BANDAI DX YF-19!!

[HardlyNever]

2 hours ago, rdrunner said:

I ordered two at about 5:55 and 5:58, got two confirmation emails about an hour later, then cancelled the later order immediately. No email from them yet. Fingers crossed. I have a second order at CDJ. 

Wasn't it limit 1 per customer?  Or are you using multiple accounts with different emails, names addresses?

53 minutes ago, TrickyCustomer said:

You'd think Bandai would see the popularity and how much of a hot item this was and think, hmmm ok we'll make more.

I'm starting to think Bandai either doesn't care about supply matching demand, or actively wants these to be limited releases for some reason.

Edited April 28, 2018 by HardlyNever

[Zx31]

If anything, I'd say the availability of all of the non-webshop 31s proves they are making more than enough to fill demand. Can't really make assumptions about demand or availability based on a small number of shops that are offering their limited allotment to a large overseas market.

[Mommar]

I wonder if it would be possible to mod a second Fold Booster to attach to the bottom of the 19?

[rdrunner]

19 minutes ago, HardlyNever said:

Wasn't it limit 1 per customer?  Or are you using multiple accounts with different emails, names addresses?

I'm starting to think Bandai either doesn't care about supply matching demand, or actively wants these to be limited releases for some reason.

You’re right it’s only limited to 1 per customer. I placed a duplicate order because I didn’t get any confirmation at first (and their system allowed it at the time). That’s why as soon as I received two confirmation emails for the YF-19, I went in and cancelled the duplicate. Hopefully they saw that and didn’t penalize me for the multiple order.

Edited April 28, 2018 by rdrunner

[technoblue]

4 minutes ago, HardlyNever said:

Wasn't it limit 1 per customer?  Or are you using multiple accounts with different emails, names addresses?

I'm starting to think Bandai either doesn't care about supply matching demand, or actively wants these to be limited releases for some reason.

Yeah. Something was awry with the site on pre-order night.

1 minute ago, rdrunner said:

You’re right it’s only limited to 1 per customer. I placed a duplicate order because I didn’t get any confirmation at first. That’s why as soon as I received two confirmation emails for the YF-19, I went in and cancelled the duplicate. Hopefully they saw that and didn’t penalize me for the multiple order.

You weren't alone. Many forum members were reporting a lag between placing orders and receiving a confirmation message from HLJ. It took 30 minutes for me to get my confirmation message. In that time, I ended up securing another order at cdjapan instead. I think the site error caused a bit of chaos on HLJ's end. I didn't receive any notice this morning, so I think that my cancellation went through cleanly. At least, I hope that it did.

[rdrunner]

1 minute ago, technoblue said:

Yeah. Something was awry with the site on pre-order night.

You weren't alone. Many forum members were reporting a lag between placing orders and receiving a confirmation message from HLJ. It took 30 minutes for me to get my confirmation message. In that time, I ended up securing another order at cdjapan instead. I think the site error caused a bit of chaos on HLJ's end. I didn't receive any notice this morning, so I think that my cancellation went through cleanly. At least, I hope that it did.

I hope I’m ok with my PO too. Phew. It reminds me of this: 

[tekering]

1 hour ago, Zx31 said:

Can't really make assumptions about demand or availability based on a small number of shops that are offering their limited allotment to a large overseas market.

Ah, but the situation isn't so different for those of us in Japan, either.  I ordered mine from Amazon.co.jp, and their stock was sold out within an hour and a half... Yodobashi Camera sold out an hour after that... and any third-party sellers on Rakuten or Amazon are now charging at least ¥7000 above MSRP.

If it weren't for you fine folks giving us a heads-up, I would've missed out as well.  What would we do without MacrossWorld?

2 hours ago, HardlyNever said:

I'm starting to think Bandai either doesn't care about supply matching demand, or actively wants these to be limited releases for some reason.

Undeniably.  This product was announced in October of 2015, and we've been waiting two and-a-half years to preorder it.  Given the usual production delays, it'll be at least six more months before release.  Anyone wanting to get one at retail prices -- even in Japan -- had to order within a three-hour window, or look at paying a significant mark-up on the secondary market.

A three-year wait, with a three-hour order window.

It's mind-boggling, really.

