“One of my favorite things when I got into this hobby was that you could buy whatever you wanted whenever you wanted”. This right here. I haven’t been building long, but one of the main things that got me hooked was the sheer amount of kits to choose from, along with the vast selection of stores to order from. However, over the last several months it has become increasingly frustrating to get ahold of stuff with the slow trickle of any new inventory making it to stores. Also it seems that when someone does finally get anything new (or even reprints) in, it becomes a race against potential scalpers just to try to get the kit I want. If I really want something, I find myself having to watch for emails and Facebook updates like a hawk, or keep checking 25-30 websites multiple times a day just to try to catch a kit before it’s out of stock. I know Covid and supply chain issues have had a lot to do with it, and I try to be patient, but I can’t help but think it may not return to the way it used to be any time soon. I know these aren’t serious problems to most, it is just a hobby after all, but it does kinda blow.
Ah things'll get better! I've been hooked on this silly hobby for 20 years. I know stock is in short supply here but believe it or not it's still more available now than in the 2000's (after the quick boom and fast burnout of Gundam Wing in 2000)
@@its_casual_thursday9090 very true and wayyyyy easier then getting my first gunpla 1/100 rx-93 v gundam in 1990 you had ti import from japan which meant you had to have connections in japan
Yeah I was pretty lenient towards p-bandai until recently, but putting the Phantom Gundam in there is kinda pushing me over the limit. Now I know how every one else who's kits ended up p-bandai feels and it sucks 😭I miss walking into my local brick and mortar hobby shop to walk out w the newest stuff.
@@iczer01 Like straight up AOL messaging a Gundam dealer? I can't even imagine how pricing and paying for it would have gone down. Sounds like the wild west!
I totally agree with you about P-Bandai. I got into gunpla over 5 years ago, when standard releases were still the norm. It was a great time to be in the hobby because there was so much to discover, new and old. Now I feel like I'm constantly competing with scalpers and hoarders. I don't have time to be on top of P-Bandai releases, so it's frustrating to miss out on something appealing. That said, even when I do catch a kit in time I find myself debating if it's worth the price and wait. Increasingly I've been gravitating towards Kotobukiya and others to satisfy my model building needs but everyone's stuck in pre-order mode. If things stay this way I'll likely end up stepping away from the hobby altogether.
P-Bandai means they get to sell to you directly rather than having to sell them to hobby shops at reduced price-per-unit bulk prices, who then sell the individual kits at retail price. This way the cut out the middle man and still get to screw us over by overcharging for their product. Heck, Barnes and Noble, at least near me, has been stocking FRAME ARMS of all things, hence why I've been buying there a bit more recently, since with a B&N membership you get 10% off all purchases plus any deals they have going on.
It is so strange for them to make such awesome kits as p bandai when they'd get people so excited for the hobby. It's so hard finding kits at hobby stores now. I hate buying something overpriced then getting it like 4 months later.
Overpriced in a sense that color swap kits are more expensive just for funzies like the blue Zaku on there right now is $42 US when a standard rg zaku is like $30. I know they're slightly different but not $12 different. Plus the tax and shipping is a ton of you aren't bundling and getting more. So yea it's a little overpriced but it's not gouging or anything.
Yeah, the turn toward P-Bandai and the very low stock availability have made it hard for me to enjoy the hobby the way I did when I got into it. I wanted the Leo-S, but I missed the pre-order window. I was on the fence about Aesculapius, but I knew if I didn't get as a pre-order, I wouldn't get the chance again. Bandai has also just not really made that many kits I want lately, probably because they haven't made as many in general.
As far as kits for Gundam AGE that were CLEARLY planned but never released were the Khronos (swapping out runners from the HG Zeydra), Thelvia (G-Bouncer), Genoace O-Custom (Genoace), and Adele Mk II (AGE-1/Adele). I hope we see one or more of these! For the whole situation with P-Bandai.... I can't say I'm very happy with it. A LOT of my favorite MS are either "not important" (GMs and other grunts) or simply too "niche" (Pale Rider line, pretty much every Origin GM) so they've been releasing fewer kits that I'm interested in as normal releases and more and more as "Premium." The past few years I've bought considerably fewer models but have probably paid more than I ever have. Really sucks that all the kits I want and look forward to I have to rely on are either extremely time sensitive (and then a 4-6 month wait) or scalped HEAVILY on the market due to their "exclusiveness." This has also discouraged me from buying multiples and as a result I do fewer kitbashes/customs/ painted kits since... I just can't afford it.
