Bandai DX Chogokin 1/48 VF-1

[Sandman]

Well this is depressing. Second preorder in a row I've walked with nothing (chuck and Max). Oh well gives me an excuse to not collect this line.

[no3Ljm]

2 minutes ago, RED WOLF said:

I would if they had free shipping.  $287 shipped to CA via EMS. HMMMMM

I did pay $270 used for the 1J not to long ago.

It’s always a gamble to decide.  

 

[no3Ljm]

1 minute ago, Sandman said:

Well this is depressing. Second preorder in a row I've walked with nothing (chuck and Max). Oh well gives me an excuse to not collect this line.

If you’re willing to pay it now, then you should go with NY. They have it for Y27500. Then you’re not going to walk with nothing.  

https://www.nippon-yasan.com/figures/27881-super-dimension-fortress-macross-dx-chogokin-vf-1a-valkyrie-maximilian-jenius-custom.html

[mechaninac]

I got the availability email from N-Y, so I clicked on the link.  I looked at the price, laughed heartily, and closed the browser tab.  For that price, they can sit on it for all I care; I'll wait and see if AE lists it, or if CDJ or some other reputable vendor reopens POs.  What a farce N-Y has been with this thing; first a ticket system that finally lets you win after the item you wish to secure is already sold out, then they conveniently "find" extra supply and add over 10K Yen to their initial price... sheesh!

[Convectuoso]

 I bought one at NY

Damn you Bandai for not releasing the HMR version of this!!! 

[no3Ljm]

1 minute ago, mechaninac said:

I got the availability email from N-Y, so I clicked on the link.  I looked at the price, laughed heartily, and closed the browser tab.  For that price, they can sit on it for all I care; I'll wait and see if AE lists it, or if CDJ or some other reputable vendor reopens POs.  What a farce N-Y has been with this thing; first a ticket system that finally lets you win after the item you wish to secure is already sold out, then they conveniently "find" extra supply and add over 10K Yen to their initial price... sheesh!

Oh, and they also asking you to pay upfront.

 

[CharlesXavier]

I’m not aware if it’s the same in Japan or if this is still in practice but in other markets outside of Japan, retailers have to place orders for the less popular items in order to be “entitled” to buy more quantities of the high in demand items such as metal build and dx macross. 

For instance every additional carton of 6 or 12 pieces of SHFiguarts entitles the retailer to buy 2 pieces more of metal build or dx Macross. 

I suspect NY may have been subject to this and buy in a lot more of those shelf warmers to get more VF-1A. And they may have done the maths that they could get more profits out of selling the 1A at inflated prices and dumping those shelf warmers at or below costs. So this is a typical business strategy they adopt. 

And they have no worries about anyone boycotting them because they have no lack of buyers who will buy their metal build or dx Macross items even at inflated prices. 

And in case no one noticed, NY benchmarks it’s prices against those in yahoo japan. So they know they just need to be slightly more competitive than buyee to get your business. 

[rdrunner]

33 minutes ago, Gwynne said:

I just bought one form NY.  It's the same price I paid for the VF-1J Hikaru so I can't complain too much and I can only see it going up from there if anyone is able to get more later.

 

At least it's secured.  

Actually I would agree with your analysis. Day 1 pricing on the 1J was already at 24-25k yen and the PO wasn’t as crappy as last night’s. Factor that in and all of a sudden a 27.5k price doesn’t seem so bad. 

Not condoning NY’s practice of deliberately limiting first round stock levels, and I hate their ticketing system with a passion; but their price point of 27.5k given where we are is, shall we say, “understandable”. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they sold out at this price by the end of tonight. 

[moose]

Does NY take PayPal credit 

[Bahamutzyro]

2 hours ago, Shizuka the Cat said:

Super Dimensional Enabler  SDE-92  Shizuka

Ha ha hope u got a room I can sleep in when my wife throws me out for buying another valk!

[Phangry]

42 minutes ago, easnoddy said:

Hopefully Bandai punishes NY and NinNin for up-pricing it before release, I doubt it though. 

IMO the 1/48 DX is worth $300, especially when compared to the Arcadia YF-19 and VF-4. I don't wanna pay it, but $250 USD is better than $350...

As good as the toy itself may be, I can't say that it's worth even close to $300 when you look at the abysmal accessory count. 

Even if we got the missiles included in the box, I still wouldn't feel good about that price point when I look at premium toys from other lines.

Edited April 9, 2019 by Phangry

[Gwynne]

6 minutes ago, moose said:

Does NY take PayPal credit 

 

You can pay with Paypal, so yes.  That's what I did so I have 6 months to pay it off over time instead of all at once on a credit or debit card.

Edited April 9, 2019 by Gwynne

[Duymon]

considering NY's first preorder was 160 usd the new markup is unacceptable. 

Don't fall for the markup crap they did all thru the frontier days. 

closer to release there will be waves and waves of preorders as scalpers reneg on their preorders and/or HLJ and amiami clean out all the fake account orders that goto the same address and such. You will be able to get a valk then. 

don't feed the scalpers and give them more motivation to do the BS they are doing. 

Just keep watching this board and when the PO randomly opens up somebody will report it here. 

 

Edited April 9, 2019 by Duymon

[scand]

1 minute ago, Phangry said:

I really can't say that as good as the toy itself may be, that it's worth even close to $300 when you look at the abysmal accessory count. 

This one does certainly have more quality. I could easily see it having an MSRP of $220-$240. On the HMR's though the need to go down 20-25% for me to start see real value in them. I do agree, the basic accessories should be included (straps, pod and 4 standard missile clusters).

[seti88]

3 hours ago, Slave IV said:

Regarding the whole business aspect and Bandai, here is my take:

I don't think it's an example of Bandai being bad at recognizing demand. I think it's just another case of limited resources for a company that makes thousands of products with varying degrees of profitability. No matter what anyone thinks, these are still high end niche markets and relatively, there are not many people who want to spend around $200+ on a toy robot. Some of those who do want it and are pissed that they haven't been able to get one should blame retailers with inadequate online store programming and themselves for not being on the ball enough before they blame Bandai...IMO.

Also, I will reiterate that I don't think Bandai is miscalculating anything...at least not by as much as we all hope to think. They are an international corporation with bean-counters whose calculations are most likely telling them it's more profitable to produce other items instead of more of these high end niche items. It's great for business when all your high end items sell out instantly and you have no extra stock clogging the shelves. Each unsold SOC or DX item costs more to make and to store because of the size and parts count. Selling more small, cheap items at a higher margin means more profit and less potential loss.

It is simple, ruthless business just as people are hoping for but some people seem to be letting their own desire for Macross toys cloud their thoughts on how business works. It's all about the bean counters!

Regarding the demand for Max's SDFM 1A:

1. The success of the DX 1J - The overall satisfaction reported with it being regarded as the best overall Valk made to date and the first new design in about a decade all make the appeal greater to collectors and scalpers.
2. The SDFM Max 1A has not had a quality release since the Yamato days. Max is probably a lot of people's favorite pilot since he was THE MAN and like me, itching to get his original Valk.

We've seen several versions of Hikaru's 1J released in recent years...1/60, 1/100 (2 types), 1/48. Max's 1A hasn't been released in any form by anyone reputable (Yamacadia/Bandai) for 10 years.

Makes you think this might be a catalyst for creating a long running demand for the 1/48 VF-1 ....if hikaru and max were unavailable, then whatever comes next will have to do until demand tapers off....that of course will have to go up against the sucky experience of getting one...which ultimately might be the downfall....

 

[CHAVAKAISER]

Ny is available

[Ridden001]

I need to know if I’m going to sell my NIB DX YF-19 to pay for another DX Max.  

Does anyone know if the YF-19 missiles fit the DX VF-1?  I don’t want to open it to find out but I likely will if the question takes a while

[seti88]

16 minutes ago, Duymon said:

considering NY's first preorder was 160 usd the new markup is unacceptable. 

Don't fall for the markup crap they did all thru the frontier days. 

closer to release there will be waves and waves of preorders as scalpers reneg on their preorders and/or HLJ and amiami clean out all the fake account orders that goto the same address and such. You will be able to get a valk then. 

don't feed the scalpers and give them more motivation to do the BS they are doing. 

Just keep watching this board and when the PO randomly opens up somebody will report it here. 

 

the problem with NY is that they dont say if the markup copy is via third party....

.ie. CDJ mentions proxy listings where the markup is high but they can get it for you off third party sellers..

no obligation on N-Y to mention that of course, but it leads to folks thinking NY has bad practises, after debacles...

 

i do agree  on not feeding the scalpers...

 

Edited April 9, 2019 by seti88

[rdrunner]

5 minutes ago, Ridden001 said:

I need to know if I’m going to sell my NIB DX YF-19 to pay for another DX Max.  

Does anyone know if the YF-19 missiles fit the DX VF-1?  I don’t want to open it to find out but I likely will if the question takes a while

I thought someone have already tried it on release week and it worked. There was another poster on this thread who also showed how he sanded down the connection points of the Yamato 1/48 missiles to fit the DX VF-1 around the time the missile sets were announced for preorder. 

[Ridden001]

1 minute ago, seti88 said:

the problem with NY is that they dont say if the markup copy is via third party....

.ie. CDJ mentions proxy listings where the markup is high but they can get it for you off third party sellers..

no obligation on N-Y to mention that of course, but it leads to folks thinking NY has bad practises, after debacles...

 

Agree with you.

also I don’t see this coming down ever.  They are all going to be $300-350.  The brown biggie may be lower but it will still pull $250 guaranteed.  They will always be available but they will always be $300-$350.  

When you think about it, we paid almost $300 for premium VF-1’s from Arcadia so these are actually even better priced when you factor in scale.  

[Alphahorizon]

So preorders sold by NY, some ( probably the majority) to scalpers. Then allowed to sell from their site for a mark up. Would it be safe to assume if that is the case , they get a percentage of those sales?

[Ridden001]

1 minute ago, rdrunner said:

I thought someone have already tried it on release week and it worked. There was another poster on this thread who also showed how he sanded down the connection points of the Yamato 1/48 missiles to fit the DX VF-1 around the time the missile sets were announced for preorder. 

Damn you.  Now I may keep it.

[rdrunner]

1 minute ago, Ridden001 said:

Damn you.  Now I may keep it.

sorry!

[seti88]

8 minutes ago, Alphahorizon said:

So preorders sold by NY, some ( probably the majority) to scalpers. Then allowed to sell from their site for a mark up. Would it be safe to assume if that is the case , they get a percentage of those sales?

i dont think scalpers are listing on NY, but likely NY see opportunities to get some off the market in JP, and makes profit through differences in price. They might know sources to get it for perhaps 25k yen or below current YJA auction prices...

Edited April 9, 2019 by seti88

[RED WOLF]

It's done. Pay in Yen itll be cheaper. 32000 yen shipped EMS to CA. In the end this will be more than $300 brand new probably for used for a while. Good luck in your decision.  The time I spent last night and today plus going forward to try and get another is worth a little more money up front now 

[Roy Focker]

N-Y can go to hell with that price.

[nightmareB4macross]

Such idiotic practices by NY. More likely than not as most have stated the majority of the stock was sold to scalpers.

Did anyone notice the limit per person at the initial PO opening.

[mechaninac]

39 minutes ago, moose said:

Does NY take PayPal credit 

If you pay in USD, at N-Y's inflated exchange rate, then yes you can use PP credit, which would buy you 6 months to pay, interest free as long as you pay the minimim every month and the entire amount before the grace period runs out, for any amount totaling over $99.00.

[eggy99]

Just now, nightmareB4macross said:

Such idiotic practices by NY. More likely than not as most have stated the majority of the stock was sold to scalpers.

Did anyone notice the limit per person at the initial PO opening.

That's not correct. It was set to 1 when I was trying to PO at HLJ. I know because while the site was freaking out, and my cart reset, I tried adding to my cart again, but it said it was already in my cart and at the maximum ordering capacity of 1.

[scand]

28 minutes ago, Ridden001 said:

I need to know if I’m going to sell my NIB DX YF-19 to pay for another DX Max.  

Does anyone know if the YF-19 missiles fit the DX VF-1?  I don’t want to open it to find out but I likely will if the question takes a while

They are not the same style hardpoints, the DX VF1 uses YamArcadia style hardpoints. You can make them work though. This is not the best pic but you can get an idea of how they connect.

Edited April 9, 2019 by scand

[rdrunner]

13 minutes ago, Ridden001 said:

Damn you.  Now I may keep it.

Substituting impression with fact - yes the YF-19 missile pylons fit perfectly with the DX-1J.

