DX Chogokin VF-171 Cannon Fodder

[Chronocidal]

I'll keep ordering Yamatos from HLJ, because those are never a problem there, and seem to go on sale every other month. It's just not worth getting anything made by Bandai there.

[dizman]

Just pre-ordered through NY, should be interesting to see if they can keep their pre-order promises.

[Old Man]

Just pre-ordered through NY, should be interesting to see if they can keep their pre-order promises.

Have they failed to deliver on any other Bandai Macross F - DX Chogokin pre-order?

[dreadpyrat]

Hey all, can anyone tell me what "NY" is? Not familiar with this store.

[Major Focker]

nippon-yasan.com

[silverhawk]

pre-orders were up at gundamplanet (OOS now), http://www.gundampla...tmare-plus.html

pre-order price was $166.95

Edited January 13, 2013 by silverhawk

[mqvu]

NY is legit - they've fulfilled every preorder I placed through them for the last 4 Macross Frontier 1/60 renewal releases

[Tober]

Otacute sold out instantly too.

[mechaninac]

At that price, I' not surprised, and I'd been checking that site off and on for days too.

[dreadpyrat]

So the only place left looks like Yes Asia but their price is ridiculous. Are they at least legit? I try and restrict myself to AmiAmi, HLJ and hobbySearch. so not too familiar with them.

[Sildani]

As of, well, now, NY still has it up for pre-order.

[xrentonx]

So the only place left looks like Yes Asia but their price is ridiculous. Are they at least legit? I try and restrict myself to AmiAmi, HLJ and hobbySearch. so not too familiar with them.

As far as being an e-store and not some kind of scam, yes, Yes Asia is legit. Being able to get you stock of a toy is another question. I believe someone here had to cancel an order because they were unable to fulfill it. They got their money back though because it is a legit store.

[DarkHawk]

Just checked NY and now their pre-orders are no longer available. Does Bandai really know what they are doing? At this rate they may loose another customer, as I am really considering waiting until Yamato gets the Mac F license. The bad part is that it might take a while for yamato to get the license. The good part is that the Yamato Mac F valks should be in scale with the other valkyries that Yamato has produced.

[Old Man]

Just checked NY and now their pre-orders are no longer available. Does Bandai really know what they are doing? At this rate they may loose another customer, as I am really considering waiting until Yamato gets the Mac F license. The bad part is that it might take a while for yamato to get the license. The good part is that the Yamato Mac F valks should be in scale with the other valkyries that Yamato has produced.

How far off scale are the Bandais compared to Yamato's 1/60 Valks?

[xrentonx]

The Bandais seem to be a smidge smaller to me. I was just comparing the cockpits of the VF-4G and 171 today. VF-4G pilot would have a hard time squeezing into the seat of a 171...

Guessing 1/65th for the Bandais? I'm not too good with scales.

Edited January 14, 2013 by xrentonx

[Loop]

At this rate they may loose another customer, as I am really considering waiting until Yamato gets the Mac F license. The bad part is that it might take a while for yamato to get the license. The good part is that the Yamato Mac F valks should be in scale with the other valkyries that Yamato has produced.

I thought I was going to wait for the Yamato Frontier valks too but caved in. Bandai finally made a version that was worth owning in my opinion, but we still get shafted because of how they are handling the distribution of the renewals. They must have a deal with the pharma company's to sell more anti-anxiety meds lol.

[Lupin The Third]

I thought I was going to wait for the Yamato Frontier valks too but caved in. Bandai finally made a version that was worth owning in my opinion, but we still get shafted because of how they are handling the distribution of the renewals. They must have a deal with the pharma company's to sell more anti-anxiety meds lol.

Ohhh....you must hate Bandai...you are a bad forum member with a bad attitude...why do you have to be so pissy? Haven't we had enough Bandai rage? Bandai in bed with BIG PHARMA? Oh silly tin foil hat people...blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...

Funny how when I say the same kind of things I'm attacked, but everyone else...well they can say whatever they want and it's all good. How interesting...

Otacute sold out instantly too.

They actually sold out a couple days ago, same night as HLJ actually. Frustratingly they didn't put the word "Macross" in the descriptions so they didn't show up in searches if you included macross.

So the only place left looks like Yes Asia but their price is ridiculous. Are they at least legit? I try and restrict myself to AmiAmi, HLJ and hobbySearch. so not too familiar with them.

