Bandai DX Chogokin 1/48 VF-1

[tekering]

2 hours ago, Ignacio Ocamica said:

Where are the pics of the 1S?

I know, right?  I'm still the only guy posting any...  

[Matt Random]

1 hour ago, Syro said:

I politely contacted NY and asked if they had the stock to cover my order and if not if they could please cancel and they said they do not have the stock and apologized and cancelled my order. This works for me as the pre-order total with shipping was $377. Also found out Tenso translates to "transfer"

Was yours prepaid? I'm not sure I want to keep waiting around since I paid a premium and it seems like I could be getting one for a cheaper premium. My order number is lower than at least one that I've seen reported as shipped on here. On the hand, I do have the Strike Pack PO with them.

[peter]

24 minutes ago, tekering said:

I know, right?  I'm still the only guy posting any...  

Thanks for posting, keep them coming!  If you have time, can you post pics of a side-by-side comparison without the strike pack?  

I had my Chogokin SDFM Max 1A next to my Yamato DYRL Max 1A so not a perfect comparison. 

Overall dimensions are not that far apart.  Things that stood out for me were the Chogokin SDFM 1A head is a lot bigger than the Yamato DYRL 1A head, and same with the GU-11 gun pod, and the Chogokin is a lot heavier than the Yamato.  Other obvious differences have probably been discussed to death already.

I've been wondering about the rifle slings.....are they supposed to be leather?  If so, where did they find cows (my M1907 pattern sling is made from cowhide) big enough for one continuous strip of leather for a GU-11 size rifle?  Or were they made from the tanned hides of dead Zentradi they harvested?

Edited November 27, 2019 by peter

[Tenbatsu]

1 hour ago, FattyMoBookyButt said:

Can anyone please give a quick rundown on buyee? I've checked it out once or twice from hearing about it from Mecha Gaikotsu's videos. Would you suggest Yahoo Japan or Amazon Japan listings? Do it add $30-50 in shipping and other fees in the end? (Shipping to the US.)

Basically you are bidding off Yahoo japan auction and there's additional shipping and service fee. You can get the total estimated cost at the item page during bidding.

Edited November 27, 2019 by Tenbatsu

[Ipsquitch]

1 hour ago, Tenbatsu said:

There are about 100 unbid listing in Buyee, but of course am not certain if prices will go up or down. If the price of 25000yen is comfortable for you I would say go for it.

So you too got your VF-1S order cancelled from Play-Asia? I just spoke to their upper management today (they called me from Hong Kong via international call) and they are going to compensate me for their mistake as I don't accept their refund. They will work it out and let me know. I am suggesting to them that they pay the difference by buying a mark up from 3rd party sellers. Overall I have to say it's certainly professional of them to even call me up.

Yeah, there were a lot to choose from on Buyee, I went looking for one where the shipping cost was pretty much spelled out. A lot of the listing (with the lowest buyout prices) seemed kinda "off" to me. For instance, I found 3-4 different sellers that had the exact same sell numbers, and many other listings didn't specify shipping cost or shipping method (so I could determine cost range myself). Since I don't read Japanese and Google translate is iffy, I just assume these to be red flags, just to be safe. I know Buyee says I'm covered if they never get the package, but I'd rather not deal with all that just to save a few hundred Yen.

As for Play-Asia, I'm glad to hear things seem to be working out for you. From what I had read on some other sites, I had heard that they can sometimes be very difficult to get a refund from, so I was just happy to get my money back with no hassle. It was a late pre-order, so I wasn't too surprised when it bombed.

[canklebreaker]

1 hour ago, Tenbatsu said:

 I just spoke to their upper management today (they called me from Hong Kong via international call) and they are going to compensate me for their mistake as I don't accept their refund. They will work it out and let me know. I am suggesting to them that they pay the difference by buying a mark up from 3rd party sellers. Overall I have to say it's certainly professional of them to even call me up.

