Bandai DX Chogokin 1/48 VF-1

[VF-Zer0S]

Haha that’s beautiful 

[Ikaros3]

26 minutes ago, HardlyNever said:

I'm hoping to be here for PO madness, but if not, here's some inspiration for you fellas (queue Fate's Arrow):

Awesome!!! 

[505thAirborne]

36 minutes ago, HardlyNever said:

I'm hoping to be here for PO madness, but if not, here's some inspiration for you fellas (queue Fate's Arrow):

Love it!! 

[DYRL VF-1S]

4 hours ago, jenius said:

I didn't even know they had gone up on AJ. NY must have like one warehouse employee who is out on vacation

 

4 hours ago, kkx said:

Can't find any on AJ that ship to US. End up buying via proxy.

I think I just got lucky with a seller that was globally fulfilled through AJ. I posted when they were up but seems to have gone quickly. Edit: And it’s back up as of right now for anyone interested.

And NY having one person?! Right?! I think we all agree they have one person slowly uploading each listing on PO night. Wouldn’t be surprised if we see this PO well into the early morning with how many POs going up that night.

Edited June 1, 2019 by DYRL VF-1S
Add new info

[Paco Grande]

2 hours ago, Slave IV said:

Hello and welcome to MW! This is definitely the place to be especially on preorder night because it will be very active with people sharing links and their successes and failures, lol!

For AJ, so far, my experience with the last two is that depending on the search you do, you should be able to find the item but it won’t be available to ship to the US right away and it seems like they are all 3rd party sellers. I don’t know if it’s because AJ already put it up and it got sold out that fast with 3rd party already turning the orders they got around for profit or if they are just other vendors with their own suppliers. Either way, if you keep watching the item, the hope is it will eventually be offered by AJ and available to ship to the US. For the last one, the Max VF-1A, that happened at about 6:30 pm jst so late as fu<# over here. 

AJ and NY will have the lowest prices if you can get an order through with them but if you don’t care about those savings, your best bet is to try on all the sites and get it wherever you can. 

It will be easy to get one after preorder madness if you are willing to pay a slight markup. There is also the chance that you can get one at original preorder price from amiami, HLJ or cdj later on or near release IF you are lucky enough to catch a cancellation at the right time when they release it to order again. 

Thank you very much for all the info! I don’t understand why it’s so much harder to score a pre-order at a decent price for Macross stuff. With Masterpiece TF’s you have months to order at a good price. I’m in Canada and our dollar sucks these days so price is becoming more important. 

[Slave IV]

7 minutes ago, Paco Grande said:

Thank you very much for all the info! I don’t understand why it’s so much harder to score a pre-order at a decent price for Macross stuff. With Masterpiece TF’s you have months to order at a good price. I’m in Canada and our dollar sucks these days so price is becoming more important. 

Macross is a tiny fraction of Bandai's business so they don't produce as much as some of their other more profitable lines. Although the fans are die hard, there aren't as many as there are Transformers fans or Gundam or DBZ... or a ton of other properties. PLus, there is a shitty company called Harmony Gold trying to claim rights to anything Macross outside of Japan and that prevents any official Macross products from being sold outside Japan. If you look at Arcadia Macross products, they are no as hard to preorder because they are mostly reissues and their entire business revolves around Macross so they can devote all their production to it.

[treatment]

14 minutes ago, Paco Grande said:

Thank you very much for all the info! I don’t understand why it’s so much harder to score a pre-order at a decent price for Macross stuff. With Masterpiece TF’s you have months to order at a good price. I’m in Canada and our dollar sucks these days so price is becoming more important. 

It's not just Macross items that has become challenging to preorder from Bandai.

Almost certain popular toys from Bandai have become very tough to preorder recently.  Metal Build Gundams, Eva, and Mazingers, Soul of Chogokins, and even SH Figuarts.

I reckon it's mostly a combination of Bandai limiting production runs and the scalpers (local and overseas) hoovering up local japanese inventory.

 

 

[Vi-RS]

4 hours ago, ScrambledValkyrie said:

 

As great as it looks, below is the VF-1S I'm hoping Bandai eventually makes:

 

I'm pretty sure it's a matter of time.

[tjdetweiler]

I think the Roy F would be a Tamashii web exclusive just like the HiRM - just my feeling/opinion

Damn, VF-1s looks very sexy!

