Bandai DX Chogokin 1/48 VF-1

[Lolicon]

1 hour ago, DYRL VF-1S said:

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

 

Thanks! I'll give it a shot.

I don't trust Paypal at all, so I always check on every order that it's being paid in yen using my CC before submitting payment. Because Paypal has pulled their "Whoops we 'accidentally' changed everyone's default settings to our conversion rate. Oh well guess we get to pocket that extra money from every transaction before you guys noticed!"

[Smacky]

6 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.

I live in Ontario too and try to avoid Manda and HLJ as much as possible as they always declare the full value on their packages.  Amiami and NY (30+ orders) always declare something small and have never been nailed by CBSA when shipping with SAL or EMS.  

[borgified]

32 minutes ago, Smacky said:

I live in Ontario too and try to avoid Manda and HLJ as much as possible as they always declare the full value on their packages.  Amiami and NY (30+ orders) always declare something small and have never been nailed by CBSA when shipping with SAL or EMS.  

You actually brought up a point @Smacky. I have used EMS and Parcel post from Amiami and I think that I have never got snagged by CBSA as of yet. 

If I use Manda for EMS, I usually get slapped with Customs on a few occasions and twice using SAL. 

I paid close to roughly $40 CND Customs on the HMR Monster and close to $60 CND Customs on the DX YF-19 Full Set by using EMS on both orders. 

Yep.. Us Canadians get hosed in Customs Fees. 

[pafy6285]

1 hour ago, Smacky said:

I live in Ontario too and try to avoid Manda and HLJ as much as possible as they always declare the full value on their packages.  Amiami and NY (30+ orders) always declare something small and have never been nailed by CBSA when shipping with SAL or EMS.  

Mandarake can undervalue your packages, you just have to explicitly ask them (with the value you want) in the comments sections when checking out. You tell them that you'll be responsible if anything happens due to the package being undervalued. My last order with them was November, and they still accept the undervalue request.

[Major Focker]

5 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Thanks! I'll give it a shot.

I don't trust Paypal at all, so I always check on every order that it's being paid in yen using my CC before submitting payment. Because Paypal has pulled their "Whoops we 'accidentally' changed everyone's default settings to our conversion rate. Oh well guess we get to pocket that extra money from every transaction before you guys noticed!"

i think it was sometime last year when Paypal defaulted to their own conversion despite my settings. since then, i've been careful to manually change the conversion to that of my bank.

however late last year, whenever i changed the conversion to use my bank's rate, it would result in an payment processing error/failure with Paypal stating that my card was declined. but when i check out directly with the seller, say amiami or HS, the transaction goes through just fine. i also confirmed with my bank that there wasn't any declined payments.

earlier this year i did some experiments. when i changed away from Paypal conversion, the payment failed as expected. right after, i restart the payment process and leave it at Paypal default conversion. sure enough, the payment goes through. i've confirmed this behaviour with amiami, HS, HLJ, eBay, and Amazon.

i would think there's something criminal in Paypal's behaviour. 

[sqidd]

2 hours ago, Major Focker said:

 

i would think there's something criminal in Paypal's behaviour. 

PayPal = Evilcorp

[Darth Mingus]

10 hours ago, borgified said:

If I use Manda for EMS, I usually get slapped with Customs on a few occasions and twice using SAL. 

I paid close to roughly $40 CND Customs on the HMR Monster and close to $60 CND Customs on the DX YF-19 Full Set by using EMS on both orders. 

Yep.. Us Canadians get hosed in Customs Fees. 

I think something that helps is what they declare the item as.  I get dinged when they write "Collector's Item" but not when they write "Toys" or "Model Kits", at least when I use SAL shipping.  EMS is 50/50.  UPS and DHL are usually a-holes and charge you a "service fee" on top of the CBSA tax.

[MikeRoz]

6 hours ago, sqidd said:

PayPal = Evilcorp

They wish...

Despite being a payments company, they haven't even come out with PCoin yet. Let alone the PayPal branded PCs and phones, the PayPal bank branches, the PayPal mortgage loans, etc.

Just so this entire post isn't entirely devoted to another show - no movement yet on my order of two (why two? I wish I knew...) SSPs with N-Y. I'm sure it will be fulfilled any second now.

Any second now...

