I recently bought a spark blue Music Label Soundwave MISB from Hong Kong. I've been wanting one of these since they came out but could only afford one recently. I waited excitedly for over a week for it to arrive in the post and when it finally arrived it had "opened by customs" tape over the top of the outer box. Now this has happened a few times to me (especially when I lived in Australia, man they're strict over there!) i.e the package has been opened and checked but usually the item is undamaged. NOT THIS TIME! Somefeckin eejit decided to open the box with his blade fully extended and not only cut through the outer box but sliced through Soundwave's as well! And then to give me a further kick to the nuts they ripped a chunk of cardboard right off and crumpled the side panel shoving it back into the outer box! I was pretty annoyed considering it's a nice display box. Although I feel a little better typing it out here (my girlfriend doesn't understand "it's just a box, the toy is ok isn't it?"). I was just wondering if anyone else had any horror stories like this? Misery loves company after all
This happened to me a couple years ago. I bought wave 3 of the HOC line from BBTS and USPS decided to check it for whatever reason. When it got to me, all six of the figures were just shoved back into the box so the cards and bubbles were a mess. I'm usually not a MISB buy, but I already had the Japanese PVCs and wanted to keep these guys on their spiffy cards. I emailed Joel about it and he was really cool and offered me a substantial discount on the then-new Car Robots Brave Maximus instead of going through the trouble of filing an insurance claim.
ouch that sucks dude, but it could have been worse they could have wrecked poor soundwave as well, its bad its not MISB any more but it could have been a total loss , I am not defended customs they were too rough with your package, all I am saying is it could have been alot worse
Yeah, you're right I guess. Don't get me wrong, I'm not giving out about the customs in general, just the one guy/girl that went nuts with the stanely blade. I know the customs are doing a great job keeping us safe and at the end of the day Soundwave is ok and now safe and sound on my shelf. I'm really just feeling sorry for myself and looking for sympathy! Lol
That's a good question. I'm not actually sure. Does anyone else know? I tried to patch up the box now anyway so it's too late.
I'm always anxious whenever I order model kits that get opened by customs, you never know when one runner could just fall off and lost in that vast warehouse...
Being that you used to live in Australia, I'm pretty sure that you may have heard about the fate of MP Megatrons a few years back... In a way, It was just the box that got cut - the whole figure didn't get destroyed... heh
Lol, yeah that was ridiculous, replica gun?! It's huge! I was lucky and got my MP05 shipped to Ireland without orange cap and in great condition. I see you live in Sydney, I lived in North Sydney for a while, really loved the city!
I live in Australia also, and almost all of my TFs have been imported from Japan, Hong Kong and US. I haven't had customs open a single box yet. Just as well since when I ordered my MP Megatron I had no idea at the time about that ridiculous ruling!
Aw, sorry to hear about that, hope all of this works out for you. Jeezus, you'd think they'd treat other peoples' property better.
The MP05 thing is BULLSHIT. I'm serious, you would have to be a brain dead ****** to mistake it for a real weapon, if I get one I won't even transform the damn thing! Plus, I hate how that article calls it a 'toy'. There is a difference between a toy and an incredibly fragile thing that only collectors buy.
I hate customs, I just sent some comics to a friend in United Arab Emirates, I am wodering if she will ever receive them :/.
That really sucks for the OP. Also, imo it shouldn't be much to ask from such online toy retail to label the package as "Fragile Toys" or something like that. Since I've been traveling quite a bit in recent 8 months I can certainly agree that customs - whichever country - sucks bigtime. Yeah, I know ... security and all that ... but they could still do a lot better to not suck so hard. Thus, I ordered my wave 1 ROTF with an online retailer within the EU in order to avoid such customs control.
I know what you mean. You can't actually fire any bullets from G1 or MP Megs so... I don't know... I actually had to purchase my G1 & MP Megs from an online store based in Western Australia (replica gun laws are very lax in that state) & because they were shipped from state to state, they never got checked by federal customs . I also looked into obtaining a Browning but that's gonna be a pain in the a$$ too... oh well... Yeah, Sydney's a beautiful city heh. I actually live in the Hills District & TF Distribution sucks around here so... lol
cus I have came to the realization that any postal service hates getting things from others, other countries hate cooperating with the other countries, so that when ever something gets imported the purposely mess it up.
That really sucks. It doesn't matter if you are keeping the box or not. It has been damaged badly and that shouldn't have happened Last year we went to Japan and my kid bought this wooden pistol (shoots rubber bands) at a 100yen shop. We declared it since it's wood, but we got held up not because it was wood, but because they wondered if they should consider it as a bloody replica weapon.
Customs suck... you'd hope that they would care a little bit when packing it back in. Sometimes they just purposefully damage goods if they're having a bad day. I'm glad I'm in the US. No customs worries for me! (unless I bring stuff over from Japan! )
