Bandai DX Chogokin 1/48 VF-1

[easnoddy]

How long are we until JP Post starts shipping again do we think?

[sqidd]

11 minutes ago, easnoddy said:

How long are we until JP Post starts shipping again do we think?

[jeniusornome]

I got an email from Okini land recently about order status and shipping methods, and they said while there is no official schedule posted, they are hoping for late August that normal international services resume.
 

(they are also offering the option to hold items in their warehouse until shipping opens up again, or upgrade to DHL).

[Anasazi37]

2 hours ago, spacemanoeuvres said:

I just decided to check my NY orders and see that I have six sets of SSP ordered. Four from the initial PO and two from the second round. 

I think I’ll ask them to ship via surface; maybe they will offer a store credit for the difference?

NY has been offering credit to other MW members who have requested a downgrade in shipping from EMS to Ferry.

[F360]

3 hours ago, easnoddy said:

How long are we until JP Post starts shipping again do we think?

Probably after summer , the signs to look for are at other independent shipping companies.(ones that use their own planes)

 

 

 

 

 

[lavinrac]

SSP SHIPPED from N-Y... I  asked them by mail last week what was up (politely) and it SEEMS that after they said they were forwarding to their fulfillment team that it went to 'processing'  and now last night shipped. This is just for one SSP set.  My mail 'might' have helped with a gentle nudge. Dunno for sure.

Now about those missiles...  (don't think the second wave is even out yet is it?)

 

 

Edited June 16, 2020 by lavinrac

[Vertex]

@lavinrac Was that via UPS or Ferry? if UPS how much did they charge? if you dont mind my asking.

[Bahamutzyro]

37 minutes ago, Vertex said:

@lavinrac Was that via UPS or Ferry? if UPS how much did they charge? if you dont mind my asking.

I had 2 shipped fromm NY and it was extra  60.00 to ship via UPS. Total came to about 140.00 us shipped to New York for each unit. That’s the cost of the SSP and shipping

Edited June 16, 2020 by Bahamutzyro

[DYRL VF-1S]

1 hour ago, lavinrac said:

Now about those missiles...  (don't think the second wave is even out yet is it?)

They start shipping from P-Bandai on 6/17

[DYRL VF-1S]

Btw, re: NY, it seems I haven't been blacklisted yet.  They finally caught up with my PayPal claim and reflected the second order of SSP (1 set) as refunded (even though PayPal refunded me like a month or so ago).  I haven't seen any movement on my first order with 5 sets yet.  I know that PayPal has waived the seller fees for COVID so that if a refund is made the seller isn't charged what they normally would be.  That might be why.

[lavinrac]

1 hour ago, Vertex said:

@lavinrac Was that via UPS or Ferry? if UPS how much did they charge? if you dont mind my asking.

I paid like $47 extra for shipping one set UPS.. Not ideal but i decided I'd like to have the product before armageddon.

 

[Dobber]

Still haven’t heard back from NY. How long does it usually take to hear back from them?

Chris

[Rhubarbarian]

I've messaged them about mine a couple weeks ago (mine should have been from the December batch, too) and just got a "yeah, we don't have it yet" e-mail in response. The good news is that NY will eventually send you some SSP, but... when that will be will be anyone's guess. They sent me my VF-1S about a month and a half after release, but due to a shipping error I ended up getting it middle of February. 

[Smacky]

10 minutes ago, Rhubarbarian said:

I've messaged them about mine a couple weeks ago (mine should have been from the December batch, too) and just got a "yeah, we don't have it yet" e-mail in response. The good news is that NY will eventually send you some SSP, but... when that will be will be anyone's guess. They sent me my VF-1S about a month and a half after release, but due to a shipping error I ended up getting it middle of February. 

I still don't get that response, how do they not have it yet but people here are clearly getting there's shipped to them.  

[jenius]

25 minutes ago, Smacky said:

I still don't get that response, how do they not have it yet but people here are clearly getting there's shipped to them.  

They don't have a traditional P-Bandai relationship. What they do have is anybody's guess. Never buy from them if you are concerned with timeliness... they believe service begins in ends with you getting what you paid for... WHEN is something for the gods to be concerned with.

