Bandai DX VF-31

[Methrash]

Hi guys, today ask for my shipment and magically change of state. I hope they send it.

 

[Toonz]

I received mine....finally after one whole year of waiting

 

[Saburo]

 

[rdrunner]

1 hour ago, Toonz said:

I received mine....finally after one whole year of waiting

 

nice!  congrats on finally getting it!

[funkymonkeyjavajunky]

13 hours ago, Methrash said:

Hi guys, today ask for my shipment and magically change of state. I hope they send it.

 

You may now hold the record, 13 months, from placing order to receiving shipment notification.

[Saburo]

Gerwalk photos

 

[Saburo]

Fighter mode done. Enjoy!

 

[Sandman]

I’d really like to know the story behind the 31A debacle.

[slide]

27 minutes ago, Sandman said:

I’d really like to know the story behind the 31A debacle.

That would mean a loss of face for somebody... so not too likely in this case methinks.

[Sanity is Optional]

All we know are these facts:

• Bandai said they allowed orders on their website to be open too long
• Most grey-market sellers (everyone aside from NY) had fewer than anticipated available, some cancelled orders, and My Konbini cancelled all the orders, and then sold their stock at a markup...
• Somehow NY is still managing to get their hands on stock, even now. Nobody knows how, but they don't have brown Tamashii shipper boxes.

 

Did I miss anything?

[seti88]

In my mind, Bandai under estimated demand, but i cant really blame them. I mean, the 31A hardly did anything in delta, and i think if you put all the 31A footage together it probably wouldn't go past 5 mins...but yet...

 

[Lolicon]

2 minutes ago, seti88 said:

In my mind, Bandai under estimated demand, but i cant really blame them. I mean, the 31A hardly did anything in delta, and i think if you put all the 31A footage together it probably wouldn't go past 5 mins...but yet...

 

I'm not even sure if all the 31 footage put together goes past 5 minutes.

[Graham]

Having enemy Windemere Lil' Drakens mounted on a VF-31 just looks too weird to me.

I guess there must be some rationale behind it, but not having seen the movie, I've no idea why.

 

 

[brouken]

Hehe, I can almost hear you speaking in Japanese Graham! "Wake ga wakaranai kara, hen ni nachatte!"

SPOILER WARNING FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT SEEN THE DELTA MOVIE!

Spoiler

In the movie, the 31F was captured by Windermere. They installed the Lildrakens as a means of testing its capabilities I suppose. Hayate and Mirage managed to hijack the modified 31F, along with a standard Draken which Mirage personalized in her colors. I guess the changing of colors based on who's riding it is a feature of the Draken valks.

 

Edited November 6, 2018 by brouken

[ridgebacks]

15 hours ago, funkymonkeyjavajunky said:

You may now hold the record, 13 months, from placing order to receiving shipment notification.

Is that some kind of challenge? 

[dur]

For those with the movie 31-F: what is it about the draken adapters such that you need to switch them out for battroid mode?  Is it that the fighter mode prevents the wings from folding?  Just curious if a perfect transformation 3D printed part is possible or completely out of the picture.

 

I'm very tempted to snatch one up right now- poor messer is getting dumped all over YJA at pretty low prices...

[Mommar]

14 minutes ago, dur said:

For those with the movie 31-F: what is it about the draken adapters such that you need to switch them out for battroid mode?  Is it that the fighter mode prevents the wings from folding?  Just curious if a perfect transformation 3D printed part is possible or completely out of the picture.

 

I'm very tempted to snatch one up right now- poor messer is getting dumped all over YJA at pretty low prices...

It keeps the wings from folding.

[Mommar]

6 hours ago, Graham said:

Having enemy Windemere Lil' Drakens mounted on a VF-31 just looks too weird to me.

I guess there must be some rationale behind it, but not having seen the movie, I've no idea why.

 

 

Windemere captured Messers Valk after he was shot down and died.  They were apparently doing experiments mounting the Lill Drakens to the 31 when Hayate and Mirage came upon it while attempting to escape captivity.