I began noticing Bandai taking the Nike route last year during its Sept releases. Again when the RG Hi-V released here in Korea. People literally spent the night outside Gundam Base to get as many as they could just to resell them at a higher market...
A lot of the US PBandai pricing is from shipping/logistics cost added on top of the Japanese market cost. You can check pricing in other East Asian PBandai shops like Taiwan, HK, Singapore and see their pricing is pretty similar to Japan with a tad more because of shipping from Japan... it's also interesting to look at what sells out in those markets as well. Tamashii did the Ghost Gundam... I want to see a kit for that.
My prayers have been answered finally. The phantom gundam is my favorite gundam full stop and im happy it finally gets a kit. Wish it wasnt p-bandai but im unfortunately bot surprised
I totally agree. P-Bandai is a great way for them to get extra money and to release special kits on, but when they start putting amazing kits like the Load Astray or Phantom on there, it starts to feel less like a fun VIP club for recolors and option sets, and more like it’s swallowing up the regular part of the hobby. Plus, Crossbone Gundam is a series that is way too obscure for Bandai to start turning into a P-Bandai exclusive line. I understand P-Bandai for Gundam Base exclusive type things, like recolors and for accessory packs that aren’t really necessary to be included with a base model, but for completely original kits it doesn’t make sense at all, at least to me.
Been asking for a HG Phantom for years and when we FINALLY get one it's fucking P-BANDAI I CAN'T EVEN FUCKING BUY IT UNLESS I GO THROUGH A RESELLER AAAAAAHHHHHHH
This is going to be one of those kits that'll be gone within 1 minute of release on the site due to scalpers and their bots. You gotta be faster than trans-am to get one at msrp before it goes to second hand market for $100+
What else needs to be addressed is about the non-functional wishlist on P Bandai. Come to find out that they don't notify you whatsoever when they re-release a kit on your wishlist
Actually, bandai did not make hg kronos(the black version of zeydra and had shoulder cannons) and jilsbain(another recolor version zeydra too) from gundam age as well and I think there's more of them.
Khronos, Thelvia (G-Bouncer variant), and Genoace O-Custom come immediately to mind. Maybe the Adele MK II and OG Shaldoll? For straight recolors there's the Zedas M, Genoace II (Diva Color), Dorado L, Ghriaga Custom, and Jilsbain... I think thats it.
I saw a couple of funny comments in japanese on some of the promotional material for the Phantom Gundam. Some people are saying the color scheme reminds them of a watermelon lol
I personally think Bandai’s allocating more resources into The Witch from Mercury, and that’s why we have received so little in terms of models lately We are going to get more information about the series in 22 days(currently) so I hope that we’ll get more Gunpla once it’s revealed
Youare a delusional idiot and a dumbass to think that bandai isn't putting their effort in the big money ai pbandai , i will asure you must of the witch mercury line will pbandai
I think I remember disliking Gundam Age a little too much when it was airing. Old school Gundam fan's thought it was too soft; I just thought the story was too rushed. But I didn't like IBO the first time I watched it either but now it's one of my favorites lol. I think it's Gundam Age's 10 year anniversary. Thanks for the video
P.S. I don't mind P-Bandai too too much. Like it sucks, but at least there's a US P-Bandai shop now. Not that long ago to find P-Bandai kits you'd have to hope to find one at a con at less than a 300% mark up. So hopefully having a stronger online presences will result in eventual faster and faster US releases
I have to agree about the P-Bandai trend, I've been collecting Gunpla since about 2008- 2009 and with the new / re-release kits that should be regular, now released as P-Bandai, this being made so much worse being in Canada, I have several hundred dollars of already expensive P-Bandai kits stuck in Japan and no way of shipping them with out almost tripling the price... I'm really starting to think the hobby is just way to stressful to order (before it's sold out) and expensive (if you're able to get the order placed) to be enjoyable any more... if things don't change soon... unfortunately the market share that the West holds for Bandai is just too small for them to really be concerned about it... even though Bandai publicly says they want to increase that share... their actions don't really support that... that's only just my own impression of the trend over the past couple of years...