 

https://www.taghobby.com/archives/373920

 

Edited June 1, 2019 by tjdetweiler

[Slave IV]

Haha, yeah. At this point, a Roy 1S is as guaranteed as you are to miss a preorder for it if your finger slips off the mouse button. 

[Vi-RS]

16 hours ago, DYRL VF-1S said:

Here's the update from Macross.jp:
 

http://macross.jp/news/?id=1107&category1=4

The strike pack does look larger than the lineart, but I have no complaint.

[Sandman]

Nevermind. Found my answer.

Edited June 1, 2019 by Sandman

[jenius]

Amazon Japan

[Arakure Knight]

FYI - Nin-Nin's got their link up ... 

https://www.nin-nin-game.com/en/japanese-import-hobbies-toys-game-character/32302-macross-vf-1s-valkyrie-hikaru-ichijou-use-dx-chogokin-.html

[Darth Mingus]

Wish they had a picture of the rest of the display.  That's a lot of VF-1Js...

Edited June 1, 2019 by Darth Mingus

[Ridden001]

I like the different tampo on the chest, not having a rescue arrow on either side of the chest looks better.  They still look great on the tv valks but I prefer this one.

Edited June 1, 2019 by Ridden001

[Duymon]

So the shortage of 1J's is because that exhibit

 

 

[Paco Grande]

Another noob question: Does Bandai do reissues and are they typically easier to get?

I heard that some Japanese collectibles are going up in price just to deter Chinese scalpers from buying as many. Sounds crazy but apparently the scalpers are lining up at the stores in person in Japan, not just buying online. Also foreign buyers don’t have to pay sales tax and on top of that the shipping from China is much cheaper than shipping from Japan. This all adds up to cause problems and explains why there are so many collector items being sold from China. Of course they still have to travel to Japan and back which I’m sure is expensive so this may not be true. 

[Paco Grande]

8 hours ago, Slave IV said:

Macross is a tiny fraction of Bandai's business so they don't produce as much as some of their other more profitable lines. Although the fans are die hard, there aren't as many as there are Transformers fans or Gundam or DBZ... or a ton of other properties. PLus, there is a shitty company called Harmony Gold trying to claim rights to anything Macross outside of Japan and that prevents any official Macross products from being sold outside Japan. If you look at Arcadia Macross products, they are no as hard to preorder because they are mostly reissues and their entire business revolves around Macross so they can devote all their production to it.

Interesting! You mentioned that it wouldn’t be too hard to order after preorder madness but at a markup? So do we know what’s typical for a markup? Is it like Nippon Yassan’s current VF-1A price which is 27,500 Yen? I think that’s around 30%? That’s quite a bit!

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

6 minutes ago, Paco Grande said:

Another noob question: Does Bandai do reissues and are they typically easier to get?

I heard that some Japanese collectibles are going up in price just to deter Chinese scalpers from buying as many. Sounds crazy but apparently the scalpers are lining up at the stores in person in Japan, not just buying online. Also foreign buyers don’t have to pay sales tax and on top of that the shipping from China is much cheaper than shipping from Japan. This all adds up to cause problems and explains why there are so many collector items being sold from China. Of course they still have to travel to Japan and back which I’m sure is expensive so this may not be true. 

That's kind of ignorant to say that bandai is doing that just to deter Chinese scalpers. Scalpers exist in every country. It's a lifestyle to them and not solely based on race.

[DYRL VF-1S]

19 minutes ago, Paco Grande said:

Interesting! You mentioned that it wouldn’t be too hard to order after preorder madness but at a markup? So do we know what’s typical for a markup? Is it like Nippon Yassan’s current VF-1A price which is 27,500 Yen? I think that’s around 30%? That’s quite a bit!

Yup, the VF-1A is a good example to speculate from.

[Paco Grande]

37 minutes ago, DYRL VF-1S said:

Yup, the VF-1A is a good example to speculate from.

Thank you!

[Anasazi37]

20 minutes ago, DYRL VF-1S said:

Yup, the VF-1A is a good example to speculate from.

