Bandai DX Chogokin 1/48 VF-1

[rdrunner]

7 hours ago, Kyp Durron said:

As am I, unless they make a TV Hiakru 1S, then I'm out.

I am just waiting for the TV Kakizaki, GBP armor, and if they'll make one, TV VF-1D.  But I think double seaters will probably not be made using this exact same mold - maybe a renewal version or something with modified cockpit proportions and hopefully detachable nosecone/pilot seat enclosure.

[rdrunner]

2 hours ago, Anasazi37 said:

That seems high--even by current standards. @sqiddhas bought a lot of stuff from Mandarake over the past few months and I don't remember him quoting numbers that high. We've talked a lot here about how Mandarake's DHL prices seem to be much better than most other stores. Maybe that's changing. I just had Tenso ship me a Yamato 1/60 Queadluun-Rau using DHL, and that comes in a box much larger than the VF-1S, and they charged me ¥5525 for shipping plus a ¥1150 handling fee. Tenso jacks up their shipping prices because they know that they offer a unique service (other package forwarding companies do exactly the same thing), and I've grown accustomed to the handling fees because they do ensure that everything is packed nicely--even if they have to put your box in a larger box. So yeah, that seems high.

Don't forget the TWE releases of the left and right GBP hands (individually), followed by a Full Set Pack general release of both hands together about five years later.

… and a separate missile effects parts set ala HM-R style!

[Kyp Durron]

26 minutes ago, rdrunner said:

I am just waiting for the TV Kakizaki, GBP armor, and if they'll make one, TV VF-1D.  But I think double seaters will probably not be made using this exact same mold - maybe a renewal version or something with modified cockpit proportions and hopefully detachable nosecone/pilot seat enclosure.

IF they make a two seater, then I'm going to want a VF-1D and possibly the Ostrich as I haven't owned a two seater since Yamato's original 1/60 version. I never did get their 1/60 V2...but if they don't, I can stop after Hikaru's TV VF-1S. 

Edited July 16, 2020 by Kyp Durron

[jenius]

5 hours ago, Kyp Durron said:

Seems like they're only interested in the most iconic versions of the VF-1, but that's just my speculation. If that's the case, then we should be seeing a TV VF1-S Hikaru, Hikaru's VF-1A from DYRL, Max and Millia's VF-1J's (With supers at some point), and CF VF-1A. They will also most likely do Hayao Kakizaki's at some point, probably soon. 

As to the 2 seat variants, that's going to greatly depend on whether or not this was engineered from the get go for two seaters, but I'd frankly be shocked if they didn't plan too, it would be like printing money for them, but I've seen stranger things.

One thing's for sure, I highly doubt they're going to issue anywhere near as many variants as Yamato/Arcadia did. 

They did TV Max and DYRL Hayao... Hardly the most iconic... Order is quite random so far really.

[Kyp Durron]

They did a DRYL Hayao? I wasn't aware of that. So much for that theory then, lol. TV Max's VF-1A though is pretty iconic, at least to me. 

[vladykins]

Yep, TWE with release supposedly next month.

 

Edited July 16, 2020 by vladykins

[sixtybucks]

17 minutes ago, vladykins said:

Yep, TWE with release supposedly next month.

 

Once they release this DYRL 1A in CF colors I'm done with these.

[Kyp Durron]

18 minutes ago, vladykins said:

Yep, TWE with release supposedly next month.

 

Well I'll be damned.

[Paco Grande]

11 hours ago, Anomaly said:

I thought I am the unlucky one who got hit by their poor packaging......I bought the 40th anniv GFFMC Gundam from Amazon Japan in May, when I received the package , I was more than appalled , the toy box was damaged due to their lousy packaging ( A large padded envelope  with a piece of cardboard  )  ....they only offer refund if I return the item which I didn't  do so  due to high return shipping cost.   From now on,  I will refrain myself from purchasing pricey item from AJ...

 

Sorry to see that horrible packing job. But one of the perks about using AJ is that they are one of the only places I'm aware of that will pay for return shipping. You pay and then send them the receipt and they pay you back. I had to return something this past winter and I actually made money on the deal because the Yen became stronger since I ordered and the refunds are all in Yen.

