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Great pics of Iron Hide. I have mine displayed with him using his scanner with the cardboard insert in his chest. I really love all the little accessories he comes with. The engineering if fantastic in how he compresses into a van. Ratchet where are you :)
 
HLJ has MP ShockWave in stock for shipping today. Has not arrived yet for AE which is where I ordered from.
 
HLJ has MP ShockWave in stock for shipping today. Has not arrived yet for AE which is where I ordered from.

Same here.

Waiting for the "pay for shipping" email.

Could you let us (me) know if you get it? Last time that damn email went directly to my junk folder and got my Ironhide a week later.
 
Same here.

Waiting for the "pay for shipping" email.

Could you let us (me) know if you get it? Last time that damn email went directly to my junk folder and got my Ironhide a week later.

Yes I have been refreshing my account throughout the day. I will PM you as soon as I see it drop in my AE account.
 
Same here.

Waiting for the "pay for shipping" email.

Could you let us (me) know if you get it? Last time that damn email went directly to my junk folder and got my Ironhide a week later.

Received email over night. I logged into my account this morning and he was ready to ship. Now just waiting for my shipping payment email.

Aiko Matsumoto <[email protected]>
1:19 AM (4 hours ago)
Hello,

due to the heavy load we are experiencing on our server, probably you did not receive the in stock email for the Takara Tomy Transformers MP-29 Laserwave. We would like to inform you that the product is in stock and ready to be shipped.
 
Sharing my experience for those who dont know about over seas ordering.

Just wanted to let people know you can get a much better deal from Over seas sites during initial pre order. I love how Brian Kilby from RFC talks about how he orders from BBTS all the time. I just dont understand why you would want to waste money.

Also please note with Anime Export you get a 30% off retail discount and HLJ 20% off retail. The difference with AE is you must pay in FULL. As far as Pile of loot option , they both offer it. I like AE better because they dont seem to enforce the 60 day shipping rule where HLJ strictly enforces it. This means after your item has been in the "pile of loot or Private Warehouse" for more than 60 days they will cancel you item and provide instant store credit in your account automatically.

I've been using both sites for years and for me I just pay in full at Anime Export which gives me a 30% discount off retail. Here is the breakdown as to what I ordered on 10/2/2015 paying in full for each figure.

YEN was higher than today with a paypal rate of 1 dollar = 116.9 YEN

I paid 100.53 USD for Shockwave
I paid $47.87 USD for Rodimus
I paid 107.71 USD for Ultra Magnus
Total 256.11 USD

So yes I paid in full for these figures last October, but for that I received a 30% discount off retail.

Today with Shockwave being in stock I decided to ship all three figures. I clicked ship all items in my AE account and within about 1 hour received an email stating my shipment options are available. Basically AE will provide you shipping options. I logged back into my AE account and now I see two shipping options. One is 5400yen which is the "FAST" option, or 5000YEN which is the "SLOW" option. So I always use the FAST option which is worth the extra 400 YEN. This shipment will arrive within 4 Days to the US and delivered via USPS Express international mail.

So at today's Paypal rate 1 dollar = 109YEN
I paid 49.44 USD to ship these three LARGE figures Express international.

The funny thing is USPS rates have gone way up here so if I were to sell a figure as large as Ultra Magnus and send Priority mail it would cost me around 35.00 USD to ship him. I just dont know if people understand how expensive it is to ship now because they not only calculate weight, but also the measurement of the box you are using to ship.

Anyway my point is 49.44 is very cheap to send three large figures from Japan to the US. :)

I hope this helps someone who is interested in saving money and the art of Stacking figures to get a better shipping deal.

/
Adding BBTS prices
Shockwave = 160.00
Ultra Magnus = 190.00
Hot Rod = 75.00
Slow ground shipping = 11.00
Total 436.00

VS
Over seas AE
Shockwave = 100.53
Ultra Magnus = 107.71
Hot Rod = 47.87
Fast Ship =49.44 USD
Total = 305.55

Difference of
130.45 USD saved
 
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Sharing my experience for those who dont know about over seas ordering.

Just wanted to let people know you can get a much better deal from Over seas sites during initial pre order. I love how Brian Kilby from RFC talks about how he orders from BBTS all the time. I just dont understand why you would want to waste money.

Also please note with Anime Export you get a 30% off retail discount and HLJ 20% off retail. The difference with AE is you must pay in FULL. As far as Pile of loot option , they both offer it. I like AE better because they dont seem to enforce the 60 day shipping rule where HLJ strictly enforces it. This means after your item has been in the "pile of loot or Private Warehouse" for more than 60 days they will cancel you item and provide instant store credit in your account automatically.

I've been using both sites for years and for me I just pay in full at Anime Export which gives me a 30% discount off retail. Here is the breakdown as to what I ordered on 10/2/2015 paying in full for each figure.

