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Post by faelon on Oct 6, 2016 17:42:58 GMT -5
$300 ! what are they smoking they are getting in Fewture price range which is nonsense, Bandai bargaining chip is affordable figures, with Golion i understand it wasn't cheap to get a license but with this i really dont get it i will wait for Japanese retailers to open their PO on it hopefully they will give a good discount This ones not really a surprise. It's the same price as Voltron, which it is very very similar to in many ways. And in the same general ball park as GGG. You can't really compare to Fewture. Fewture largely does well sculpted Gokin action figures. Their strength is in art design and shaping. They haven't really tackled a big combiner yet where each piece must also be several other things.
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Post by faelon on Sept 30, 2016 16:59:15 GMT -5
on their FB page they post a comment " Fake Color! " im not sure is ir a repainted version because the figure is packing up alot of good feedback, or its was a test sample ? also there is a tiny blue part next to the original color figure right feet, whats that lol The tiny blue part is the robots ear. It looks like the way they get the kid to stand on his shoulder is the kid is attached to a replacement ear piece that you swap in.
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Post by faelon on Sept 27, 2016 18:05:56 GMT -5
KAISER ROCKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I really wasn't expecting those ball shaped hip joints to take on such an utterly horrifying subtext... It's like Borat in robot form.
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Post by faelon on Sept 26, 2016 11:53:10 GMT -5
Oh dear, that is rather ugly. I've been trying to put my finger on what makes me really hate this design so much? I finally realized it's because while classic Reideen in one of the most distinctive and unique designs in the robot pantheon, this one looks exactly like every other roided up 90's robot. That gold colored demo unit is what makes you realize it. Look at it there without Reideens traditional coloring. If you did not know ahead of time would you realize that that was Reideen? They could have painted it differently and called it Zeorymer or Escaflowne and nobody would have known the difference. The sculpt is some sort of generic interchangeable 90's bot. Nothing in this design leads one to suspect that this was supposed to be Reideen, not even the head. Especially not the head. It's like somebody sketched out a "modernized classic robot" full of kibble, then asked what they could sell it as?
edit to correct "autocorrect aphasia"
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Post by faelon on Sept 24, 2016 19:48:54 GMT -5
Given as long as that series is not named Mazinger.. its all uncertain. Even then, has there been any Soul of Chogokin figures for Mazinkaiser or Energer Z? Heck, even Grendizer feels a bit forgotten by now. They've mostly been trending towards using the SOC line for the classic combining and transforming robots in recent times, and the SRC line for the more fixed look robots that greatly benefit from the added articulation. Yeah there are exceptions such as the forthcoming Maz Z, but by and large that seems to be the pattern. SRC has had I believe 5 Mazinkaiser variants released. While doing a SOC version might bring a different sculpt, I am not sure exactly what you could bring to the table feature wise that would be substantially different from the SRC offerings? (OK spring firing rocket punch instead of the posed effects part ones. That's about it.) Similarly while GX-04S is the classic, honestly I think the newer SRC Grendy with Spazer is overall the better rendition. It's the first time the robot is properly scaled to the Spazer, and fits inside smoothly without parts forming, transformation, collapse or disassembly. As far as GGG? The main robot isn't too bad price wise. And you can even get Goldymarg dirt cheap. The only over the top expensive piece is the Japan Exclusive Stealth Gao upgrade set. Which is a "nice to have" but not entirely critical. Or just get the SRC's which can be found cheaply and look gorgeous.
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Post by faelon on Sept 22, 2016 12:29:26 GMT -5
The fully combined Daizyjin look a little chunky. But I guess that is technically accurate to the Tokusatso prototype. It just looks weird to me as I have grown used to the more stylized "real" looking SRC proportions. It looks like the SOC is going full on to give it that "dude in cardboard suit" look and proportionality. Are you talking about the 2nd pic with Daizyujin in the leftmost corner? That is the original 92 mold. Ah, I did not realize that was the old one.
