Mecha Talk

GundamStoreAndMore's website updates certainly have gotten the attention they need. Found something else interesting that's technically not really "buy Gunpla/MSiA" related, but can surely help you get MORE.

Gunpla Contest

GSaM has a bi-weekly contest for Gunpla submissions. There's a $50 Gift Certificate awarded to the winner every two weeks. There's plenty of Gunpla talent floating about this forum, so I'm sure you guys could win some GSaM bucks to blow on MORE Gunpla!

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Visit the Gundam 00 Forums and the Titans Test Team Arc

That entry has been there since the site re-opened. I think that feature is now compromised like the forum because the web guy quit.

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http://www.facebook.com/Tamashii.USA http://www.twitter.com/TamashiiNations

What a shame. I didn't notice that MAJOR detail... figures.

Oh well, it was nice while it lasted! (did it actually last? lol)

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Visit the Gundam 00 Forums and the Titans Test Team Arc

Did anyone notice the recent price increases at Gundam Store and More? It just struck me weird how they started to increase the prices on some of their older kits. May just be a dollar or two, but still its kind of strange...

I was thinking of placing a small order with GundamStoreandMore and not I'm not sure...is the company shutting down?

They just made a new site and sold out on Ignition Mode Exia. They're still good in business regardless.

USD is taking a bit of a dive against JPY.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=USDJPY=X

GSaM's prices are still cheaper than HLJ (not even factoring shipping)

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http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljsalepage2/?G...20Gundam%20Sale!

incredible sale folks

and if you pay with PayPal, you get FREE EMS shipping

offer's valid til sept. 28th so hurry.

worth noting:
http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN955540
http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN955011
http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN956808
http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN946733 <---1950yen for a MG F91 Harrison custom
http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN911821

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Nyan nyan nyan nyan ni hao nyan!~~~

Thanks for posting the HLJ sale. Picked up the G-Armor at 50% off (now I need a Gundam 2.0 or a GM 2.0), and the Guntank at list, but with the free shipping when you use PayPal, it's definitely a better deal than R10 or 1999 or even the in-the-states vendors.

I skimmed through this thread and didn't see anyone mention proxy bidders for Yahoo!Japan Auctions (ShoppingMallJapan, Celga, etc), so I might as well share what I know.

As a few of you might know, one of the big things eating my hobby funds are 1/6 scale custom dolls/figures. Due to this, I'm on several doll forums and I know numerous people who use proxy bidders to get doll stuff they wouldn't be able to get otherwise, and I've heard various things they have to say about them.

Basically, you tell the Bidder what item you want to bid on, they place bids for you, and if you win they have the item shipped to their facility in Japan and then to you. This is useful since many sellers don't ship outside Japan, however you do have to pay markup since the service obviously isn't free.

http://www.rinkya.com- this one I know the least about, unfortunately. The search is hella convenient IMHO, but according to the one account I read they charge an arm and a leg in the markup department. I'll have to dig up more reviews to make a better judgment.

EDIT: just Googled a few reviews, and they all say Rinkya's markups are INSANE. $15 bare minimum for a winning auction!? No thanks!


http://www.shoppingmalljapan.com- I've heard a good bit about this one, though what I've heard tends to be overwhelmingly negative. Most SMJ horror stories tend to follow the same pattern- person buy a few things without a hitch, so person continues using their service. But then SMJ starts claiming person didn't pay certain fees even though person clearly remembers paying said fees. SMJ continues claiming person didn't pay fees and/or starts becoming uncommunicative and withholds items until person (re)pays the fees. So person has to choose between paying more money than they should, or dumping the service but having to abandon their items. Which isn't fun in the least.

In my Googling I found numerous positive reviews of SMJ, however many were from first or second time customers and many of the negative reviewers did have positive experiences at first. IMHO they are one to look into (I hear the fees are fairly reasonable by themselves), but definitely proceed with caution.

If you want I know two people off the top of my head I can ask for more detailed SMJ stories, and could probably find more without too much hassle.


http://www.celga.com- this one I've used once for some dolls. IMHO...

... the markup wasn't too bad for what I got. However their markup depends on the cost of the item, so it can be next to nothing or almost as bad as Rinkya from what I've heard. They do combine markup for multiple items though, which is lovely.

... the bidding process was fairly easy, though a bit slow since it's entered by hand and not automatic I think. I've also heard that some Y!Japan sellers have blacklisted Celga bids, possibly due to them slow to pay them. This didn't bother me, though the items I was bidding on had no bids other than mine.

... the shipping process was ridiculously nice for me. I didn't get the stuff shipped out instantaneously due to lack of funds, but Celga only ships what you tell it, when you tell it. Granted other Bidders might do this too, but either way it's pretty handy. I used the cheapest shipping method (about $7 IIRC), and was pleasantly surprised to find the stuff on my porch only 2 or so weeks after sending the notice (was expecting it to take a month or more). This might've just been a lucky fluke, and said shipping method isn't trackable, so if the package gets lost in the mail, you're completely screwed.

