Bandai METAL Line (MBuild/MStructure/GFFMComposite/MRDamashii/Gundam Chogokin)

[FAZZ888]

I just finished listening to a podcast by Hong Kong toy industry insiders, the stocks have arrived and HKD 24000 (USD 3000) is now the norm price amongst all the HK retailers.  What was said is basically all the HK retailer now have the mentality of looking for that year end profit stream.  I'm conflicted, on one hand I hate price scalping but on the other hand, if anyone is going to do it might as well be the retailers making the margin as opposed to a middle man buying for cheap from the stores and then flipping online.  The reality is that even if a retailer does not want to price scalp, they will because otherwise someone will just buy from them and flip it, not benefiting the end users.

[no3Ljm]

Not my photo.

 

Btw, just in case anyone is going to let go the extra shield (shown on the picture) that comes with the set, let me know.  

 

Edited December 20, 2022 by no3Ljm

[Scyla]

3 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

Not my photo.

 

Btw, just in case anyone is going to let go the extra shield (shown on the picture) that comes with the set, let me know.  

 

Isn’t the shield the main reason to buy that set? I know it is for me.

[68whiskey]

12 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

Not my photo.

 

Btw, just in case anyone is going to let go the extra shield (shown on the picture) that comes with the set, let me know.  

 

Yo

I bought two bazooka kit things with the intent of doing a dual bazooka display(if possible). If you want a shield and we can work out a price I’ll sell it to you.

 

[no3Ljm]

11 hours ago, Scyla said:

Isn’t the shield the main reason to buy that set? I know it is for me.

True. But I have a feeling that it might take a while to sell only the BFG that's why I didn't order one. 

 

2 hours ago, 68whiskey said:

Yo

I bought two bazooka kit things with the intent of doing a dual bazooka display(if possible). If you want a shield and we can work out a price I’ll sell it to you.

Thanks! Just hit me up if you're letting go of one. 

[weiser21]

4 hours ago, 68whiskey said:

Yo

I bought two bazooka kit things with the intent of doing a dual bazooka display(if possible). If you want a shield and we can work out a price I’ll sell it to you.

 

You only got two? But you never just two of anything 😀.

[tjdetweiler]

Did they cancel because you are not part of the priority list or you haven't purchased from them before? I don't agree w/ the practice - but had no choice to get my hands on it:

 

OK - so Metal Structure secured from them- 155,000 yen +  81,000 yen (additional fee) + 12,000 yen shipping = 248,000 yen (approx 1,900 USD)  - will let you guys know how I go...

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

GM GFFMC:

 

[weiser21]

GUNDAM FIX FIGURATION METAL COMPOSITE RGM-79 GM(SLEGGAR)【Cucuruz Doan's Island】up on pbandai.

https://p-bandai.com/us/item/N2641788001001

[no3Ljm]

Metal Structure MSN-04 SAZABI Option Parts Rewloola Laboratory
July 2023 Release
Y29700
P-Bandai Release

[anime52k8]

yes yes Bandai; stupid, overpriced accesories for your stupid, overpriced Sazabi. Don't care, WHERE IS MY DEATHSCYTHE HELL PREORDER?!? 😡

[lechuck]

 

[kajnrig]

Reminds me of

[68whiskey]

On 12/22/2022 at 6:59 PM, no3Ljm said:

Metal Structure MSN-04 SAZABI Option Parts Rewloola Laboratory
July 2023 Release
Y29700
P-Bandai Release

This is a slap in the face to Bandai customers. First you didnt allow enough pre orders of this thing , then the price was jacked after gauging initial interest and now you are teasing accessory parts for an item not too many people got their hands on? #ouch

On 12/22/2022 at 8:27 PM, anime52k8 said:

yes yes Bandai; stupid, overpriced accesories for your stupid, overpriced Sazabi. Don't care, WHERE IS MY DEATHSCYTHE HELL PREORDER?!? 😡

^^what he said. 