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Post by faelon on Sept 22, 2016 11:41:49 GMT -5
The fully combined Daizyjin look a little chunky. But I guess that is technically accurate to the Tokusatso prototype. It just looks weird to me as I have grown used to the more stylized "real" looking SRC proportions. It looks like the SOC is going full on to give it that "dude in cardboard suit" look and proportionality.
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Post by faelon on Sept 18, 2016 17:49:32 GMT -5
A heads up.HLJ has the V2 Diabattles on sale today for $109.99
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Post by faelon on Sept 18, 2016 15:22:09 GMT -5
why not used spring hinged panels like the src and not make it look so ugly? i think that was the best way to go to keep it looking nice from every angle. I think we will need a better look or more information before we can answer that one. Although it is probably worth noting that they don't tend to use those panels as much on transforming or combining SOC's. The SRC's have a much more solid and simple frame on which to anchor them. For SRC's the load bearing is mainly internal along the lines of what we would view as the skeleton. For the Combiners and Transforming bots the load bearing is more often than not on the outer skin. While it doesn't seem like much to us, it can change how the parts need to be made or assembled. Which could preclude being able to put those hinged panels in. When we look at a robot we tend to look at just two of the problems. Base design, and does it match the expected prototype (i.e. The dreaded anime accuracy). The designers have a few other problems to solve that we never realize. The biggest being manufacturing and production process. Putting these things together is a complex puzzle, that must be done a certain way for each one. Spring doors would be nice, unless it is a practical difficulty of getting the springs and doors mounted in the little box shaped part.
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Post by faelon on Sept 18, 2016 14:31:23 GMT -5
Dont bother doing business with Anime Island. Youll just end disappointed. Might as well deal with hlj, amiami, Nippon yasan or even bbts. Never had problems with them for the longest time im ordering from Canada. As much as I like getting the best price or deal, I have found over the years that paying a touch more for solid dependable Customer Service, and vendors that I can communicate with is a good thing, often worth paying a little more for. Yeah HLJ sometimes costs a little more. But it gives me an English speaking CS staff that actually resolve my issues quickly. With overseas purchases I put that in the same category as shipping insurance.
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Post by faelon on Sept 13, 2016 11:00:44 GMT -5
I think they're staying hollow on purpose so the Black lion can sit down properly, with the legs collapsed? I do hope they provide optional covers or something. Gold oh nooooo! its like goldymarg all over again! This isn't quite that bad. The Hollowness in Goldymarg made it feel like an 80's toy. You expected it to be in a big blister pack hanging on a peg at TRU. It made the robot feel under designed. Like steps were missed. Looking at it you can see where they could have easily included hinged covers. For whatever reason they didn't it wasn't really a necessity of function or design. these look more like a deliberate functional design decision. The legs are not simply open, rather the openings have specific shaping? While not exactly aesthetically pleasing, I will likely forgive it if it's purpose is to give the robot deep articulation. Volt robs knees have always been the biggest problem with the toy designs. The nature of the transformation left them weak or with limited Range of Motion. Those gaps make me curious to see what bandai has done here?
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Post by faelon on Sept 12, 2016 13:53:04 GMT -5
Wow, that picture really helps give a sense of scale. So this isn't that much bigger than GX-01 or the SOC Mazinkaiser? That's much smaller than I thought it would be?