Several folks here have noticed that Max 1A POs being sold by individuals on sites like Yahoo Japan are listed for less than what NY is asking (not a lot less, but definitely less) and have speculated that scalpers are starting to adjust their expectations downwards, so *maybe* it won't be as much of a free-for-all from now on. I think what NY did turned out to be an accidental experiment that tested what the market would tolerate: "You really want that valk? Okay, we'll add $100 to the price and make you pay for it up front." It definitely shut down the scalpers because their profit margin is gone and it's risky for them to fork over that much money in advance, plus it discouraged people from buying multiples. It allowed me to actually get one, but it's a big markup. Collectors who aren't otaku with deep pockets are going to get priced out pretty quickly if this continues. I'm hoping that NY found the upper limit to this insanity. I'd be happy if everything was available for PO through Tamashii Web. It's a pain to work through proxies, but it beats the heck out of PO Madness....

[Paco Grande]

57 minutes ago, PsYcHoDyNaMiX said:

That's kind of ignorant to say that bandai is doing that just to deter Chinese scalpers. Scalpers exist in every country. It's a lifestyle to them and not solely based on race.

I apologize if that offended anyone. That was not intended to be racist at all. Just a fact that China is close to Japan and has insanely cheap shipping that is actually messing up many industries, not just collectibles. China is not paying their fair share of shipping costs and other country’s postal services are paying the bill. I know this because my wife works for Canada Post. 

Yes there are scalpers everywhere. I’m in Canada and there are many scalpers where I live. I have no idea what their ethnic background is and I don’t really care. I was not implying that all scalpers are Chinese. Not at all. I’m sure there are Japanese scalpers as well as scalpers from many countries buying online. 

I was specifically talking about local buyers in stores in Japan. 

I apologize again. I did not mean to offend anyone. 

[Smiley424]

I do love the Hikky VF-1S and I already have him in Yamato 1/48, Arcadia 1/60, and HMR 1/100.  I might try to get one of these solely to trade for a Max VF-1A, or end up keeping it.

[Slave IV]

1 hour ago, Anasazi37 said:

Several folks here have noticed that Max 1A POs being sold by individuals on sites like Yahoo Japan are listed for less than what NY is asking (not a lot less, but definitely less) and have speculated that scalpers are starting to adjust their expectations downwards, so *maybe* it won't be as much of a free-for-all from now on. I think what NY did turned out to be an accidental experiment that tested what the market would tolerate: "You really want that valk? Okay, we'll add $100 to the price and make you pay for it up front." It definitely shut down the scalpers because their profit margin is gone and it's risky for them to fork over that much money in advance, plus it discouraged people from buying multiples. It allowed me to actually get one, but it's a big markup. Collectors who aren't otaku with deep pockets are going to get priced out pretty quickly if this continues. I'm hoping that NY found the upper limit to this insanity. I'd be happy if everything was available for PO through Tamashii Web. It's a pain to work through proxies, but it beats the heck out of PO Madness....

This is a great point and I’ve made similar speculation about NY. Whatever the case, they seem to be the only company trying to do something about the site crashing issues and multiple purchases by possible scalpers. 

As for @Paco Grande bringing up the issue with Chinese resellers, that information was from a recent article so I know he had no intention other than to ask questions based on what he read. We all know scalpers exist everywhere but that article specifically pointed out how the market in China is making a significant impact that may affect the way Japanese shops operate. 

Bandai does do reissues sometimes but again, I’m sure it all depends on demand and profitability. As we have seen, they don’t do many Macross reissues and if so, it can take a very long time or it isn’t the exact item. I really just don’t think Macross is a big deal to them and it has been stated as much with recent information that Macross isn’t even in the top ten (probably even much lower) in terms of their profitability. They obviously know there is a following and they do what they need to appease us but not much more. 

[Anasazi37]

15 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

This is a great point and I’ve made similar speculation about NY. Whatever the case, they seem to be the only company trying to do something about the site crashing issues and multiple purchases by possible scalpers. 

As for @Paco Grande bringing up the issue with Chinese resellers, that information was from a recent article so I know he had no intention other than to ask questions based on what he read. We all know scalpers exist everywhere but that article specifically pointed out how the market in China is making a significant impact that may affect the way Japanese shops operate. 

Bandai does do reissues sometimes but again, I’m sure it all depends on demand and profitability. As we have seen, they don’t do many Macross reissues and if so, it can take a very long time or it isn’t the exact item. I really just don’t think Macross is a big deal to them and it has been stated as much with recent information that Macross isn’t even in the top ten (probably even much lower) in terms of their profitability. They obviously know there is a following and they do what they need to appease us but not much more. 

