Major Focker

...and make a rainbow...nips! nips!

lol, don't know what happened there. it's my first time using google photos. here's the link to the album including more pics than posted above, but unfortunately, also a number of duplicates as well that i haven't edited out yet https://goo.gl/photos/46A3VKVrVunxtzhC6

they were for sale. the Kaitos was 9k yen, the ARMDs was 3.5k and the Oberths were 3.5k yen a pair. they looked a bit crude and under-detailed though compared to what's on offer on other tables. in hindsight though, i probably should've just bought them anyway. i blame it on being tired and hungry.

they sure are i just bought them since i vaguely recall another member here wanted them. can't remember who though. they're growing on me so having second thoughts about selling them off. but maybe once i account for all the trip expenses i'll end up letting them go a bit disappointed though since this is all Experten had for sale. last winter they had more stuff, including the VF-25 Paladin, but i was already out of cash by then. this time i had the cash but not as much stuff to buy. having seen WF winter last Feb and now WF summer this July, my impression is that the winter event is bigger. hope other members can chime in if that's true or not in their experience. i'm trying to decide which one to attend in 2018.

uh-oh. already placed an order at KL's website some time ago for the Hikaru, er, Rick version. a month or so ago, a local store opened a PO for a VF-1A Max cockpit but the picture was of Rick's VF-1J. the price was a bit higher than on KL's website, but this one is already the imported price so i stand to save some on shipping (and customs tax). the store staff couldn't confirm if their PO was indeed for Max, but i gambled it would actually be Rick's (since there was no news of a Max at the time) and placed an order. i was planning to sell my KL PO to whoever would want to assume the balance, and recoup my deposit. now it's confirmed there is indeed a Max version, i'm kinda tempted to keep both POs but my rational brain is telling me that is just crazy. hmmm, which one to keep? decisions, decisions..

10 mins counting down. Any MW members attending?

has Arcadia ever sold anything during their previous appearances at Wonfes? contemplating whether to PO at NY or pick up one at the Arcadia booth when i go to Wonfes this July

anyone recognize what this is?

succumbed to "crab mentality". my first gen crabs are telling me they need more brothers. how many more are available for order, cap?

that's net of the 10% members' discount. P25K PO price, 5K down, 10% off total applies on arrival if cash. another 2% if arrival coincides with one of his (increasingly) frequent promos. they've closed down the Shoppesville store last week and are moving to V-mall, so i helped myself to a number of items that were 25% off. drooling yet? if only his valk pricing policy was the same... i usually come in early to get parking so i've only talked to him a couple of times, and never really introduced myself. he probably doesn't know i have at least a dozen PO slips at any one time.

GreatToys

when i got my DX Mazinger i thought the DX designation was for the "deluxe" extras, ie. hangar base and removable body panels. for some reason i just chalked up the height difference with other SOCs due to Mazinger being bigger canon-wise. now i know better. PO'd Combattler locally for $460. got curious about the scale, and it seems 35cm works out to 1/160 scale. should be a lot of fun for N-scale (1/150) dioramas

here you go: SD Tornado

i'll keep an eye out. heading to GH tomorrow to pick up POs from Great Toys. i think the store beside it (not Wasabi, the other one) had a Stryder. i remember i was pissed because it was 2k cheaper than what i paid at PG. sorry, not selling my Stryder. i might consider a trade though for an XM Studios Magneto or Weta's Argonath

got my Stryder from Greenhills. as recent as a few weeks ago i still saw one, Play Giant IIRC on the fence about Ogre. the design just seems too "familiar". if ever they continue this line with Titanfall2, i might bite again

heading back to Tokyo for Wonfes summer. definitely getting these. any info if this guy has a website/blog? hope he'll post his table number/location for the event.

are the controls like ZoE2? i'm jonesing for mech games that play similarly

ooh.. interesting.. thanks guys!

white base platform? i'm curious. linky?

zenmarket seems like shoppingmalljapan, ie. deposit prior to purchase. i want to give ZM a try, but based on my experience with SMJ, i have some reservations about the deposit mechanic, specifically about getting it back after a failed bid/purchase. when you make a deposit, you lose about 1-2% on the forex conversion (and another 1-3% if your CC or bank charges a foreign transaction fee). but the forex loss is fine, since you would incur this anyway with any foreign purchase that isn't denominated in your home currency. the problem is that when the deposit is refunded, the likes of ZM and SMJ will likely refund the yen amount they received ( which is already net of the 1-2% extra you already paid upon making the deposit) and that yen refund will incur another 1-2% loss when it's converted back to your home currency. this can of course be avoided by simply keeping the deposit with ZM and using it for future purchases. this works out fine if you make frequent purchases and the deposit balance is small. but a failed bid on a 100,000 yen auction might still take a while to consume. ZM says they use STRIPE, which is 2% on forex conversion. Mastercard and Visa are typically 1.xx%. per ZM, deposits via CC will use STRIPE rates. if you use Paypal for the deposit, Paypal can auto-convert to yen, but Paypal forex rates are worse than CC, and likely worse than STRIPE. so the workaround is to make a yen denominated deposit via Paypal but turn off the Paypal auto-conversion and use CC conversion instead. however, when the deposit is refunded (and it will be refunded in yen), Paypal gets to apply their worse forex rates on the back conversion. ZM's payment fee (3.35%) is essentially the same nature as other proxies' commission/service fees. they just attached it to deposit payments rather than to the purchase transactions. other proxies do this as well, so they can claim they only charge a minimal flat fee on purchases. still, ZM's 3.35% + 300 yen is a very good rate, and better than buyee's 5% + 200 yen. at least for YAJ purchases >5,000 yen. what is hard to beat is that amazon and rakuten purchases via buyee are 0% service fee. on the other hand ZM's free consolidation beats buyee's 1000 yen consolidation fee. what i noticed in my consolidated packages of YAJ purchases, is that most YAJ sellers use very light packing materials when shipping domestically. some are in paper bags/mailing envelopes, or the item box is just covered with bubblewrap and thick paper. so the increase in size/weight of the consolidated shipment due to domestic shipping boxes has not been much of an issue for me. for sure, they can be consolidated more efficiently if the items were unpacked then repacked, but YMMV if the final box will be materially smaller and lighter. for amazon and rakuten purchases, i place multiple items into a big order, and from as few sellers as possible. this way, my purchases are already pre-consolidated (for free) into as few boxes as possible before they're sent to the buyee warehouse. often, they are already sufficiently consolidated and big enough by themselves that i don't bother having buyee consolidate them further and just have them shipped out on their own. i guess for me, i will try out ZM only for high-value "buy it now" items on YAJ, so i won't have to deal with deposit refunds and/or maintaining a balance.

watched it on IMAX 3D. the visuals were fantastic. and as the others said, the references were a treat. that said, the music was pretty average. i was hoping there would be a Cyberbird equivalent somewhere. the dialogue was fine, but not memorable, and a couple times i really cringed when i heard "This is/I am" Major. unfortunately, the latter was just during a climactic moment which kinda jarred me out of an otherwise cool sequence. was with someone who was not familiar with GitS, and her gripe was the pacing. she loved the visuals though and thought the story was decent.

launch signal arm

they just need to produce more 31A's. that'll take care of their bottomline real quick.

just saw it. haven't read the comics nor watched the anime and previous movies. thought it was pretty self-contained, so i actually didn't have a lot of questions at the end. left me curious though about what else the setting has to offer. the CG was more than decent. good actually. and the movie was fun enough that i can gloss over some of the cheese. my only disappointment is that Reika didn't show up in this: