Bandai DX Chogokin 1/48 VF-1

[Valkyrie2008]

I've completely forgot about this preorder, oh well, money saved.

[easnoddy]

Is it tho? Its just money, right? 

The DX VF-1 is SO COOL.  Its the first big-scale toy I pick up a lot.

[easnoddy]

...and speaking of preorder madness...

Why can these Japanese sites not use cookies or otherwise cache my login session (mobile at least).  Half of the problem I have with preordering these high-demand items is that they all require me to login AGAIN when trying to checkout.  When coupled with slow site due to stress of thousands of users hitting the site means missed preorders!!!

[Slave IV]

25 minutes ago, easnoddy said:

...and speaking of preorder madness...

Why can these Japanese sites not use cookies or otherwise cache my login session (mobile at least).  Half of the problem I have with preordering these high-demand items is that they all require me to login AGAIN when trying to checkout.  When coupled with slow site due to stress of thousands of users hitting the site means missed preorders!!!

Yeah, it sucks. NY does though. I never have to login there because I'm always logged in.

[Ignacio Ocamica]

1 hour ago, Slave IV said:

Greed is the result of capitalism. You can't say you love capitalism and then blame people who are capitalizing on the market when it doesn't work out for you. People love blaming anything but themselves when something doesn't work out. Just step your game up! If you really want to blame anyone, the only ones to blame are the retail shops who should be providing a good service to their customers. That includes websites that can handle the demand when needed. So far, only NY seems to be doing anything to address that matter. 

I can agree with you to a certain degree. I stayed up all night/early morning during the PO. Had the 1A in my cart with HLJ and AmiAmi. Both crashed. Then I tried to check out with Amazon Japan but only the 3P sellers (33k yen) would ship to South America.

I blame Bandai to a certain degree but more so the retailers. If someting has a PO price of 18k why should I pay 27/33k after a couple seconds, minutes, or even an hour? I know, supply and demand. Love capitalism and I get the idea that companies and retailers are in it for the money. Yes, I could have preordered the 1A for 27k, but that is a U$S100 hike in a matter of minutes. I guess if I loved the character (Max) or his 1A I could justify it. But the PO increase really is extreme.

I'm not trying to take away from the enjoyment of people that preordered the 1A. I'm happy for the people that could preorder it for 18k and equally happy for the ones that preordered for 30k. We are in this hobby to have fun and enjoy our hard earned money.

But it really pisses me off that securing a bandai PO (more often than not), means eluding the wheel of death or paying more than 70/80% PO price increase.

[Ignacio Ocamica]

32 minutes ago, easnoddy said:

...and speaking of preorder madness...

Why can these Japanese sites not use cookies or otherwise cache my login session (mobile at least).  Half of the problem I have with preordering these high-demand items is that they all require me to login AGAIN when trying to checkout.  When coupled with slow site due to stress of thousands of users hitting the site means missed preorders!!!

I always stay logged in with my cellphone (S8) when ot comes to HLJ, AmiAmi or NY.

[easnoddy]

Me too, but I'm always taken to the login page after adding to cart and clicking "checkout"

Although, taking you to the login page could be an error behavior when the item is sold out.

Edit: nope, just retested on Amiami.  Logged in, clicked home, preordered a product, clicked check out...got the login page again.

Edited April 11, 2019 by easnoddy

[Slave IV]

15 minutes ago, Ignacio Ocamica said:

I can agree with you to a certain degree. I stayed up all night/early morning during the PO. Had the 1A in my cart with HLJ and AmiAmi. Both crashed. Then I tried to check out with Amazon Japan but only the 3P sellers (33k yen) would ship to South America.

I blame Bandai to a certain degree but more so the retailers. If someting has a PO price of 18k why should I pay 27/33k after a couple seconds, minutes, or even an hour? I know, supply and demand. Love capitalism and I get the idea that companies and retailers are in it for the money. Yes, I could have preordered the 1A for 27k, but that is a U$S100 hike in a matter of minutes. I guess if I loved the character (Max) or his 1A I could justify it. But the PO increase really is extreme.