The interwebz led me to this article on the topic, which might be the one you're referring to:

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/how-international-scalpers-are-changing-the-japanese-toy-production-market

Sounds like Japanese retailers are taking a serious beating from foreign scalpers. I'm glad to see that Bandai did something about it, but that was for Evangelion. Like Gundam, it's part of Japan's national identity and therefore pretty hard for them to ignore. Macross, while still important, is much farther down the list, unfortunately. While we can't pin all of our hopes on the situation changing for the better when Harmony Gold finally loses their distribution rights for Macross outside of Japan on 14 Mar 2021, I'm still optimistic that things will improve for fans overseas.

[Slave IV]

3 minutes ago, Anasazi37 said:

The interwebz led me to this article on the topic, which might be the one you're referring to:

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/how-international-scalpers-are-changing-the-japanese-toy-production-market

Sounds like Japanese retailers are taking a serious beating from foreign scalpers. I'm glad to see that Bandai did something about it, but that was for Evangelion. Like Gundam, it's part of Japan's national identity and therefore pretty hard for them to ignore. Macross, while still important, is much farther down the list, unfortunately. While we can't pin all of our hopes on the situation changing for the better when Harmony Gold finally loses their distribution rights for Macross outside of Japan on 14 Mar 2021, I'm still optimistic that things will improve for fans overseas.

Yeah, that’s the article. Thanks for linking. 

I do believe things will get better for Macross once HG is out of the picture. No way it could get worse right?

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

2 hours ago, Paco Grande said:

I apologize if that offended anyone. That was not intended to be racist at all. Just a fact that China is close to Japan and has insanely cheap shipping that is actually messing up many industries, not just collectibles. China is not paying their fair share of shipping costs and other country’s postal services are paying the bill. I know this because my wife works for Canada Post. 

Yes there are scalpers everywhere. I’m in Canada and there are many scalpers where I live. I have no idea what their ethnic background is and I don’t really care. I was not implying that all scalpers are Chinese. Not at all. I’m sure there are Japanese scalpers as well as scalpers from many countries buying online. 

I was specifically talking about local buyers in stores in Japan. 

I apologize again. I did not mean to offend anyone. 

I apologize and excuse my ignorance. I was unaware that such an article was written to bring light about such an issue. (Even if I were from China) I wouldn't think it would even be worth the hassle to make such a trip to Japan to stand outside a business before it even opens to procure said items only to bring it back and have it shipped out. Maybe if I made a "vacation" trip there and figured why not buy some and bring it back. Then that would be a one off situation,  but if multiple people thought like that then yes it can be a problem. That's just flaw in the system.  If someone did this as a business incentive even with a store limit would then cause the scalper to look for other stores/sources. And if most stores open around similar times then the chances of being to get to them all earlier would be intense. I'm sure the smarter ones would just find a way to third party or boot leg them instead.

One individual wouldn't be as successful. You can't be in multiple places at once. I guess the only way for foreign scalpers to return a decent profit they would have to band together as a group so they can attempt to buyout multiple locations.  I still don't think that is even worth the effort because then it involves with splitting the profit with others. Some may be successful while others may come up empty handed.

I'm from NYC and I'm in the neighborhood of Supreme. I see sneaker heads standing outside of the business (and others) just to return a profit. A good number of times there's police presence just to make sure things don't get out of hand (which there's been plenty instances). Its not worth the headache.

[Paco Grande]

1 hour ago, Anasazi37 said:

The interwebz led me to this article on the topic, which might be the one you're referring to:

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/how-international-scalpers-are-changing-the-japanese-toy-production-market

Sounds like Japanese retailers are taking a serious beating from foreign scalpers. I'm glad to see that Bandai did something about it, but that was for Evangelion. Like Gundam, it's part of Japan's national identity and therefore pretty hard for them to ignore. Macross, while still important, is much farther down the list, unfortunately. While we can't pin all of our hopes on the situation changing for the better when Harmony Gold finally loses their distribution rights for Macross outside of Japan on 14 Mar 2021, I'm still optimistic that things will improve for fans overseas.

Thank you for posting that article! Yes, that’s the one I was referring to. 

