Packed up all my toys and model kits and hid them in one of our cabinet’s top shelf. We have guests arriving who are going to be staying in the room which I use as my model kit assembly and display room for my collection. As soon as they leave I’ll put these back in the room and display them out again.

And with this, I’m starting to see the logic why people invest heavily in see through glass cabinets with locks in them *snicker*

Amiami officially announced on their site that they are making SAL shipping a permanent option in their English site for overseas customers. Prior to that only EMS was the only shipping option, but after a few days they gave in to their customers requests and offered Registered SAL shipping on a trial basis.

Update (11/17/2009 6:26PM Japan Time): Turns out it is a special sale with free express shipping. There are conditions though. One of which is that you have to buy at least one item included in their “Holiday Countdown Sale”, then you have to pay via Paypal Billing Agreement. More details of this offer can be found here and here. This special sale is expected to last till November 21 at midnight Japan time.

If you are into Macross, I see some 1/60 Yamato toys on their sale list that are going for 30% off. Sadly though, no dice on the Gundams I was hoping to see on the list.

I saw this timer countdown on the front page of the Hobby Link Japan’s English website when I dropped by for some window shopping. I wonder what it means?

Just received a shipment notice from Amiami for the item I ordered. The long wait for my package to arrive starts now. Amiami is one of the Japanese based online hobby shops I’ve been lusting to start selling overseas because of the large inventory that they have, and most importantly, the low prices they offer.

Yet another example of how childhood memories are massacred by makers of counterfeit toys… hehehe… Found this in the mall again. I’ve realized that there are two types of piracy when it comes to cartoon related merchandising. There is the blatant copying and then there is the trying to pass it off as part of the franchise. The picture above it more of the latter.

Just saw this on Hobby Link Japan’s website. They have a promo running till Sept 28, 2009 (7 days to go!) wherein if you pay your item via Paypal and agree with a Paypal Billing Agreement between you and HLJ, you get free express shipping on your item. You will initially be charged for the shipping then after a few days HLJ will credit the money back to your Paypal account. Its Silver Week right now in Japan and they also announced that they won’t be back till the 24th, so I guess there might be a delay in the processing of your order.

Yamato Toys just posted on their site today the VF-1 Armored Valkyrie set for the 1/60 scale series of Perfect Transform Macross Toys. The Armored Valkyrie is designated as GBP-1S. The set is scheduled to go on sale by December of 2009 for about 7,140 円 after tax. The kit will only include the armored pack set and not the Valkyrie, you have to buy that separately. Check out HLJ or Over Drive Inc for Valkyrie’s on sale, I know that I saw Hikaru Ichijo’s VF-1J marked down at Over-Drive once, might be still there.

Update: A more detailed post with pictures on how to fix broken rubber bands in GI Joe figures can be found here.

In the coming weeks I’ll start posting my G.I. Joe - Real American Hero figure Collection. Have to take some time to do some repair of the figures first.

Due to the age of the figures the rubber band that is used to hold the legs, hips and torso together had deteriorated. My figures are usually stored in a box away from sunlight, why they deteriorated I don’t know, could be because of some built up moisture.