For me in a country without p-bandai access, it's even worse man..... The interesting releases are all p-bandais nowadays, so i've been moving away from gundams(went for koto, hasegawa, good smile, Volks, etc, even chinese kits instead) And when i do buy gundams, I actually bought more bootlegs now since daban has been on a roll lately(MG Jagd Doga, MG mk ii super gundam, MG red zeta). I don't mind expensive kits, but paying scalpers just don't sit well for me. And there's no other way to get p-bandai stuff other than scalpers/3rd party resellers that marks up the price :(
even 3rd party resellers became absurdly expensive, because bandai manufacturing capacity and strategy is utter shit. Even in japan p-bandai kits sell out within seconds and instead of making more run of the same kit, they're announcing even more kits every week. Their only response to the issue was limiting max amount of kits per order (from 36 to just 3, which basically killed off 3rd party for europeans like me) and removal of announcements of new kits from twitter, because people were leaving nasty coments regarding situation. I guess building one more factory is out of question /s
I'd probably be more okay with the P-Bandai model of business if they let you consolidate orders that were paid for with PayPal. Something about paying with card basically dead-ends me in checkout and dumps my cart. This has definitely lost me a few preorders, so having payment via card be the only way you can consolidate orders that ship out on the same month is a drag. $10 flat shipping is expensive and I'd really appreciate ways to cut down on that. Anyway you're doing the lord's work on announcing when USA P-Bandai preorders go up. Certifiably based.
Remember Bandai announced back then of price hikes. If you can, split cost with a friend if you are interested in certain items. Consolidate orders are there if you can utilize
Prices on all kits, even normal release kits, have gone up. That 100 yen = ~$1 doesn't really work anymore. Checking Newtype, the EG RX78 is listed at $10. That's a 700 yen kit. The Juaggu is at $22, which is a 1700 yen kit. So this kit is 2750 - I think your estimate of $35 is accurate. They aren't really upselling much if at all. So I don't agree with you on that point. I do agree that the shipping cost is pretty ridiculous and being unable to merge orders unless they ship during the same month is really annoying. I also wish bandai did something about the botting, but I guess Gunpla is getting really hype now. As for the overall direction of the hobby, I think it's ok. All of the really popular stuff with be regular release and the niche stuff will be P-bandai. Let's be real, not very many people even know what the Phantom Gundam is, let alone that it's from Crossbone. This was never going to be a regular release kit. Every new HGUC/MG we've gotten recently has been amazing. I'm totally OK with less releases per year since they've been knocking it out of the park. I do wish they reprinted more, but I think this is just a case of Bandai not being able to meet demand. The hobby is more popular than ever before.
The us site is bad and doesn’t make sense for an American market, especially since the product is made in Japan for Japanese, up until semi recently. I chalk it up to growing pains, but I would suggest using a buyer overseas rather than the us P bandai store.
I used to order for a hobby shop and I've alway hated dealing with pbandai. It's always been ridiculous and I hate that people support it but people with money will do what they do.
It's a P(ain) Bandai release, but at least the Phantom is a brand new mold for a crossbone suit so it kinda sucks that it'll be a bit harder to get and limited on stock
Too much pbandai when this stuff can be retail. These pbandai kits are what would get people into the hobby if they ever picked these j but since thier so limited you cant just do that.
God damnit it seems Bandai really need a lot of money, I mean back in the old days special coating, or clear color are the branded as premium stuff, not some minor mold/ground up mold kits. This is so annoying and if they keep this up, I'll bet sooner or later they're gonna lose a lot if money.
Meh, if I pick up a kit from Pbandai, I get few of them and flip the the extra to make it worth it. Don't need to gouge, but I'm not going to sell for less than I spent. BUT,. I have the income I can front to do that. I understand not everyone can.
