DX VF-31J Super Siegfried (Hayate Immelmann Use) Revival Version

[MKT]

Just only realised this has been released a few days ago. Such a snooze lol, but secondary prices already went straight to discount.

https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/detailPage/item?itemCode=1273210886&lang=en

[PointBlankSniper]

Yeah, it's readily in stock at hobby search right now.

Maybe that will be an incentive for bandai to put the missiles back in if they continue with the line. But it also discourages them from continuing the line and finally reaching Arad and Chuck, to hopefully include their super packs this time around lol.

I wonder if anyone will review this to check for differences.

[Chronocidal]

PFFT... One left on HLJ even.

https://www.hlj.com/dx-chogokin-vf-31j-super-siegfried-hayate-immelmann-revival-ver-banc664181

This release went off like a silent fart.  

Maybe if it shows up on heavy discount at Amazon it'll be worth picking up for extra super parts to repaint.

Edited September 25 by Chronocidal

[Graham]

The hobby shop near my office has had stock of this since last week.

But as much as I like the VF-31J Super, I've no plans to buy, the reissue as I still have 2 of the original VF-31J release and super parts.

Now, If Bandai had released an Arad or Chuck VF-31AX that would be another story, I'd be all over those. Or even Arad & Chuck Super Parts for the original VF-31 releases.

[PointBlankSniper]

Actually kind of curious to see if they will milk the exact same mold some more, along with the head design, to pump out some 31J kais, since that one is kind of written out of canon now. That could be one way to retcon their Delta revivals and start releasing missiles for everyone lol.

[Slave IV]

Speaking of the 31J Kai, if anyone wants one, I have an extra that I could sell. Just putting that feeler out since I haven’t started a FS thread but I could. I’m on the SS list last time I checked. 
Edit: just checked again and I guess not since I may have not sold anything here but I have purchased and I think there are people here who can vouch for me. I rarely sell anything which is why my place looks like:

Edited September 26 by Slave IV

[Chronocidal]

1 hour ago, Slave IV said:

Speaking of the 31J Kai, if anyone wants one, I have an extra that I could sell. Just putting that feeler out since I haven’t started a FS thread but I could. I’m on the SS list last time I checked. 
Edit: just checked again and I guess not since I may have not sold anything here but I have purchased and I think there are people here who can vouch for me. I rarely sell anything which is why my place looks like:

Yeah, my "hobby room" is turning into the exact same situation.  Just boxes everywhere.  

[Slave IV]

3 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Yeah, my "hobby room" is turning into the exact same situation.  Just boxes everywhere.  

Haha yeah, my hobby room and over half my garage are stacked floor to ceiling. 

So yeah, lmk! Its the only 31J with a tramp stamp, comes with the elusive missiles, unopened with fancy tamashii nations packaging and made before their quality started going down the drain. What more could you want right?😁 I got some other stuff I'd probably be willing to part with but lazy to dig it out and take pics but if there is any interest, I guess I will and start a proper thread.

[PointBlankSniper]

I've been looking around for a comparison to the old one. Seems this is the only one.

Quote

Google TL:

Comparison of VF-31J Revival Ver. The standard version is on the right and the revival version is on the left. If you look closely at the white, it looks slightly grained. The blue is a little darker and the glitter on the electromagnetic shield of the canopy is thinner. It's probably not worth buying all of them.  I found them on sale, so I just bought them.

I've seen a couple other photos with it posed against the box, so it seems like the canopy is definitely clearer than what is shown on the box art. I can make out the fact that Hayate has painted eyes looking through it. Other than that, there is only a hand full of posts about it on JP twitter that aren't retailer ads. A couple were first time collectors or people that missed out on Web exclusive super packs. One of them had to RMA it because one of the arms somehow couldn't transform, and has already gotten it back fixed.

One post said Yodobashi Camera has already price cut it. I just looked it up myself, seems to be 28,400 yen

https://www.yodobashi.com/product/100000001008466909/

Personally, I was hoping they took the AX's wing hinge with the pylon jacks to make it compatible with the Lil Drakens without the funny adapters, or just to up the modular fun factor in general, but the photos I saw confirmed that it didn't happen. Looks like this was a very meh release even in Japan. Will be interesting to see how Bandai treats the rest of the Seigfrieds.