[MacrossJunkie]

7 hours ago, Anasazi37 said:

That seems high--even by current standards. @sqiddhas bought a lot of stuff from Mandarake over the past few months and I don't remember him quoting numbers that high. We've talked a lot here about how Mandarake's DHL prices seem to be much better than most other stores. Maybe that's changing. I just had Tenso ship me a Yamato 1/60 Queadluun-Rau using DHL, and that comes in a box much larger than the VF-1S, and they charged me ¥5525 for shipping plus a ¥1150 handling fee. Tenso jacks up their shipping prices because they know that they offer a unique service (other package forwarding companies do exactly the same thing), and I've grown accustomed to the handling fees because they do ensure that everything is packed nicely--even if they have to put your box in a larger box. So yeah, that seems high.

Yeah, it was only a week or two ago that I recall replying that $40 or so for DHL shipping seemed about right, in response to a post about DHL shipping being around that much.

Then I get hit with this. I could understand another 20-30% markup or so over time, but this seems really sudden and this is a 85-90% jump in rates.

[sqidd]

27 minutes ago, MacrossJunkie said:

 

Then I get hit with this. I could understand another 20-30% markup or so over time, but this seems really sudden and this is a 85-90% jump in rates.

Supply and demand?

[F360]

16 hours ago, MacrossJunkie said:

Ugh... finally got my shipping quote from Mandarake for the Hikaru VF-1S I ordered.

¥7810 for DHL shipping. Wow, what the heck? I thought it would be around $40-44 for DHL as I've had in the past for similar sized/weight packages. Did they up their rates dramatically?

yup, all shipping went up.   Shipping Cost started climbing since end of March. 

There were many posting about buying it from Amazon.co,jp for around $275 shipped. so I assume you missed all those posting.

maybe you can still back out?

[Slave IV]

I'm guessing a 1J type will be coming next. Either GBP or M&M. After that, CF 1A.

[Convectuoso]

I wonder what happened to that guy that a month or so ago was saying that a friend of his who worked at Bandai had told him that the next release (before DYRL Kaki and TV Focker were announced) was going to be TV Kakizaki.

He even showed some model kit pictures saying that they were the real deal...

[spacemanoeuvres]

37 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

I'm guessing a 1J type will be coming next. Either GBP or M&M. After that, CF 1A.

Oh dang, I’m going to end up ordering half a dozen CF. I love the brownies. 

[sqidd]

3 minutes ago, Convectuoso said:

I wonder what happened to that guy that a month or so ago was saying that a friend of his who worked at Bandai had told him that the next release (before DYRL Kaki and TV Focker were announced) was going to be TV Kakizaki.

He even showed some model kit pictures saying that they were the real deal...

His Mom probably cut off his internet access.

[Slave IV]

1 minute ago, spacemanoeuvres said:

Oh dang, I’m going to end up ordering half a dozen CF. I love the brownies. 

Yeah, good luck with that too! It's going to be Focker x6 madness!

[Grey728]

He was banned. But it turns out he was right about Kakizaki being the next DX even though all of his images were of a completed Hasegawa kit.

[Kyp Durron]

1 minute ago, sqidd said:

His Mom probably cut off his internet access.

[spacemanoeuvres]

12 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

Yeah, good luck with that too! It's going to be Focker x6 madness!

I didn’t think the CF were that popular. I’ve had great luck picking up cheap Yamato’s on yahoo auctions. 

[RedComet]

I think one that is both never gonna be made officially and is easy enough to make a custom out of an existing figure is the Alaska Base 1A made out of the TV Max. And hell, you can name the pilot and squadron whatever the hell you want  I am actually considering scrounging up some Max 1As for that purpose if @Anasazi37 would help with some decals and at least 3 more people would want one. Hell, every pilot name could be unique, so each would be a "one of one limited edition" haha

Edited July 16, 2020 by RedComet

[technoblue]

22 minutes ago, Grey728 said:

He was banned. But it turns out he was right about Kakizaki being the next DX even though all of his images were of a completed Hasegawa kit.

Too bad. So sad. He was trying to convince everyone that Kaki’s TV 1A was next in line, and Bandai trolled him with the DYRL type.