Thats pretty amazing service, hopefully it works out for you, wasn't aware you could deny a refund? Kudos to them.

[DYRL VF-1S]

There's been a lot of discussion on the board the past several days regarding the customer service of these different retail shops.  For someone from the west, some of the practices/experiences cited seem head-scratching, but you have to keep in mind that there is often a cultural difference in Asia-Pac.  (I know that some of the customer service reps one might speak to are outsourced to other places, but for the sake of simplicity, I'll keep this to Asia.)

For the most part, we in the West (Canada, USA, UK, Australia) are a very individualistic culture.  Me, me, me, I, I, I.  So, we demand personal service.  However, in Asia, it is often a collectivist culture.  Saving face for another person, looking out for the group as a whole - it's about "we".  This isn't to prescribe some type of formula but often gives insight to why someone might handle a complaint the way they do.  In @Tenbatsu case, it's likely that they don't normally let you deny a refund, but his individualistic approach of demanding higher personal customer service for their mistake may have been embarrassing to the rep he escalated to.  So, to save face, the upper mgmt went above and beyond to appease the situation for the greater good of Play-Asia.  In the reverse, it would've been normal for a person in collectivist culture to graciously accept the refund and be understanding of their situation (even if unhappy with it).  In this case, Tenbatsu was going against cultural norms (even though in the West it's perfectly acceptable).

Sometimes, even when we think we're being polite, we're really not being polite for a collectivist culture.  We're being polite for our own individualistic culture.  And we scratch our heads wondering why we are met with unfavorable results.  It may be because we're actually not being perceived as polite.

Anyway, this comes from professional experience as I deal with cross-cultural communication.  And it interests me in general.  Of course, this is just an educated guess, but just bringing to light that we in the West make demands that are normal for us and even polite, but absolutely not normal in other cultures, specifically dealing with those companies that are based (or claim to be based) out of Japan.  Of course, every person is different regardless of culture so it also depends on the luck of who is handling your customer service request.  And many are trained to deal with American customers, for example, like AJ.  But, there's no formula to this.

Take what I'm saying with a grain of salt (take it or leave it) but worth considering for next time anyone needs to work with customer service from Japan.  Thus far, any communication I've had has delivered very positive results.

[sqidd]

2 hours ago, Syro said:

I politely contacted NY and asked if they had the stock to cover my order and if not if they could please cancel and they said they do not have the stock and apologized and cancelled my order. This works for me as the pre-order total with shipping was $377. Also found out Tenso translates to "transfer"

Interesting. I already secured three from elsewhere. I would have taken the NY units if they showed up. It sounds REALLY unlikely if they do it will be any time soon. I just created a ticket and asked if they would cancel/refund my orders. They're pre paid and for the "scalper" rate. I'm curious what they do.

Thanks for the heads up

[sqidd]

14 minutes ago, DYRL VF-1S said:

There's been a lot of discussion on the board the past several days regarding the customer service of these different retail shops.  For someone from the west, some of the practices/experiences cited seem head-scratching, but you have to keep in mind that there is often a cultural difference in Asia-Pac.  (I know that some of the customer service reps one might speak to are outsourced to other places, but for the sake of simplicity, I'll keep this to Asia.)

For the most part, we in the West (Canada, USA, UK, Australia) are a very individualistic culture.  Me, me, me, I, I, I.  So, we demand personal service.  However, in Asia, it is often a collectivist culture.  Saving face for another person, looking out for the group as a whole - it's about "we".  This isn't to prescribe some type of formula but often gives insight to why someone might handle a complaint the way they do.  In @Tenbatsu case, it's likely that they don't normally let you deny a refund, but his individualistic approach of demanding higher personal customer service for their mistake may have been embarrassing to the rep he escalated to.  So, to save face, the upper mgmt went above and beyond to appease the situation for the greater good of Play-Asia.  In the reverse, it would've been normal for a person in collectivist culture to graciously accept the refund and be understanding of their situation (even if unhappy with it).  In this case, Tenbatsu was going against cultural norms (even though in the West it's perfectly acceptable).

