Bandai DX Chogokin 1/48 VF-1

[borgified]

Good grab for the Low Vis 1a @sqidd at 20k yen and happy with the 1/48 Yammies that I have presently (might get one more, just not in a rush to get it. If it's gone, then I'm fine without it).

Now it's nerve racking wait for the next DX 1s or the DX YF-21... 

[Lolicon]

6 hours ago, sqidd said:

Thanks for the heads up. I just snapped that up along with a DX YF-19 Full Set that has been sitting on my wish list waiting for something else to amortize shipping costs. I chose DHL. Curious what that will cost. And how long shipping takes.

Now all I need to finish that shelf is a Low Vis Woodlands (I know where a couple of these are) and two sets of Stealth Strike Packs.......which I can't find anywhere.

NP grats on the pickup!

DHL from Mandarake usually costs about the same as EMS, unless it's a really huge box. And it's faster.

[Dobber]

23 hours ago, HardlyNever said:

I always wondered how/why Max got his gunpod around the "wrong" way in that scene.

I know it's "because he's Max," but I wonder why we never see anything like that again.  It would be pretty cool to see VF-1s shooting their gunpod from the arm.

I always knew that the gun pod was reversed for that scene, but now looking at those cells it’s also on its side...like the handle is bent 90 degrees.

Awesome cells btw.

Chris

[sqidd]

5 hours ago, Slave IV said:

Nice grab! I would have been all over that if it was still available. 

 

5 hours ago, DYRL VF-1S said:

 

You summabi%^h    I would've grabbed it as well. haha

[jvmacross]

On 4/7/2020 at 7:48 PM, Slave IV said:

Where can I get that SSP "Lite" kit that's on that Gerwalk?

If anyone ever made some I'd buy a set in 1/48, 1/60 and 1/100 to dress-up my VF-1J's...

[Bolt]

Someone needs to make these in shapeways..

[jvmacross]

On 4/7/2020 at 8:02 PM, LRS said:

That's great! Someone should make an online database collecting all of this great packaging art

The wilder art usually comes from Ohsato by means of Masami....I have several examples here....

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/gallery/album/965-jvmacross-ohsato-macross-collection/

On 4/7/2020 at 8:13 PM, nightmareB4macross said:

I think JVMacross has most of that task accomplished.

The search never ends...the well is definitely going dry but it seems something new pops up at least a few times a year

[Shawn]

My stupid theory is that those pre-production back pack missile sets were just not aero enough for the jets, so he scrapped them and had them moved to the pods designs

 

 

[jvmacross]

4 minutes ago, Bolt said:

Someone needs to make these in shapeways..

Agreed...wasn't someone trying to make some stuff for HMR?  This VF-1 missile pod set would be a nice one!

[jvmacross]

4 minutes ago, Shawn said:

My stupid theory is that those pre-production back pack missile sets were just not aero enough for the jets, so he scrapped them and had them moved to the pods designs

 

 

Probably....it's a cool design so it would have made sense to re-purpose it....kind of like the idea of the re-purposing of the "black" VF-1J Hikaru concept into the "Cavaliers" squadron...another fun theory...

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/topic/46734-takatoku-toys-promotional-posters/?do=findComment&comment=1518011

 

[Alan Molina]

15 hours ago, Lolicon said:

NP grats on the pickup!

DHL from Mandarake usually costs about the same as EMS, unless it's a really huge box. And it's faster.

DHL is same price as EMS from mandarake4, I purchased my second DX vf-1s  last week and it took 4 days to get to the UK, tho DHL will charge you import taxs and handeling fee before they deliver to you. which wacks the prize  in my case by an extra £62 pound 

killer 

[sqidd]

20 hours ago, Slave IV said:

Nice grab! I would have been all over that if it was still available. 

 

20 hours ago, DYRL VF-1S said:

 

You summabi%^h    I would've grabbed it as well. haha

 

20 hours ago, borgified said:

Good grab for the Low Vis 1a @sqidd at 20k yen and happy with the 1/48 Yammies that I have presently (might get one more, just not in a rush to get it. If it's gone, then I'm fine without it).

Now it's nerve racking wait for the next DX 1s or the DX YF-21... 

 

17 hours ago, Lolicon said:

NP grats on the pickup!

DHL from Mandarake usually costs about the same as EMS, unless it's a really huge box. And it's faster.

 

 

Just got mt bill from Mandy. Ordered a Yamato 1/48 VF-1A Low Vis and a DX YF-19 Full Set. 20K Yen for DHL.  I wonder if it would have been less expensive to ship them separately. That's something I would have checked for my customers.