[DYRL VF-1S]

2 minutes ago, technoblue said:

Too bad. So sad. He was trying to convince everyone that Kaki’s TV 1A was next in line, and Bandai trolled him with the DYRL type.

I found his trolling to be hilarious.

[Slave IV]

30 minutes ago, spacemanoeuvres said:

I didn’t think the CF were that popular. I’ve had great luck picking up cheap Yamato’s on yahoo auctions. 

I'd like to get some more Yamato CF in 1/48 and V2 1/60. Don't see them too often and they usually aren't cheap but I haven't really checked Yahoo auctions. Hope you are right about them not being popular but somehow I don't think that is going to matter come preorder madness time.

[ErikElvis]

I’d get a couple CF’s for sure. 

[borgified]

33 minutes ago, RedComet said:

I think one that is both never gonna be made officially and is easy enough to make a custom out of an existing figure is the Alaska Base 1A made out of the TV Max. And hell, you can name the pilot and squadron whatever the hell you want  I am actually considering scrounging up some Max 1As for that purpose if @Anasazi37 would help with some decals and at least 3 more people would want one. Hell, every pilot name could be unique, so each would be a "one of one limited edition" haha

Don't forget a Whale Hunter custom from Macross 7: Dynamite pictured below. 

 

[Anasazi37]

 

39 minutes ago, RedComet said:

I think one that is both never gonna be made officially and is easy enough to make a custom out of an existing figure is the Alaska Base 1A made out of the TV Max. And hell, you can name the pilot and squadron whatever the hell you want  I am actually considering scrounging up some Max 1As for that purpose if @Anasazi37 would help with some decals and at least 3 more people would want one. Hell, every pilot name could be unique, so each would be a "one of one limited edition" haha

Alaska Base would be pretty straightforward to make decals for. The set would be larger since you're having to paint over a lot of the existing markings, but I don't think it would be that bad.

34 minutes ago, technoblue said:

Too bad. So sad. He was trying to convince everyone that Kaki’s TV 1A was next in line, and Bandai trolled him with the DYRL type.

Yeah, he ended up getting the Kakizaki part right, but kudos to Bandai for the epic trolling on that one

[Anasazi37]

Speaking of decals, I just finished printing the first set, which covers all current and announced releases to date, plus Roy and Max VF-1S customs. Most of the sheet is heading to @RedCometfor his custom projects, but six sets are still up for grabs. There's interest in two of them already, so maybe it's more like four are still up for grabs. I can print more, but not a *a lot* more, so PM me and I will put you on the list, after which I'll figure out how large a run I can actually do. I usually handle these print runs on a first come, first served basis. Price will be $5 per set plus shipping. If there's a lot of interest, I'll move this conversation to the For Sale forum and post a link here.

[ghostryder]

These look great, thanks for serving the community.  PM sent.

[RedComet]

So if anyone wants a new VF-1S Hikaru for the cheapest price possible, I would recommend this one. If you haven't used Buyee to buy something from Mercari before, you will get a coupon for 10,000 yen towards shipping, which will more than cover it. So yeah, it's basically a 1S for 27,000yen/$261 shipped to the USA via DHL. I would honestly add it to my own stockpile if I was eligible for the promo  Hopefully this makes someone finally pull the trigger on one of these, as the price hasn't been lower since pre-release.

https://buyee.jp/mercari/item/m36271073747?conversionType=browsing_history

[Jetreo]

Here's my take on DX Alaska Base in PS :

[Darotower]

3 minutes ago, Jetreo said:

Here's my take on DX Alaska Base in PS :

Super cool!!!

[DarkArchon3000]

Agreed, that does look cool!  I would be interested in a custom Alaska Base valk.

@Anasazi37 PM sent for a decals set.

[Kenny G]

22 hours ago, myk said:

Did you take pictures of that mess?

Yeah, just a couple. 

I had already taken the shipping label off. Oh, and it cam opened...yes!!!

it really was bad, I should have taken some more pics, but i sent it back. 

sorry, not trying to derail the thread.  

 

Edited July 17, 2020 by Kenny G
Edit

[RedComet]

So much drama on here about damaged boxes! Here’s an offer for anyone here. You can have this box for free, just pay actual shipping  perfect if you need to replace your torn one! I am being serious, so PM me if you want it.