[Anasazi37]

2 hours ago, jenius said:

They don't have a traditional P-Bandai relationship. What they do have is anybody's guess. Never buy from them if you are concerned with timeliness... they believe service begins in ends with you getting what you paid for... WHEN is something for the gods to be concerned with.

Somewhere there's a higher-dimensional being that fully comprehends the business decisions of Bandai and NY. I'm not sure that our brains could handle the complexity.

[RedComet]

Bowing to popular demand. We ware also making weathered SSP available with the Roys  what do you think?

Edited June 16, 2020 by RedComet

[sqidd]

18 minutes ago, RedComet said:

Bowing to popular demand. We ware also making weathered SSP available with the Roys  what do you think?

Looks great!

[borgified]

Even the screwed up Modix number is fixed!

Is Bandai going to correct their errors?? 

#boycottbandai  

[Corrinald]

@RedCometthe weathered SSP look awesome and really complete the image

[DYRL VF-1S]

18 minutes ago, Corrinald said:

@RedCometthe weathered SSP look awesome and really complete the image

Agreed. The SSP look great

[Rogueload]

15 hours ago, RedComet said:

Bowing to popular demand. We ware also making weathered SSP available with the Roys  what do you think?

That’s looks amazing!

[Bub]

On 5/16/2020 at 9:11 AM, David Hingtgen said:

Physically, the arm armor:

A lot of the KO VF-1's lately seem to be putting DYRL-style arm armor on TV-only valks (Max and Milia, etc), they apparently don't know (or don't care) about the difference.  

Yeah, like Bandai’s 1/55 Hikaru Movie Strike sporting “TV” style arm armor...  And Bandai’s HMR TV Max and Millia with their DYRL movie style arm armors...  All hail Yamato/Arcadia!!!  Fellow fans Yamato/Arcadia!!!

Edited June 17, 2020 by Bub
Added “TV” and “Movie” to emphasize contrast

[CzarAlko]

Hey guys!

Just wanted to tell you about my experience buying from Mandarake. I have been having a hard time tracking one of these VF-1A's,  I usually get my japanese goods from HLJ but these figures sell out quick, I tried NY but the price plus shipping steered me away, I didn't want to pay Ebay prices, so gave Mandarake a try. Ended up buying my first 1/48 DX, VF-1A Max Jenius edition. I was skeptical about buying it since they didn't show any pictures and described it as unopened with a damaged box. I paid about 250 dollars including shipping, which because of Covid the only option given was through DHL, which was expensive, but not at bad as I thought (the figure was 22000 yen) but it arrived in 4 days, which included a weekend day, upon inspection the box was not badly damaged,  there is a knick on a corner, I have definitely gotten boxes that I buy as new with more knicks than that one, it was well packaged and definitely looks brand new. So I would recommend Mandarake if you are looking for a figure, definitely will buy from them again! 

[Sanity is Optional]

Looks like the new batch of DX VF-1 missiles has shipped out.

 

@CzarAlko

Mandarake is incredibly hard grading when it comes to box damage, they pretty much list everything (that comes in a box) with package damage.

They're an A+ store, bought lots of things over the years, and they're my go-to for anything that's already been released.

 

[canklebreaker]

On 6/14/2020 at 12:11 PM, Anasazi37 said:

NY has been offering credit to other MW members who have requested a downgrade in shipping from EMS to Ferry.

They offered me a credit of $1USD for the ferry option, I’ve been trying to get them to cancel my order all together.

[Anasazi37]

4 hours ago, canklebreaker said:

They offered me a credit of $1USD for the ferry option, I’ve been trying to get them to cancel my order all together.

One dollar?! The difference between EMS and Ferry should be a lot more than that. Makes me wonder if they're pocketing the difference. It sure didn't cost $75 to ship my SSP set ($40 EMS prepaid, then $35 more to switch to UPS).

I just received a notification from AE that my two Missile sets are ready to ship and like @DYRL VF-1S, I'm going to try to have them sent to my Tenso address so I can then deal with more reasonable people. I'm growing tired of stores that are either charging outrageous prices for shipping or only offering weird options. @Mommar's recent experience with AE, where I think the only option they offered him was an off-brand courier service that required him to provide personal information, pushed me over the line.

