Bandai DX VF-31

[spacemanoeuvres]

I don’t understand why some folks keep apologizing for NY.

It’s not okay to take someone’s money for a product and then deliver it over a year later with ZERO communication. They did not say a word to anyone until after customers reached out to them first.

Moreover I don’t see why anyone would sell their PO at NY for $300 when the 31A was already selling for $400-$500 at that point; and there were MWF members flipping their extras for between $500-$600 on eBay. Best to wait on the off chance you would actually get your order or bite the bullet and take the store credit. 

I still place orders at NY but I will never rely on them as the sole source for something I have to have. 

Edited February 28, 2019 by spacemanoeuvres
wrods

[Lolicon]

I find it comical that giving customers the merchandise that they paid for is considered "above and beyond" and "heroic" when NY does it.

That's the absolute minimum I expect from any store.

[spacemanoeuvres]

1 minute ago, Lolicon said:

I find it comical that giving customers the merchandise that they paid for is considered "above and beyond" and "heroic" when NY does it.

That's the absolute minimum I expect from any store.

Thank you. Can you imagine placing an order at any other retailer and not receiving your order for months (or a year) later with NO communication?

And then folks telling you you should be thankful for the experience? Miss me with that mess. 

[seti88]

On 2/27/2019 at 8:58 PM, brouken said:

Here's your answer:

https://www.nippon-yasan.com/22661-macross-delta-dx-chogokin-vf-31a-kairos-regular-limited-edition.html

It’s entirely possible that N-Y doesn’t have the A and is just jacking up the price to cover their costs to obtain one from evil bay or anywhere else. Like proxy shopping...

However with the 31A preorder fiasco that happened it doesn’t help NY’s reputation one bit to list the 31A again, even if it might be a proxy, as folks don’t know where the source actually is from..

 

[Slave IV]

All good. I think NY did get all their orders with Bandai fulfilled one way or another and there is no way they bought the ones they sent out at original price on the aftermarket for more. There were other sellers stating that there would be a later shipment and those seem to have panned out. Again, this is such a unique case that hasn’t happened before so to base all future orders on this one seems unreasonable to me. The above and beyond part to me is that after so much time, whatever the deal with NY was, they did not need to drag it out and send items to people at original price when it was easily going for 3-4 the price. They could have given refunds like so many people seem to wish they did but I can just imagine the pitchforks from those same people if they got their refunds and then found out they could have received their item if they just waited. 

I’m not apologizing for NY and like I said, I don’t care about them other then that they deliver the items I order from them. Just giving some perspective on the topic and it’s interesting disscussion to me. No offense to anyone. 

Edited February 28, 2019 by Slave IV

[dizman]

Wow over $1000 is pretty crazy, maybe even a little scary if people are actually buying them at that price. At these prices I'm sure Bandai sees what is going on and will release either a reissue or an Arad 31A to make a quick buck.

[Chronocidal]

4 hours ago, Slave IV said:

All good. I think NY did get all their orders with Bandai fulfilled one way or another and there is no way they bought the ones they sent out at original price on the aftermarket for more. There were other sellers stating that there would be a later shipment and those seem to have panned out. Again, this is such a unique case that hasn’t happened before so to base all future orders on this one seems unreasonable to me. The above and beyond part to me is that after so much time, whatever the deal with NY was, they did not need to drag it out and send items to people at original price when it was easily going for 3-4 the price. They could have given refunds like so many people seem to wish they did but I can just imagine the pitchforks from those same people if they got their refunds and then found out they could have received their item if they just waited. 

I’m not apologizing for NY and like I said, I don’t care about them other then that they deliver the items I order from them. Just giving some perspective on the topic and it’s interesting disscussion to me. No offense to anyone. 

I honestly don't think they ever got their orders from Bandai, or we would have been getting them in the original shipper boxes.  That's been all kinds of suspicious from the get-go, because this was the only item I've ever seen that happen with.

What I think actually happened is that they took all those orders, and then, since their policy is "NO REFUNDS", they sat on the orders, with the intention of "getting around to them someday, if we can acquire the goods and still maintain a profit."  The jacked up price they have now looks like a straight-faced attempt to recover their losses for all the ones they had to acquire at a loss to fulfill the orders people didn't want to cancel.

One way or another, everyone who ordered a 31A from them gave them an interest-free loan.  

In the end, I asked about getting a single one shipped, because I didn't trust they would ever deliver.  I still take issue with the fact that they just went ahead and cancelled one with no mention of all the ridiculous restrictions on how they allow you to use your own money if it gets converted to store credit, but such is life.

