DX VF-25 Renewal Series (Part III)

[ultraman zoffy]

While it was small in scale, no doubt, far too many made it to specialty stores (Amazon prices dropped from 35000yen to 20000 overnight) for this to just be some spares that Bandai had lying around.

Man, don't spit out your coffee! lol... so, it was enough of a run to make the 29 somewhat of a shelfwarmer in the Japan market, yet not fill preorders internationally? Weird strategy.

[Tochiro]

Ouch, really? What do you think about a CF VF-171 release, Tochiro?

I dont think its outside the realm of possibility since all it would need is a new paint job and some tweaks.

The Alto-colouring 171 though is a really niche product - the 25's are the 'hero mecha' of the show and are widely recognized by hardcore fans and more casual fans alike, hence they get renewals. The 29 is riding high on the popularity of the Wings of farewell so it sells out and warrants a reissue (but, important to note, not a renewal). The Alto 171 doesnt really come new either of these in terms of visibility or popularity imo.

Man, don't spit out your coffee! lol... so, it was enough of a run to make the 29 somewhat of a shelfwarmer in the Japan market, yet not fill preorders internationally? Weird strategy.

I wouldnt go so far as to call it a shelfwarmer - even at 20000yen, that means 2nd hand Amazon sellers are making a bit of a markup off them and prices will probably rise again in a few weeks. At this point though I'd hazard a guess that some stores outside of Tokyo in more rural areas probably still have one or two 29's on their shelves.

Edited June 14, 2012 by Tochiro

[Tober]

Otacute just re-opened pre-orders for the VF-25G.

[Old Man]

Otacute just re-opened pre-orders for the VF-25G.

Thanks again for the heads-up, Tober! I preordered a second one in case Anime Export doesn't come through. If they both end up delivering, I'll gladly unload one here for what it cost me plus shipping.

Edited June 14, 2012 by Old Man

[kaiotheforsaken]

Awesome tip Tober, just reserved one there. Between them and Nippon I feel....mostly confident about securing one. They have a pretty strict no cancellation policy, so hopefully they make good. Still intend to keep my eyes on HLJ, but hopefully it wont really be required.

Also Otacute is cheaper, so I'd be even happier if they came through.

Edited June 14, 2012 by kaiotheforsaken

[UN Spacy]

WHEW. Got one...thanks tober!

[Ignacio Ocamica]

Ten minutes and it's sold out again!!! Couldn't get one

[Tober]

I preordered a second one in case Anime Export doesn't come through. If they both end up delivering, I'll gladly unload one here for what it cost me plus shipping.

Same Except I'm down in Oz. There's a good chance I won't be at a PC when HLJ orders open, so Otacute are my plan B

Apparently the order for VF-25G from Bandai ends tomorrow, HLJ should know their quota soon.

[confuseguy]

Otacute just re-opened pre-orders for the VF-25G.

Manage to get 1~!

Thank you Tober. Much much much appreciated~!!!

[Dimis]

Man, don't spit out your coffee! lol... so, it was enough of a run to make the 29 somewhat of a shelfwarmer in the Japan market, yet not fill preorders internationally? Weird strategy.

Calling a figure that was released 2 weeks ago, and that is selling for a 20% + mark up, a shelf-warmer, sounds so absurd to me! What do you call those VF-1s at HLJ that go on sale time after time and never shift?!?

[ultraman zoffy]

Calling a figure that was released 2 weeks ago, and that is selling for a 20% + mark up, a shelf-warmer, sounds so absurd to me! What do you call those VF-1s at HLJ that go on sale time after time and never shift?!?

If you weren't jumping into the dialogue out of context, you might realize that I asked the question you quoted because it sounded absurd to me too. All up in the kool-aid and don't even know the flavor...

[Dimis]

If you weren't jumping into the dialogue out of context, you might realize that I asked the question you quoted because it sounded absurd to me too. All up in the kool-aid and don't even know the flavor...

My life would be quite difficult if i had to browse pages and pages of messages just to make sure someone means what he says, not being ironic, as if writing a message on a computer without non-verbal signals is the best platform for irony.

[moose]

So I am guessing that is it since HLJ has not updated their page well hey if they reissue fine if not I am sure some one else will want my money

[Kanedas Bike]

My patience is wearing paper thin at this point. I've not had a decent freaking nights sleep since pre-orders went up. Waking up every couple of hours to check HLJ, update scanner going off or not, is really pissing me off.