[rdrunner]

25 minutes ago, dur said:

For those with the movie 31-F: what is it about the draken adapters such that you need to switch them out for battroid mode?  Is it that the fighter mode prevents the wings from folding?  Just curious if a perfect transformation 3D printed part is possible or completely out of the picture.

 

I'm very tempted to snatch one up right now- poor messer is getting dumped all over YJA at pretty low prices...

I have been wondering the same thing - if the draken can go on the old 31F release with the same set of clips, then in theory someone can make a set of 3D printed clips and we'll be done, no?

[Sanity is Optional]

1 hour ago, rdrunner said:

I have been wondering the same thing - if the draken can go on the old 31F release with the same set of clips, then in theory someone can make a set of 3D printed clips and we'll be done, no?

Yeah, if someone makes up a CAD model of the clips, or a close approximation, they could be 3D printed up pretty easily.

[borgified]

Movie Version 31F is up for 18k yen on Manda if anyone is interested (Messer's Supers is still available for now).

https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/detailPage/item?itemCode=1099505718&ref=list

[Chronocidal]

On ‎11‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 1:39 AM, seti88 said:

In my mind, Bandai under estimated demand, but i cant really blame them. I mean, the 31A hardly did anything in delta, and i think if you put all the 31A footage together it probably wouldn't go past 5 mins...but yet...

To me, this just seems like another case of Bandai not understanding the Macross fanbase, so they just apply standard operating procedure for their Gundam series to Macross, and assume no one will want the boring cannon fodder units.

Except, clearly, that doesn't work.  Unlike Gundam, Macross's designs have what I would consider a real-world counterpart, and the fanbase crosses streams with real-world aircraft enthusiasts, who would gobble up the CF models specifically because they look more realistic.  On top of that, Macross has a tendency toward making really attractive CF designs.  Whether that's because people want army builders, or just want extras to customize with real-world squadron markings is up for grabs.

The really baffling and, in my mind, inexcusable part about the 31A situation though.. they should have known this would happen.  There were multiple signs that the 31A was a hot seller in all forms, and Bandai ignored them.  Just go try and find a Hasegawa kit, or Tomy-Tech kit of the 31A, and see how successful you are.

They had an instant hit on their hands, and they screwed the pooch.  I mean come on Bandai... What's the point of making an item a made-to-order webshop exclusive if you don't even plan to honor all the orders you receive??

 

Edited November 7, 2018 by Chronocidal

[jenius]

There was clearly a problem, not a decision to be daft.

[slide]

Just now, Chronocidal said:

To me, this just seems like another case of Bandai not understanding the Macross fanbase, so they just apply standard operating procedure for their Gundam series to Macross, and assume no one will want the boring cannon fodder units.

Except, clearly, that doesn't work.  Unlike Gundam, Macross's designs have what I would consider a real-world counterpart, and the fanbase crosses streams with real-world aircraft enthusiasts, who would gobble up the CF models specifically because they look more realistic.  On top of that, Macross has a tendency toward making really attractive CF designs.  Whether that's because people want army builders, or just want extras to customize with real-world squadron markings is up for grabs.

The really baffling and, in my mind, inexcusable part about the 31A situation though.. they should have known this would happen.  There were multiple signs that the 31A was a hot seller in all forms, and Bandai ignored them.  Just go try and find a Hasegawa kit, or Tomy-Tech kit of the 31A, and see how successful you are.

They had an instant hit on their hands, and they screwed the pooch.  I mean come on Bandai... What's the point of making an item a made-to-order webshop exclusive if you don't even plan to honor all the orders you receive??

 

there were QC issues as well [mostly with the paint finish as i recall]... this may be a case of they were simply unwilling to ship a product that fell that far below their standards... 

 

but we'll never know until someone here gets hired by Bandai and we get an inside track.......

[Chronocidal]

26 minutes ago, slide said:

there were QC issues as well [mostly with the paint finish as i recall]... this may be a case of they were simply unwilling to ship a product that fell that far below their standards... 

 

but we'll never know until someone here gets hired by Bandai and we get an inside track.......

