few days before the pre-order date and in my time zone you need to get the F5 key ready at 3:00am and pray you get an order in. And I've never succeeded so I gave up trying. Now this is typically for DX VF-1 figures which used to be the only thing I bought for Macross. You still have to buy those in Japan and I will typically buy from stores that offer secondary stock at jacked prices because that's all I can get. Lately I have started buying Frontier stuff and it's been easier to buy those items. As I was saying earlier I'll most likely be buying items like the YF-21 from Mandarake because it's much easier and possibly cheaper than buying in Canada. The VF-1 figures will still be a pain though.

Thank you for the comments! Normally I don't intend t sell these things but I only have so much money to spend and these things are expensive so unfortunately sometimes some of them need to go so I can get more toys. For example, in this case I'm a huge fan of Macross Plus and own the DX YF-19. I have never even seen Macross Frontier so I have no attachment to the VF-171 at all. What I actually want is the YF-21 to go with my YF-19 but the 21 is so expensive I canceled my pre-order for it and now I'm trying to sell this figure so I can get the 21. I would be willing to trade for a 21 but I'm assuming nobody would do that since the 21 is so much more expensive.

Hello, sorry for the kind of off topic post, but it's about this figure so hopefully acceptable. A little while ago I was complaining about not being able to sell Bandai DX valks because of the crazy high prices I have to pay to get them to Canada. I'm typically paying over $400 Canadian (around $290 USD) including taxes and shipping. So the issue is that when I go to sell one the price is so high nobody wants it. Then I will keep lowering the price until it finally sells and I always end up selling at a massive loss. Even the DX VF-1A DYRL Kaki, which I've heard is rare and in demand, I took a massive hit on. I purchased the VF-171EX Revival last year and finally took delivery from Ages 3 And Up this past summer for a total of $430 ($310 USD). It took so long from purchase to delivery that I changed my mind on owning this valk and decided to sell it sealed MISB. And as usual I've had it up for sale on Kijiji and FaceBook Marketplace for weeks at that price and no luck selling it. I typically list on sites without fees and I don't normally try to sell on this forum because most Americans refuse to pay the shipping costs from Canada. Especially on top of the high price I'm selling at to cover my costs. Shipping is more expensive in Canada so I normally do not do free shipping. I'm aware that you can get these things cheaper in Japan, but I always have a hard time buying them there because they sell out or I don't have the money available when the pre-order goes up. Macross is not my main collecting focus so my money is usually spent on other lines. For the Macross Frontier Revival valks I've been buying them from North American sellers because of the convenience and most of them cost me less than I usually pay buying DX valks from Japan because Amazon put them on sale. But this one I could only get at A3U at full price and it was pretty expensive. If I am unable to sell it for what I paid for it I'm thinking about just opening it and putting it on my Macross shelf rather than lose money. But I thought I would ask again here to see if you expert Macross collectors have any advice for me. I'm also thinking about buying DX valks from Mandarake from now on because they seem to be available and cheaper. Even sealed. Thank you!

Oh I am familiar with the price. I check it every day. For a while it was dropping $1 per day but it stopped dropping at $479. I originally had a preorder on Amazon.com like you because it wasn't up on the .ca site yet but I cancelled it and decided to gamble on a sale. But even at $479 I have 13% sales tax so it is $541 total. I paid around $500 CAD for the DX VF-1J with armor set so I'm finding this price really hard to swallow. But thank you for the feedback! I'm also thinking about eventually buying one on Mandarake instead because it will most likely be cheaper even with shipping. But of course no return policy like Amazon.

And you don't mind the price? Do you feel that it's worth it? I have not purchased it yet because I'm hoping that it eventually goes on discount like the YF-19 did on Amazon.ca. I cannot get over how much more the YF-21 costs than the 19. Over $500 CAD is just mental. But I really want it to complete the set with my YF-19. Do you happen to need a VF-171EX Revival Version? I'm thinking about selling it but nobody wants to pay the $430 CAD I paid for it. These things cost too much.