Sometimes, even when we think we're being polite, we're really not being polite for a collectivist culture.  We're being polite for our own individualistic culture.  And we scratch our heads wondering why we are met with unfavorable results.  It may be because we're actually not being perceived as polite.

Anyway, this comes from professional experience as I deal with cross-cultural communication.  And it interests me in general.  Of course, this is just an educated guess, but just bringing to light that we in the West make demands that are normal for us and even polite, but absolutely not normal in other cultures, specifically dealing with those companies that are based (or claim to be based) out of Japan.  Of course, every person is different regardless of culture so it also depends on the luck of who is handling your customer service request.  And many are trained to deal with American customers, for example, like AJ.  But, there's no formula to this.

Take what I'm saying with a grain of salt (take it or leave it) but worth considering for next time anyone needs to work with customer service from Japan.  Thus far, any communication I've had has delivered very positive results.

That was interesting. Thank you.

[Tenbatsu]

15 minutes ago, DYRL VF-1S said:

There's been a lot of discussion on the board the past several days regarding the customer service of these different retail shops.  For someone from the west, some of the practices/experiences cited seem head-scratching, but you have to keep in mind that there is often a cultural difference in Asia-Pac.  (I know that some of the customer service reps one might speak to are outsourced to other places, but for the sake of simplicity, I'll keep this to Asia.)

For the most part, we in the West (Canada, USA, UK, Australia) are a very individualistic culture.  Me, me, me, I, I, I.  So, we demand personal service.  However, in Asia, it is often a collectivist culture.  Saving face for another person, looking out for the group as a whole - it's about "we".  This isn't to prescribe some type of formula but often gives insight to why someone might handle a complaint the way they do.  In @Tenbatsu case, it's likely that they don't normally let you deny a refund, but his individualistic approach of demanding higher personal customer service for their mistake may have been embarrassing to the rep he escalated to.  So, to save face, the upper mgmt went above and beyond to appease the situation for the greater good of Play-Asia.  In the reverse, it would've been normal for a person in collectivist culture to graciously accept the refund and be understanding of their situation (even if unhappy with it).  In this case, Tenbatsu was going against cultural norms (even though in the West it's perfectly acceptable).

Sometimes, even when we think we're being polite, we're really not being polite for a collectivist culture.  We're being polite for our own individualistic culture.  And we scratch our heads wondering why we are met with unfavorable results.  It may be because we're actually not being perceived as polite.

Anyway, this comes from professional experience as I deal with cross-cultural communication.  And it interests me in general.  Of course, this is just an educated guess, but just bringing to light that we in the West make demands that are normal for us and even polite, but absolutely not normal in other cultures, specifically dealing with those companies that are based (or claim to be based) out of Japan.  Of course, every person is different regardless of culture so it also depends on the luck of who is handling your customer service request.  And many are trained to deal with American customers, for example, like AJ.  But, there's no formula to this.

Take what I'm saying with a grain of salt (take it or leave it) but worth considering for next time anyone needs to work with customer service from Japan.  Thus far, any communication I've had has delivered very positive results.

Interesting read. I am from Singapore btw

[DYRL VF-1S]

2 minutes ago, sqidd said:

That was interesting. Thank you.

No problem.  Hope it helps someone next time they have to interact on an issue.  NY is a tough one btw.  They outsource some of their customer service to different places, and so does A-E.  You might get someone from Japan, but you also might get someone from France (NY) or Russia (AE).

HLJ is pretty Americanized and cater to the West so that's why everyone generally has good things to say about their service. 

Anyway, just a few observations I've made over time.

