Encore 23 Fort Max

[kurdt_the_goat]

I just called TakaraTOMY... the operator hasn't heard of any reissue Fortress Maximus and she's told me that they have no plans on reissuing Fortress Maximus. But TFwiki's now updated their Fort Max page to include the upcoming reissue.

I really doubt BBTS would put it up if it wasn't an official solicitation, but it is a bit odd that the others like TF Source and Robot Kingdom haven't updated yet. Perhaps they're not sure of their shipping costs as yet? BBTS probably just knows the high demand and wanted to jump the gun a bit to nab early birds. I wouldn't be surprised if the yen price ends up being considerably less than 1:1 with what BBTS is offering - more like 20,000Y or something. That's baseless speculation though, i have no idea what Car Robots Max retailed for?

Edit: Mucho wrong - first japanese retailer listing it for 25,032Y (retail 31,290Y).... BBTS' slow shipping price isn't too much rapage after all.

I just had a look at BBTS' shipping... is that $400 including shipping???

If you add to cart then hit calculate shipping for Australia, it'll tell you that shipping costs an extra $119.99 for USPS express or $103.99 for UPS Air.

[Tober]

I just had a look at BBTS' shipping... is that $400 including shipping??? Because my MISB Brave Max cost me $300 and I paid $100 for insured priority express air shipping. I figured it was worth it considering how much I'd spent on the toy -- didn't want to risk losing it through some cheaper form of postage.

If that's including postage, then I'll consider preordering now... but if that's just the raw price of the toy BEFORE postage, then I'll wait. Also, if I preorder now, when will I be billed? (i.e. how long will I have to save up?) I'm very much an inexperienced noob when it comes to online shopping, so sorry if the answer is really obviously staring me in the face.

For pre-orders, you get billed when they arrive in stock. Works differently for a lot of other sites, but that's how BBTS do it. BBTS are also somewhat notorious for putting up pre-orders for toys before official solicitations have been sent out - Eg MP-13 Soundwave went through a few price variations before the Japanese stores put up their listings... They have even put up pre-orders for products that turned out to be fan-made customs...

I asked one of my suppliers in Japan (F2F) about prices for the FoC Bruticus Combaticons - he replied that he didn't know as orders wern't available yet... That might give you some insight into BBTS and Robot Kingdom's pre-order practices... And possibly why the staff at Takara Tomy are unaware of the toy's existence.

EDIT: ^ That darned Goat, always one reply ahead... :P

[kurdt_the_goat]

Actually now famitoy is saying retail is 29,800Y

[SkyWarp91]

I guess all of that poses the following question - if you had Fort Max as your 'holy grail' item, would you consider it obtained if buying the Encore version? Personally, I wouldn't.

I agree. I'm somewhat of a new collector and because of the dramactic price decrease for this encore release I am going to buy this figure - I actually was never interested in getting the original all because of that steep price. I can understand how other long time collectors would be frustrated as that sense of achievement for such a classic toy has been severely dampened by an encore but really it's all upto what the individual wants in the end.

I'm happy with this encore.

[GoktimusPrime]

So let me get this straight, through BBTS the toy will cost $504~$520 including postage?? I think it might be cheaper just to get the toy straight from Japan, especially if the RRP is going to be 29800JPY ($371) -- add say about $100 for postage, that should work out to be $471. Hmm...

Okay, so apparently it's scheduled for a February release - that gives about 3~4 months to start saving. Right.

[SkyWarp91]

So let me get this straight, through BBTS the toy will cost $504~$520 including postage?? I think it might be cheaper just to get the toy straight from Japan, especially if the RRP is going to be 29800JPY ($371) -- add say about $100 for postage, that should work out to be $471. Hmm...

Okay, so apparently it's scheduled for a February release - that gives about 3~4 months to start saving. Right.

Not neccessarily, at BBTS you can add a crapload of toys and that postage price will most likely stay the same. I've had two giant boxes delivered via UPS at the same cost as some of the smaller packages from them I've bought.

[Tober]

So let me get this straight, through BBTS the toy will cost $504~$520 including postage?? I think it might be cheaper just to get the toy straight from Japan, especially if the RRP is going to be 29800JPY ($371) -- add say about $100 for postage, that should work out to be $471. Hmm...

Okay, so apparently it's scheduled for a February release - that gives about 3~4 months to start saving. Right.

Anime Export had MP-10 for 30% off, Amiami had a similar discount...

EMS postage is determined by weight, not size. If you know how much a Fort Max weighs then calculating postage should be reasonably accurate.

[GoktimusPrime]

5kg... Hmm... I'll do some investigating.

Btw, Autobase Aichi has reported on Encore Fort Max (and other stuff) now too:
http://snakas.blog95.fc2.com/blog-entry-2677.html

[fatbot]

robotkingdom has them for $299.90, three of them shipped to sydney for $150

[Tober]

8200 jpy for EMS from Tokyo to Sydney. Varies by prefecture/city.