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Post by faelon on Sept 12, 2016 12:18:42 GMT -5
exactly right Faelon i agree with you tho im not interested in getting it since i have the first version and my money went to Bandai SOC, im putting it for those who is still interested in getting one, and honestly if Bandai didnt release their version i would probably go with this official release lol never pay for anything upfront specially those figures that have an unknown fate, even legit huge companies have delays (unless you really trust the store and the company you are buying from) and honestly as many horror stories i head about chines sellers, i never had a problem with any thank god, the only problem i usually have is the communication barrier, ones i bought something and i wanted it to be shipped to my friend address i put that with caps on, however the guy send it to my PayPal address LOL but even with that mistake, he said if you didnt get i will send you another one and it was a very expensive purchase i checked on Ebay earlier today and i found couple of sellers saying its in stock, one of them even have 1 sold 1 left, it was the black version however i will stay away till i see people getting it and after getting the SOC The shipping thing is not simply a language barrier. Many merchants who accept PayPal will typically only ship to the registered PayPal address. It protects them. Just as PayPal policies protect the purchasers from fraud, there are some protections for the merchants. With Drop Ship Scams being such a thing, they immediately flag a mismatched shipping and PP address as potential fraud. In any such dispute the merchant instantly loses. Whereas if the merchant ships to the PP address they are protected. For or those who have never encountered the Drop Ship Scam it goes something like this. You see a price on a current high value item advertised from a third party merchant that is good. Really good. Like 20% less than anywhere else. The item has to be something that is currently widely available through retail channels such as Amazon, Walmart etc. And typically over $100 in value. You buy the item and merchant takes payment. When the item arrives it comes directly from the manufacturer or mass merchant. In other words the box is from Walmart.com, Amazon.com Lego Shop@Home etc. What has happened is the 3p merchant has taken your payment, then ordered the item delivered directly to you using stolen or fraudulent payment info. A stolen CRedit Card number or PayPal account. It may be weeks before the actual account owner discovers the charge and issues a chargeback. And you are effectively left holding stolen goods, wondering how or why you can no longer do business with Amazon, Walmart etc, as it is your address and info that has been flagged in the system. (Most merchants will be forgiving about this sort of thing if you contact them... Once and only once.) but out because of the above, many merchants now get very leery if the ship to and payment info do not match. Yes you can send a gift. But they watch and track things more carefully. Also so note with the Drop Ship scam, it only applies to new, currently released products. Things still available from the factory or manufacturer. Out of production items are not susceptible to it. So be careful when ordering the SOC Voltron if the deal is just too good. But a deal on a SOC God Sigma is probably legit.
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Post by faelon on Sept 11, 2016 11:07:52 GMT -5
anyways enough with the nonsense, lets get back to the topic i contacted some HK stores asking about the figure some said it will indeed get released at the end of this month, others said it will be available later this year, guess what month ?.... yup December again lol, whats with every company releasing their stuff in December this is bad for timing most of us now the very interesting part is some sellers said that the black version is in stock ! and its ready to ship as soon as i pay ! honestly i don't know could some one confirm this ? did they really release it ? Generally no. You have to be careful with HK and Chinese sellers with this sort of thing. Most of them do not actually carry any stock themselves. Rather they are flipping items from Chinese auction sites or other local dealers. So if the item is shown as available somewhere, they will declare that they have it "in stock". They operate under "it is better to ask forgiveness while you are holding their money, then it is for them to give the money to someone else to begin with". They will eventually come through or refund if the product never releases. But you won't be seeing it any sooner than anyone else, no matter how much they claim "in stock". Assume any claims of "in stock" are pretty much bullsh*t until we see reports of it in the wild. I mean, yeah you might be the first one to snag one in stock, but the odds really aren't good.
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Post by faelon on Sept 10, 2016 9:46:24 GMT -5
The difference is Bandai is involved this time, and they have the full license. East and West. Voltron and GoLion. And Bandai has an amazingly effective policy regarding this sort of thing. If you as a merchant, ever want to order or sell Bandai product now or in the future, you do not violate Bandai's licenses or IP. They will cut you off if they find you dealing 3p bootlegs of their licenses. Or if they find you are risking their license by dealing in ways that violate it. Case in point why you cannot buy SHFA Star Wars or Bandai Star Wars Model Kits from HLJ. HLJ is technically exclusively a North American dealer/distributor. Their selling those lines into that market risked a conflict between Bandai and Hasbro. Bandai quickly and politely let them know that this was a no no. No more Star Wars into NA! Or else! Assuming that SHFA stands for SH Figuarts? HLJ is still Selling SHFiguarts to NA (North America) customers. There is no crease and decease order. I can go to their website and buy them right now. Same for the model kits. They don't have any Star Wars model kits in stock but they can and will continue to sell them to North America customers. BBTS will also import Star Wars SHFiguarts. Both Bandai and Hasbro have licenses