For those unaware of how many hoops you have to jump through to get your money back once they've issued you a credit:

1. You cannot purchase anything less expensive than the entire amount.
2. You cannot apply store credit to shipping.
3. YOUR CREDIT EXPIRES IN A YEAR.

Yeah.  Caveat emptor in the worst way I've ever seen from any store anywhere.  I have to question whether it's even legal, or whether any other shops have such policies.

So yeah.  Bottom line?  DO NOT ACCEPT NY STORE CREDIT.  It's not worth the cost to you.

In the end, I bought one of their marked up VF-31Es with the credit from my cancelled 31A.  The ball is back in their court to deliver, so I'm curious to see if they'll actually come through, or try to throw some other type of restriction in my face.   

 

 

 

Edited February 28, 2019 by Chronocidal

[Slave IV]

I personally wouldn’t mind store credit since I try to shop at NY as much as possible but their policies do suck. 

If I was really done with a shop like theirs, I would not accept store credit. I would just tell my cc company and they would refund me fully. 

[Chronocidal]

53 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

I personally wouldn’t mind store credit since I try to shop at NY as much as possible but their policies do suck. 

If I was really done with a shop like theirs, I would not accept store credit. I would just tell my cc company and they would refund me fully. 

A fair point, and I'm having to ween myself off of the convenience of using Paypal for those sorts of things.

I'm just personally baffled that such policies can exist with what should be your own money.  Basically, once they have your money in their account, you are entirely at their mercy for how it gets applied to anything in their shop.  Not being able to spend it on shipping is particularly frustrating when combined with the "have to spend it all at once" caveat, considering the original amount refunded was partially spent on shipping to begin with, so you actually have to order something more expensive than your original order, before they'll let you redeem the credit they owe you.

 

Edited February 28, 2019 by Chronocidal

[Slave IV]

34 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

A fair point, and I'm having to ween myself off of the convenience of using Paypal for those sorts of things.

I'm just personally baffled that such policies can exist with what should be your own money.  Basically, once they have your money in their account, you are entirely at their mercy for how it gets applied to anything in their shop.  Not being able to spend it on shipping is particularly frustrating when combined with the "have to spend it all at once" caveat, considering the original amount refunded was partially spent on shipping to begin with, so you actually have to order something more expensive than your original order, before they'll let you redeem the credit they owe you.

 

That is definitely one of the lamest policies.  But again, it wouldn’t apply to me because I would just wait for my stuff to come at the price I paid (loaned) them or get my money back. 

This will go down as the great 31A mystery that maybe someday will get declassified and we will learn the truth of what went down. 

Edit: btw, even if you use PayPal, I highly recommend using a credit card through PayPal. That way, if you have a no foreign fee card, you pay less and you are also always protected by the cc company on top of PayPal. I learned the hard way dealing with a company much, much worse than NY. 

Edited February 28, 2019 by Slave IV

[Nonrenormalizable]

NY and their predatory practices. I love it! Bet people will still be buying from them, I know I will

[Slave IV]

7 hours ago, Nonrenormalizable said:

NY and their predatory practices. I love it! Bet people will still be buying from them, I know I will

Lol, damn right. They just screwed me pretty good for GoLion Reissue. Said it was sold out when I had an order at 26800 and then raised the price to 31000 and now 38000. Lol! This shady shi+ seems to be happening more and more lately. They never did that crap before even though we know they raise the price later. Now, they are cancelling lower priced orders and raising the price. Might as well just sell for the higher price to begin with. F’ers. 

[no3Ljm]

NY is still couping up for their loss from Kairos sales. 

 

[jodokast]

Wow... $1K, that's some nice markup by NY; fortunately I just received mine in the mail today.

[yman1437]

So that means they completed all their pre-order? Anyone still has pre-order not completed yet?

[orindlt]

I got all the ones I ordered. One immediately. One only a few weeks back. They came through. I will continue to spend money with them in future because, when it came down to it, I got my toys. I've had a lot of instances where my toys haven't turned up with some retailers, the wrong toys have turned up, and broken toys have turned up that haven't been replaced. I'm counting this as a win.

Did their communication suck? Yup. Did I get my toys? Yes. Someone there seems to have done the work over the last year to get those orders fulfilled. Thank you to whoever that was.

I'd much prefer that someone come through late and without much explanation than to have an order refunded (even with $) - especially in a case where the secondary market went bananas. I'd have bailed on them for eternity if they had waited a very long time & then cancelled and provided a refund. 