Because Crossbone isnt well known in Gundam Community. They had to make it P Bandai, because they fear it will not sell. They dont want to take chances. And Pbandai only for obscure series and Coating like clear, glossy finish etc. You think dictus will sell if they put on regular release? I mean There are a reason why Age and reco didnt sell well. Even there are anime to boost their sale.
I do agree with you. When I see how many shitted on the Dictus because it wasn't your typical monoeye Zaku and people didn't even bothered to read Steel Seven, I do understand that Bandai got scared and released all post OG Crossbone kits and the Victory era Shokew as PB. Mk V, F90, Pale Rider? Unjustified to be PB. But the rest? I can understand them
Bandai have released so many awesome new kits as P-Bandai recently that I've decided to just not buy anymore P-Bandai kits. I will never willingly fund practices I disagree with, so if this continues for much longer I'm dropping gunpla altogether.
I'm torn. I hate p-bandai with a passion, I hate the price raises, the FOMO, having to fight scalpers, etc. But I LOVE the esoteric suits that wouldn't get made because of it. HG Woundwort wouldn't exist, MK-V wouldn't exist, the Leo-S wouldn't exist, and DEFINITELY not the Todesritter. I wish they COULD be more widespread but I understand they're a risk. I doubt Bandai will go back from this now that they've tasted the sweet money coming in. But if we get more obscure stuff because of it? I'm disappointed to say I'll spend the money. I just wish that the RE100 line still lived.
p-bandai wouldn't be a problem if they were produced in sufficient amount. Today they still insist on announcing new kit every week, despite the fact that previous one sold out within seconds even with their shitty "measures" in place.
I have gone 3rd party because of the quess air jagd doga I traded it for a rg hi nu which was cool not so hurt on the price. kinda underwhelmed on the detail then daban comes out with there version and its not a copy my chars counterattack dreams have come true big F you p-bandai your losing
Why cant they just make all kit standard bandai they can make more money with standard releases p bandai is killing the hobby like this(i know about the market strategy and pricing and all the economics and accounting behind it. I m just rrying to act ignorant so reality will hurt less)
P bandai just sucks and kill enjoyment of this hobby. So many release should be just regular. For Japanese, P Bandai actually just convenient. Its nothing different than regular release. But for everyone else, it just massive annoyance.
Even the Japanese can't escape P-Bandai's problems. The Phantom just sold out on their P-Bandai shop in less than 30 seconds and the site was crashed for 20 of them.
“One of my favorite things when I got into this hobby was that you could buy whatever you wanted whenever you wanted”. This right here. I haven’t been building long, but one of the main things that got me hooked was the sheer amount of kits to choose from, along with the vast selection of stores to order from.
However, over the last several months it has become increasingly frustrating to get ahold of stuff with the slow trickle of any new inventory making it to stores. Also it seems that when someone does finally get anything new (or even reprints) in, it becomes a race against potential scalpers just to try to get the kit I want. If I really want something, I find myself having to watch for emails and Facebook updates like a hawk, or keep checking 25-30 websites multiple times a day just to try to catch a kit before it’s out of stock. I know Covid and supply chain issues have had a lot to do with it, and I try to be patient, but I can’t help but think it may not return to the way it used to be any time soon. I know these aren’t serious problems to most, it is just a hobby after all, but it does kinda blow.
Ah things'll get better! I've been hooked on this silly hobby for 20 years. I know stock is in short supply here but believe it or not it's still more available now than in the 2000's (after the quick boom and fast burnout of Gundam Wing in 2000)
@@its_casual_thursday9090 very true and wayyyyy easier then getting my first gunpla 1/100 rx-93 v gundam in 1990 you had ti import from japan which meant you had to have connections in japan
Yeah I was pretty lenient towards p-bandai until recently, but putting the Phantom Gundam in there is kinda pushing me over the limit. Now I know how every one else who's kits ended up p-bandai feels and it sucks 😭I miss walking into my local brick and mortar hobby shop to walk out w the newest stuff.
@@iczer01 Like straight up AOL messaging a Gundam dealer? I can't even imagine how pricing and paying for it would have gone down. Sounds like the wild west!
