Up until 2am and missed ny and amj

 

the level of difficulty in getting bandai toys is upsetting

 

Missed out.

As this was a pre-order, will they do a reissue at some point in the future or is that it for this figure?

 

AJ consecutive, crash free open window was the longest that I could tell. It was at least a few minutes. AmiAmi had it sporadically open mostly at the beginning and end of the 3 hour ordeal I went through last night. CDJ seemingly had stock for the first 15 minutes or so but the site kept crashing for most people trying to order. HLJ was similar to CDJ but seems like more people were successful there. Nippon Yasan has there new waiting list to get on their site in effect. If you were in already when the item went live and clicked through the order process fast enough, it was actually a faster and smoother experience than other recent preorder madnesses. But at the last step after you choose to pay now or later, it gave people another thriller by putting them through another waiting list to see if their order went through or not. Seems like most people who were fast enough got through. Just to complete my report on all the reputable shops I would buy from, Hobby Search was again hopeless as the open order button flashed for a mere second before the sold out message appeared. Last hope other than relying on orders reopening is Anime Export, who at this point have not listed new preorders for the day yet.

Holy shit, that was intense and I’m just glad I was successful, unlike the recent Go Lion debacle.

 

They should do orders again when it is actually released, but it will likely be double the price or more. Pretty insane with VF-1J. I had missed the pre-order on that one and when I saw all the prices jack up on release day, I thought I'd wait it out....yeah...prices never came down. I finally found a VF-1 J valk from someone on the MW board who was calling it quits on collecting.

 

@Slave IV that was my first Macross pre-order. That. Shit. Was. Crazy. NY for the win with me. I happened to be live on the site and refreshing seeing the product page update in real time. Was really lucky. Though I wish I had waited just 40 more min to grab a second at AJ since that was a no-cash pre-order.

Good times. I think? lol

 

Congrats on your success for a Macross preorder madness virgin! 
Just FYI, NY has pay later option but I totally understand if you missed that during the crunch.

 

I’m surprised they haven’t relisted it for higher yet. Perhaps they heard a lot of backlash about that practice and decided to axe it? I hope so because they were going from my go to shop to go to Hell shop pretty quick with that crap.

 

Thanks!! And yeah, completely missed that! Lol. I was fried and had already been cart jacked two other times earlier in the night at HLJ and CDJ...right as it was processing payment too. So, I was just click, click, clicking till I saw the damn confirmation email since it threw me into the waiting line after submitting payment.

 

Good instincts! Well, at least the exchange rate is decent and you got it for about 2000Y less than most shops before shipping. Hopefully, you at least picked one of the cheaper shipping options.

 

Actually, that's a good point. What is a good shipping option for the future? Again, played it safe and went with EMS. (Considering I paid $275 for a VF-1J opened-box, I was cool with spending a little extra on shipping.)

And, oddly enough, HLJ still shows a Max in my cart...weirdest thing. If they open pre-orders again at a reasonable rate, I would imagine I could just check out at that point?

 

Oh, I’m sure they will too. Just maybe like they used to do after the release date. Basically, I’m hoping they are ironing out their site so people at least don’t get cartjacked by them with the item going back on sale a minute later at a higher price. That was complete bullshit.

 

Man I think the Go Lion was easier to preorder and more available then the 1A Max. The Madness was intense last night, it reminded me of Frontier era Valks. The only Frontier Valk I was able to preorder was the 25A, and various 29's minus the Ozma. Everything else I had to pay increased prices after release yeesh.
My ordeal last night was amiami crashing, I think I was order #1 with CDJ and made it all the way to authorizing my credit card but thats when I started getting the spinning wheel of death I really shouldn't have tried to redeem my CDJ points I think if I skipped that section I would have been able to secure an order at CDJ SMDH on me trying to save $15.
I managed to get one at HLJ after carting and checking out after 30+ attempts. Hoping I don't get the deadly cancellation/server error email.
Pretty sure that all the scalpers are probably those Chinese resellers that did the same to MB Eva 01. I was definitely not expecting this preorder to be as intense as it was a 1A, and with so many MW members saying that they weren't going for it.

Turible times, I remember the Yamato days where you could just order anyday anytime up until release. I just hope I secured a 1A Max, and then after I secure a 1A Kakizaki I think I will be done with Macross. Well I would come back for a YF-21 and VF-11B though, but collecting this line is more difficult then collecting MB Gundams now. In the past it was the other way around Macross was easier then MB Gundams.

For Bandai DX Valks where you only have 1 preorder secured go with EMS, as its the safest bet. USPS requires signature confirmation on EMS packages too.

 

I can’t imagine what it’ll be like when VF-1S hits. It’s going to be savage

 

Well missed this one because I really had to go to bed. Tried for an hour, apparently AJ didn't even post theirs until like 2:30am PST so yeah there's just no way I would have been able to hang on for that long. Hopefully they post some again or have canceled preorders. The VF-1J did have a couple of random re-stocks from Amazon direct after the initial window.

But yeah, getting the VF-1S isn't going to be fun, if/when that happens.

 

Well now I know how much fun it is to pre-order a Bandai Macross VF. Lurked this thread and fell for the calm feeling that I would be able to pre-order one of these guys in the morning instead of having to stay up all night. Figured that everybody liked the VF-1J more than the 1A, but boy am I wrong. Guessing the scalpers figured it would be worth picking up since the 1J did so well, either that or I didn't imagine that the Japanese loved Max that much.

Looks like I'll hope that they make a vanilla 1A so nobody else wants it. HA.... Either that or I'll just have to wait till HG license dies in 2021/2022/whenever that fiasco ends.

Edit: Actually think I'll just live vicariously through you all who got one ordered. So once you do get it, please share a lot of photos in this thread.

 

This is way more stressful than any of the TF collecting I've done so far. The quality, limited quantity, and price point makes this one pretty challenging.