Hobbylink Japan

[belugawhaleman]

Just had ,this week, a very pleasant experience ordering an item from

Hobbylink Japan. The item....A hard-to-find Tamiya kit. But first, let's back up a bit....

Over the weekend, I got an email from Tower Hobbies that a kit I wanted to buy was back

in stock only to find out on Monday that this was not the case it was marked as "currently not

available" and now the message is that the next shipment is expected in September.... Ok,

so I could have waited a bit, but I wasn't aware of this shipment until this morning....and I already ordered from HLJ. The price at Tower Hobbies will be $ 56.000. The price I paid at

HLJ was $ 27.00 US. Shipping, of course, is a killer at $ 25.00 US for FedEx but the combined

total will be less than the price for the model at Tower Hobbies. Meanwhile, my order order status at HLJ has progressed quickly, the staff there has answered my email correspondence

quickly and professionally and the item will soon be on its way. The last time I ordered from

them shipping took forever, but Covid was big at that time. I hope that won't be the case this time. Anyway, it's not like I don't have plenty of kits to build in the meantime. This kit has been

out of stock EVERYWHERE! so I'm glad I found one.

[GazzaS]

So....   which Tamiya kit is it?  Enquiring minds want to know.

Me?  I'm just nosey.

[belugawhaleman]

1 hour ago, GazzaS said:

So....   which Tamiya kit is it?  Enquiring minds want to know.

Me?  I'm just nosey.

It's their Brummbar kit. (35353) Couldn't find it anywhere.

[Bomber_County]

Paul, give Dragon a go at some point, IMHO the detailing is better but the prices are prohibitive……….also if you get a Magic Track kit even better……

[JohnB]

10 hours ago, belugawhaleman said:

Just had ,this week, a very pleasant experience ordering an item from

Hobbylink Japan. The item....A hard-to-find Tamiya kit. But first, let's back up a bit....

Over the weekend, I got an email from Tower Hobbies that a kit I wanted to buy was back

in stock only to find out on Monday that this was not the case it was marked as "currently not

available" and now the message is that the next shipment is expected in September.... Ok,

so I could have waited a bit, but I wasn't aware of this shipment until this morning....and I already ordered from HLJ. The price at Tower Hobbies will be $ 56.000. The price I paid at

HLJ was $ 27.00 US. Shipping, of course, is a killer at $ 25.00 US for FedEx but the combined

total will be less than the price for the model at Tower Hobbies. Meanwhile, my order order status at HLJ has progressed quickly, the staff there has answered my email correspondence

quickly and professionally and the item will soon be on its way. The last time I ordered from

them shipping took forever, but Covid was big at that time. I hope that won't be the case this time. Anyway, it's not like I don't have plenty of kits to build in the meantime. This kit has been

out of stock EVERYWHERE! so I'm glad I found one.

I've always had good service from HLJ but, yep, the shipping is expensive (but fast using FedEx).

[Landlubber Mike]

I placed an order a couple of summers ago with HLJ and was really impressed with their service.  Took a while to get in, but no problems at all with the order or shipping.  I had ordered a bunch of their remaining Wingnut kits and some Z-M stuff - shipping wasn't inexpensive, but the cost of the products was very good.

At the time, they had a "warehousing" option which I thought was really cool.  They would reserve your items for you for a period of time in case they needed to acquire products out of stock or you wanted to add to your order.  Then they would ship everything out so you only had to pay shipping once.  Not sure if they still do that, but it was nice (and cheaper) having a single box come rather than multiple shipments as they filled my orders.

[belugawhaleman]

1 hour ago, Landlubber Mike said:

I placed an order a couple of summers ago with HLJ and was really impressed with their service.  Took a while to get in, but no problems at all with the order or shipping.  I had ordered a bunch of their remaining Wingnut kits and some Z-M stuff - shipping wasn't inexpensive, but the cost of the products was very good.

At the time, they had a "warehousing" option which I thought was really cool.  They would reserve your items for you for a period of time in case they needed to acquire products out of stock or you wanted to add to your order.  Then they would ship everything out so you only had to pay shipping once.  Not sure if they still do that, but it was nice (and cheaper) having a single box come rather than multiple shipments as they filled my orders.

They still have the private warehouse as they call it.

[belugawhaleman]

4 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

Paul, give Dragon a go at some point, IMHO the detailing is better but the prices are prohibitive……….also if you get a Magic Track kit even better……

I have a Dragon Saladin that I may build soon. I did notice that the prices are higher....

I had my eye on their Marder II I think it was about $ 70.00 for a very small

1/35 kit. It had some interior detail... That was cool. I like Tamiya, good products.......and NOT Chinese.