They are legit. But others did have problems with them previously and the prices are awful. They really kind of are a last resort, I merely posted them as an fyi. If you want a Jpop CD or a Korean Drama on DVD there fine, limited stuff they often seem to have a hard time obtaining.

Edited January 14, 2013 by Lupin The Third

[jenius]

Not sure if I've done a true scale pic with Bandai toys lately (I should!) but here's a Yamato one:

[xrentonx]

Guess we all have to settle for "close enough" when it comes to scale whether it's across manufacturers or within the same line

[David Hingtgen]

I think you should go by fighter mode, not battroid, for scale. A lot less variability(pun!) in the dimensions there, vs anime magic battroids. Go look at the line-art for a YF-21's torso and legs, and try to rectify that with any real 3D version, and say the overall height is supposed to magically stay the same.

(also, as mentioned before, cockpits (and especially pilots) are the worst part of the plane to try to determine scale off of---they are heavily compromised in every dimension to have working canopy hinges, removable pilot figures, etc) (ironically, in real life they're often about the best thing to judge size of a plane by, due to being so closely fitted to a certain range of human sizes)

Plus---Hikaru and Roy are very different sizes "in real life". Yet their figures are the same size. (I always use Mylene vs Roy as an example to try to explain scale vs size)

[Benbot]

Disappointing that Bandai's Macross lineup isn't in scale with the standard 1/60 from Yamato. I always assumed they were all to scale, but my VF-25s seem kind of small.

How likely is it that Yamato will ever get a license to make Macross Frontier products? It thought the series was Bandai's baby.

[Scyla]

As far as I know Bandai sponsored the show thus having the license to produce and distribute Frontier merchandise.

Someday it might not be of use for them so they could sell it to another company like Yamato.

I don't think it is likely to happen as long as Frontier is going strong in Japan.

Even then the might still keep to license so their competitors don't have advantage.

Maybe another 5 to 10 years?

[jenius]

There are fighter mode true scale pics on anymoon also... No company ever nails 1/60 perfectly... They just get it close enough not to really matter. I think the vf19 goes from1/55 in fighter to 1/66 in batroid so it aveages to 1/60.

[Benbot]

There are fighter mode true scale pics on anymoon also... No company ever nails 1/60 perfectly... They just get it close enough not to really matter. I think the vf19 goes from1/55 in fighter to 1/66 in batroid so it aveages to 1/60.

Can you post a link? I can't find it.

[jenius]

Try my vf17 post. Ill do another true scale comparison with the Bandai toys and some other Yamato toys when I post my vf4 review, the 171 will be included.

Edited January 14, 2013 by jenius

[Loop]

Ohhh....you must hate Bandai...you are a bad forum member with a bad attitude...why do you have to be so pissy? Haven't we had enough Bandai rage? Bandai in bed with BIG PHARMA? Oh silly tin foil hat people...blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...

Lupin, I was being sarcastic. I made that statement because I always feel like I get knots in my stomach when dealing with these damn Bandai valks. I've never come at you with the tinfoil hat discussion. If anything I said you have a right to express your opinion, but let's not crap on each other in these threads.

[slaginpit]

The suggestion was made a few posts back that HLJ should cancel any of large qty orders and reduce the item count to 2-3 and reopen orders so actual customers can make a purchase. My suggestion is that you guys and gals let them know how infuriated you are with the way they handled this and that they should do exactly that to give everyone a fair chance at purchasing rather than all the stock going directly to scalpers.

products@hlj.com

scott@hlj.com

Even if it makes no difference this time maybe they will reconsider if folks are angry enough regarding how they handle furture release. And certainly NOTHING will change about this fubar system unless you directly let them know your dissatisfaction instead of just posting on a message board.

I have sent an email. Scott really doesn't give a crap. I talked to him about stamping the blasted logo all over the box tipping off customs agents and then me paying $100-$200 for a $300 dollar item. When I order from ebay with busted up boxes. NEVER. He didnt give a crap. My response. I buy products only under $80. Oh well he lost sales.

