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First builds! Absolutely hooked
(i.imgur.com)
I got the Z’Gok in Odaiba while on my honeymoon and visiting the Unicorn. Just finished the Guncannon I got online. I also have the clear color Heavyarms from Gundam Factory Yokahama, starting it next, although the clear plastic is intimidating!
Been using Raser glass file and Balancer with Tamiya sharp sided nippers. Struggling with the craft knife to cut nubs off, find the file much easier. Using Tamiya panel liner and I haven’t mastered it yet, too messy or not dark enough. Any tips appreciated!
Was thinking about painting the Heavyarms grey weapon parts with metallic paint.
The Dive into Dimension version is a Gundam Base exclusive: easy to get if you happen to have a base nearby. The past few years, Bandai has run a Gundam Expo in September where a ton of GB exclusives are made available on the P-Bandai shop. I haven't heard about one happening this year, but keep an eye open for it.
Edit: Last year's expo was in November, so it's not like this year's would be "late" at this point. There is hope!
IMO it's best to consider exclusives like the Marsfour clear and Re-Zeon Barzam as long-term goals. Bandai will reprint them, just gotta be patient.
It was probably at the Odaiba store and the Yokohama base stores, oh well, didn’t know what I was looking for yet!
I’ll keep an eye on Gundam.info for Expo news. Any other places I should look for good Gunpla news? Specifically releases or reprints? I’m avoiding the site that won’t be named and I know Lemmy is still growing. I’d love to just check Gundam.info and P-Bandai daily, but I know I’ll forget lol.
Good call on the long term goals, I’ll keep an eye out for them and I’ve got my Heavyarms to keep me busy!
Thanks again!
I used to rely on that other site for news. It really is (was?) a great community, lots of folks keeping everyone else updated. P-Bandai will send out emails about new products, but for whatever reason the notification is delivered at 5pm the day after stuff went live. 🤬 So I check the site manually a few times a week. They used to do one drop a month, usually on the 3rd Thursday. But these days stuff goes up whenever. I try to post here when I see a new batch.
For new kits, Gundam.info is a good source. I also watch Kakarot197 on YT as he's very thorough and I enjoy his sense of humor.
Reprints are tricky. Bandai used to publish a reprint schedule listing out everything they were producing for a given month. (But they pulled the plug on that right around the same time that they clamped down on Japanese retailers selling to the US. They claimed it was to stop scalping, but I have a pet theory that gets way in the weeds. I'll put it below.) So the only source for upcoming reprints is what retailers have preorders up for. I've got a semi-local shop that puts all of their restocks up on FB or YT, and oftentimes that's the first place I'll see that kit X is back in circulation.
Pet theory that got way too long: Bandai is an official distributor in the US through Bluefin (who they bought outright). The exchange rate has been heavily skewed in favor of the US dollar for quite a while now. Bandai's US pricing doesn't reflect that: if something retails for ¥2500, the US price will be about $25. (Exchange rate as of today would be about $17.) So Bandai is basically pocketing the difference on each and every kit (and merch) sold through Bluefin/PB. Even at wholesale prices, that adds up very quickly. So they have quite the motivation to keep the domestic and overseas markets from mixing. And once things picked back up "after" Covid, there was a marked shift in distribution: Japanese retailers were frequently sold out while US stores were stocked to the brim. This includes P-Bandai US. We used to get select kits. Then we started getting everything new. And now we're getting a slice of every reprint, and things aren't selling out instantaneously. Bandai is making BANK on the US market right now. There are still Japanese retailers that sell to the US, but shipping costs obliterate any savings. Covid is a part of that. But my last shipment from HLJ, for example, hit me hard in the wallet (months worth of Private Warehouse purchases shipped all at once). That was summer 2019. And it's even worse now, with HLJ charging $20-30 shipping for a single HG. The old method of shipping in bulk to get a lower shipping cost per item doesn't work anymore. It sucks.
@MelodiousFunk @gunpla the r/gunpla discord has a hobby sales channel that’s usually on the spot about upcoming US p-Bandai drops. I think PB posts on their instagram account, and occasionally on the gundaminfo YT channel feed as well, but not sure about their timeliness.
Great info, thanks! I don't use Discord or IG, but I'll try to keep that in mind for the future.