[no3Ljm]

10 hours ago, PointBlankSniper said:

Will be interesting to see how Bandai treats the rest of the Seigfrieds.

I have a feeling that we will not get a complete Super Seigfrieds. Instead of releasing this Revival shenanigans with the VF-31J, they should've just released Arad's, Chuck's, and the VF-31A's Super Packs and call it a day. Or better yet, just reissue the VF-31A instead.

[rsvictor1976]

I don't get it. I stopped collecting any of the Macross toys above the VF-1 when I had so much disappointment in the VF-25 series. This VF-31 just looks weird to me, especially with that large back sticking out like that. 

[David Hingtgen]

"the glitter on the electromagnetic shield of the canopy is thinner"

---tempted to get one just to swap out the canopy on Mirage's, hers is the most opaque of all.   Maybe if it gets super cheap some day...

[Chronocidal]

If this one drops as low as the Max YF-29 did on Amazon, that would be worth picking up just on principle.

[Mommar]

Bandai will take the wrong lesson from this.  The ride we've released five times already won't sell, continue to ignore booster sets for subsequent releases!

[seti88]

8 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

I have a feeling that we will not get a complete Super Seigfrieds. Instead of releasing this Revival shenanigans with the VF-31J, they should've just released Arad's, Chuck's, and the VF-31A's Super Packs and call it a day. Or better yet, just reissue the VF-31A instead.

The 31A is reserved for a special release....25th anniversary of macross delta...🥴

[505thAirborne]

9 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

I have a feeling that we will not get a complete Super Seigfrieds. Instead of releasing this Revival shenanigans with the VF-31J, they should've just released Arad's, Chuck's, and the VF-31A's Super Packs and call it a day. Or better yet, just reissue the VF-31A instead.

The VF-31A & Mirage's VF-31C is my only appreciation for Delta. 

(off topic) I'd rather see Bandai tackle a DX VF-2SS + SAP, but that's just me. 

[PointBlankSniper]

8 hours ago, David Hingtgen said:

"

the glitter on the electromagnetic shield of the canopy is thinner"

---tempted to get one just to swap out the canopy on Mirage's, hers is the most opaque of all.   Maybe if it gets super cheap some day...

8 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

If this one drops as low as the Max YF-29 did on Amazon, that would be worth picking up just on principle.

Don't know how low that is, but it's actually 24500 yen, with free shipping at least to your proxy, on amazon jp right now. lol

[no3Ljm]

6 hours ago, seti88 said:

The 31A is reserved for a special release....25th anniversary of macross delta...🥴

In 2041, eh?

4 hours ago, 505thAirborne said:

The VF-31A & Mirage's VF-31C is my only appreciation for Delta. 

(off topic) I'd rather see Bandai tackle a DX VF-2SS + SAP, but that's just me. 

(off topic) Count me in.

[m0n5t3r]

6 hours ago, 505thAirborne said:

The VF-31A & Mirage's VF-31C is my only appreciation for Delta. 

(off topic) I'd rather see Bandai tackle a DX VF-2SS + SAP, but that's just me. 

+1. Even if I didn't and will probably never watch Delta 

I can settle for a reissue of the HMR VF-2SS.

 

[Slave IV]

On 10/7/2024 at 11:18 AM, Mommar said:

Bandai will take the wrong lesson from this.  The ride we've released five times already won't sell, continue to ignore booster sets for subsequent releases!

My guess is even the third or fourth release of the main hero Valk still sold better than the first release of some of the others, which is why they keep redoing those instead. You know, because making money is their primary objective and the pattern is pretty consistent throughout the various series of Valks.

[Mommar]

6 hours ago, Slave IV said:

My guess is even the third or fourth release of the main hero Valk still sold better than the first release of some of the others, which is why they keep redoing those instead. You know, because making money is their primary objective and the pattern is pretty consistent throughout the various series of Valks.

Given the significant price drops on the previous release I'm not sure that guess is going to be accurate forever.

[PointBlankSniper]

10 hours ago, Slave IV said:

My guess is even the third or fourth release of the main hero Valk still sold better than the first release of some of the others, which is why they keep redoing those instead. You know, because making money is their primary objective and the pattern is pretty consistent throughout the various series of Valks.

If duping distributors and retailers, and then offloading unwanted stock to them is bandai's main businiess, that would make perfect sense.