to produce and sell Star War merchandise. There's no conflict between the two companies. They are making different products. Each region creates merchandise tailored to what they forecast will sell and profit from their region. For NA or USA, retailers can use Bluefin to get Japanese region imports. Not all retailers in the USA/NA is willing to do so. Which is why we don't see SHFiguarts at Target, TRU and Walmart. It does not mean that these retailer are prohibited to sell these imports. In the past, TRU did sell SHFiguarts Power Ranger figures. They probably stop due to the lack of sales. Some local comic store do use bluefin so they can get those import figures. AmazonUSA will also sell you these import figures. I can buy imported Star Wars merchandise at my local comic store, but I don't cause the mark up is way high. I don't believe they ever got hit with a C&D per se. They were informed by Bandai that they had to stop selling certain Star Wars related products into North America, at least within a certain period of the movie. I think the root of the complaint was actually from Revel-Monogram over the model kits. But for awhile the SHFA figures got swept up in the caution too. HLG seems to be stocking the figures again, although the prices make me suspect that there is some behind the scenes games going on whereby they must price them as retail purchased and manually imported figures, much like BBTS does. The huge flag for the Star Wars figs is they cannot be looped through the North American Distributor Bluefin. (An easy way to see if a subject can be distributed in North America is to look at BBTS. If the price of a figure seems obscene or double what you would expect, it is a figure that cannot be carried or stocked by Bluefin, thus BBTS must retail purchase it in Japan and then import it.) It's not a matter of "SHFiguarts" figures. Most of them can be imported no problem. Heck Barnes and Noble stocked the Batman ones. It depends on the terms of the license of the IP being depicted. Of course TRU would stock Power Rangers without an issue. Bandai makes both the SHFA and the US Bandai-America retail figs. TRU stopped stocking them because TRU's business model does not account well for expensive "Adult Collector" targeted merchandise. So to them t he SHFA are overpriced kids toys that move badly. (We see this blind spot of TRU's in a lot of our beloved lines such as Gokin or Masterpiece Transformers. Even when a product sells well if it is attracting the "wrong sort" of customer demographic they will kill the line.)
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Post by faelon on Sept 7, 2016 18:42:23 GMT -5
And slightly off topic, but speaking of SRC's, I found a pair of the 5" Bandai plastic Dino Charge Megazords on Clearance at Target for $5 each today. I grabbed them because they scale with the SRC's... And dear lord are these things awful! Worst, cheesiest action figures ever. One of them only has paint apps on the front. The entire back is black plastic. Articulation is slightly worse than a Lego minifig ( at least the minifig said head moves). Just horrible, but will serve for standing behind the good SRC's and forming a crowd.
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Post by faelon on Sept 7, 2016 18:33:39 GMT -5
i guess both will be easy to get, the first version was exactly in the middle of the copyrights shut down and it was in production till 2015 lol for me im a consumer so getting it from any online store from china isn't a huge deal for me, the risk will be on those who want to buy and sell but even with that you are forgetting there is also Instagram, forums and actual shops, a while back a guy offered me $500 for my first release KOB now im with you with maximizing the profit but if things wont go your way, something better than nothing, the first KOB totally destroyed every Voltron on the market, im sure they study the market better this time check the older thread for KOB some new info are there The difference is Bandai is involved this time, and they have the full license. East and West. Voltron and GoLion. And Bandai has an amazingly effective policy regarding this sort of thing. If you as a merchant, ever want to order or sell Bandai product now or in the future, you do not violate Bandai's licenses or IP. They will cut you off if they find you dealing 3p bootlegs of their licenses. Or if they find you are risking their license by dealing in ways that violate it. Case in point why you cannot buy SHFA Star Wars or Bandai Star Wars Model Kits from HLJ. HLJ is technically exclusively a North American dealer/distributor. Their selling those lines into that market risked a conflict between Bandai and Hasbro. Bandai quickly and politely let them know that this was a no no. No more Star Wars into NA! Or else! Bandai will quietly and happily look the other way when someone is selling their Asian product into the NA market, so long as it doesn't cross somebody else's IP. They will not play so nice when the same vendors are selling someone else's unlicensed product into their IP or license space. You could find the first run KOB because while there was risk of a C&D, honestly nobody really cares if they lose access to Toynami's product. But Bandai? That's a risk most of the more reputable dealers will think twice about. Meaning all sales will be person to person or quick pop up E-Bay types. Only the most dedicated niche fans will go looking for those off the beaten track sellers. Yeah there will be product to be bought. The tooling has been made, somebody will be looking to get their money back somehow. But it's going to be a long slow slog for the MT folks basically selling the thing one at a time to individuals. The pre-orders that are out there were all placed while there was hope this would be licensed, and before Bandai entered the picture. At best the vendors may honor those (even Bandai would not fault that.) but likely will not touch the product again going forward. (And yeah Transformers fans, if ever you want to see a model for how Takara could wipe out the 3p Transformers Marketspace instantly. Look at how Bandai does it. Granted Bandai is a much bigger supplier with much more leverage. Loss of Bandai would do major damage to any hobby or toy merchant.)