[Paco Grande]

1 hour ago, PsYcHoDyNaMiX said:

I apologize and excuse my ignorance. I was unaware that such an article was written to bring light about such an issue. (Even if I were from China) I wouldn't think it would even be worth the hassle to make such a trip to Japan to stand outside a business before it even opens to procure said items only to bring it back and have it shipped out. Maybe if I made a "vacation" trip there and figured why not buy some and bring it back. Then that would be a one off situation,  but if multiple people thought like that then yes it can be a problem. That's just flaw in the system.  If someone did this as a business incentive even with a store limit would then cause the scalper to look for other stores/sources. And if most stores open around similar times then the chances of being to get to them all earlier would be intense. I'm sure the smarter ones would just find a way to third party or boot leg them instead.

One individual wouldn't be as successful. You can't be in multiple places at once. I guess the only way for foreign scalpers to return a decent profit they would have to band together as a group so they can attempt to buyout multiple locations.  I still don't think that is even worth the effort because then it involves with splitting the profit with others. Some may be successful while others may come up empty handed.

I'm from NYC and I'm in the neighborhood of Supreme. I see sneaker heads standing outside of the business (and others) just to return a profit. A good number of times there's police presence just to make sure things don't get out of hand (which there's been plenty instances). Its not worth the headache.

Thank you for the apology and no worries. 

You’re correct that it sounds insane for people to travel to another country just to buy collectibles to sell back home but the article gave an example of an American doing something similar once a year so I guess it’s happening. 

I’ve heard that the U.S. is trying to get out of the postal agreement with China because they’re losing too much money subsidizing Chinese small packets. If that happens shipping from China to the U.S. will get much more expensive and that may change things. 

Back on topic, does everyone that owns a Bandai 1/48 VF-1J think it’s worth owning? The only Macross related figure I own is one of those Robotech Masterpiece limited run figures. A Max blue one from around 2004. It’s weird because I actually bought it at the Japanese pavilion at Epcot in Disney World and Robotech is usually considered an outside of Japan thing. 

[DYRL VF-1S]

2 hours ago, Slave IV said:

No way it could get worse right?

Dude, don’t jinx us! Haha 

[anubis20]

Got a chance to open the missile set. Not much to write about aside from the set completing the valk. The good this is you can get three different load outs for three VF-1s.

 

[DYRL VF-1S]

3 minutes ago, Paco Grande said:

Back on topic, does everyone that owns a Bandai 1/48 VF-1J think it’s worth owning? The only Macross related figure I own is one of those Robotech Masterpiece limited run figures. A Max blue one from around 2004. It’s weird because I actually bought it at the Japanese pavilion at Epcot in Disney World and Robotech is usually considered an outside of Japan thing.

If all you have for comparison is Robotech “Masterpiece” then that would be a resounding YES. It’s especially worth owning at MSRP and even at markup.

[Slave IV]

4 minutes ago, Paco Grande said:

Thank you for the apology and no worries. 

You’re correct that it sounds insane for people to travel to another country just to buy collectibles to sell back home but the article gave an example of an American doing something similar once a year so I guess it’s happening. 

I’ve heard that the U.S. is trying to get out of the postal agreement with China because they’re losing too much money subsidizing Chinese small packets. If that happens shipping from China to the U.S. will get much more expensive and that may change things. 

Back on topic, does everyone that owns a Bandai 1/48 VF-1J think it’s worth owning? The only Macross related figure I own is one of those Robotech Masterpiece limited run figures. A Max blue one from around 2004. It’s weird because I actually bought it at the Japanese pavilion at Epcot in Disney World and Robotech is usually considered an outside of Japan thing. 

Considering all the people who want these and are itiching to stay up to try to get another in a different deco tells you how much we think it is worth owning. Once you get one of these or even the old Yamato 1/48 and current 1/60 Valks, they all make your "Masterpiece" toy look and feel like junk. Don't get me wrong, I have some of those myself but I'd much rather just mess with my Takatoku or Bandi 1/55 reissues than deal with those Toynami things.

3 minutes ago, DYRL VF-1S said:

Dude, don’t jinx us! Haha 

Lol!

1 minute ago, anubis20 said:

Got a chance to open the missile set. Not much to write about aside from the set completing the valk. The good this is you can get three different load outs for three VF-1s.

 

Looking good to me!