[Major Focker]

I have sent an email. Scott really doesn't give a crap. I talked to him about stamping the blasted logo all over the box tipping off customs agents and then me paying $100-$200 for a $300 dollar item. When I order from ebay with busted up boxes. NEVER. He didnt give a crap. My response. I buy products only under $80. Oh well he lost sales.

not sure how or why you were expecting him to respond positively to your note when they have clearly outlined their policy and position on this matter.

item#4 here: http://www.hlj.com/h...ippingcost.html

if your message clearly implied avoidance of custom duties, i'm not surprised you didn't get a response. if you had worded your message on the pre-text of less costly packaging without the logo print, or maybe even privacy concerns, then you might have gotten more mileage. not to say that they won't see through that pretext anyway, but you might have at least gotten a formal response.

they are actually sympathetic to this, but they won't break the legal rules though they would bend some of their own. in my case, after i requested them to ship available items then dropped them a note asking them to break that into 2 shipments so that neither one exceeded to the duty free limit in my country. they quoted a policy that said they don't do split shipments except if it won't all fit in their biggest box (this was before they implemented private warehouse) but then they also said they checked my buying history and allowed an exception at that time since they valued me as customer blah blah. the next time it happened they suggested a way for me to bend some of their rules and circumvent some of their shipping option limitations, which i cannot disclose because i promised not to. anyway, it's moot now since they have private warehouse in place.

Edited January 15, 2013 by Major Focker

[Lupin The Third]

Lupin, I was being sarcastic. I made that statement because I always feel like I get knots in my stomach when dealing with these damn Bandai valks. I've never come at you with the tinfoil hat discussion. If anything I said you have a right to express your opinion, but let's not crap on each other in these threads.

Sorry if my post caused confusion. It actually wasn't directed at you. Somehow I've become the bad guy of the forum in regards to Bandai and whenever I say anything that isn't glowing with praise and adoration there are certain members who go after me. Heck in the RVF thread they even started putting words in my mouth and accusing me of bad mouthing Bandai when I didn't even say a single thing negative. I was merely pointing out a perfect example of how someone else can say the same things I do without incurring the same ire from these folks (xrentonx, IXTL, and a couple others). I actually have no problem with what you said. You're completely right. And I know what you mean about the knots in the stomach...though usually for me it's my heart skips a beat when preorders start and we all get into that insane 1-2 hours of refreshing and jumping from site to site to try to find a single damned unit! No worries Loop, we're good. I just felt this was a good example of how others say the same things I do and somehow escape the tinfoil hat accusations and attacks. I figured it was obvious, sorry for the misunderstanding...oh and the poop, there's still some on your shoe. Sorry about that.

I have sent an email. Scott really doesn't give a crap. I talked to him about stamping the blasted logo all over the box tipping off customs agents and then me paying $100-$200 for a $300 dollar item. When I order from ebay with busted up boxes. NEVER. He didnt give a crap. My response. I buy products only under $80. Oh well he lost sales.

Wow...that really sucks. It's a real shame that they don't give a damn about your situation. In the US we have it very easy but in other countries it's absurd what customs will do. I guess success has gotten the better of them, and they've forgotten how they got to where they are and their old days of selling model kits from his apartment. I haven't received a response from either email address but they're on break until tonight due to a Monday holiday in Japan so we'll see if they care or not.

Actually what has surprised me more than HLJ' s actions are some of the forum members' responses, especially in the other thread I started. I've been collecting for two decades now. I have all kinds of unique items and things that are far more rare than a Valkyrie that Bandai manufactures in the thousands but I have NEVER had this kind of difficult obtaining something. A lot of folks here just want to pawn it off as "well that's collecting so get used to it". I assure you if you saw my anime, game, or my wife's Disney collection they would eat those idiotic words. It is beyond clear that Bandai is manipulating supply by intentionally shorting online exporters to generate a false sense of demand for the figures. Any intelligent person can discern this and make a choice as to whether they're willing to tolerate Bandai treating the consumer this way by paying more than retail or installing a data port in their head to have constant net access for the 45 second window of opportunity to order these. But what isn't acceptable is for a supposedly reputable retailer to directly place product in the hands of people they know are scalping when they could be taking care of their customers.

The main reason I suggested emailing HLJ is that if we don't tell them we are dissatisfied they won't change anything. So when they VF-27 comes out again we'll be staying up all night to try to get ours only to have most sold off in large batches to the same a-holes who are going to sell them to us on ebay for $500. The RVF will be the same, the Vajra will be the same, and so on. It doesn't seem too absurd to me to simply ask a retailer to treat their customers a little better and give everyone a chance to order...just like Amiami did, just like CDJ, just like Hobby Search. Maybe they totally don't give a crap, but if we don't at least say "Hello? Over here! I'm a customer and I'm not happy with this." then absolutely nothing will ever change. Then those same people attacking me in the HLJ thread will be the same ones posting obscenities about how pissed they were they didn't get their RVF...