 

[Alphahorizon]

8 minutes ago, nightmareB4macross said:

Such idiotic practices by NY. More likely than not as most have stated the majority of the stock was sold to scalpers.

Did anyone notice the limit per person at the initial PO opening.

I asked that exact question a few pages back. If it is indeed 20 per ( I couldn't get through on HLJ) and if a scalper could afford it up front. That's just a dumb policy. But I suspect it may be inaccurate

[rdrunner]

4 minutes ago, scand said:

There not the same style hardpoints, the DX VF1 uses YamArcadia style hardpoints. You can make them work though.

I haven’t really had time to open up my YF-19 until just now. But you’re right that their wings have different hard points. I considered it secure, when the YF-19 missile pylons attached to the DX VF-1’s wings quite tightly. At least better than the 1/48 Yamato missile hard points! Lol. 

[nightmareB4macross]

6 minutes ago, eggy99 said:

That's not correct. It was set to 1 when I was trying to PO at HLJ. I know because while the site was freaking out, and my cart reset, I tried adding to my cart again, but it said it was already in my cart and at the maximum ordering capacity of 1.

The limit was set at 20 per person when I was looking for one this afternoon. This is why I felt the PO was set up to fail the fans and award scalpers. 

[beatsing]

2 hours ago, slide said:

It's not a 'miscalculation';

"Bandai made X amount of DX Max VF-1A. Bandai assumes [correctly] that the number they made will be Pre-sold or otherwise picked up by a retailer."

All fine and dandy... One even assumes that's how they do business in general, like most companies in this game.

However: This still leaves customers with money in-hand, and no supply to meet them, except scalpers.

What I'm harping on is a failure to modernize/optimize/integrate the data systems they already have in-place, when doing so opens up the opportunity to expand sales.

 

Again: Bandai, the Manufacturer and Primary Distributor of the product in question, has the power to solve this problem; simultaneously getting more product into collector's hands, and potentially expanding their profit margins beyond what they had planned, simply by utilizing the systems/Data already in-use, in a new/different way, to nail down EXACT numbers before they even begin pressing plastic into moulds.

Seems a no-Brainer to me, but again, I don't know their production limitations, etc. etc. etc...

 

This is a potential optimization applicable for all lines of "high-end, low-margin" Collectibles they make, not just Macross:

Actually manufacturing an amount of stock in accordance to your pre-payed pre-orders would [in theory] remove the issue of oversupply completely from the table.

 

I also realise that Bandai has little incentive to care, since they [presumably] sold their entire run. If they're fine with that, then mission accomplished.

 

Whatever, it now makes no difference to myself. Bandai's loss of potential revenue

This.  I was talking about a small model company that takes preorder windows that last for months so that they have the number of customer orders and take preorder deposits or full prepaid.  

 

2 hours ago, Shizuka the Cat said:

A friend of mine who works at Hasbro explained a possible theory as to why Bandai does not make enough valkyries.

He said that, depending on the manufacturer, one cannot just order an arbitrary number of toys to be made. Rather, they have to be ordered in lots.  For example, if a single lot is 2500 valkyries, maybe Bandai ordered 2 lots of the VF-1A because they knew that would completely sell, but were not convinced that 3 lots of inventory would clear quickly.

Also, due to the quantity of a lot, it is not practical to have open pre-orders, since what happens if the pre-orders that come in does not come close to filling out a lot multiple? That runs the risk of the company either needing to cancel pre-orders down to a lot multiple, or going up to the next lot multiple and having too much extra merchandise.

He also said that Bandai may be trying to avoid warehousing product as much as possible, so they might have fewer products manufactured, but don't have to worry about warehousing since they pretty much already sold everything off due to pre-orders. This is versus an approach of making perhaps too much and needing to keep some inventory warehoused in hopes of eventually getting sold off, potentially at a discount.... which they might be trying to avoid.

He's not sure if this scenario is true for Bandai... or at least the division of Bandai responsible for Macross toys, but he offered it as to one possibility.

so the small company had this problem.  They kept the preorder window for months because they told customers when the first batch was full, it would take x minimum number of orders before they could fulfill the next batch.  No overproduction and fans are not preorder madness.  I think they had a few batches done, but the gap is a long time since they wait until there's enough customers to fill a batch, but it's not years like Bandai takes to reissue the Frontier valks.