i live in europ, i have no choice but to import it from japan. i have made the experience that hoby link japan is simply the cheapest source for me...

i agree fully! it looks a lot better while moving or as a kit in a dynamic pose. then again... that kinda counts for all gundam models, right? :D

@ Appel & LoweGear

Thanks :) It's indeed available now but already in low stock at HLJ :D

After looking closely at the manual scans, I was right, the hands uses the interchangeable fingers which is a bummer. Though it does have those pegs in the hands which let it hold it's swords properly.

Found a review: http://blog.livedoor.jp/hacchaka/arc...5945.html#more

Why is it a bummer when it comes with BOTH types of hands? I consider it a plus.

I buy most of my kits lately from gundamstoreandmore.com. For US customers they have some of the best prices. They do run out of popular items from time to time and have to wait for restock but Ive had nothing but good luck with them.

unfortunately they are for US and canada customers only... so im still stuck with HLJ :P

Done RG Aile Strike Gundam......
http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...8/DSC01582.jpg
http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...8/DSC01576.jpg
http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...8/DSC01578.jpg
http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...8/DSC01583.jpg
http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...8/DSC01585.jpg
http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...8/DSC01586.jpg
http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...8/DSC01588.jpg
http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...8/DSC01590.jpg

Oh! It does have a pair of hands with poseable fingers. I take back what I said but why did they add in an extra set of hands?

Choice. The poseable fingered hands for whatever type of finger pose you might want, and the premolded hands for weapons grip stability. In this case, it's a win-win situation.

Should try AmiAmi (http://www.amiami.jp/shop/?set=english), it is cheaper than HLJ. Can also try HobbySearch (http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/gundam/), but they have decreased their discounts to around the 15% mark. Use to be 20% minimum. They have also removed their 'percentage' notations to hide that fact.

In summary, try AmiAMi, then HLJ. HLJ is only good for their specials, when selected kits are 30-40% off.

Hope that helps. :)

very interesting^^ thanks!
amiami is indeed cheaper. i have to wait by how much though, i dont know what shipping for my OO raiser will cost yet.
they even had it still in stock, on HLJ its out of stock already. awesome^^

while its incredibly impressive that you managed to paint such a tiny tiny figure so very well... even if i could i wouldnt have bothered with that guy. i just hate kira too much =D

God, the RG Strike looks awesome, cannot wait to get it. Speaking of which, any more reviews with the MG 00 Raiser? Looking forward to getting that as well.

wow, it look so good, if you don't tell me this is a RG kit, i would've thought this is a PG kit:cool:
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photo...77090.jpg?dl=1http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photo...68121.jpg?dl=1http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photo...71478.jpg?dl=1

now i'm so gonna get one and put it right next to my PG kit:D

cool, it is cheaper!!! thank you so much.
the only problem is the shipping cost.... i still have to compare to see how much they are selling in store.

Have you checked pricing at gundamplanet.com? Ive not used them but it looks as though they can ship outside the US.

ok i just got my order confirmation and payment mail...
EMS shipping for my OO raiser is 4420 yen instead of 2960 at HLJ >_> so all in all this will be 10 bucks more expensive for me at amiami.
so yeah, i wont order gunpla from those guys anymore :P

at gundamplanet.com they only give 10% on the OO raiser for example and then they still add the shipping fees. so that would probably be more expensive!
with the 10% pre-order bonus the kit itself costs about $77 there. shipping to germany costs $41 for regular and $52 for express.

edit:
the cheapest shop i found for the OO raiser so far is ishop2go: http://www.ishop2go.com/productUR_00...05_Prt_en.html
$101 including shipping to germany, thats not bad.
i got my PG astray from there, its a pretty neat shop^^

There's a simple solution. Don't use EMS. ;)
I live in germany as well and have ordered a lot of stuff from amiami. They have a few things that HLJ doesnt have (games for example). Instead of using EMS, try SAL Parcel. It has tracking just like EMS. SAL usually takes about a week more than EMS. It depends a lot on the customs office in Frankfurt/Niederaula. Doesn't matter if you use EMS or SAL as both types of delivery get stuck there, sometimes for a week. The other difference is how it is delivered.
EMS is delivered by DHL Express. SAL is the same as every other normal delivery by DHL. By the way, I was lucky with my last three orders. I didn't have to pay any taxes/customs even though all of them were way over the taxfree limit. :)

You should also be aware of the fact that any delivery from outside the EU may be sent to your local customs office. One more thing: HLJ often takes a few days to process orders while amiami does that within a day or two after they received payment.

tl;dr version...
The cheapest solution is amiami with SAL shipping (should be 10 Euros cheaper than ishop2go.com). It will take 2-3 weeks though.

the problem that i have with that is that it is indeed extremely slow. at HLJ i can have EMS shipping for about the same price :P
and until now my packages always got out of customs extremely quickly so no problems there^^
and yeah, i ordered a couple of kits from the USA and i always had to go pick them up at the office... annoying :P
but overall i still prefer HLJ.

I just went to NYC's Imageanime, I check the price on a SD Sinanju at amiami, it's 730 yen roughly around $10 USD, but the shipping cost is 2500 yen......
ImageAnime have the kit at $20, so I did save a bit, if I don't count the fee for the bus from Boston to NYC..... At least I got to spend the day and get the kit on the same day:D

im so jealous... here we dont have ANY shops like that XP i only found a tiny bit of gunpla in a few comic stores and that was pretty overprized already. they did have the new HG g gundam though when it first came out, i was kinda surprized to see it there. i would have gotten it but i didnt want to spend 40€ for an HG kit...
the owner of the shop also explained to me why its so expensive: he orders it from america because bandai wont ship to any shops outsidfe of japan directly and he has to use the dollar price 1:1 to the euro which makes it VERY expensive. and to make at least some profit off of those kits he has to slap on 10% on the whole price.
and thats why i cant and dont want to buy gunpla here :P even with the high import costs its still less expensive than the shops here...