The entire concept of that just feels like the worst kind of excuse though.  "Sorry, we couldn't manufacture things to our own high standards, so we're cancelling your order?"  WTF kind of business practice is that?

Maybe this is a case where we got screwed by 3rd-party re-sellers requiring payment up-front, but it seems to me they would be wise to honor the orders they received, not give an excuse to random people that their orders didn't meet spec, and wouldn't be delivered.

[no3Ljm]

2 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

The entire concept of that just feels like the worst kind of excuse though.  "Sorry, we couldn't manufacture things to our own high standards, so we're cancelling your order?"  WTF kind of business practice is that?

I don't think it's a QC issue. Bandai should've mentioned something on their blog or twitter. Kind of what they did after the upside-down SMS. Both of the VF-31A I ordered before including the one I received from NY didn't have any QC issues on the paint finish. Looking forward to check the third one after I get it to see if there's some QC issues on it.

 

[CF18]

The biggest fallout with the VF-31A issue is now some bigger Tamashii shop limited releases are much harder to order from proxy shops, since Bandai seems to now enforce their per-person limit strictly.  E.g. Metal Build FMP M9 was much hard to order than most Macross DX regular releases.

[Sanity is Optional]

33 minutes ago, CF18 said:

The biggest fallout with the VF-31A issue is now some bigger Tamashii shop limited releases are much harder to order from proxy shops, since Bandai seems to now enforce their per-person limit strictly.  E.g. Metal Build FMP M9 was much hard to order than most Macross DX regular releases.

No kidding, had to try 4 different proxy services to get 2 ordered.

[Lolicon]

Someone forgot to carry the 1 when they were setting production numbers. 

[Chronocidal]

Bandai cutting their reservation limits isn't hard to believe, and would go well with the generic "We had our order reduced by Bandai" excuse people have gotten.  Unfortunately, it sounds so generic that it's tough to swallow, and it's not like Bandai's ever going to explain themselves, so even if this ultimately is on Bandai's shoulders, the distributors are going to take the flak for it.

I'm sure Bandai has all of their releases and production batches worked out ahead of time, but it's still screwy to see them say "Oops, we offered too many pre-orders, so we're cancelling a bunch of them," especially with what should (in theory) be a made-to-order product that they had exact order numbers for six months in advance.  I suppose by this point, it should be an accepted fact that Bandai loves turning away people waving money in their face, but it never gets easier to understand.  

[Guyffon]

2 hours ago, CF18 said:

The biggest fallout with the VF-31A issue is now some bigger Tamashii shop limited releases are much harder to order from proxy shops, since Bandai seems to now enforce their per-person limit strictly.  E.g. Metal Build FMP M9 was much hard to order than most Macross DX regular releases.

Thought metal build M9 was a p-bandai item, I could easily order 2 from biginjapan, but cancelled after I realised I could order from P-bandai direct from P-bandai Singapore. As for the strike freedom soul blue that came out on P-bandai Singapore, that evaporated in seconds leaving, and the system kept hanging leaving people trying for 3 hours before the offical word that it sold out. Sorry, a lil off topic

[Petrov27]

huh. Finally in hand from NY....amazing

Edited November 8, 2018 by Petrov27

[manfred17]

I think Bandai may release in the future other version or release of the VF31A, as they did with the VF19 Advance / YF19 Full Set.

We have to be patient

[borgified]

Since than @Petrov27 has gotten his 31a today, the question is - Who are the last remaining members that still have a single order of their copy of the 31a withstanding from NY? 

It's been a quite a hair raising ride for all of us that are on this particular thread.

4 minutes ago, manfred17 said:

I think Bandai may release in the future other version or release of the VF31A, as they did with the VF19 Advance / YF19 Full Set.

We have to be patient

Hopefully that Bandai will learn from the 31a fiasco and not keep collectors hanging on a thin string of empty promises.

[Guyffon]

Bandai learning? I really doubt it, to them this item was supposed to be for the japanese markets only, so I think they accomplished their goals, I really doubt they could really care about the international markets for now