Does it look easy to disassemble? I’m wondering if there’s just some kind of schmutz or other simple issue inside keeping the ratchet from working correctly.

 

The factory could have applied too much grease on the joint/mechanism. Further investigation is needed, as fschuler suggests, which would require disassembly.

 

My order from a couple of days ago just arrived with no fuss, so either the $265 price was legit and Bluefin was just unloading excess stock at a great price, or Amazon just ate the loss on whatever units were sold. Just noticed that it’s back up, but the price is now a more normalized $299, so who knows.

 

Cool that you were able to get it at that price,appreciate the notice that it's back up. I just went on again and it says product only available through 3rd party sellers. When I looked at all buying options, the cheapest it shows me is $459.
At $299 I'm still interested, not so much at the $459 so still looking.

 

Just keep coming back and checking every hour or so; they had another one up at $299 about half an hour ago. It seems like they’re putting them up one at a time, so when one gets grabbed at that price point, it takes a little bit of time for them to get another listed but they are definitely still listing them and selling them. The last one I saw earlier said you were purchasing them backordered, with an in stock date of Nov. 22. Hope that helps, good luck!

PS if it absolutely doesn’t work out, ToyDojo still has them for $399, and they don’t charge sales tax and offer free shipping on orders above $150 with excellent customer service.

 

Mine is scheduled to be delivered today (instead of Saturday). So I'm glad to see that it wasn't a fake and that this is real.

 

Woo. Yep, I got Voltron. Oddly it was shipped not like a normal Amazon packing. It had a tissue paper wrapping that was taped on the outside of the box, then it was in a bubble wrap bag like something I have seen from Japan, then that was placed in a box with those air pillows on two sides.

I slipped off the Voltron sleeve and noticed that there was a sticker on it saying distributed by Bluefin. Guessing they imported it for Bandai then shipped it to Amazon.

 

So a friend of mine managed to snag a GX-71, we were looking at it and the Bandai logo is red. I thought the first release was red and the second release was blue

 

When I saw the $265 listing on Amazon, there was a note that said "newer model is available" that lead me to believe these "cheap" GX-71's may be from the original run.

 

I can't remember what were the differences between the original and second release. I want to say something had a finish change, but I can't remember.

 

I don't think there was anything major at all...better QC maybe...maybe not. I think it's pretty much just a straight reissue. @Shin Densetsu might know.

 

I did not know this.

Crap, I didn't pay attention, but I swore my order was from the "newer model is available" link and not the old one. But I just checked and yeah you are right. Mine is from the "older" listing. I didn't think that the first one was through Bluefin, was it?

 

I got red Bandai. So it’s from first run.

 

Aside from the logo color I don't know. I only have the 2017 release

 

I just took a quick look at mine and I have the blue Bandai logo, if we’re referring to the one on the lower right hand corner. The plot thickens.

 

  My order shows August 26 ETA from Amazon. Hopefully they'll manage to land it.

 

So, "soon".  

 

Some must have theirs, for there is an interesting thread posted in the Chogokin forum.