[DYRL VF-1S]

3 minutes ago, Tenbatsu said:

Interesting read. I am from Singapore btw

Very cool!  My cousin and his family are from there too.  They are coming to visit me in the states soon.  You have a few good shops in Singapore from what I understand!  Lo Tendo seems decent.  Wish we had that in the States. 

Oh and very happy to hear that Play-Asia is taking care of your situation.  Nice.

Edited November 27, 2019 by DYRL VF-1S

[Sanity is Optional]

From my personal experience:

• Nippon Yasan: Don't expect customer service, don't expect fast shipping, they will eventually get you your order through.
• Hobby Link Japan: Good customer service, ships things out reasonably quickly, a bit more expensive
• CD Japan: Customer service isn't great, but oftentimes less expensive than HLJ and faster to ship than NY.
• Hobby Search: Quick shipping, prices similar to CDJ usually, haven't dealt with their customer service.

For anything you absolutely must have I'd go with HLJ over all the others, for things you'd like to have go with HS or CDJ, for really expensive things you're not to worried about manufacturer defects on go with NY (as they have the lowest prices).

Special mention

• Amazon Japan: #1 best place to buy pre-orders through, provided they will ship internationally. Prices are similar to HLJ, but the shipping is fast and cheap, and they do have good customer service.

[Ignacio Ocamica]

1 hour ago, tekering said:

I know, right?  I'm still the only guy posting any...  

Much appreciated 

[sqidd]

4 minutes ago, Sanity is Optional said:

#1 best place to buy pre-orders through, provided they will ship internationally. Prices are similar to HLJ, but the shipping is fast and cheap, and they do have good customer service.

This my new "go to" as long as it's an option. Fast, smooth and easy.

My SV-51 through AJ had the bad feet. They were the first place to get me replacements.....and didn't even charge me shipping.

[tekering]

1 hour ago, peter said:

If you have time, can you post pics of a side-by-side comparison without the strike pack?

[Tenbatsu]

7 minutes ago, DYRL VF-1S said:

Very cool!  My cousin and his family are from there too.  They are coming to visit me in the states soon.  You have a few good shops in Singapore from what I understand!  Lo Tendo seems decent.  Wish we had that in the States. 

Oh and very happy to hear that Play-Asia is taking care of your situation.  Nice.

Well, I am keeping my expectation really really low as I may end up with only a discount coupon for my next purchase haha.

Latendo is alright, kinda expensive. The Falcon's Hangar is the one I would recommend with great prices and excellent service. Too bad they are unable to get hold of any VF-1S 

http://tfh.com.sg

[Sanity is Optional]

25 minutes ago, sqidd said:

This my new "go to" as long as it's an option. Fast, smooth and easy.

My SV-51 through AJ had the bad feet. They were the first place to get me replacements.....and didn't even charge me shipping.

AJ hasn't let me down yet, and I have the GoodSmile 1/48 Swordfish II pre-ordered through them currently (because shipping this thing for 1200yen international express rocks).

[Corrinald]

If NY will definitely fulfill my order in time, maybe I will just wait it out. I have Strike Packs pre-ordered with them too and don't want NY to cancel them too or ban me.

Here is my VF-1S among friends.  Haven't transformed it to battroid yet. Once I do, it will likely permanently stay that way as I think battroid (and Gerwalk) are where the DX really shines.

1/48 Valkyries fill up display room rather quickly!

 

[sqidd]

42 minutes ago, Sanity is Optional said:

AJ hasn't let me down yet, and I have the GoodSmile 1/48 Swordfish II pre-ordered through them currently (because shipping this thing for 1200yen international express rocks).

Right!

[sh9000]

Why does the Yamato 1/48 have TV hands?

[Slave IV]

22 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

Why does the Yamato 1/48 have TV hands?

I think those might be extra 1/60 hands??? 

I was going to ask if they were.

[borgified]

45 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

Why does the Yamato 1/48 have TV hands?

 

22 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

I think those might be extra 1/60 hands??? 

I was going to ask if they were.

Here's a quick snap of the hands on the 1/48 Yammie Full Set Max (non articulated). I think the hands already packaged on the valk are the chicken hands version.   

Edited November 27, 2019 by borgified

[Anasazi37]

3 hours ago, DYRL VF-1S said:

There's been a lot of discussion on the board the past several days regarding the customer service of these different retail shops.  For someone from the west, some of the practices/experiences cited seem head-scratching, but you have to keep in mind that there is often a cultural difference in Asia-Pac.  (I know that some of the customer service reps one might speak to are outsourced to other places, but for the sake of simplicity, I'll keep this to Asia.)

For the most part, we in the West (Canada, USA, UK, Australia) are a very individualistic culture.  Me, me, me, I, I, I.  So, we demand personal service.  However, in Asia, it is often a collectivist culture.  Saving face for another person, looking out for the group as a whole - it's about "we".  This isn't to prescribe some type of formula but often gives insight to why someone might handle a complaint the way they do.  In @Tenbatsu case, it's likely that they don't normally let you deny a refund, but his individualistic approach of demanding higher personal customer service for their mistake may have been embarrassing to the rep he escalated to.  So, to save face, the upper mgmt went above and beyond to appease the situation for the greater good of Play-Asia.  In the reverse, it would've been normal for a person in collectivist culture to graciously accept the refund and be understanding of their situation (even if unhappy with it).  In this case, Tenbatsu was going against cultural norms (even though in the West it's perfectly acceptable).

Sometimes, even when we think we're being polite, we're really not being polite for a collectivist culture.  We're being polite for our own individualistic culture.  And we scratch our heads wondering why we are met with unfavorable results.  It may be because we're actually not being perceived as polite.

Anyway, this comes from professional experience as I deal with cross-cultural communication.  And it interests me in general.  Of course, this is just an educated guess, but just bringing to light that we in the West make demands that are normal for us and even polite, but absolutely not normal in other cultures, specifically dealing with those companies that are based (or claim to be based) out of Japan.  Of course, every person is different regardless of culture so it also depends on the luck of who is handling your customer service request.  And many are trained to deal with American customers, for example, like AJ.  But, there's no formula to this.

Take what I'm saying with a grain of salt (take it or leave it) but worth considering for next time anyone needs to work with customer service from Japan.  Thus far, any communication I've had has delivered very positive results.

As a professionally-trained anthropologist, I agree with this assessment. What makes things even more complicated for us as collectors is when, in addition to this big difference between East and West, you have support staff from other parts of the world who bring their own perspectives and may or may not receive training on how to keep Western customers happy. With that said, how much responsibility do online stores have to keep us happy? I'd argue that if they are directly catering to Westerners, and make a big deal of it, the level of responsibility goes up. For example, HLJ and proxy services like FromJapan know exactly who their core customers are and make sure that they staff and train their support teams accordingly. For smaller operations and/or ones that only dabble in overseas sales, I think we have to set the bar much lower.

With all of this said, stores in Japan that cancel existing pre-orders, providing some kind of lame excuse about lack of stock, and then turn around and sell units at marked up prices, are going against the established collectivist norms of behavior in multiple ways. Sadly, greed often overrides virtuousness. Short of finding a way to publicly name-and-shame them in their front yards, where it will actually have an impact because their reputations would be damaged, there's probably not much we can do. Knowing that stores are offering to buy back orders for more than retail, but allowing you to keep your order if you want to, is an encouraging sign.

[DYRL VF-1S]

6 minutes ago, Anasazi37 said:

With all of this said, stores in Japan that cancel existing pre-orders, providing some kind of lame excuse about lack of stock, and then turn around and sell units at marked up prices, are going against the established collectivist norms of behavior in multiple ways. Sadly, greed often overrides virtuousness.

Totally.  There's no excuse for these business tactics regardless of what your cultural norms are.  That's why I stick to only procuring through a handful of retailers who seem to be solid in that area and will give my business elsewhere if any of them turn to these tactics.