EDIT: It's an EMS order, so if I understand that other thread correctly it shouldn't be subject to shipping restriction.

Edited April 10, 2020 by MikeRoz

[DYRL VF-1S]

6 minutes ago, MikeRoz said:

no movement yet on my order of two (why two? I wish I knew...) SSPs with N-Y. I'm sure it will be fulfilled any second now.

HA... no my friend.  The SSPs won't even be released again till probably April 24th/25th from P-Bandai.  Then it will take forever for NY to get them.  Then it will take forever for them to ship; particularly if you were late to the party - as in any time after like June of 2019. And, then it will take forever for you to get the shipment even if you paid EMS since JapanPost has announced a 2-week delay on all EMS shipments.

[MikeRoz]

Good to know on when P-Bandai will ship - thanks for the information.

I placed my order the day the pre-order opened, so hopefully I'll be spared the worst of the N-Y part of that lag. They weren't too bad with my VF-1S from the night of that pre-order.

[DYRL VF-1S]

1 hour ago, MikeRoz said:

Good to know on when P-Bandai will ship - thanks for the information.

I placed my order the day the pre-order opened, so hopefully I'll be spared the worst of the N-Y part of that lag. They weren't too bad with my VF-1S from the night of that pre-order.

Awesome, yeah same here.  I'm dreading the delay.  I made the mistake of ordering 5 of them.  I should've split the order between them and other shops.  NY is notorious for delaying a large order and shipping through smaller ones first.  You'd think they'd go in order of queue but doesn't seem to be the case.  No one seems to know the rhyme or reason for how they do things LOL.  Hopefully, we'll start seeing people report in here around the last week of the month. 

[LRS]

If NY is known to be so crappy why does anyone use them. Surely there are other options. Whatever meager savings you get from them doesnt seem to be worth waiting 10 years to get the package and all of the associated stress.

Edited April 10, 2020 by LRS

[sqidd]

29 minutes ago, LRS said:

If NY is known to be so crappy why does anyone use them. 

Their head of marketing/customer relations posts here. He's very good at his job.

[jvmacross]

On 4/8/2020 at 11:15 PM, jvmacross said:

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...

This would be another nice add-on set for someone to make/sell....this one looks like a design that may have eventually evolved into Tomahawk add-ons.....maybe that is where the mash-ups from Macross the First came from...

[Sanity is Optional]

1 hour ago, LRS said:

If NY is known to be so crappy why does anyone use them. Surely there are other options. Whatever meager savings you get from them doesnt seem to be worth waiting 10 years to get the package and all of the associated stress.

They typically have lower costs, and also it's easier to place an order with them than many other proxy sellers.

Also, as others have stated, their packages typically don't get caught by customs.

[DYRL VF-1S]

1 hour ago, LRS said:

If NY is known to be so crappy why does anyone use them. Surely there are other options. Whatever meager savings you get from them doesnt seem to be worth waiting 10 years to get the package and all of the associated stress.

In some cases, they become one of the only viable options.  Like with TWE (Tamashii Web Exclusives), only a handful of shops carry.  That was the case with SSPs or Kakizaki's 1A (though I went a different path on the 1A due to price). AND, NY has never exactly done me wrong.  They always deliver for me.  They just have a customer service that is not typical for the States or even the West.  I would stop buying from them if it bothered me enough.  For others, like @sqidd he burned the bridge with them on purpose because he doesn't want to deal with them.

 

50 minutes ago, sqidd said:

Their head of marketing/customer relations posts here. He's very good at his job.

46 minutes ago, jvmacross said:

This would be another nice add-on set for someone to make/sell....this one looks like a design that may have eventually evolved into Tomahawk add-ons.....maybe that is where the mash-ups from Macross the First came from...

Dude, thanks for sharing all this goodness!

[ErikElvis]

I use to love NY. But these shipping problems started, what, a year ago?  It’s put me off to them.  
 

MAKE NIPPON YASAN GREAT AGAIN!

[Mechapilot77]

love the art on that last picture!

[Slave IV]

3 hours ago, LRS said:

If NY is known to be so crappy why does anyone use them. Surely there are other options. Whatever meager savings you get from them doesnt seem to be worth waiting 10 years to get the package and all of the associated stress.

This:

2 hours ago, sqidd said:

Their head of marketing/customer relations posts here. He's very good at his job.

Haha, thank you

All joking aside, I use them simply because they usually have the lowest prices. I don't give a crap about wait times or customer service as long as I get the same product in the end. That being said, I've had nothing but great customer service from them (like getting the SV-51 legs immediately) and experienced no significant delays on any of my hundreds of orders with them. Then we can talk about websites, where they are one of the only shops to make improvements to reduce (pretty much eliminate) crashes and cart jacking during preorder madness. All the other major Japanese retail sites have gone backwards in terms of their websites to the point where a shop like HLJ is nearly useless during preorder madness and even not during preorder madness, it is plagued with glitches and inconsistency. 

Years ago, HLJ was my main shop but now they are near the bottom of the list. NY is #1 with AJ coming in second. All the other shops at this point, I only use if I have to for some reason. Mandarake always #1 for released/used items.

[DYRL VF-1S]

2 hours ago, Slave IV said:

This:

Haha, thank you

All joking aside, I use them simply because they usually have the lowest prices. I don't give a crap about wait times or customer service as long as I get the same product in the end. That being said, I've had nothing but great customer service from them (like getting the SV-51 legs immediately) and experienced no significant delays on any of my hundreds of orders with them. Then we can talk about websites, where they are one of the only shops to make improvements to reduce (pretty much eliminate) crashes and cart jacking during preorder madness. All the other major Japanese retail sites have gone backwards in terms of their websites to the point where a shop like HLJ is nearly useless during preorder madness and even not during preorder madness, it is plagued with glitches and inconsistency. 

Years ago, HLJ was my main shop but now they are near the bottom of the list. NY is #1 with AJ coming in second. All the other shops at this point, I only use if I have to for some reason. Mandarake always #1 for released/used items.

Besides, the less you all use them, the better chance @Slave IV and I have of landing a PO during PO madness! ...I’ll just probably complain a little about timeliness of  delivery because I’m impatient LOL 

[LRS]

Is tamashi and Bandai the same company? If so why not use the same name? 

Edited April 11, 2020 by LRS

[jvmacross]

Bandai created the "Tamashii" brand to get you to pay more money for exclusives and alternate paint schemes, etc that you absolutely must have...

[jenius]

Think of bandai like general motors.

[borgified]

47 minutes ago, LRS said:

Is tamashi and Bandai the same company? If so why not use the same name? 

 

7 minutes ago, jenius said:

Think of bandai like general motors.

GMC = Opel & Vuaxhall (till 2017), Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac (folded), Asuna & Geo (both folded), Saturn (folded), Holden (to be retired in 2021), etc.

VW =  Audi, Skoda, Porshe, Seat, Lamborghini, Bugatti (?), Bentley (?) Mann, Scanda, etc.

Chrysler (now owned by Fiat which produces the Alfa Romeo) = Dodge, Ram, Plymouth (anymore that I forgot?)    

[Lolicon]

DX SSP 12k

https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/detailPage/item?itemCode=1134828824&ref=list&keyword=マクロス&lang=en

[Smacky]

I wonder if this is going to impact how expensive this hobby is already.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2020/04/09/japan-ditches-china-in-multi-billion-dollar-coronavirus-shakeout/#22cd1b4d5341

[sqidd]

20 minutes ago, Smacky said:

I wonder if this is going to impact how expensive this hobby is already.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2020/04/09/japan-ditches-china-in-multi-billion-dollar-coronavirus-shakeout/#22cd1b4d5341

Possibly. Quality and timeliness could go up though. The Arcadia SV-51 leg issue was a China problem (probably). How much time/money did that cost Arcadia? Make that stuff on shore, avoid those problems, maybe that balances the bottom line.

Just my opinion. Because of China's lies and cover-ups a lot of people are already dead and the world economy is in shambles.  And we're not done yet. China needs to be punished hard for this. The US alone should be billing China for what is the stimulus package? 2T? Well double that for the real impact on the economy. And they should also be billed for 90% of US deaths (statistically we would have 90% less cases if China didn't lie). What is a death worth? At least a couple million.

And old but good saying you hear around shops/stores. "You break it, you bought it". I am sick to my back teeth of no one in power paying for what they break. Be that by getting voted out, sued, jailed, etc. In the case of China they need to be presented with a bill for the damage they have caused. And US corporations should be getting out of China even if government incentives have to be part of the program. China needs to be put in the poor house for the next 285-30yrs as a lesson. And we need to bring those jobs back to the US or at least Mexico so their economy and standard of living can grow. Which will solve a whole host of problems.

This is coming from someone who get product manufactured in China. My proposal would absolutely clobber my bottom line. I'm willing to pay it for America.

Sorry. I'm prickly this morning. Rant over.

Edited April 11, 2020 by sqidd

[Alphahorizon]

12 minutes ago, sqidd said:

Possibly. Quality and timeliness could go up though. The Arcadia SV-51 leg issue was a China problem (probably). How much time/money did that cost Arcadia? Make that stuff on shore, avoid those problems, maybe that balances the bottom line.

Just my opinion. Because of China's lies and cover-ups a lot of people are already dead and the world economy is in shambles.  And we're not done yet. China needs to be punished hard for this. The US alone should be billing China for what is the stimulus package? 2T? Well double that for the real impact on the economy. And they should also be billed for 90% of US deaths (statistically we would have 90% less cases if China didn't lie). What is a death worth? At least a couple million.

And old but good saying you hear around shops/stores. "You break it, you bought it". I am sick to my back teeth of no one in power paying for what they break. Be that by getting voted out, sued, jailed, etc. In the case of China they need to be presented with a bill for the damage they have caused. And US corporations should be getting out of China even if government incentives have to be part of the program. China needs to be put in the poor house for the next 285-30yrs as a lesson. And we need to bring those jobs back to the US or at least Mexico so their economy and standard of living can grow. Which will solve a whole host of problems.

This is coming from someone who get product manufactured in China. My proposal would absolutely clobber my bottom line. I'm willing to pay it for America.

Sorry. I'm prickly this morning. Rant over.

@sqiddCoffee brother, coffee! I to tire of consequences only applying to us plebs. I thought the US sending a ton of our manufacturing to China in the 90s was mistake then, and now we see the fruition. What was a glaring issue brought to light was that 90% of our medical supplies/medicines are manufactured in China. That has to stop. /rantover.

[sqidd]

4 minutes ago, Alphahorizon said:

@sqiddCoffee brother, coffee!

I slept horribly last night. Coffee got me to an IQ of about 80. I need some more sleep.

[tekering]

4 hours ago, Smacky said:

I wonder if this is going to impact how expensive this hobby is already.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2020/04/09/japan-ditches-china-in-multi-billion-dollar-coronavirus-shakeout/#22cd1b4d5341

Honestly, I question the validity of this entire article.  Not only do they make bold statements about Japanese policy without quoting a single Japanese source, the writer can't even use English properly!  

It literally says "Japan’s decision to help company’s source elsewhere"

Do you know the plural form of "company?"  I do.  It's "companies."  

[Corrinald]

3 hours ago, sqidd said:

I slept horribly last night. Coffee got me to an IQ of about 80. I need some more sleep.

I like prickly tired @sqidd!

[crackpot]

@sqidd I share that sentiment that manufacturing should be pulled out of China especially that are essential such as products involving healthcare. I wouldn't mind leaving the production of toys there because they're just toys. 

But anything that's medical or technological should stay out of China.

Edited April 11, 2020 by crackpot

[borgified]

Re-Edit: No DHL, only EMS and if you want to wait over two weeks for the package before it gets shipped out.

On Jungle:

DX SSP Parts = 13.2k yen (sealed)

https://jungle-scs.co.jp/sale_en/products/detail/412151

DX Missle Set = 7.7k yen (sealed)

https://jungle-scs.co.jp/sale_en/products/detail/412044

Edited April 11, 2020 by borgified

[sqidd]

13 minutes ago, borgified said:

If your inclined to try DHL.

On Jungle:

DX SSP Parts = 13.2k yen (sealed)

https://jungle-scs.co.jp/sale_en/products/detail/412151

DX Missle Set = 7.7k yen (sealed)

https://jungle-scs.co.jp/sale_en/products/detail/412044

Edit: D'uh! Forgot the last link.

Jungle just told me they don't ship DHL?????

[borgified]

D'oh! I thought they had DHL, and I just checked. Looks like that I will have to redo the posting.