If I wasn't such a huge kid in love with toys I'd have said F this after day one.

-b.

[Phalanix]

At least it's the weekend, they won't be updating... Get some good night's sleep!

[pud333]

My patience is wearing paper thin at this point. I've not had a decent freaking nights sleep since pre-orders went up. Waking up every couple of hours to check HLJ, update scanner going off or not, is really pissing me off.

If I wasn't such a huge kid in love with toys I'd have said F this after day one.

-b.

Have you seriously been up every few hours every night for the past week or two? That's messed up. I wonder how many more people are doing this? I understand doing things on principle, and not overpaying on a preorder, but don't you guys like sleep? Is there a max you are willing to pay for one of these if you don't get it through HLJ? I'd have gone nuts by now if I couldn't sleep. I got back from the UK last week and my sleep pattern has been off every day and it drives me nuts.

[Macette]

Sleep? isn't that what the weekend is for?

[ultraman zoffy]

Have you seriously been up every few hours every night for the past week or two? That's messed up. I wonder how many more people are doing this? I understand doing things on principle, and not overpaying on a preorder, but don't you guys like sleep? Is there a max you are willing to pay for one of these if you don't get it through HLJ? I'd have gone nuts by now if I couldn't sleep. I got back from the UK last week and my sleep pattern has been off every day and it drives me nuts.

Reading this thread lately has me thinking the exact same thing... the pre-order I made through Nippon Yasan was for $192 and a bit before shipping, which is around $24 or so above HLJ. Nippon Yasan has come through for me on every order I've made with them so far, so I trust they'll do the best they can to fill their orders when the time comes (and if they can't, I place that blame on Bandai directly). $24, a pre-order in, no payment up front, no worries... the fact that folks passed on it when it was open because it wasn't exactly at msrp seemed odd to me, but yay for principles I guess.

[Old Man]

Reading this thread lately has me thinking the exact same thing... the pre-order I made through Nippon Yasan was for $192 and a bit before shipping, which is around $24 or so above HLJ. Nippon Yasan has come through for me on every order I've made with them so far, so I trust they'll do the best they can to fill their orders when the time comes (and if they can't, I place that blame on Bandai directly). $24, a pre-order in, no payment up front, no worries... the fact that folks passed on it when it was open because it wasn't exactly at msrp seemed odd to me, but yay for principles I guess.

I passed on a pre-order from Nippon-Yasan, not because of the price, but because they had the pre-order window open for such a long period of time, and I'd hate to get burned. Luckily I scored a pre-order with Anime Export and Otacute, so I should be in the clear (I hope ).

[anime52k8]

I don't trust Nippon-Yasan as far as I could throw them, and every site that I would be willing to do business with had their pre-orders close up before I had a chance to place an order.

[Kanedas Bike]

See I'm not keen on paying up front, nor do I have any personal experience with some of these other shops. They may be good, they might not. I've been buying from HLJ since the 1/72 Yamato YF-19 and places like BBTS, AmiAmi I also have long-standing, positive buying relationships with.

For me that's worth a little of my time and effort. Others will place a premium on sleep. Either way you go is fine, its all about personal preference and how/what you value more. Ultimately its Bandai that's screwing the pooch by either causing consumers to pay higher prices, go thru greater lengths to ultimately line Bandai's pockets.

And it's the weekend, I'm burnt from work so I plan to party just a bit. So sleep again will be at a loss.

-b.

[Ignacio Ocamica]

I passed on a pre-order from Nippon-Yasan, not because of the price, but because they had the pre-order window open for such a long period of time, and I'd hate to get burned.

Same here. If ami ami, one of the biggest e-tailers in Japan had such a short pre-order window, I find it hard to believe that nippon-yasan will be able to fill all of the preorders.

That's why I'm waiting for HLJ.

[anime52k8]

also, I'm on summer break so I can stay up til 4:00am playing video games with my laptop running then go to bead and sleep til noon and it doesn't really matter.

[kaiotheforsaken]

also, I'm on summer break so I can stay up til 4:00am playing video games with my laptop running then go to bead and sleep til noon and it doesn't really matter.

I'm in a similar boat. I mostly confident Otacute or Nippon should be able to fill one of my pre-orders. But I'm watching HLJ too. Worst case scenario is they all come through and I sell the extras at cost to people here.