At this point, bandai has a much stronger pattern of not acting in favor of their primary objective. I'm still waiting to see how they justify spending like a billion to make their meta verse, which is just a barebones and unoptimized copy of vrchat, and using it as a link to p-bandai's site lmao.

 

22 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

In 2041, eh?

I think according to background lore, the 31A is the result of the hypernova project, where Yang Neuman was invovled to correct his old mistake of making a super plane for a special pilot, This time, its design for the grunts, so its supposedly on track as the new CF unit of NUNS, to replace the 171. That mean's there's a chance 31A will be literal fodder in the next series. That may give it an imminent chance at rerelease. We just have to hope sunrise doesn't drag the next series' production timeline out to 2041, or reinvent the lore entirely 🙃

[Slave IV]

4 hours ago, Mommar said:

Given the significant price drops on the previous release I'm not sure that guess is going to be accurate forever.

I'm not sure prices for old items in the aftermarket they already sold out on matter to them. Again, history has shown that items often go on clearance in the relatively short term but then creep up sometimes to insane amounts when they haven't been available for a while.

18 minutes ago, PointBlankSniper said:

If duping distributors and retailers, and then offloading unwanted stock to them is bandai's main businiess, that would make perfect sense.

At this point, bandai has a much stronger pattern of not acting in favor of their primary objective. I'm still waiting to see how they justify spending like a billion to make their meta verse, which is just a barebones and unoptimized copy of vrchat, and using it as a link to p-bandai's site lmao.

Any corporate business main goal is to sell whatever they have by any means necessary. I don't know about those other ventures of theirs you mention but yeah, not all ideas are great.

Anyways, its all getting old to me and I'm just happy there are Macross.toys to get and if they make.more variations and versions I want, all the better but I'm not counting on them.

[twich]

Just a questions for those that might know the answer.....would this be available from the Tamashii Nations booth, say at the New York City Comicon?  My wife and son are going there on Thursday and are going to be shopping for my birthday present while there, so I am hoping that they would have a good selection of Macross DX Chogokin toys.  thanks to any who might be able to answer this for me!

Twich

[guyxxed]

I have no idea, but would think it's likely.  They've been leaning into the Macross availability at the (admittedly very few) events I've been to recently where they had a presence.  

To the rest of the discussion, I completely get the frustration everyone has with this release, but as a member of the target audience for it, I totally get why this is first out of the gate for Delta.  I only started collecting about two years ago as previously it was too difficult, too expensive, and too 'unnecessary' in my life.  Time passes and things change, though, so now I find myself starting to look at getting things I would have never considered before, just because I can and it fits where I am in my life now.  I did not buy any of these toys on first release, and while I've picked up one or two in the aftermarket, the Alto 25F with super parts bundle was exactly the spur I needed to get started.  That toy at that price available through a US distributor?  I didn't even think twice.  This release is the same.  It is squarely aimed at people like me.  I will likley wait until the US prices drop a little before picking it up, but I'm happy it's here.  Would I rather have a 31A?  Absolutely, but this is still a nice thing to be able to get here.  Just my two cents, for what it's worth.

[Mommar]

On 10/9/2024 at 12:25 AM, Slave IV said:

I'm not sure prices for old items in the aftermarket they already sold out on matter to them. Again, history has shown that items often go on clearance in the relatively short term but then creep up sometimes to insane amounts when they haven't been available for a while.

It matters to the sellers.  If they can't move them, they aren't going to buy as many the next time, if at all.  That will affect Bandai if they can't sell through as many as the previous time.

The 11C goes for crazy amounts on the aftermarket now, was on sale for $100 when I bought #'s 2 and 3 a year after release.  Nobody is making a move to make more now because the lesson was to retailers that they don't sell and the reason was the deep discount they had to put them on.

[Slave IV]

4 hours ago, Mommar said:

It matters to the sellers.  If they can't move them, they aren't going to buy as many the next time, if at all.  That will affect Bandai if they can't sell through as many as the previous time.

The 11C goes for crazy amounts on the aftermarket now, was on sale for $100 when I bought #'s 2 and 3 a year after release.  Nobody is making a move to make more now because the lesson was to retailers that they don't sell and the reason was the deep discount they had to put them on.

Exactly! Which answers all the talk of "Why don't they just make this or that or more of this or that?" or complaints of "artificial scarcity". It's the way it is because this stuff just doesn't sell enough to be any other way right now.