Madoka Anime and Sengoku Basara 2 Charamates
Sengoku Basara 2
Manufactuer: MOVIC
Released: Janurary 2008
Retail: ¥7,200 for box of 24
¥300 each
Purchase Info
Store: Madoka Anime
Price: 1390 TWD (48.65USD)
Shipping: 10.50USD
Taxes/Duties: 0
Total Cost:59.15USD
Shipping Info
Purchased: May 12th
Shipped: May 14th
Recieved: May 28th
Note:Customs held parcel for 8 days
Declared as 'Gift'
No Value declared
Review:
I've been looking for the Sengoku Basara Charmates for about half a year, soon after the first season had ended. I found a box of 24 on YesAsia for 125USD shipped and was planning to save up and buy them...however whenever I had enough money I never could really go through with the purchase.
Then one day when I went back to take another look at them, they were gone...I was so disappointed and was kicking myself for not making the purchase earlier. Then in my desperation I started googling far and wide, searching for another opportunity to buy the discontinued figures.
After going through about 30 pages into google search I found a Taiwanese store called 'Madoka Anime'. Here I after using their serch function to look up 'Sengoku Basara' I came up with nothing, so I searched 'Chara' and low and behold I found my sought after charamates. Turns out they spelt 'Sengoku' wrong, instead the store has then as 'Senkokku'.
Since i never heard of this store before I wanted to check them out to make sure they were legitimate. But I was only able to find one review of their store and it was back from 2007. Nevertheless I decided to take the chance and go through checkout with them.
After I got to the paypal step, where they take you directly to the paypal site for checkout, I assumed I had finished the checkout process. However I must not have finished properly because within 24 hrs of submitting my payment I received an email from Madokanime asking for more information on my purchase. Apparently they got my payment but didn't know what I had ordered.
So I quickly sent them a reply email, with the Sengoku Basara products info, the product number, as well as the link to their page selling them. After I sent out the email they replied to me within a few hours letting me know that they had packed and would ship out the next day. I then received another email from Madokanime providing me with the tracking number.
Here's how tracking went:
- May 14th: Parcel accepted
- May 16th: Parcel left origin
- May 20th: Parcel arrives in Vancouver customs
I recieved the parcel today May 28th, but they didn't update the info even though signature was required.
So my order was package in a thick yellow paper envelop and bubbled wrap extensively, so I'm very happy with the packaging.
Here are items of the original packaging before I opened the parcel:
The charamate were in their original baggies with their fortunes and sealed inside another plastic bag:
I'm pleased with the overall quality of these charamates, in my opinion they are much better than the One Piece chara fortunes I reviewed earlier. But this might be because they required less detailing. The One Piece figures were made to look like the character's actual faces, not deformed to cutness like most charamates/chara fortunes.
But nevertheless there are still not perfect, many of them have gaps between attached parts and the paint is not always smooth. But unlike the One Piece chara fortunes, the 'kid' who painted these seemed to more experienced. They managed to color inside the lines like a 'big kid'.
For 4.55USD shipped each compared to the original ¥300(3.33USD) price tag it seems to be not too expensive. However like the One Piece charamates these figures should be more reasonablly price at ¥200(2.22USD) instead.
Overall my ratings are:
Madokanime
Customer Service: 9/10 (checkout on the site seems to be problematic)
Shipping: 9/10 (could have included the original wrappers)
Product
Sengoku Charamate: 7.5/10 (could have been better quality)
Purchase it here:
Madoka Anime
if your looking for just a couple check livejournal for sellers