YEN was higher than today with a paypal rate of 1 dollar = 116.9 YEN

I paid 100.53 USD for Shockwave
I paid $47.87 USD for Rodimus
I paid 107.71 USD for Ultra Magnus
Total 256.11 USD

So yes I paid in full for these figures last October, but for that I received a 30% discount off retail.

Today with Shockwave being in stock I decided to ship all three figures. I clicked ship all items in my AE account and within about 1 hour received an email stating my shipment options are available. Basically AE will provide you shipping options. I logged back into my AE account and now I see two shipping options. One is 5400yen which is the "FAST" option, or 5000YEN which is the "SLOW" option. So I always use the FAST option which is worth the extra 400 YEN. This shipment will arrive within 4 Days to the US and delivered via USPS Express international mail.

So at today's Paypal rate 1 dollar = 109YEN
I paid 49.44 USD to ship these three LARGE figures Express international.

The funny thing is USPS rates have gone way up here so if I were to sell a figure as large as Ultra Magnus and send Priority mail it would cost me around 35.00 USD to ship him. I just dont know if people understand how expensive it is to ship now because they not only calculate weight, but also the measurement of the box you are using to ship.

Anyway my point is 49.44 is very cheap to send three large figures from Japan to the US. :)

I hope this helps someone who is interested in saving money and the art of Stacking figures to get a better shipping deal.

/
Adding BBTS prices
Shockwave = 160.00
Ultra Magnus = 190.00
Hot Rod = 75.00
Slow ground shipping = 11.00
Total 436.00

VS
Over seas AE
Shockwave = 100.53
Ultra Magnus = 107.71
Hot Rod = 47.87
Fast Ship =49.44 USD
Total = 305.55

Difference of
130.45 USD saved

Okay, so how do I do this?

Contact, website?
 
Okay, so how do I do this?

Contact, website?

The math above for my preferred experience is with Anime Export.
Anime-Export web store
Click where it says Transformers 30% off.
Please note you only get the 30% off when the original Pre order is posted.
The PO will have an expiration date of 30 days. Once the 30 days is up. AE closes the PO and marks Sold out
Also want to add AE has virtually no customer service (knock on wood I have not had any issues )

I have also ordered from HLJ (hobby Link Japan) save 20% off
Home Page | HobbyLink Japan
HLJ has great customer service
 
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Batteries for Shockwave?

My Shockwave also shipped from Hobbylink Japan. Can anyone confirm what batteries are required and if any of them are included? I know that it's two LR44 batteries for the hand to light up, but they have something called "IV Batteries" in the product description listed for the alt mode canon. I've never heard of such a battery and from the in-hand photos it just looks like two AAA batteries. Anyone know for sure? Thanks!
 
The math above for my preferred experience is with Anime Export.
Anime-Export web store
Click where it says Transformers 30% off.
Please note you only get the 30% off when the original Pre order is posted.
The PO will have an expiration date of 30 days. Once the 30 days is up. AE closes the PO and marks Sold out
Also want to add AE has virtually no customer service (knock on wood I have not had any issues )

I have also ordered from HLJ (hobby Link Japan) save 20% off
Home Page | HobbyLink Japan
HLJ has great customer service

That might just be why some choose to pay more over at a US based store. If a problem arises, you are literally screwed.

I do also order everything from overseas, except the rare TT mall exclusives (Ramjet, Skywarp, Thundercraker)

Thanks for the PM!

Waiting for my shipping quote, can't wait for Shockwave!
 
Anyone know when Ratchet is supposed to ship? I've got Shockwave in my HLJ "Pile," and will hold off shipping if Ratchet is coming in 60 days or less.
Amazon Japan has the release date for Ratchet listed as April 23rd, so you should be good. Those dates have been spot on the past several releases, and we've already seen in-hand photos of Ratchet so no reason to fear a delay.
 
New photos of Shockwave are hitting. I'm less and less concerned about the color based on these new photos (not too lavender, not overly vibrant like the 3rd party options). But I'm not crazy about him being entirely all-matte unpainted plastic. Why not paint the purple parts for a more metallic look? Why not paint the grey parts silver? Why no use of chrome? I'm not convinced he won't look out of place alongside Soundwave, who has all of those things.

20160330063508fd3.jpg


2016033006364424a.jpg
 
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Bit late I know but I finally got round to playing about with my replacement Hot Rod from Kapow Toys & this time he's near perfect (couple little chrome blemishes but I can easily live with them) & managed to take some pics...


















He's amazing, transformation is perfect & he looks brilliant i both modes.
He's jumped right up to one of my best in the entire line...official or 3rd Party.
Simply the best Hot Rod we could hope for.

Super happy with him :)

Neil
 
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