The gun is the Butterfly Buster B, an improved version of the X-0's shotguns (Butterfly Buster). The X-0 Full Cloth also has one of those
I totally agree with you about P-Bandai. I got into gunpla over 5 years ago, when standard releases were still the norm. It was a great time to be in the hobby because there was so much to discover, new and old. Now I feel like I'm constantly competing with scalpers and hoarders. I don't have time to be on top of P-Bandai releases, so it's frustrating to miss out on something appealing. That said, even when I do catch a kit in time I find myself debating if it's worth the price and wait.
Increasingly I've been gravitating towards Kotobukiya and others to satisfy my model building needs but everyone's stuck in pre-order mode. If things stay this way I'll likely end up stepping away from the hobby altogether.
P-Bandai means they get to sell to you directly rather than having to sell them to hobby shops at reduced price-per-unit bulk prices, who then sell the individual kits at retail price. This way the cut out the middle man and still get to screw us over by overcharging for their product. Heck, Barnes and Noble, at least near me, has been stocking FRAME ARMS of all things, hence why I've been buying there a bit more recently, since with a B&N membership you get 10% off all purchases plus any deals they have going on.
Its a shame that they dont want to sell directly to Canadians, we still gotta use a middleman service
true, but they're missing on shelf presence that way (so you're missing casuals and normies who just spot a gundam in store).
In reality, in many countries P-Bandai will have double or more street prices than the regular *with middle men* release.
It is so strange for them to make such awesome kits as p bandai when they'd get people so excited for the hobby. It's so hard finding kits at hobby stores now. I hate buying something overpriced then getting it like 4 months later.
overpriced? where are you buying from?
Overpriced in a sense that color swap kits are more expensive just for funzies like the blue Zaku on there right now is $42 US when a standard rg zaku is like $30. I know they're slightly different but not $12 different. Plus the tax and shipping is a ton of you aren't bundling and getting more. So yea it's a little overpriced but it's not gouging or anything.
The Fawn Farsia is giving me a small sliver of hope that we might finally get a HG Genoace O-custom, Thieleva, and/or Khronos.
I'm glad I was not the only one hoping for those specific forgotten kits!
The "P" in P-Bandai actually stands for "Pain"
we will probably also get the Phantom's upgraded form the Ghost Gundam.
I might be more interested in that one tbh
This one literally sold out the minute it went live here in the Philippines, I saw it went by in just one refresh
Yeah, the turn toward P-Bandai and the very low stock availability have made it hard for me to enjoy the hobby the way I did when I got into it. I wanted the Leo-S, but I missed the pre-order window. I was on the fence about Aesculapius, but I knew if I didn't get as a pre-order, I wouldn't get the chance again.
Bandai has also just not really made that many kits I want lately, probably because they haven't made as many in general.
As far as kits for Gundam AGE that were CLEARLY planned but never released were the Khronos (swapping out runners from the HG Zeydra), Thelvia (G-Bouncer), Genoace O-Custom (Genoace), and Adele Mk II (AGE-1/Adele). I hope we see one or more of these!
For the whole situation with P-Bandai.... I can't say I'm very happy with it. A LOT of my favorite MS are either "not important" (GMs and other grunts) or simply too "niche" (Pale Rider line, pretty much every Origin GM) so they've been releasing fewer kits that I'm interested in as normal releases and more and more as "Premium." The past few years I've bought considerably fewer models but have probably paid more than I ever have.
Really sucks that all the kits I want and look forward to I have to rely on are either extremely time sensitive (and then a 4-6 month wait) or scalped HEAVILY on the market due to their "exclusiveness." This has also discouraged me from buying multiples and as a result I do fewer kitbashes/customs/ painted kits since... I just can't afford it.
I began noticing Bandai taking the Nike route last year during its Sept releases. Again when the RG Hi-V released here in Korea. People literally spent the night outside Gundam Base to get as many as they could just to resell them at a higher market...
A lot of the US PBandai pricing is from shipping/logistics cost added on top of the Japanese market cost. You can check pricing in other East Asian PBandai shops like Taiwan, HK, Singapore and see their pricing is pretty similar to Japan with a tad more because of shipping from Japan... it's also interesting to look at what sells out in those markets as well.