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Post by faelon on Sept 7, 2016 14:01:59 GMT -5
Sorry for necro-posting but during my foray into Rangerboard, I figured out a snag said board that I figured out with the Soul of Chogokin Daizyujin. If Bandai America were to for some reason hypothetically re-remake the Legacy Dino Megazord, it would have to fit with the Legacy Dragonzord release as well as Legacy Titanus to an extent. Though it is too early to count the chickens before hatching, I realized that the gloves or gauntlet and chest piece Daizyujin wears as part of the Ultimate Daizyujin formation may not be available for the Soul of Chogokin release. As in the Legacy Titanus parts may not fit with the Soul of Chogokin and really why would it especially if Bandai Japan would not expect to make more releases for Power Rangers Season 1. This may be a necessity to release their own SoC Titanus which may be the same usual price a Legacy Titanus is now and would only get more ridiculous as times goes on. This may be another case of the SoC Star Gaogaigar where if there will be an SoC Titanus/King Brachion it will end up being a much more expensive hassle that not many will buy and will just make your SoC Megazord a brick if you do. An imposing brick but a brick nonetheless. Safe bet is SOC will not be following the Legacy Line or DX's. The Presentation of the Sentai's bots as we saw in SRC is the more likely path SOC will follow. The complete stand alone core robots with a few accessories. I would not expect to see many if any add on bots. Maybe just maybe the Dragonzord as its well known and popular enough on its own. But given the lukewarm reception to the GaoGaiGar add ons, particularly Goldymarg, don't hold your breath waiting on a SOC Titanus. We will see a SOC Gokai-Oh, Shinken-Oh or Dekaranger Robo long before we see a Titanus.
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Post by faelon on Sept 7, 2016 13:51:00 GMT -5
you know how Chinese people roll man, the first version was released even after they got shut down till 2015 and you can still find some on HK if you went there and on some online stores i guess they were playing nice by asking for a license if they wont give them the figure will be released again lol alot of cars companies couldn't win in court against other Chinese car companies even they exact copied their cars, bottom line copyright doesn't exists in China They can't win in court in China. The problem is exporting from China is where the market and money is. High priced luxury item bootlegs are fairly easy for a company like Bandai or WEP to if not shut down, greatly restrict in the market space. They could probably sell 10,000 pieces of KOB if they had a valid license and could distribute via traditional retail and legit or trusted online merchants. Instead their only path to sales in North America Japan, South Korea and Europe is the online equivalent of a Craig's List deal staged at 3am behind the bowling alley. Their total sales in that market space might be a few hundred if lucky. Even E-Bay sales run the risk of being ended via copyright enforcement. Which is a shame. It's a really nice figure. A ton of people would snatch one up if it could be purchased without risk. Instead getting one is the super robot equivalent of a late night drug deal in a city you have never visited before. Weirdly the Black might actually be easier to get, as by nature it is a harder copyright case to prove. While clearly a knock off, the lack of the classically colored lions might keep it in the realm of "inspired by" rather than "infringing".
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Post by faelon on Sept 5, 2016 13:53:12 GMT -5
Has anyone attempted a fuzzy gokin before? It seems strange?
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