[Zx31]

25 minutes ago, tekering said:

Ah, but the situation isn't so different for those of us in Japan, either.  I ordered mine from Amazon.co.jp, and their stock was sold out within an hour and a half... Yodobashi Camera sold out an hour after that... and any third-party sellers on Rakuten or Amazon are now charging at least ¥7000 above MSRP

I was more referring to the availability post-release since pre-orders online for items as high-end as this aren't uncommon. Once the 31J, 31C, and 31F were released, there seemed to be plenty of domestic availability for at or under retail for anyone that wanted to walk into a shop and purchase one. (Though again this is from limited information of a foreigner).

Additionally, in the Arcadia interview when this was specifically brought up, they said that they have to keep production limited because if there isn't some difficulty in getting the figures, then everyone just waits for them to go on sale and the company can't make any money to make new figures.

[Sildani]

Hm. Seems Arcadia and Bandai both learned from Yamato’s demise. 

[tekering]

16 minutes ago, Zx31 said:

Once the 31J, 31C, and 31F were released, there seemed to be plenty of domestic availability for at or under retail for anyone that wanted to walk into a shop and purchase one. 

Anyone living the greater Tokyo metropolitan area, perhaps... or maybe downtown Osaka.  But for the other 90% of the population, we have to rely on online retailers and the secondary market, just like the rest of the world does.

6 minutes ago, Sildani said:

Hm. Seems Arcadia and Bandai both learned from Yamato’s demise. 

I suppose underestimating demand is safer than overestimating demand!  

[Zx31]

1 minute ago, tekering said:

Anyone living the greater Tokyo metropolitan area, perhaps... or maybe downtown Osaka.  But for the other 90% of the population, we have to rely on online retailers and the secondary market, just like the rest of the world does.

Makes sense. I'm sure I'm probably mostly seeing posts and images from Tokyo.

[Mommar]

35 minutes ago, Sildani said:

Hm. Seems Arcadia and Bandai both learned from Yamato’s demise. 

And also proved many of us right.  The people who refused to buy anything until it went on sale have created the shortage situation.

[kajnrig]

29 minutes ago, tekering said:

I suppose underestimating demand is safer than overestimating demand!  

100% this. There's nothing more embarrassing for a toy company than seeing stacks of their toys sitting on store shelves for weeks and months on end.

That being said, considering the demand they're seeing from fans, they could stand to schedule second or third production runs. Even Nintendo, ever the fan of artificial scarcity, ramped up production of their recent consoles in order to better meet consumer demand.

[ridgebacks]

Saw this new picture. Seems they fixed the leg fin paint compare to early showing.

[Chronocidal]

They've been slowly photoshopping out the error in all their original images with the reversed colors.  If you go back through the thread, the early pics sourced from Bandai sites have all been corrected.

[anime52k8]

I think I shouldn't have dumped the one I got at HLJ. I haven't gotten gotten a bad email about the Aile strike yet, and I haven't heard anything from AmiAmi about the YF-19.

:edit:

It's just so beautiful and I want it now.

Edited April 29, 2018 by anime52k8

[David Hingtgen]

1 hour ago, Chronocidal said:

They've been slowly photoshopping out the error in all their original images with the reversed colors.  If you go back through the thread, the early pics sourced from Bandai sites have all been corrected.

Now, to see if they do the chest stripes...   (and even if they do fix all the red/black areas, they're not likely to remove the ginormous fugly "NETFC" wing markings etc) 

[protostar8]

From a business standpoint, I cannot fathom why Bandai isn't doing a "make to order" for these things?  Do the investors/board understand how much money they lose in sales in order to make the item "limited" in supply?  Limiting supply DOES NOT help the manufacturer!  It ONLY helps aftermarket sales.  I just don't get it (and I have an MBA from one of the top schools in the nation so I'm not just talking out of my a$$).

[Lolicon]

I'm willing to give Bandai the benefit of the doubt and assume the promo pics used a modified VF-19 Advance and the reversed stabilizer colors are just the result of carelessness on the part of whoever modified it. 

I hope my confidence is not misplaced and Bandai will have the colors corrected on the final version. 

The chest stripes, on the other hand, I expect to be totally wrong on the final product. 

[Slave IV]

Limiting supply and having your products sell out is better than making too much and not selling out. Anyways, there are tons of factors including all the thousands of other items Bandai makes that come into play. I think we are lucky to even be able to buy what we do considering it's technically not even legal for anyone to sell Macross products outside of Japan. Maybe once that changes and the market for Macross widens, companies can allocate more resources to make them more widely available.  

[Zx31]

20 minutes ago, protostar8 said:

From a business standpoint, I cannot fathom why Bandai isn't doing a "make to order" for these things?  Do the investors/board understand how much money they lose in sales in order to make the item "limited" in supply?  Limiting supply DOES NOT help the manufacturer!  It ONLY helps aftermarket sales.  I just don't get it (and I have an MBA from one of the top schools in the nation so I'm not just talking out of my a$$).

Considering how large and successful Bandai is, I'm pretty sure they know exactly how much money they are and aren't making by doing or not doing X. It's easy to armchair analyse what we think they should be doing, but if it was something that would make them more profit, they would most likely be doing it.

[wmkjr]

32 minutes ago, protostar8 said:

From a business standpoint, I cannot fathom why Bandai isn't doing a "make to order" for these things?  Do the investors/board understand how much money they lose in sales in order to make the item "limited" in supply?  Limiting supply DOES NOT help the manufacturer!  It ONLY helps aftermarket sales.  I just don't get it (and I have an MBA from one of the top schools in the nation so I'm not just talking out of my a$$).

They don't care. Macross isn't even a blip on their major IP sales.

[Shizuka the Cat]

37 minutes ago, protostar8 said:

From a business standpoint, I cannot fathom why Bandai isn't doing a "make to order" for these things?  Do the investors/board understand how much money they lose in sales in order to make the item "limited" in supply?  Limiting supply DOES NOT help the manufacturer!  It ONLY helps aftermarket sales.  I just don't get it (and I have an MBA from one of the top schools in the nation so I'm not just talking out of my a$$).

My guess is that whatever department at Bandai that makes the valkyrie has an allocated production budget. Given that they have many different projects, each contending for resources, the YF-19 gets a certain amount of production funding. From that, they are able to manufacture X amount of supply. If they know that they are able to sell all X quantity, and they know their profit margin, I guess they are satisfied. 

They could manufacture more, but maybe they believe doing so might incur risk of possible over-supply, impacting their total profits. And we know how risk adverse some Japanese companies can be.

Also, since Bandai has so many different things they are working on, they probably don't feel the need to go all-in on a single toy line. Rather, they diversify their sales portfolio across many lines and models.

Edited April 29, 2018 by Shizuka the Cat

[Sanity is Optional]

Their molds might only last for a certain number of prints as well.

If they're using a slightly softer steel, it would be easier/cheaper to produce and modify the molds, but they could wear faster.

[Lolicon]

Short version: Gundam makes more money for Bandai than Macross. 

[anime52k8]

Bandai derives sustenance from your anger and sadness; your tears are so yummy and sweet to them.

[wmkjr]

23 minutes ago, Lolicon said:

Short version: Gundam makes more money for Bandai than Macross. 

Just a bit more:

Bandai.pdf

Edited April 29, 2018 by wmkjr

[Zx31]

Macross not even being on the list doesn't surprise me in the least.

[Lolicon]

12 minutes ago, wmkjr said:

Just a bit more:

Bandai.pdf

LOL it would have taken too long to list all the IPs Bandai produces merchandise for that sell more than Macross. 

[no3Ljm]

Anyone else got a cancellation email from HLJ?

[seti88]

2 hours ago, protostar8 said:

From a business standpoint, I cannot fathom why Bandai isn't doing a "make to order" for these things?  Do the investors/board understand how much money they lose in sales in order to make the item "limited" in supply?  Limiting supply DOES NOT help the manufacturer!  It ONLY helps aftermarket sales.  I just don't get it (and I have an MBA from one of the top schools in the nation so I'm not just talking out of my a$$).

One word. Branding.

While sales ensures the everyday operations, branding serves the longer term goal of visibility and desire for a brand in a competitive marketplace. 

Besides, bandai has other bread and butter lines such as gundam, kamen rider, etc that they can rely on.

 

[Lolicon]

Can people list their HLJ order number, especially if yours got canceled? I'm pretty sure HLJ is going by the order in which they were received, but I'd like see if that's really the case. 

Mine is 11983065 (not canceled). 

[seti88]

1 hour ago, wmkjr said:

Just a bit more:

Bandai.pdf

More importantly, is there a trend developing? Is gundam losing steam?

[seti88]

1 minute ago, Lolicon said:

Can people list their HLJ order number, especially if yours got canceled? I'm pretty sure HLJ is going by the order in which they were received, but I'd like see if that's really the case. 

Mine is 11983065 (not canceled). 

 11983341 and not cancelled ....i hope!

[Sanity is Optional]

11983462 and no email about possibly cancelling.