Tamashii did the Ghost Gundam... I want to see a kit for that.
My prayers have been answered finally. The phantom gundam is my favorite gundam full stop and im happy it finally gets a kit. Wish it wasnt p-bandai but im unfortunately bot surprised
Seeing them printing age kits again make me hopefull for bandai to release mg age 3 and age fx that got cancelled
I totally agree. P-Bandai is a great way for them to get extra money and to release special kits on, but when they start putting amazing kits like the Load Astray or Phantom on there, it starts to feel less like a fun VIP club for recolors and option sets, and more like it’s swallowing up the regular part of the hobby. Plus, Crossbone Gundam is a series that is way too obscure for Bandai to start turning into a P-Bandai exclusive line. I understand P-Bandai for Gundam Base exclusive type things, like recolors and for accessory packs that aren’t really necessary to be included with a base model, but for completely original kits it doesn’t make sense at all, at least to me.
Been asking for a HG Phantom for years and when we FINALLY get one it's fucking P-BANDAI
I CAN'T EVEN FUCKING BUY IT UNLESS I GO THROUGH A RESELLER AAAAAAHHHHHHH
As one of my go to spots for gunpla news, ill happily toss you a dollar on patreon 😁
I’ve been waiting for this kit for years
I feel ya, since early 2021, I've slowly started to branch out into other hobbies. getting real tired of bandai's shenanigans.
Ooh, those VIGOROUS beam effects!
Took them long enough.
It's Gundam AGE's 10th anniversary last year, hence all the releases (which somehow trickled to this year)
This is going to be one of those kits that'll be gone within 1 minute of release on the site due to scalpers and their bots. You gotta be faster than trans-am to get one at msrp before it goes to second hand market for $100+
Hah! im gonna gonna fall for that trick bandai.
i know you gonna do ghost gundam version of this later. im gonna wait for silver version.
What else needs to be addressed is about the non-functional wishlist on P Bandai. Come to find out that they don't notify you whatsoever when they re-release a kit on your wishlist
Phantom gundam first batch sold out in 3 mins on p bandai jp website 😭
Actually, bandai did not make hg kronos(the black version of zeydra and had shoulder cannons) and jilsbain(another recolor version zeydra too) from gundam age as well and I think there's more of them.
Khronos, Thelvia (G-Bouncer variant), and Genoace O-Custom come immediately to mind. Maybe the Adele MK II and OG Shaldoll? For straight recolors there's the Zedas M, Genoace II (Diva Color), Dorado L, Ghriaga Custom, and Jilsbain... I think thats it.
I saw a couple of funny comments in japanese on some of the promotional material for the Phantom Gundam.
Some people are saying the color scheme reminds them of a watermelon lol
wanted to order some of these nice pbandit kits but damn i went and buy the mg ex-s 1.5 last month lmao
Holy shit finally!
Fortunately for me P-Bandai is alot more accessible here in Thailand thanks to the domestic official shop.
2022 the year of p-bandai
Sold out....everywhere in less than a day.
Well is less than 3sec
I personally think Bandai’s allocating more resources into The Witch from Mercury, and that’s why we have received so little in terms of models lately
We are going to get more information about the series in 22 days(currently) so I hope that we’ll get more Gunpla once it’s revealed
Youare a delusional idiot and a dumbass to think that bandai isn't putting their effort in the big money ai pbandai , i will asure you must of the witch mercury line will pbandai
i'm with you, these p bandai releases
s are getting more and more ridiculous
I think I remember disliking Gundam Age a little too much when it was airing. Old school Gundam fan's thought it was too soft; I just thought the story was too rushed. But I didn't like IBO the first time I watched it either but now it's one of my favorites lol. I think it's Gundam Age's 10 year anniversary. Thanks for the video
P.S. I don't mind P-Bandai too too much. Like it sucks, but at least there's a US P-Bandai shop now. Not that long ago to find P-Bandai kits you'd have to hope to find one at a con at less than a 300% mark up. So hopefully having a stronger online presences will result in eventual faster and faster US releases
Hee hee. I'm not crazy for buying the robot spirits version I guess
Bandai is slowly training us to pay more for HG for the last 2 years. The scarcity of gunpla also help them in this.