I have not transformed mine yet but I’m already thinking about selling it as well. But for me it’s loose joints. The whole thing just feels really fiddly and not fun for me for some reason. I actually have that opinion of most Macross figures I’ve handled though. I normally collect MP Transformers and in comparison the Bandai Macross stuff always feels fragile and not as fun to handle. Not sure why. They look great but don’t handle great for me. The biggest issue for me with this figure is the fact that it’s impossible for the gun holding hand to transform with the figure which turns this into a parts former. I prefer perfect transformation so I never swap hands on my valks I just use the poseable hands. For me that’s a deal breaker but I only found out about that issue many months after pre-ordering. I don’t like the side fillers on Vf-1 toys either but it seems to be a necessary evil so I put up with that. I quoted your post to say that there was no tape at all on the paint protection plastic on mine. They are just plastic covers that slide over the part. No tape needed. I’m wondering if the tape on yours was a mistake.

I ordered it last year and I’m still waiting for A3U to get their stock. As usual it’s taking them forever. I like the look of this toy and I was hoping to replace some of my DX collection with these because they are smaller and I was hoping they would be better to transform and play with. Don’t have it in hand yet but I am REALLY turned off by the gun holding hand needing to be removed for transformation. Also the chest filler parts being needed to lock the chest is not great. I’m a perfect transformation fan so these issues may be deal breakers for me and I may stop buying this series and possibly sell the first release when I get it. In my opinion by now a company should have figured out perfect transformation chest filler parts.

Thank you all for your replies. I'm a n00b with Macross collecting and was not aware of that history.

Sorry but this is still not clear at all. What exactly is "bluefin". I've never heard of it. My pics above are from a North American retailer so it should be a WWM release. There isa WWM logo on the back of the box but it is not a sticker and I would guess it's on the Japanese domestic boxes as well. But I'm not sure. We are going to need to see pics of the Japanese domestic YF-21 box as well as the box being sold in other countries when it releases so we can compare and see if there are any differences. If this bluefin thing is inside the box I wouldn't know because I have not opened my VF-117EX yet. I'm thinking about selling it so I don't want to break the seal.

I’m not sure what it looks like. I have the larger warning sticker on the back and there is a small Tamashii Nations Quality and a blue sticker on the front. Not sure if that is the bluefin sticker or not. The smaller blue “Macross B-02” below is a sticker as well as the small quality sticker on the left everything else is part of the box. This item came from Ages 3 And Up in Canada

I am not an expert at all. But I just received a North American release of the VF-117EX and I believe the packaging is identical to the Japanese box but there is an English language sticker for the choking hazard etc. So I would guess it's the same product, they just add a sticker for local languages. I cannot comment on the actual figure because I have not owned one before.

It's actually crazy fees everywhere but the U.S. Here in Canada I get to pay an extra $20 for a courier to take the package over the border and then 13% tax on the value of the item plus shipping and the $20 fee. And this is on top of the shipping fee I already paid to the store in Japan. I once paid over $90 CAD for a $30 book from HLJ because of all the shipping and taxes. This YF-21 was going to cost me $560 CAD from Amazon.com so I cancelled it after seeing the issues. For reference I bought the DX VF-1 with armor set for around $500 CAD and the Yen is way more down now. The price of the YF-21 is bonkers. When it popped up again on AE recently I almost bought it because AE does not declare full value and it would cost me way less but I have too many other geek expenses lately so I had to give up the 21 for now. I'm actually thinking about trying to find a Yamato version now or just giving up on having a friend for my YF-19 on the shelf.

Thank you both for your opinions. I just canceled my Amazon.com order. Too many toys this year and the price after you convert to Canadian dollars was $560 including shipping and taxes which is just nuts. For reference I paid around $500 for the DX VF-1J with armor set. They are really pushing it with the price of the YF-21.

Thank you for that. I currently only have a pre-order at Amazon U.S. and it's way too expensive. I'm thinking about cancelling that order. The HG price is way less and I almost pulled the trigger but I've spent too much on toys recently so I cannot purchase right now. What are the chances that this item will eventually be available at Mandarake? I think I bought my YF-19 FSP from Mandarake years after release. My thinking is that many people do not seem very happy with this design so I'm thinking there may be a bunch on the secondary market.