I'm not trying to take away from the enjoyment of people that preordered the 1A. I'm happy for the people that could preorder it for 18k and equally happy for the ones that preordered for 30k. We are in this hobby to have fun and enjoy our hard earned money.

But it really pisses me off that securing a bandai PO (more often than not), means eluding the wheel of death or paying more than 70/80% PO price increase.

It is annoying that we can't buy what we want when we have the money to do so. But this has always been the case with relatively low volume niche items since as long as I can remember. It's just a different ballpark now but same game. In the whole scheme of things, I think this is still better than driving hundreds of miles across towns to try to find something and still never see it.

[beatsing]

1 hour ago, Slave IV said:

Greed is the result of capitalism. You can't say you love capitalism and then blame people who are capitalizing on the market when it doesn't work out for you. People love blaming anything but themselves when something doesn't work out. Just step your game up! If you really want to blame anyone, the only ones to blame are the retail shops who should be providing a good service to their customers. That includes websites that can handle the demand when needed. So far, only NY seems to be doing anything to address that matter. 

Haha I’m not a historian but I think greed was around before capitalism, feel free to correct me.

 

 I pointed out we, the collectors are partly to blame for giving in to scalpers redonculous prices.  

 

Can you be specific about stepping our game up?  

 

I’ve join macrossworld forums, I suggested to each if the major retailers, even tried contacting Bandai about these problems.  And they don’t do squat.  Most of the retailers popular here mostly provide good service or they’d be on mwf bad list.  But they fail on dx chogokin preorder madness and gundam metal builds.  Otherwise they’re ok.  

 

I think Graham used to have contact with Yamato/arcadia, but Does anyone here have contact with Bandai?  We may be a small community, but the issues are prevalent in global markets and japanese market too since we see the markups everywhere.  

 

If you guys have suggestions, I think we all want to hear them.  

[Slave IV]

12 minutes ago, beatsing said:

Haha I’m not a historian but I think greed was around before capitalism, feel free to correct me.

 

 I pointed out we, the collectors are partly to blame for giving in to scalpers redonculous prices.  

 

Can you be specific about stepping our game up?  

 

I’ve join macrossworld forums, I suggested to each if the major retailers, even tried contacting Bandai about these problems.  And they don’t do squat.  Most of the retailers popular here mostly provide good service or they’d be on mwf bad list.  But they fail on dx chogokin preorder madness and gundam metal builds.  Otherwise they’re ok.  

 

I think Graham used to have contact with Yamato/arcadia, but Does anyone here have contact with Bandai?  We may be a small community, but the issues are prevalent in global markets and japanese market too since we see the markups everywhere.  

 

If you guys have suggestions, I think we all want to hear them.  

Don't take anything I said personally, lol! I never said Greed did not exist before capitalism but capitalism definitely encourages more greed.

As for stepping your game up, I mean those F5 and cart navigating skills! I've missed out on a couple preorders lately and every time I go through a preorder madness, I learn little things that help me possibly be successful the next time. Of course, there is always luck involved as with any "game". I've never blamed anyone for my missing out on a preorder although I did want to destroy NY for that crap they pulled with carjacking my ass and saying they were sold out only to have the item I had in my cart relisted for higher by the time I finished reading their email. I'm very happy that they seem to be doing something to stop that from happening now.

As for communicating with Bandai, doesn't hurt. Maybe they will listen like they did with MB Eva but in the end, it will be about their own bottom line to make that decision and no matter how we feel about it, Macross doesn't have much financial pull in the retail world compared to a lot of other properties that Bandai produces.

[Ignacio Ocamica]

19 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

It is annoying that we can't buy what we want when we have the money to do so. But this has always been the case with relatively low volume niche items since as long as I can remember. It's just a different ballpark now but same game. In the whole scheme of things, I think this is still better than driving hundreds of miles across towns to try to find something and still never see it.

Yes, you are right. We, (outside Japan) are not even the intended market. Internet and etailers commerce give us the opportunity to have collectibles that evoque memories of our childhood, but sometimes acquiring those collectibles can be a nightmare.

Niche items is key, but I feel Bandai somehow is leaving some money on the table. But the 1A was a succes since Bandai sold all of its production.

[gingaio]

We're not the intended customers for Bandai's high-end stuff--that's why they don't offer us customer service. That's what some people don't get. Whether it's SOCs, Macross DX, Metal Builds, Bandai only has one market in mind--Japanese otakus. The fact that some franchises have experienced global popularity (Voltron, Robotech, Gundam) doesn't mean that Bandai is producing with those expectations in mind (unless there's something like Bluefin distribution going on).  And the fact that items without popular franchises (e.g., SOC Getter Emperor) are easily available makes it seem like these things should be easily available all the time. 

As a result, when you've got an item produced for a small market, and everyone in the global market wants in on it, you're gonna get shortages. 

Scalpers don't help, but how many people are currently scalping this item on eBay? From what was reported here, there was that one random dude, who actually sold it for less than what NY is asking, and some other dude in Japan. And how many collectors bought multiples of this item?  

I'm not blaming those collectors either. It's just a tough situation all around. 

I've been on the short end too. It sucks. But if it's something I want bad enough, I just pay the price (or not) and move on. It's not worth stressing over. 

Edited April 11, 2019 by gingaio

[Slave IV]

3 minutes ago, Ignacio Ocamica said:

Yes, you are right. We, (outside Japan) are not even the intended market. Internet and etailers commerce give us the opportunity to have collectibles that evoque memories of our childhood, but sometimes acquiring those collectibles can be a nightmare.

Niche items is key, but I feel Bandai somehow is leaving some money on the table. But the 1A was a succes since Bandai sold all of its production.

 

1 minute ago, gingaio said:

We're not the intended customers for Bandai's high-end stuff. That's what some people don't get. Whether it's SOCs, Macross DX, Metal Builds, Bandai only has one market in mind--Japanese otakus. The fact that some franchises have experienced global popularity (Voltron, Robotech, Gundam) doesn't mean that Bandai is producing with those expectations in mind (unless there's something like Bluefin distribution going on). 

As a result, when you've got an item produced for a small market, and everyone in the global market wants in on it, you're gonna get shortages. 

Scalpers don't help, but how many people are currently scalping this item on eBay? From what was reported here, there was that one random dude, who actually sold it for less than what NY is asking, and some other dude in Japan. And how many collectors bought multiples of this item? 

I'm not blaming those collectors either. It's just a tough situation all around. 

I've been on the short end too. It sucks. But if it's something I want bad enough, I just pay the price and move on.

YES! These are reasonable responses! We all love our Macross here and want as much as we can get! We just need to deal with the reality of the situation and it doesn't help to blame and get upset at others over it.

[gingaio]

Also, there have been times when Bandai feels it gets burned by over-producing for the global market (e.g., Figuarts Turtles). That's likely one reason we're not seeing a Figuarts Shredder, and a reason Bandai shies away from producing too much of its high-end stuff. Problem with the Turtles is that Bandai expected people to pay Figuarts prices, and a lot of Turtles collectors who are used to cheaper things are like, F#$K that. 

[beatsing]

14 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

Don't take anything I said personally, lol! I never said Greed did not exist before capitalism but capitalism definitely encourages more greed.

As for stepping your game up, I mean those F5 and cart navigating skills! I've missed out on a couple preorders lately and every time I go through a preorder madness, I learn little things that help me possibly be successful the next time. Of course, there is always luck involved as with any "game". I've never blamed anyone for my missing out on a preorder although I did want to destroy NY for that crap they pulled with carjacking my ass and saying they were sold out only to have the item I had in my cart relisted for higher by the time I finished reading their email. I'm very happy that they seem to be doing something to stop that from happening now.

As for communicating with Bandai, doesn't hurt. Maybe they will listen like they did with MB Eva but in the end, it will be about their own bottom line to make that decision and no matter how we feel about it, Macross doesn't have much financial pull in the retail world compared to a lot of other properties that Bandai produces.