[jenius]

I know it's a common gray market techinque to deliberately misstate the value of goods but isn't that technically illegal? In my experience, once a company gets reputable enough, it starts caring about legal matters more as it has more to lose. Generally emails to the effect of "Hey, I need your help skirting the laws of my nation" have very low success rates. (Erp, Major Focker beat me to it).

Too much pissing and moaning about Bandai lately. We get it... you got first world problems. Lupin's quest is starting to get as annoying as my quest against the collar on the V2's battroid mode. Stupid collar... looks like a robo-priest.

Back off topic:

Now, back on topic, I was just transforming my 171 and I really hate what they did with the metal swing bar that locks the legs in place. It's clumsy and it doesn't feel like it really gets in the groove even after a ton of massaging.

Edited January 15, 2013 by jenius

[xrentonx]

Not sure how I got lumped in with the Bandai-zealot crowd but I suppose I could have been more clear in my original response asking to tone it down a little. I don't mind Bandai criticism at all. Hell, I have a lot of negative to say about the V1s, I'm just asking that people be more civil. But I guess civility is too much to ask for? Also, my attempt at levity didn't go over so well in the other thread

[jenius]

Does anyone know where I can get dimensions for the Macross Frontier valks? There aren't many over at the Macross Mecha Manual so it's going to be hard for me to calculate true scales on those. Looks like I could probably do it for fighter mode though.

[David Hingtgen]

I think they've released detailed official measurements of Sheryl and Ranka--work backwards from pics of when they're in the cockpit.

[Major Focker]

erm, so what are these "measurements"?

[Major Focker]

so i wrote HLJ yesterday and got a response

original letter:

Hi Scott,

Long time customer here (though not with this email address).

I was interested in getting this item (http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN980635) but it seems to have sold out almost instantaneously.

Some folks on the forums pointed out that there was an order limit of 10 for this item, whereas usually the limit is just 3 for similar in-demand items. This may have contributed to the very short ordering window, but not to say that limiting the order quantity to 3 would've extended the availability for much longer.

Nonetheless, there is some sentiment that such a high order limit for a very hot item is a bit insensitive to customers who miss out and feel that lower order limits would've allowed more customers to avail of the item, even if it may not be a much higher probability.

There is also some insinuation that the high order limit translates to being pro-scalper. I do not buy this, not without proof and not to say that there aren't legitimate resellers who require such quantities, but I recognize that the situation does indeed make it more conducive for scalpers. I also recognize that this is primarily a supply/demand issue stemming from Bandai, but every little bit you can do will help to make these products available to more of your loyal customers.

So my simple request is this: would you reconsider and set lower lower order quantity limits for future Bandai Valkyrie releases?

I've always had good service from your company and look forward to continuing business with you.

and the response from Scott i got this morning:

Hello [edited],

Thank you for contacting me about this product. Allow me to start by saying that I hope you can believe me when I say that we are as infuriated and frustrated by the situation surrounding Bandai Chogokin Valkyries as our customers are.

It appears at this point that Bandai is limiting production of these items to just a few thousand pieces. We are literally only able to acquire a few dozen. This is despite the fact that we could probably easily sell between 500 and thousand pieces. When I think about how much money I'm leaving on the table…

As for the order situation, yes, these did sell out almost instantly (at least the quantity that we had decided to allow for preorder did). The order quantity limit had been left at the default of 10 for short period, but we noticed this, corrected it, and have since redistributed the piece allocations to other orders from the two people who did place an order for 10.

Your "simple request" about the piece quantity limits is eminently practical, and we are once again trying to revamp our systems for this to make sure that allocations are fair. Believe me, it is not as easy as it seems. Items like this can cause us to have several dozen open shopping carts at once all with the same limited item in them, and it's quite challenging for IT programmers to keep it all sorted out.

Again, it is quite frustrating for us that we have to try to program around, and apologize for, shortcomings that are caused solely by Bandai's refusal to meet market demand for the product. Until they change their ways (don't hold your breath) this is going to continue to be a difficult situation for both us and our customers. I can only promise that will try to do our best.

Thank you for your support over the years, [edited}.

so i guess it boils down to the messaging, sticking to facts not speculation, and keeping a level head (and demeanor, if i might add).

the silver lining here, is that it seems HLJ has set aside part of their allocation to only be available upon release.