Those that took the bet and stuck around were eventually rewarded by getting what they ordered. There was no rational reason for anyone to believe that they came through, but if something similar happens in future with them and they say that they'll be able to fulfill the order in light of challenges, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Edited March 2, 2019 by orindlt

[Knightdramon]

I guess I was very, very lucky with NY as I got my Kairos upon release, but yeah it'd be royally pissed had this situation happened to me. 

The price for the VF31S has risen to new heights---after not really selling out for around 170 quid they just bumped the price up to 280 quid [38.000 yen] in anticipation of the ipcomign armour. I got a VF31S from Anime Export instead [thankfully]. 

 

[sh9000]

[technoblue]

The leg and chest armour look similar to the previous VF-25 sets. Not sure what to think about what else is going on up top. It looks very busy in the photo.

The dual cannons are cool, but gosh I'm still undecided on this. To me, the lighter grey makes it look like the Valkyrie is sealed in an extravehicular mobility unit.

[brouken]

Where and when was that pic taken sh9000? I don't see the extra arm stands holding up the arms and the backpack. Does that mean that the armor pack is light enough for the valk not to have any additional support?

[enphily]

Pictures from Gorgeous Delicious Deculture Festival

 

Edited March 2, 2019 by enphily

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

That clip to the existing stand for the cannons/pod is pretty ingenious, but that means the armored vf-31s will always need it's stand to be displayed (in battroid mode*).

There also appears to be an additional clear adapter on the top of the stem (top of the display stand) to support the upper torso.

Edited March 2, 2019 by PsYcHoDyNaMiX

[brouken]

Yeah, I see the transparent adapter where the valk is connected to the stand. Looks like a special adapter meant for the armored seigfried.

The clip and arm holding the cannon pod does indeed do a more elegant way of supporting that heavy back. Much better that the multiple arms used the hold up the prototype at tamashii nations 2018.

[ArchieNov]

I will only ever leave that armor set displayed in fighter mode. Same as my 25s.

[Slave IV]

10 hours ago, orindlt said:

I got all the ones I ordered. One immediately. One only a few weeks back. They came through. I will continue to spend money with them in future because, when it came down to it, I got my toys. I've had a lot of instances where my toys haven't turned up with some retailers, the wrong toys have turned up, and broken toys have turned up that haven't been replaced. I'm counting this as a win.

Did their communication suck? Yup. Did I get my toys? Yes. Someone there seems to have done the work over the last year to get those orders fulfilled. Thank you to whoever that was.

I'd much prefer that someone come through late and without much explanation than to have an order refunded (even with $) - especially in a case where the secondary market went bananas. I'd have bailed on them for eternity if they had waited a very long time & then cancelled and provided a refund. 

Those that took the bet and stuck around were eventually rewarded by getting what they ordered. There was no rational reason for anyone to believe that they came through, but if something similar happens in future with them and they say that they'll be able to fulfill the order in light of challenges, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Yeah, this is pretty much how I would deal with the situation if I had an order in.

As for the future, this new policy they have of cartjacking their own customers and then relisting for more a minute later is complete BS. 

[Arkham]

1 hour ago, PsYcHoDyNaMiX said:

armored vf-31s will always need it's stand to be displayed (in battroid mode*).

 

"Hold my acrylic"

@ChaoticYeti, probably

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

1 minute ago, Arkham said:

"Hold my acrylic"

@ChaoticYeti, probably

Hahahaha...

[no3Ljm]

Wow. That is one busy Armored Pack set.

I’ll probably keep mine in the box. 

 

[wm cheng]

Pre-order date? (or did I miss it?)

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

16 minutes ago, wm cheng said:

Pre-order date? (or did I miss it?)

none yet afaik...

[t040484]

6 hours ago, sh9000 said:

I seriously doubt that thing will stand on it's own feet. 

[chyll2]

I won't wait for Saburo to post his shots on that and regret. Will preorder and maybe mod it to fit the chest piece on Kairos. 

 

Edit: I can be wrong but I think it can stand by itself by balancing the parts. Remember the 25s can stand as long as it has a strong hip joint. I wouldn't recommend it though for display.

Edited March 3, 2019 by chyll2

[dur]

Looks like we can only display the armor in its intended environment: zero-g

 

That is also a pretty unflattering pose they have it in: I'm sure it could look a lot better with just some arm repositioning

[slide]

54 minutes ago, dur said:

That is also a pretty unflattering pose they have it in: I'm sure it could look a lot better with just some arm repositioning

The pose reminds me of Evangelion for some reason...

[enphily]