There are a few others, but I'll have to dig around to know more.


IMHO, for Gunpla I'd use Rinkya's search to find auctions relevant to interests (though if you know/can find the katakana for what you want you can search Y!J directly), and copy+paste the auction's URL into another Bidder. Celga's markup is $10 for items between 1000 and 10,000 yen (rough 10$-100$), which is a bit hefty for single items but awesome for multiple things whose markup can be combined (anything also within that price range I think). I think http://www.crescent-shop.com and http://www.shoppingmalljapan.com's fees are similarly reasonable, though again I'd proceed with caution with the latter.


Hope that wasn't completely pointless

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Let me show you my Pokemons!
Liking characters no one else does since 1989.

Hy folks,

i need your help: does anyone of you have experience with ShoppingmallJapan? I have still questions and if someone could help me that would be awesome.

Thanks for all help

-- Henning

See my post right above you

BTW, I think I should add that Y!J seems to be a good place to get out of production/discontinued/otherwise rare kits that HLJ, etc have long since run out of. For example, I've seen this Apsaras kit, circa '99 pop up every now and then. Granted it ain't cheap (seems to go for around 250$ bare minimum), but if you REALLY want it, that's the place to get it.

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Let me show you my Pokemons!
Liking characters no one else does since 1989.

Just wanted to know if anyone's bought anything from the Gamebaz.com site. Wanted to know if anyone had problems with the site and such since I might buy something from there soon.

Does anyone know if the Tamashii Web store accepts international orders? I want to pick up the GN Sword III for the Damashii 00 Gundam, but not if it means paying a ton of money to a proxy service.

http://p-bandai.jp/tamashiiwebshouten/item-1000003972/

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"What did catch my eye, however, was a podcast named Gundamn!. At first I thought it was a podcast about firearms and [rednecks] discussing their collection, but after looking at the episode titles I was sold." - Xhavalor

PSN: amuromsz006

as far as i know, TWS didnt offer international shipping. best chance to get this kind of stuff is through a middle man. like someone living in japan. this screw my chance at a Tristan Divider...

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SD Gundam Capsule Fighter Online SEA IGN: 8bitNPC

You can try asking EX_Japan:

http://twitter.com/Yokattaweb

For more info:
http://forums.henshinjustice.com/showthread.php?t=33240

http://tvnihon.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=587

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Tell me bats, what are you really scared of? Failure to save this cesspool of a city? Not finding the Commissioner in time? Me, in a thong?-Joker Arkham Asylum

My father was a wheel! THE FIRST WHEEL! And you know what he transformed into?! NOTHING! But he did it with honor!-Jefire, Transformers 2

How is hobby search (http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/gundam) as far as standard shipping time is concerned? The first post of the thread only mentions that they have a store. Nothing about how reliable it is.

I usually only shop from gundamstoreandmore, but they have been sold out of 1/100 buster gundam for a while, and it's all I need to complete my seed 1/100 collection. I ordered it from hobby search, before I discovered this forum, so I didn't really have any place to ask beforehand.

www.imageanime.com has the Buster in stock and it's located in New York.

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Reviewing Gundam Model Kits on youtube since 2009.
http://www.youtube.com/user/aries0083
http://www.youtube.com/user/GundamCast

I don't understand Image Anime.

I'm comparing 1/100 NG Seravee kits. Image Anime has it for $50 on sale, no word on shipping on the page, HLJ has it for about $38 plus either $17 for shipping or $28 depending on the method, and it's not on sale. This makes HLJ more expensive... but only by $16, maximum, with Seravee on sale. Just as well, it contains little to no information on the actual kit, and it's regular price is $65. All this, and it's located in the United States?

Oh, and here's what they say about shipping:


So basically what that means is that shipping is $6, unless your order is outside one or both undefined constraints, in which case, it will go up unpredictably, and you have to contact them to ask for their actual price. So... yeah. Something tells me that a 1/100 Gunpla kit is just a bit too heavy for $6 shipping, especially given the size of the box and Seravee's two-in-one gimmick. Sure, it might not be as much as $16, but using SAL makes HLJ's shipping significantly cheaper if you can wait more than seven days to get your order.

That being said, I'm not necessarily saying IA is the devil or anything, I just don't understand why they're asking so much. Nor do I represent/love/force myself be loyal to HLJ. To be honest I've never even ordered from them.

(Still, worth noting that HLJ does have the Buster Gundam in 1/100.)

^It's usually about $10-11 shipping for something of that size, but I haven't shopped there since they raise their prices stupid high about a year ago while Gundam Store and More lowered theirs.

But if you really want to find out the price of shipping you can fill out your order form short of putting in the credit card info; they should tell you how much the shipping is at that point.

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