On 12/20/2022 at 2:10 PM, weiser21 said:

You only got two? But you never just two of anything 😀.

You seem to have me confused with @davidwhangchoi or @carlsylar . Ive always orded doubles (occasionally singles) of most things except as of lately since bandai is just taking our wallets on a rollercoaster ride of repeat releases. 

[Scyla]

Hacchaka's review of the Hyper Mega Bazooka:

https://hacchaka.net/archives/52089904.html

What we really want to see:

 

Really wished the Amuro coat of arms was red.

[Armval]

Just got my payment request from HLJ for the metal structure sazabi.

172000 + 51480 (fedex priority shipping to California SF). Expensive but better than buying it on ebay kukukukuku.

 

[FAZZ888]

sazabi open box

 

[FAZZ888]

another sazabi stream

 

[FAZZ888]

I got carried away with sharing online videos of the Sazabi unboxing, this will be my last post sharing videos.  As the product is getting released to the public more and more videos will come out and one can simply go on youtube or bilibili, search by Sazabi and sort by upload date.

 

This last video I'm going to share is informative, it has a lot of tips on how to flip the panels etc. so as not to scratch or break the toy.  But most importantly he pointed out a defect that the head light won't light up; so for anyone getting the Sazabi please make sure to test it out.

 

[Grey728]

57 minutes ago, FAZZ888 said:

I got carried away with sharing online videos of the Sazabi unboxing, this will be my last post sharing videos.  As the product is getting released to the public more and more videos will come out and one can simply go on youtube or bilibili, search by Sazabi and sort by upload date.

 

This last video I'm going to share is informative, it has a lot of tips on how to flip the panels etc. so as not to scratch or break the toy.  But most importantly he pointed out a defect that the head light won't light up; so for anyone getting the Sazabi please make sure to test it out.

 

Please continue to share! Is this you in the video?

[kajnrig]

I'm seeing you guys share links with prices of ~$3k or more. What's the retail price of this thing again, somewhere around 100,000 JPY/$1000?

[Armval]

5 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

I'm seeing you guys share links with prices of ~$3k or more. What's the retail price of this thing again, somewhere around 100,000 JPY/$1000?

Here is the retail price in Yen with shipping.

172000 + 51480 (fedex priority shipping to California SF)

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

13 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

I'm seeing you guys share links with prices of ~$3k or more. What's the retail price of this thing again, somewhere around 100,000 JPY/$1000?

 

7 minutes ago, Armval said:

Here is the retail price in Yen with shipping.

172000 + 51480 (fedex priority shipping to California SF)

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10906489
The actual MSRP is suppose to be 189,200 JPY

[FAZZ888]

2 hours ago, Grey728 said:

Please continue to share! Is this you in the video?

not my video, my orders (yes, s, 2) were all made with North American retailers so they won't be available until end of Jan to Feb.  I suspect for the first month after release the majority of the review videos will be from Japanese / Chinese content creators and the English language videos won't be available until later.  I was excited at first seeing the influx of videos so I started posting, but don't want to spam.  If more comes out with important information I will sure to share here, like the possible defect of the head led not lighting up.

[FAZZ888]

My heart skipped a beat watching people playing with this, it is not supposed to bend like this, it'll snap !!!

[Scyla]

Hacchaka's review of the Metal Structure Sazabi: https://hacchaka.net/archives/52090036.html

While this looks cool, I don’t think these are for me. To massive and big and not pleasant to handle. They lend themselves for great pictures though:

Being a fan of the Katoki MG designs this looks a bit off to me.

[edit:] What I found really fascinating in Hacchaka’s review was the notion that the Sazabi in maintenance mode looks like the Nightingale, which has to be on purpose.

Edited December 29, 2022 by Scyla

[Big s]

4 hours ago, Scyla said:

Hacchaka's review of the Metal Structure Sazabi: https://hacchaka.net/archives/52090036.html

While this looks cool, I don’t think these are for me. To massive and big and not pleasant to handle. They lend themselves for great pictures though:

Being a fan of the Katoki MG designs this looks a bit off to me.