[ultraman zoffy]

If otherwise satisfactory retailers who aren't charging you up front can't fill orders, that's no one but Bandai's fault because of their shite production numbers. Saying you don't trust these guys or those guys despite the fact that their track records are otherwise pretty good outside of these newer Bandai valks seems like an unfair rush to judgement. Obviously some retailers have longer track records, but declaring you won't order from someone else because you "think" they won't get you your toy is lame unless you personally have dealt with them before and they f*cked you over.

[Ignacio Ocamica]

If otherwise satisfactory retailers who aren't charging you up front can't fill orders, that's no one but Bandai's fault because of their shite production numbers. Saying you don't trust these guys or those guys despite the fact that their track records are otherwise pretty good outside of these newer Bandai valks seems like an unfair rush to judgement. Obviously some retailers have longer track records, but declaring you won't order from someone else because you "think" they won't get you your toy is lame unless you personally have dealt with them before and they f*cked you over.

Well, in my case, I'm judging bandai . I ordered from ishop2go before, (four times actually) and they always came through, but recently there's been some members that got screwed.

I don't trust bandai, there is a possibility (we don't know for sure, I'm just giving an example) that nippon yasan ordered 200 VF-25G's wholesale from bandai, payed for them and then they only get 20.

Last time ishop2go was the only retailer that kept taking preorders, now it's nippon-yasan!!

I really wish that all the members that have a preorder (some have already payed) with nippon yasan, end up getting their VF-25G's. I know I'm being pessimist but nippon yasan was the only retailer that had a pre-order window open for such a long time.

[mgmalheiros]

If ami ami, one of the biggest e-tailers in Japan had such a short pre-order window, I find it hard to believe that nippon-yasan will be able to fill all of the preorders.

Are you sure that Amiami actually opened their preorders? Totally by chance, I was online browsing Amiami almost at the moment the VF-25G page appeared. It was already marked as sold out about 15-20 minutes into the round hour it should have been posted (3 am in my local time, if I remember correctly).

So either they just put a placeholder and did not open the preorders at all (like HLJ), or many people were already waiting for it, and flooded the website in the first few minutes.

The latter seems unlikely, as there was already a limit for one toy per person at Amiami. Also, it was so early that perhaps they did not have secured some purchases from Bandai back then.

My theory aligns to what most people said here: probably the most reputable stores are actually not taking any preorders. Therefore they do not risk failing to fulfill the preorders taken, as happened for previous toys. Only smaller shops got their preorders open, like Hobby Search, Anime Export and Otacute, but probably for just very few items (which they are sure to meet).

I think the bigger stores are probably sure that when the items get stocked after release, they will sell easily. So they will just bump up the price (HLJ already did this) and ride the wave... As further evidence, here is the reply I got from HLJ a few days ago. They really use the word stock, not preorder:

We'll do what we can to grab as much stock as we can!

As for the other stores, like Nippon Yassan, well, I hope they will fulfill all the preorders taken, but that's hard to speculate at this moment...

So, did anyone here actually got a preorder in Amiami for VF-25G???

Regards,

Marcelo

[Old Man]

Are you sure that Amiami actually opened their preorders? Totally by chance, I was online browsing Amiami almost at the moment the VF-25G page appeared. It was already marked as sold out about 15-20 minutes into the round hour it should have been posted (3 am in my local time, if I remember correctly).

So either they just put a placeholder and did not open the preorders at all (like HLJ), or many people were already waiting for it, and flooded the website in the first few minutes.

The latter seems unlikely, as there was already a limit for one toy per person at Amiami. Also, it was so early that perhaps they did not have secured some purchases from Bandai back then.

My theory aligns to what most people said here: probably the most reputable stores are actually not taking any preorders. Therefore they do not risk failing to fulfill the preorders taken, as happened for previous toys. Only smaller shops got their preorders open, like Hobby Search, Anime Export and Otacute, but probably for just very few items (which they are sure to meet).

I think the bigger stores are probably sure that when the items get stocked after release, they will sell easily. So they will just bump up the price (HLJ already did this) and ride the wave... As further evidence, here is the reply I got from HLJ a few days ago. They really use the word stock, not preorder:

We'll do what we can to grab as much stock as we can!

As for the other stores, like Nippon Yassan, well, I hope they will fulfill all the preorders taken, but that's hard to speculate at this moment...

So, did anyone here actually got a preorder in Amiami for VF-25G???

Regards,

Marcelo

Yeah, but what about AmiAmi's Japanese mirror site?

Edited June 15, 2012 by Old Man

[pud333]

I ordered my re release 29 from amiami. The preorder window lasted literally a few minutes. Same thing when I ordered the 171. Gone in minutes. If the way they did things was the same for the 25G, it is highly possible it was yet another blink and miss thing. Amiami has the best price and doesn't charge up front. Everyone is looking to hit them up first.

That said, it doesn't mean they wont have some stock upon release. They've had extra 29s for sale after release.

[mgmalheiros]

Yeah, but what about AmiAmi's Japanese mirror site?

I think the Japanese version is exactly the same as the English one. In the past I've done some checking back and forth and the releases, status and order limits seems to be the same. The only difference, perhaps, is that some items are marked as "for sale in Japan only", but I never actually got barred for purchasing anything that was on stock.

Probably it would be too much hassle to handle items differently for each version, like release some items earlier for the Japanese and later for the rest of the world. By the end of the day, all purchases should be the same for Amiami, wherever they come from...

[mgmalheiros]

I ordered my re release 29 from amiami. The preorder window lasted literally a few minutes. Same thing when I ordered the 171. Gone in minutes. If the way they did things was the same for the 25G, it is highly possible it was yet another blink and miss thing. Amiami has the best price and doesn't charge up front. Everyone is looking to hit them up first.

Yeah, it makes sense. And maybe it was really a small number of items for preorder, to be safe on their side...

What puzzles me the most is: how did people actually know when the VF-25G (and the other ones) would get posted at Amiami?

It was because it was on 1st of June? Or because it was on a Friday afternoon in Japan (to be ready for consumers at home on the weekend)? Or because of some internal confirmation from Bandai???

That said, it doesn't mean they wont have some stock upon release. They've had extra 29s for sale after release.

Sure, the YF-29 re-release got "in stock" at Amiami least three times after the release date. I grabbed one, but each time the purchase window only lasted few minutes, too...

[m0n5t3r]

That said, it doesn't mean they wont have some stock upon release. They've had extra 29s for sale after release.

The problem w/ these stocks after release it that they charge full MSRP.

[Tober]

What puzzles me the most is: how did people actually know when the VF-25G (and the other ones) would get posted at Amiami?

Amiami and Hobbysearch both listed the day after the Tamashi site officially announced the VF-25G. Same as with the VF-171EX, so it was anticipated.

I'm not aware of anyone getting a pre-order in at Amiami. I think only one person here succeeded at Hobbysearch, I got as far as checkout before it was sold out there. Both Amiami and Hobbysearch have Japanese store fronts, they may have listed before their English ones, causing the instant sellout on Amiami. It isn't certain, just suspected..

Pre-orders were open at Anime Export for about 45mins, Yes Asia for several hours, Otacute for about 15 mins on two occasions. The other store I was scanning was Japanese Toy Wholesaler who sold out of cases within a few hours, I was away when their orders opened... and I don't want a case of 6.

[m0n5t3r]

The other store I was scanning was Japanese Toy Wholesaler who sold out of cases within a few hours, I was away when their orders opened... and I don't want a case of 6.

Now we need to find out who ordered those cases! Hopefully not them ebay price gougers.

Edited June 16, 2012 by m0n5t3r

[pud333]

The problem w/ these stocks after release it that they charge full MSRP.

Full MSRP is better than eBay still.

Amiami and Hobbysearch both listed the day after the Tamashi site officially announced the VF-25G. Same as with the VF-171EX, so it was anticipated.

I'm not aware of anyone getting a pre-order in at Amiami. I think only one person here succeeded at Hobbysearch, I got as far as checkout before it was sold out there. Both Amiami and Hobbysearch have Japanese store fronts, they may have listed before their English ones, causing the instant sellout on Amiami. It isn't certain, just suspected..

This. HLJ seems to be the only one that puts stuff up days later. Part of all this is a lot of luck and timing. I've luckily ordered whatever I wanted from Amiami. The only one I've not gotten was the 25G, which I got from Anime-Export, mostly because I was on vacation in Ireland and had spotty wifi connections at the places I was staying at. But I still managed to snag a AE order, thanks to the window staying open due to people balking at paying up front. Even though I don't like to pay up front, AE has a good rep, and I really didn't want to spend the rest of my vacation hunting. So it was an easy call.

I personally feel the same as you do regarding Amiami and Hobbysearch potentially updating their Japanese sites first, and that delay before the English site gets updated is what is shafting us. Plus Bandai's small stock orders, of course.