Overall I didn't do to bad. Not killer pricing though. $299.24/ unit shipped. Worth it for both. Not "Wow, what a great deal!" though.

Edited April 9, 2020 by sqidd

[LRS]

22 minutes ago, sqidd said:

 

 

 

 

 

Just got mt bill from Mandy. Ordered a Yamato 1/48 VF-1A Low Vis and a DX YF-19 Full Set. 20K Yen for DHL.  I wonder if it would have been less expensive to ship them separately. That's something I would have checked for my customers.

Overall I didn't do to bad. Not killer pricing though. $299.24/ unit shipped. Worth it for both. Not "Wow, what a great deal!" though.

Ouch! Man shipping from Japan is rough. 

[DYRL VF-1S]

With the new updates from JapanPost about EMS shipping taking at least two weeks to get loaded on a plane, I don't think I'll see my SSPs anytime soon from NY even if they are released by P-Bandai on time this month (~ 24th or 25th I think).  And if it takes too long, we may see further delays in the States as there are talks about USPS having severe delays by June without proper relief from the Gov.

[jenius]

Once we got the "no SAL" notice from Japan, I pretty much stopped shopping from Japan. I'm cheap

[DYRL VF-1S]

Just now, jenius said:

Once we got the "no SAL" notice from Japan, I pretty much stopped shopping from Japan. I'm cheap

LOL love it.  Unfortunately, I paid for those SSPs in June of 2019. And like the rest of us who ordered from NY before P-Bandai even opened the reservations, we didn't get it in Dec like we should've.  UGH  Oh well.  It is what it is.  As long as I get it by August for Kaki.  (Annndd...now that will be famous last words.)

[levzloi]

3 hours ago, sqidd said:

 

Overall I didn't do to bad. Not killer pricing though. $299.24/ unit shipped. Worth it for both. Not "Wow, what a great deal!" though.

It's those Yamato 1/48 boxes, they're massive.  I'm pretty sure they automatically bump the package into the next price category. 

[sqidd]

2 minutes ago, levzloi said:

It's those Yamato 1/48 boxes, they're massive.  I'm pretty sure they automatically bump the package into the next price category. 

Agreed.

[sh9000]

They should include a rare bottle of hand sanitizer with that shipping cost.

[sqidd]

3 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

They should include a rare bottle of hand sanitizer with that shipping cost.

True story^^^^^

[Slave IV]

3 hours ago, sqidd said:

 

 

 

 

 

Just got mt bill from Mandy. Ordered a Yamato 1/48 VF-1A Low Vis and a DX YF-19 Full Set. 20K Yen for DHL.  I wonder if it would have been less expensive to ship them separately. That's something I would have checked for my customers.

Overall I didn't do to bad. Not killer pricing though. $299.24/ unit shipped. Worth it for both. Not "Wow, what a great deal!" though.

Mandarake's customer service is pretty good so you can ask them if there is a cheaper option if the package was split.

47 minutes ago, jenius said:

Once we got the "no SAL" notice from Japan, I pretty much stopped shopping from Japan. I'm cheap

I'm even cheaper, I usually use Ferry shipping. Luckily, that seems to still be available.

[LRS]

51 minutes ago, jenius said:

Once we got the "no SAL" notice from Japan, I pretty much stopped shopping from Japan. I'm cheap

I'm with you on that one. But since there aren't going to be new purchases for a while might as well put up that HMR Hiksru review! 

[FattyMoBookyButt]

18 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

They should include a rare bottle of hand sanitizer with that shipping cost.

ShowZ is including a couple masks with their orders. They also had to temporarily start charging shipping fees.

[Alan Molina]

4 hours ago, sqidd said:

 

 

 

 

 

Just got mt bill from Mandy. Ordered a Yamato 1/48 VF-1A Low Vis and a DX YF-19 Full Set. 20K Yen for DHL.  I wonder if it would have been less expensive to ship them separately. That's something I would have checked for my customers.

Overall I didn't do to bad. Not killer pricing though. $299.24/ unit shipped. Worth it for both. Not "Wow, what a great deal!" though.

DHL will add a import tax and handeling fee on top of that mate, depending where you live. they are fast  but they come at a price. you will get a text or e-mail with a bill to pay extra for your item 

[treatment]

As previously announced by various import-shops (hlj, ami, etc) a week or so ago, DHL (and possibly FedEX) is adding new surcharges on top of their usual shipping-fees for most of the regular import-shops. 

So DHL shipping-fees is currently alot more expensive now than it used to be to ship items out of Japan.

It will depend on individual import-shops on how much extra charges to apply on your imports.

Interestingly however, Amzn-japan's dhl-shipping is not affected (yet)...

 

 

 

[Sanity is Optional]

6 hours ago, Alan Molina said:

DHL is same price as EMS from mandarake4, I purchased my second DX vf-1s  last week and it took 4 days to get to the UK, tho DHL will charge you import taxs and handeling fee before they deliver to you. which wacks the prize  in my case by an extra £62 pound 

killer 

Unfortunately 1/48 Yamatos are big enough it's 6k vs 20k for EMS/DHL.

4 hours ago, sqidd said:

Just got mt bill from Mandy. Ordered a Yamato 1/48 VF-1A Low Vis and a DX YF-19 Full Set. 20K Yen for DHL.  I wonder if it would have been less expensive to ship them separately. That's something I would have checked for my customers.

Overall I didn't do to bad. Not killer pricing though. $299.24/ unit shipped. Worth it for both. Not "Wow, what a great deal!" though.

Nope, I just checked DHL shipping costs on a 1/48 VF-1 and it was 20k yen by itself. 

[Bolt]

Ouch!

[sqidd]

1 hour ago, Alan Molina said:

DHL will add a import tax and handeling fee on top of that mate, depending where you live. they are fast  but they come at a price. you will get a text or e-mail with a bill to pay extra for your item 

Not in the US.

[borgified]

4 minutes ago, sqidd said:

Not in the US.

If you live in Canada (like @Sandman, @peter and myself as we live in British Columbia and for the rest of the us Macross Collectors in the other 9 provinces and the three territories as well), we get import fees. It depends if CBSA (Canadian Border and Services Associations) slaps on the Customs Fees or not depending on the price that was stated on the shipping label. 

I got nabbed for Custom fees on my MP-29+ and also on the HMR Monster (both from Manda). 

[wm cheng]

Yep same here in Ontario, its a crap shoot.  Sometimes its $60-100 per package (nasty surprise), sometimes its nothing.  I find better luck with EMS though.  Couriers (FedEx & UPS) is guaranteed to have Customs, Brokerage, Import Fees applied though.

[Sandman]

2 hours ago, wm cheng said:

Yep same here in Ontario, its a crap shoot.  Sometimes its $60-100 per package (nasty surprise), sometimes its nothing.  I find better luck with EMS though.  Couriers (FedEx & UPS) is guaranteed to have Customs, Brokerage, Import Fees applied though.

Same here in BC.

[Lolicon]

Since we're on the subject of fees, I've noticed that Paypal has changed their system so that when I buy stuff from Japan, it will default to USD using Paypal's crappy conversion rate where Paypal pockets the difference. It  appears they've taken away the setting to automatically pay in yen using your CC, or at least they've buried that setting to where I can't find it. Obvious underhanded attempt by Paypal to pocket a few extra bucks on every transaction with no added value or utility on their part.

So on every purchase don't leave anything to chance or default. Always make sure you manually change conversion to pay in yen using your CC's conversion rate, which will always be better than Paypal's crap.

F*** you, Paypal.

[Sanity is Optional]

Last I checked, there's a still drop-down in the upper right when paying to change the currency you're paying in.

But yeah, make sure you select Yen, especially if you have a card w/o currency conversion fees.

[DYRL VF-1S]

6 minutes ago, Lolicon said:

Since we're on the subject of fees, I've noticed that Paypal has changed their system so that when I buy stuff from Japan, it will default to USD using Paypal's crappy conversion rate where Paypal pockets the difference. It  appears they've taken away the setting to automatically pay in yen using your CC, or at least they've buried that setting to where I can't find it. Obvious underhanded attempt by Paypal to pocket a few extra bucks on every transaction with no added value or utility on their part.

So on every purchase don't leave anything to chance or default. Always make sure you manually change conversion to pay in yen using your CC's conversion rate, which will always be better than Paypal's crap.

F*** you, Paypal.

Yeah they changed it some time ago.

Here's the workaround:

1. Login
2. Go to Cog on upper right
3. Click "Payments" on top bar
4. "Manage Automatic Payments"
5. Select any one of your auto payments from the left side
6. Under "Payment Method" on the right side, click your current method
7. It opens all of your available payment options and where possible, it has "See Conversion options" for each of them
8. Change the ones you want

 

[Slave IV]

I have a separate PayPal account setup specifically for buying from Japan and a credit card with no foreign transaction fees connected to it. Nothing has changed for me in years but I always check and it is still charging in Yen as I have it set to.