Thanks for your suggestions but I think it’s not a good situation to be competing against each other like this.  Best buy had these problems with their online black friday sales and they havecsince had a lot less cart jacking.  Walmart hasn’t had a trampling in some time.  

I’m quoting another person here but the price differences add up.  The proce gouge is enough to buy another hmr strike roy!

I don’t speak japanese but i think western markets matter to Bandai.  Why else do the put the signage in japanese and english for these toys?  And why make sh figuarts of the avengers?  I’d think a good chunk of demand is from western markets.  

[gingaio]

10 minutes ago, beatsing said:

I don’t speak japanese but i think western markets matter to Bandai.  Why else do the put the signage in japanese and english for these toys?  And why make sh figuarts of the avengers?  I’d think a good chunk of demand is from western markets.  

Maybe because Japan likes aspects of Western culture and likes to sprinkle English into everything, and because they speak our language better than we speak theirs (?)

You can't make a judgement based on English signage. That stuff's been around since the 80s, when those toys were definitely NOT intended for a western market. 

There were also tin toys and diecast figures (Popy/Grip ) made of Superman and GI Joes released in Japan as well. None of that stuff was meant for Americans.  

Edited April 11, 2019 by gingaio

[kkx]

The seller (shop) and Bandai can implement a better anti-scalper system for ordering these items if they wanted to. Can be complicated or might require effort but it is theoretically possible.

But at the end of the day, do any of them care enough to spend the time/cost to solve this problem?

We are suffering but if our suffering does not translate to a loss of sale for them in the future (or if they don't think so), there is no pressure for them to do anything.

@Shizuka the Cat has a theory that sounds the most convincing so far (we never really know why Bandai limit PO to a fixed amount). So Bandai needs to protect their own interest and weight leaving money on the table (loss of potential sales) vs overproduction.

The system used by a small player such as the Owl-one by Flex-Hobby can be an example. You reserves as many items as you want to buy with a deposit in a given time window. If demand is sufficient for a production run/lot then it will be fulfilled. Cancel and refund otherwise. But I don't see Bandai going through such a messy setup. Maybe at a larger quantity level between seller/shop and Bandai.

But at the end of the day, I still don't see how we can influence Bandai/seller to change/improve. Vote with our wallet? Don't buy anything until they change? Hard to organize such a protest.

[no3Ljm]

1 hour ago, Slave IV said:

Yeah, it sucks. NY does though. I never have to login there because I'm always logged in.

It sucks too knowing that I'm logged in like forever, it doesn't help on that ticketing system.  

 

[Shizuka the Cat]

2 hours ago, easnoddy said:

...and speaking of preorder madness...

Why can these Japanese sites not use cookies or otherwise cache my login session (mobile at least).  Half of the problem I have with preordering these high-demand items is that they all require me to login AGAIN when trying to checkout.  When coupled with slow site due to stress of thousands of users hitting the site means missed preorders!!!

Various stores actually do remember who I am when I visit them.  CD Japan, AmazonJP and Nippon-Yasan recognized who I was just now without needing me to login today.

Do note that different websites may set different expiration durations for their respective cookies. As such, one store might not need you to re-login for weeks, while another might need you to re-authenticate after a day or 2. 

Edited April 11, 2019 by Shizuka the Cat

[beatsing]

54 minutes ago, gingaio said:

We're not the intended customers for Bandai's high-end stuff--that's why they don't offer us customer service. That's what some people don't get. Whether it's SOCs, Macross DX, Metal Builds, Bandai only has one market in mind--Japanese otakus. The fact that some franchises have experienced global popularity (Voltron, Robotech, Gundam) doesn't mean that Bandai is producing with those expectations in mind (unless there's something like Bluefin distribution going on).  And the fact that items without popular franchises (e.g., SOC Getter Emperor) are easily available makes it seem like these things should be easily available all the time. 

As a result, when you've got an item produced for a small market, and everyone in the global market wants in on it, you're gonna get shortages. 

Scalpers don't help, but how many people are currently scalping this item on eBay? From what was reported here, there was that one random dude, who actually sold it for less than what NY is asking, and some other dude in Japan. And how many collectors bought multiples of this item?  

I'm not blaming those collectors either. It's just a tough situation all around. 

I've been on the short end too. It sucks. But if it's something I want bad enough, I just pay the price (or not) and move on. It's not worth stressing over. 

Unfortunately not everyone can pay the price.  I did move on; I was out of the frontier game and rage quit.  

 

I came back when hmr became a thing.  It was easy to collect no preorder madness. Hmr are from the same company Bandai but without the rahe and madness.

 

years later nothing really changed with the dx line the preorder disfunctional madness is driving me away.  

 

Its a damn shame that Bandai would lose out on sales and we lose on such nice works of art.  We are fans and so we get stressed.  If we weren’t, we wouldn’t give two cents.

 

and since I’ve seen other companies manage this problem better and deliver fans the product without a gouging middle man, I thought I’d weigh in.  

[F360]

2 hours ago, easnoddy said:

...and speaking of preorder madness...

Why can these Japanese sites not use cookies or otherwise cache my login session (mobile at least).  Half of the problem I have with preordering these high-demand items is that they all require me to login AGAIN when trying to checkout.  When coupled with slow site due to stress of thousands of users hitting the site means missed preorders!!!

Many sites do that to make sure you are actually you .  It’s like a extra protection /sign in .   

But can also save your user name and password for that site on your browser so in the future all you have to do is click go , enter , look at your phone (face recognition), etc .

[SpaceCowboy]

The whole "we aren't their market" doesn't hold water.  As far as Bandai is concerned their product is being bought.  Perhaps it is being bought by retailers to resale in regions that Bandai doesn't sell directly too, but the product is still being bought.  I understand that the production runs might be in increments of the 1000s and they don't want to overproduce and have overstock that then takes money to store.  However, with Max and DB Super Broly, both items sold out in the matter of minutes.  If they were to open further preorder windows with changing quantities available they could produce to nearly at demand and take all the money the scalpers are making for themselves and give their fans a better price at the same time.  These products are 6 months out or more.  You could even have the additional preorder windows simply mean you get your products a bit after everyone else.  If the preorder was selling out in days or a week, it might not make sense to open it again, but when it is selling out in minutes, I have to think you are leaving N multiples of the amount you are producing in cash on the table.  Hell, you could even sale from your own website, and have a counter for "how many unique ids visited this after it was sold out" and get a sense of demand.  The way they do it makes no sense, and turns people off to collecting.  

[Slave IV]

3 minutes ago, beatsing said:

Unfortunately not everyone can pay the price.  I did move on; I was out of the frontier game and rage quit.  

 

I came back when hmr became a thing.  It was easy to collect no preorder madness. Hmr are from the same company Bandai but without the rahe and madness.

 

years later nothing really changed with the dx line the preorder disfunctional madness is driving me away.  

 

Its a damn shame that Bandai would lose out on sales and we lose on such nice works of art.  We are fans and so we get stressed.  If we weren’t, we wouldn’t give two cents.

 

and since I’ve seen other companies manage this problem better and deliver fans the product without a gouging middle man, I thought I’d weigh in.  

But how many other companies that you know of that don't mainly focus on high end collectibles deliver enough to satisfy all customers everytime? The only one I can think of is TakaraTomy but they definitely have had issues when it comes to some of the MP items the produce. For Macross, the only other real player is Arcadia and they can do it because their entire business is centered around High End Macross toys. Bandai makes toys from kiddie stuff to high end and for just about every popular brand across the world. Macross is a spec of dust to them. HMR often do go through the same preorder madness situations but it hasn't been as bad since they are smaller, cheaper to make and most likely have higher profit margin and therefore make business sense to produce more of.

[beatsing]

30 minutes ago, kkx said:

The seller (shop) and Bandai can implement a better anti-scalper system for ordering these items if they wanted to. Can be complicated or might require effort but it is theoretically possible.

But at the end of the day, do any of them care enough to spend the time/cost to solve this problem?

We are suffering but if our suffering does not translate to a loss of sale for them in the future (or if they don't think so), there is no pressure for them to do anything.

@Shizuka the Cat has a theory that sounds the most convincing so far (we never really know why Bandai limit PO to a fixed amount). So Bandai needs to protect their own interest and weight leaving money on the table (loss of potential sales) vs overproduction.

The system used by a small player such as the Owl-one by Flex-Hobby can be an example. You reserves as many items as you want to buy with a deposit in a given time window. If demand is sufficient for a production run/lot then it will be fulfilled. Cancel and refund otherwise. But I don't see Bandai going through such a messy setup. Maybe at a larger quantity level between seller/shop and Bandai.

But at the end of the day, I still don't see how we can influence Bandai/seller to change/improve. Vote with our wallet? Don't buy anything until they change? Hard to organize such a protest.

This.  I was describing a similar model for production lot, i think it was volks for five star stories and their models can be expensive than dx chogokin.  Bandai would more likely do a hybrid of getting preorders and also producing in excess for mass market that does not preorder stuff, since they are a big company.  

 

Maybe our community could  talk with Bandai about our fan base and market here.  Some companies actual listen to their fan base.  Recently the mospeada yellow is including the guns and containers that fans were making themselves.  

[beatsing]

45 minutes ago, gingaio said:

Maybe because Japan likes aspects of Western culture and likes to sprinkle English into everything, and because they speak our language better than we speak theirs (?)

You can't make a judgement based on English signage. That stuff's been around since the 80s, when those toys were definitely NOT intended for a western market. 

There were also tin toys and diecast figures (Popy/Grip ) made of Superman and GI Joes released in Japan as well. None of that stuff was meant for Americans.  

Nice pics.  That’s an interesting point, considering my impression was that most japanese don’t seem to speak English outside of Tokyo, but I haven’t travelled extensively .  I still think we are a secondary market that they are aware of. Why else fight over rights with harmony gold if it’s an empty market?

[HardlyNever]

Personally, I don't think Bandai would ever listen or respond to the foreign market when it comes to these products(even though they are an international company).  We just aren't a big enough source of revenue to them to have an impact on their management.

We could, theoretically, be big enough to affect one or more of the major retailers, though, if we acted collectively.  However, asking people here to collectively boycott a particular retailer that has a product they want is like asking a junky on skid-row to not buy from a dealer that you don't like.  It simply isn't going to happen.  And honestly, trying to press people into boycotting something isn't really something I would want to do, even if I thought it were possible (which is isn't).

So I don't really think we can do much as a group.  As an individual, you can always move on to something else, or deal with this BS from time to time.  I wish we could do more, but I don't really see it.

[beatsing]

7 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

But how many other companies that you know of that don't mainly focus on high end collectibles deliver enough to satisfy all customers everytime? The only one I can think of is TakaraTomy but they definitely have had issues when it comes to some of the MP items the produce. For Macross, the only other real player is Arcadia and they can do it because their entire business is centered around High End Macross toys. Bandai makes toys from kiddie stuff to high end and for just about every popular brand across the world. Macross is a spec of dust to them. HMR often do go through the same preorder madness situations but it hasn't been as bad since they are smaller, cheaper to make and most likely have higher profit margin and therefore make business sense to produce more of.

Interesting point.  Arcadia is probably the only competition at this point.  All the more reason for the knock off or new contenders to enter the market.  Sometimes those small companies produce better stuff than the big companies.  

[PteranodonMom]

16 hours ago, kkx said:

What is the coupon code?

There is also domestic shipping (estimated at 999) and fee (not sure how much this will be).

So final total is unclear.

Here's the link for the coupons: https://global.rakuten.com/en/event/coupon/

However they did cancel my pre-order just a few hours ago, claiming it wasn't something they could ship outside of Japan due to it being a reserved, boxed item.

[NeoVanguard]

I wonder if Bandai will put out a separate Zentradi Uniform for the VF-1A Max,  like they did for the extra missiles for the VF-1J?

[no3Ljm]

1 minute ago, NeoVanguard said:

I wonder if Bandai will put out a separate Zentradi Uniform for the VF-1A Max,  like they did for the extra missiles for the VF-1J?

I also wonder if the VF-1A Max scalpers will also get this if it's going to get release? 

 

[beatsing]

1 hour ago, HardlyNever said:

Personally, I don't think Bandai would ever listen or respond to the foreign market when it comes to these products(even though they are an international company).  We just aren't a big enough source of revenue to them to have an impact on their management.

We could, theoretically, be big enough to affect one or more of the major retailers, though, if we acted collectively.  However, asking people here to collectively boycott a particular retailer that has a product they want is like asking a junky on skid-row to not buy from a dealer that you don't like.  It simply isn't going to happen.  And honestly, trying to press people into boycotting something isn't really something I would want to do, even if I thought it were possible (which is isn't).

So I don't really think we can do much as a group.  As an individual, you can always move on to something else, or deal with this BS from time to time.  I wish we could do more, but I don't really see it.

Collectively we might influence a retailer not  by boycotting.  Talking with them?  

Bandai might be big.  As a group we’re not that small.  And even big tv shows have responded to their small fans who are overseas.

[rdrunner]

27 minutes ago, NeoVanguard said:

I wonder if Bandai will put out a separate Zentradi Uniform for the VF-1A Max,  like they did for the extra missiles for the VF-1J?

I would SOOO be buying that zentradi uniform for the DX!!

[beatsing]

2 hours ago, gingaio said:

Also, there have been times when Bandai feels it gets burned by over-producing for the global market (e.g., Figuarts Turtles). That's likely one reason we're not seeing a Figuarts Shredder, and a reason Bandai shies away from producing too much of its high-end stuff. Problem with the Turtles is that Bandai expected people to pay Figuarts prices, and a lot of Turtles collectors who are used to cheaper things are like, F#$K that. 

The figuarts line is a good example of the cycle of scarcity, scalping and eventual knock offs.  

[beatsing]

3 hours ago, Slave IV said:

It is annoying that we can't buy what we want when we have the money to do so. But this has always been the case with relatively low volume niche items since as long as I can remember. It's just a different ballpark now but same game. In the whole scheme of things, I think this is still better than driving hundreds of miles across towns to try to find something and still never see it.

Supporting local shops has the advantage that the shop owner actually holds the product for their loyal customers.  But the high rents are killing their business.

[beatsing]

1 hour ago, SpaceCowboy said:

The whole "we aren't their market" doesn't hold water.  As far as Bandai is concerned their product is being bought.  Perhaps it is being bought by retailers to resale in regions that Bandai doesn't sell directly too, but the product is still being bought.  I understand that the production runs might be in increments of the 1000s and they don't want to overproduce and have overstock that then takes money to store.  However, with Max and DB Super Broly, both items sold out in the matter of minutes.  If they were to open further preorder windows with changing quantities available they could produce to nearly at demand and take all the money the scalpers are making for themselves and give their fans a better price at the same time.  These products are 6 months out or more.  You could even have the additional preorder windows simply mean you get your products a bit after everyone else.  If the preorder was selling out in days or a week, it might not make sense to open it again, but when it is selling out in minutes, I have to think you are leaving N multiples of the amount you are producing in cash on the table.  Hell, you could even sale from your own website, and have a counter for "how many unique ids visited this after it was sold out" and get a sense of demand.  The way they do it makes no sense, and turns people off to collecting.  

This +1

love the toy, hate the dysfunctional preorder madness.  We’re buying pieces of art, but we have such a stressful experience with ordering that the enjoyment is very reduced.  It’s a lot like early days of Bestbuy Black Friday- cartjacking, wasted time and disappointment.  Except Bestbuy have since improved the experience so it’s more civilized and less frustration.  

Edited April 11, 2019 by beatsing