I have to agree about the P-Bandai trend, I've been collecting Gunpla since about 2008- 2009 and with the new / re-release kits that should be regular, now released as P-Bandai, this being made so much worse being in Canada, I have several hundred dollars of already expensive P-Bandai kits stuck in Japan and no way of shipping them with out almost tripling the price... I'm really starting to think the hobby is just way to stressful to order (before it's sold out) and expensive (if you're able to get the order placed) to be enjoyable any more... if things don't change soon... unfortunately the market share that the West holds for Bandai is just too small for them to really be concerned about it... even though Bandai publicly says they want to increase that share... their actions don't really support that... that's only just my own impression of the trend over the past couple of years...
Definitely an insta buy, and you know the Ghost Gundam will follow behind too.
For me in a country without p-bandai access, it's even worse man..... The interesting releases are all p-bandais nowadays, so i've been moving away from gundams(went for koto, hasegawa, good smile, Volks, etc, even chinese kits instead)
And when i do buy gundams, I actually bought more bootlegs now since daban has been on a roll lately(MG Jagd Doga, MG mk ii super gundam, MG red zeta).
I don't mind expensive kits, but paying scalpers just don't sit well for me. And there's no other way to get p-bandai stuff other than scalpers/3rd party resellers that marks up the price :(
even 3rd party resellers became absurdly expensive, because bandai manufacturing capacity and strategy is utter shit. Even in japan p-bandai kits sell out within seconds and instead of making more run of the same kit, they're announcing even more kits every week. Their only response to the issue was limiting max amount of kits per order (from 36 to just 3, which basically killed off 3rd party for europeans like me) and removal of announcements of new kits from twitter, because people were leaving nasty coments regarding situation. I guess building one more factory is out of question /s
I just realized that most of the Crossbone HGs are p-bandai. Damn.
Mg crossbones were mostly pbandai
@@RaggenZ Damn.......
I rarely aim P-bandai, but this Phantom Gundam maybe change my mind.
Hope my budget can afford it 😢
I'd probably be more okay with the P-Bandai model of business if they let you consolidate orders that were paid for with PayPal. Something about paying with card basically dead-ends me in checkout and dumps my cart. This has definitely lost me a few preorders, so having payment via card be the only way you can consolidate orders that ship out on the same month is a drag. $10 flat shipping is expensive and I'd really appreciate ways to cut down on that.
Anyway you're doing the lord's work on announcing when USA P-Bandai preorders go up. Certifiably based.
Remember Bandai announced back then of price hikes. If you can, split cost with a friend if you are interested in certain items. Consolidate orders are there if you can utilize
Yeah it kinda sucks that most of the kits I REALLY want are PB. So far, only three are not.
Prices on all kits, even normal release kits, have gone up. That 100 yen = ~$1 doesn't really work anymore. Checking Newtype, the EG RX78 is listed at $10. That's a 700 yen kit. The Juaggu is at $22, which is a 1700 yen kit. So this kit is 2750 - I think your estimate of $35 is accurate. They aren't really upselling much if at all. So I don't agree with you on that point. I do agree that the shipping cost is pretty ridiculous and being unable to merge orders unless they ship during the same month is really annoying. I also wish bandai did something about the botting, but I guess Gunpla is getting really hype now.
As for the overall direction of the hobby, I think it's ok. All of the really popular stuff with be regular release and the niche stuff will be P-bandai. Let's be real, not very many people even know what the Phantom Gundam is, let alone that it's from Crossbone. This was never going to be a regular release kit. Every new HGUC/MG we've gotten recently has been amazing. I'm totally OK with less releases per year since they've been knocking it out of the park. I do wish they reprinted more, but I think this is just a case of Bandai not being able to meet demand. The hobby is more popular than ever before.
The us site is bad and doesn’t make sense for an American market, especially since the product is made in Japan for Japanese, up until semi recently. I chalk it up to growing pains, but I would suggest using a buyer overseas rather than the us P bandai store.
I used to order for a hobby shop and I've alway hated dealing with pbandai. It's always been ridiculous and I hate that people support it but people with money will do what they do.