[edit:] What I found really fascinating in Hacchaka’s review was the notion that the Sazabi in maintenance mode looks like the Nightingale, which has to be on purpose.

Honestly, to me it looks really messy. If someone didn’t know the designing kinda wonder if they wouldn’t just think it’s a pile of crumpled red foil.

[Scyla]

16 minutes ago, Big s said:

Honestly, to me it looks really messy. If someone didn’t know the designing kinda wonder if they wouldn’t just think it’s a pile of crumpled red foil.

Oh, no doubt about that. I think that is another issue I have with the Metal Structure line: I would prefer if all the part count goes into articulation instead of these busy hyper detailed gimmicks. But clearly this is not what Bandai is trying to achieve.

I will be much happier with a Metal Build Sazabi.

[leeboo1211]

13 hours ago, Scyla said:

edit:] What I found really fascinating in Hacchaka’s review was the notion that the Sazabi in maintenance mode looks like the Nightingale, which has to be on purpose.

The joke is, once they put the Sazabi into maintenance mode they couldn't transform it back, so they just decided to turn it into the Nightingale and call it an upgrade XD

[FAZZ888]

Sazabi instruction manual link:

https://tamashiiweb.com/images/item/item_0000014085_cRuXXXod_300.pdf 

[Scyla]

20 minutes ago, Chunky001 said:

First Metal Structure Sazabi in the US? It just got here 10min ago. Man that was fast!

While I recognize that these toys are not for me I’m curious what others think about them. So please give a short review while you had time to fiddle with it.

[pafy6285]

To those interested, quite a number of listings of metal structure Sazabi in Rakuma with the lowest being at 320k yen (or ~USD $2450 at current forex). Though you have to be strategic when choosing a listing as the cheapest ones will most probably be bought by somebody else before your proxy can. YAJ on the other hand is around 340k yen (buy it now) with occasional lower 330s.  Can't say if this will still get lower, but I think that's a decent post-release price relative to the PO price of US based stores.

[pafy6285]

40 minutes ago, Chunky001 said:

The killer on these is the shipping. THE BOX IS HUGE! The dog in that pic is a 70lb pittie for scale. Shipping is $500-600. Add that to $2450 and you're up over $3000 real quick.

Some scalpers really scored big on this one.

Using some proxy calculators and checking EMS rates, and assuming that the dimensions found in HLJ / hobbysearch are accurate, and that it will be shipped with just the original bandai brown box, cheapest rate is ~45000 yen (EMS and Fedex) or ~$350.

Yeah scalpers scored big with this one considering the raw profit.  And there's already a lot of sold transactions in YAJ and Rakuma even at the current price range (some even buying two or  more). IIRC, the metal structure NU was still available on retailers like Amazon JP when it was released and it took a while before it got to absurd pricing. So scalpers already identified this line as a lucrative one even with high upfront cost.

Edited December 30, 2022 by pafy6285

[Scyla]

28 minutes ago, Chunky001 said:

Absolutely.

I'm a "fire and forget" type of collector. I usually pose something once, and then leave it forever. And I don't go for crazy dynamic poses in my displays because that takes up more room than I have. So something like this is right up my alley. A hyper detailed "pose-able statue".

I can absolutely appreciate more pose-able and toy like toys though. Even if I'm not taking full advantage of it. I love the new MoShow stuff and the CCS toys are pretty good too. You can play with those.

I’m usually the same way with pose and display, because I have too much stuff. However I prefer toys that you can easily handle. 
So all accessories should stay attached, you need to be able to easily hold and manipulate the toy without the fear of damaging it and it should be able to put the toy in the poses you hand in mind for display.

My favorite lines at the moment are the Kuro Kara Kuri Transformers and the Metal Build Gundams. And while some of those violate the requirements I stated above (like the Full Cloth Crossbone Gundams), they usually check a lot of those points.

[pafy6285]

wotafa's Sazabi review: