Figma Fate sold out?

Thank you all for the comments and support you have kindly given over the blogosphere. I will return to posting shortly this week.


I've mentioned that I have planned to buy figma Fate T. Harlaown from Nanoha StrikerS in the last post. After spending a whole afternoon going through different shops in various districts of Hong Kong, I came back empty-handed; figma Fate is simply sold out in the market.

Find out why things went like so after the jump. Sorry for the lack of pictures in this post.

Hong Kong has usually enjoyed the benefit of getting a lot of anime and game-related imports from Japan in good prices, as well as translated mangas and anime/hobby magazines published from Taiwan.

I can get my gunplas pretty much at the same price as those in Japan, with most of them below their original retail prices. Figma too enjoy their sales over here; Haruhi is still going at hot prices along with her SOS-dan members in many shops I've walked in so far.


Haruhi is still selling strong 4 months after release, seen here owning my 105 Dagger with the famous Char Kick

After asking a number of shops I've found out that Fate is not available via official import agents from Max Factory. I was told that Nanoha from the same series did not sell as well as expected, so Max Factory of Good Smile Company has decided not to have Fate released to Hong Kong. This had led to shops importing them via other methods in a limited number, and sell them at much higher prices. The majority have been sold out within a few days, and the remaining ones out there are inflated to 160% to 190% of their original retail price (which is 2800 Yen). Saber has also met the same "fate" (pun not intended), but this is not so much of a problem as the second batch has arrived not long ago.


Why can't we have stockpile of Fate like this Good Smile Company?? T_T
Pic from Moeyo

What has saddened me though is that a number of people have bought in a large number of the figures not for collection or for friends but to sell them on auctions. It looks like that they knew that Fate will be a "limited release" and they could make a nice profit out of it. This kind of thing has been known with the limited Olympic banknotes as well, where some people have been known to have sold them for 7 times of their original price. A teenager even told a news reporter that "this is even better than getting a job"...

I simply have not expected figma Fate to have sold out like so. I admit that I have come to look for it far too late due to lack of time; I could also have pre-ordered it but I was afraid with how it may actually come out (for example Gordon's Reijin was simply a disaster for him). A lesson has been learnt for me: if there's something that has tickled your interest, don't hesitate and go for it, or else it can be too late to regret. So please don't end up like me having a bad start to a weekend!

If there are more batches importing to Hong Kong I would definitely take my chance to buy one, but one can only hope.


I won't give up!
Pic from forum member 夏娜(Shana) in Toysdaily