It's a P(ain) Bandai release, but at least the Phantom is a brand new mold for a crossbone suit so it kinda sucks that it'll be a bit harder to get and limited on stock
Only the original Farsia had that little stand. The Fawn doesn't.
Also there's a handful of AGE MS that never got HGs like the Khronos and Xamdrag.
Too much pbandai when this stuff can be retail. These pbandai kits are what would get people into the hobby if they ever picked these j but since thier so limited you cant just do that.
what code do i use on newtype ?
No code, just click the link in the description.
God damnit it seems Bandai really need a lot of money, I mean back in the old days special coating, or clear color are the branded as premium stuff, not some minor mold/ground up mold kits.
This is so annoying and if they keep this up, I'll bet sooner or later they're gonna lose a lot if money.
Meh, if I pick up a kit from Pbandai, I get few of them and flip the the extra to make it worth it. Don't need to gouge, but I'm not going to sell for less than I spent.
BUT,. I have the income I can front to do that. I understand not everyone can.
I think it's a p bandai because they want to release ghost gundam as a regular HG kit. Just my opinion tho.
Because Crossbone isnt well known in Gundam Community.
They had to make it P Bandai, because they fear it will not sell. They dont want to take chances.
And Pbandai only for obscure series and Coating like clear, glossy finish etc.
You think dictus will sell if they put on regular release? I mean There are a reason why Age and reco didnt sell well.
Even there are anime to boost their sale.
I do agree with you. When I see how many shitted on the Dictus because it wasn't your typical monoeye Zaku and people didn't even bothered to read Steel Seven, I do understand that Bandai got scared and released all post OG Crossbone kits and the Victory era Shokew as PB. Mk V, F90, Pale Rider? Unjustified to be PB. But the rest? I can understand them
Bandai have released so many awesome new kits as P-Bandai recently that I've decided to just not buy anymore P-Bandai kits.
I will never willingly fund practices I disagree with, so if this continues for much longer I'm dropping gunpla altogether.
The P in P-Bandai stands for Price gouge.
I'm torn. I hate p-bandai with a passion, I hate the price raises, the FOMO, having to fight scalpers, etc.
But I LOVE the esoteric suits that wouldn't get made because of it. HG Woundwort wouldn't exist, MK-V wouldn't exist, the Leo-S wouldn't exist, and DEFINITELY not the Todesritter.
I wish they COULD be more widespread but I understand they're a risk. I doubt Bandai will go back from this now that they've tasted the sweet money coming in. But if we get more obscure stuff because of it? I'm disappointed to say I'll spend the money. I just wish that the RE100 line still lived.
p-bandai wouldn't be a problem if they were produced in sufficient amount. Today they still insist on announcing new kit every week, despite the fact that previous one sold out within seconds even with their shitty "measures" in place.
I have gone 3rd party because of the quess air jagd doga I traded it for a rg hi nu which was cool not so hurt on the price. kinda underwhelmed on the detail then daban comes out with there version and its not a copy my chars counterattack dreams have come true big F you p-bandai your losing
I’ll never get a phantom gundam for less then 100 bucks
1st
You know you can consolidate orders if the items share a release date
I uderstand why the Phantom Gundam is PBanddai, especially with all its' accessories and gimmick. BUT, I am still annoyed that it is PBandai.
Why cant they just make all kit standard bandai they can make more money with standard releases p bandai is killing the hobby like this(i know about the market strategy and pricing and all the economics and accounting behind it. I m just rrying to act ignorant so reality will hurt less)
Quite the opposite also included consumer physiology market tactics
@@RaggenZ i know i was acting ignorant so the reality will hurt less
But with this method, the one who profited the most would be the scalpers who resell them
@@j.s8660 read the comment again
agreed. pbandai sucks
i) limited stocks
ii) higher price from 3rd party reseller
P bandai just sucks and kill enjoyment of this hobby. So many release should be just regular. For Japanese, P Bandai actually just convenient. Its nothing different than regular release.
But for everyone else, it just massive annoyance.
Even the Japanese can't escape P-Bandai's problems. The Phantom just sold out on their P-Bandai shop in less than 30 seconds and the site was crashed for 20 of them.