william-james88 wrote:Rated X wrote:Weve been through this debate before. Whether the extra cost in incurred through import fees, price gouging, or Japans gift to the sky gods, its still double the amount of money coming out of my pocket for a piece of plastic that does the same thing.
Sure, but your theory is that there are evil mail men who conspire to make toys exclusive to certain nations so that people must pay them more to ship them. Its nonsense.
Just contracts, really. Takara toys can only be bought in japan, so anyone in the US has to pay shipping. For Hasbro toys, they cover the shipping to america, since they distribute the product there, so retailers dont have to fork out added costs. Thats it.
It's the same in reverse. Since Hasbro toys cant be sold directly to japanese people, they must also be imported, so a japanese fans ends up paying $100 for Titans Return Octane and Blitzwing together
http://www.redmercury.co.jp/shop/detail ... -RED-14033And @ Zelda, I really like your avatar!
I never said anything about evil mail men or conspiracy theories so dont try to put words in my mouth.
Youre theory completely defies all logic from a corporate standpoint. Youre talking as if you have copies of takara contracts translated in the palm of your hand and know exactly what they do just because. You have offered no proof that the Chinese based factory jointly owned by Hasbro/Takara spends double the money to ship pallets of toys to Japan only to be put on another boat and be shipped to the US. That defies all logic. It would be millions in wasted revenue on shipping large trailer sized crates twice instead of once. Remember Hasbro Asia owns the molds, takara just uses them and packs their figures in carboard with Japanese writing.
Still think all pallets of Takara products touch Japanese soil before beginning their journey to the US and other countries?
Then please explain how a bunch of Takara Chromedome heads got packaged with Hasbro bodies and sent to the US?
This is proof that both Takara and Hasbro figures are made in the same factory by the same people in China. While that alone doesnt directly proce your double shipping costs theory wrong, it doesnt prove it right either. Thats where using good old fashioned logic comes in handy. Its not about "evil mail men" or Japanese conspiracy theories. Its about smart business practices and cost reduction. It just MAKES SENSE from a business standpoint. Takara owns their products made in China even if they never touch Japanese soil. They can ship them from wherever they choose to cut costs. Its their property.
The only thing you proved in the past to me with your news connections is that takara products sell in Japanese retail outlets for the same price as hasbro versions when you translate the currency to US dollars. And I gave you credit for that. (Even though they were selling takara animated figures for $35 US dollars a pop the one time I was physically in a Japanese airport briefly to catch a connecting flight to the Philippines
) Ill give you the benefit of the doubt on that one and assume the airport gift shop was gouging the prices for tourists, not Takara themselves.
But just do yourself a favor and kill the talk about conspiracy theories, my friend. Uless you can provide a copy of Takara shipping contracts that offer definitive proof where they can and cant ship the property they paid for, dont say you know. The only thing we can do is refer to smart business practices. Hasbro/Takara is known for finding ways to cut costs and increase profits, so one can only assume that they are smart enough not to waste millions by paying for shipping twice.
But again, I will also remind myself that nobody forced my hands to buy those sets in the first place.
)
I shall then keep my Super Ginrai in convoy mode thus figuring out what the hell to do with the future arrival of Magnus Prime. 
)
. Admittedly it's an improvement on the base mode in the official instructions for PMOP (which is what I have. The only Japanese import I've ever gotten was Encore Ratchet, because I found him MISB on eBay for $20 shipped), but it's not exactly what I was talking about. It doesn't involve the knees bending 90 degrees forwards (which they cannot do) or really improve the resemblance to 