 

[jeniusornome]

The whole ssp situation is hilariously terrible. For a little more than retail you can get them on the secondary market, new, whereas sets preordered over a year ago haven’t shipped. 

 

makes me question the whole PO madness thing. Paying a slight markup to actually get it vs having a few hundred bucks or more that you can’t get refunded and have no idea when you’ll actually get the product you purchased?

[DYRL VF-1S]

1 hour ago, Anasazi37 said:

I just received a notification from AE that my two Missile sets are ready to ship and like @DYRL VF-1S, I'm going to try to have them sent to my Tenso address so I can then deal with more reasonable people.

Ditto!  It sucks to have to be in this situation to ship to a tenso address and essentially pay more.  But, agreed - I selected my Tenso addy to deal with more reasonable people.  They pack things amazingly, and they are responsive.  Plus, DHL shouldn't be too bad because these are small boxes, and I only purchased two for this round.

[DYRL VF-1S]

9 hours ago, CzarAlko said:

Hey guys!

Just wanted to tell you about my experience buying from Mandarake. I have been having a hard time tracking one of these VF-1A's,  I usually get my japanese goods from HLJ but these figures sell out quick, I tried NY but the price plus shipping steered me away, I didn't want to pay Ebay prices, so gave Mandarake a try. Ended up buying my first 1/48 DX, VF-1A Max Jenius edition. I was skeptical about buying it since they didn't show any pictures and described it as unopened with a damaged box. I paid about 250 dollars including shipping, which because of Covid the only option given was through DHL, which was expensive, but not at bad as I thought (the figure was 22000 yen) but it arrived in 4 days, which included a weekend day, upon inspection the box was not badly damaged,  there is a knick on a corner, I have definitely gotten boxes that I buy as new with more knicks than that one, it was well packaged and definitely looks brand new. So I would recommend Mandarake if you are looking for a figure, definitely will buy from them again! 

Welcome to the party!  Manda is a best kept secret outside of the MW'ers here it would seem.  I remember my first purchase from them fondly - receiving it and thinking "this is a heavily damaged package??"

[nightmareB4macross]

On 6/14/2020 at 12:34 AM, treatment said:

definitively moar badass this way...

 

Without a doubt it looks way better. I know the correct colors should be red but it just seemed right that the heat shields should be blacked out, as should be the background of the Jolly Roger emblem on the boosters. All VF-1S squadron leaders would stand out much better this way.

Leave the color arch shield ad booster marking for the VF-1As.

[DYRL VF-1S]

2 minutes ago, nightmareB4macross said:

Without a doubt it looks way better. I know the correct colors should be red but it just seemed right that the heat shields should be blacked out, as should be the background of the Jolly Roger emblem on the boosters. All VF-1S squadron leaders would stand out much better this way.

Leave the color arch shield ad booster marking for the VF-1As.

Wellllll....good news is that the actual movie has animation errors where you see both black and red heat shields between scenes with Hikaru's 1S.  Annnnd the 1/55 Strike originally came with the black one.  So, I say whatever you want is accurate?  haha

[vladykins]

Got me A-E notification on missiles too. Probably going to have them sit on them for me for a short time until I find something to share that shipment with.

[jeniusornome]

I always thought those "animation errors" were just instances of shading and the colors getting lost in it? Like even in the iconic scene of him shooting bodolzaa in the head, there's a reddish, brownish tint to scenes where it appears black.

But yeah, whichever you want is "accurate."

[sidearmsalpha]

Haven't posted anything in years but I wanted to know if anyone else has had trouble getting their order filled for the DX VF-1S from Nippon-Yasan? I put in a pre-order a year ago for it and the Strike Parts for the November release which came and went. When I contacted them in December, I was told that I had to wait for the reissue of the Strike Parts in April. Well, that came and went and I've heard nothing from them. I even ordered the HMR VF-4G in October and I have not received a shipping notification on that either. I sent them inquiries a couple days ago but they haven't responded. I'm starting to worry that I'm going to get screwed on both these orders.