[dragontype]

Been following along for a while now, but still feel pretty noobie when it comes to collecting these toys.  Question to you guys out there.  Is there a "preferred" forwarder you guys use to acquire these toys?  I've been looking for a 1S and it doesn't seem AJ is going to have any stock any time soon(never).  So I might as well just purchase off a 3P seller, send to a forwarder and pay them the commission to ship to me.  Was going to go with Big In Japan since their commission is only 500 Yen.

What do you guys think?

[tjdetweiler]

Man, they look so good together....

[orbitalharvest]

13 minutes ago, tjdetweiler said:

Man, they look so good together....

damn, sexy!

[canklebreaker]

Just touched down before leaving early for work, doesn’t get any better. Still can’t believe I scored on that drop last week! HLJ coming through with the great packaging and KitKats. 

edit: does anyone's else has a funky kinda smell or is that just the factory scent?

Edited November 27, 2019 by canklebreaker

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

I was able to score mine during the initial preorder madness on hlj and it was sitting in my private warehouse. I dont know why I waited to have it shipped, but I just put the request in. 

[Pontus]

When pre-order madness hits, is there usually any warning or announcement, or do we just have to keep a vigilant watch on this here thread and the stores?  I've not yet participated in one of these events but am determined to get in on it if/when a Roy VF-1S gets released (regardless of DYRL/SDFM).  I really wanted the first release of the VF-1J, but it's not as high on my list as Roy's 1S and is a bit out of my price range, so I only want to collect one of these beauties.  But I'd rather not pay the $80+ markup after release, although the shipping is probably similar anyway, so...

[sqidd]

11 minutes ago, Pontus said:

When pre-order madness hits, is there usually any warning or announcement, or do we just have to keep a vigilant watch on this here thread and the stores?  I've not yet participated in one of these events but am determined to get in on it if/when a Roy VF-1S gets released (regardless of DYRL/SDFM).  I really wanted the first release of the VF-1J, but it's not as high on my list as Roy's 1S and is a bit out of my price range, so I only want to collect one of these beauties.  But I'd rather not pay the $80+ markup after release, although the shipping is probably similar anyway, so...

I'm a new too. I haven't participated in a VF-1 DX PO yet, but some have come up. If you follow the threads of the stuff you're interested in you will most likely have warning. And people are good about putting links and whatnot up too.

[VF-Zer0S]

10 minutes ago, Pontus said:

When pre-order madness hits, is there usually any warning or announcement, or do we just have to keep a vigilant watch on this here thread and the stores?  I've not yet participated in one of these events but am determined to get in on it if/when a Roy VF-1S gets released (regardless of DYRL/SDFM).  I really wanted the first release of the VF-1J, but it's not as high on my list as Roy's 1S and is a bit out of my price range, so I only want to collect one of these beauties.  But I'd rather not pay the $80+ markup after release, although the shipping is probably similar anyway, so...

There’s an announcement. There’s my go to taghobby.com which shows news on various Japanese toy releases. Various people here post times on when the pre order night and time and we just stalk the associated websites till open time and then watch it crash and open and try to get an order through. These things typically sell out Pre orders within 10 minutes but open and close throughout the months. Best chance to get one is during the pre order opening and release 

[Saburo]

VF-1S from HLJ has landed, and just before Thanksgiving!

[Dobber]

Mine arrived from AmiAmi earlier than expected too! Looks great, no issues other than the 100 on the one stabilizer. The swing bar connector is pretty solid too. It is maddeningly loose on the Max 1A and not too bad on the 1J. So 2 out of 3 are alright so far. Looking forward for the Fast Packs. 

As we’ve mentioned a while ago, it’s a shame Bandai missed the skull log badge beneath the cockpit with all the other tampo they put on this thing.

Chris

Edited November 27, 2019 by Dobber