Hey everyone, I'm a long time Berserk fan but never got a chance to start collecting Berserk statues. I'm looking to purchase my very first statue and was hoping to get some input as to what I should get. I'm really interested in the whole Art of War series, but don't have a lot of cash to spend, being that I'm still in college. Any recommendations for what to get and where to look would be very appreciated. Thanks!
New Collector Needing Help
- Thread starter StinkyTofu
- Start date
turkitage
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StinkyTofu said:
Heya,
Welcome to the forum! As far as where to look... did you look at the sticky links on this merch forum? Well, the best places are of course through AOW themselves, Ebay, or Yahoo! Japan (linked earlier). Now, if you do go through Yahoo Japan you have to use a 3rd party to buy the items for you then ship them to you. DirectDK (moderator here) recommends using M-World-Service and I do too. I've used his services a few times and it was very quick and easy to do. You'll get better deals that way, but you'll have to pay for his service + shipping so ebay might be better if you are getting cheaper items.
I'm not sure how much money you are working with. If it's $100 or less then I'd recommend getting a PVC statue, there are usually plenty on e-bay like DX versions, or regular PVCs. If you have $300 or so to play with then you can get a few good resin ones on ebay. For example this one seems pretty nice. Or check out the ones from berserkberserk here on the forum. He has been making some REALLY nice detailed ones. They are real top quality. The 100 man slayer is about $320 he is still selling here for a painted one. I own one and it's absolutely beautiful - a real incredible deal for such work.
Also, I'm sure you have checked out http://www.berserkstatues.com/ for pictures and descriptions of some statues.
Thanks for all the info Turkitage. I was actually looking on Yahoo Japan and had my eye on this one.
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fpage12.auctions.yahoo.co.jp%2Fjp%2Fauction%2Fp232395522&sl=ja&tl=en&hl=ja&ie=UFT-8
But I'm a little afraid since I feel that there is no real way for me to find out the condition of the statue. Is there someway to find out or is it just a risk that comes with buying from Yahoo Japan?
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fpage12.auctions.yahoo.co.jp%2Fjp%2Fauction%2Fp232395522&sl=ja&tl=en&hl=ja&ie=UFT-8
But I'm a little afraid since I feel that there is no real way for me to find out the condition of the statue. Is there someway to find out or is it just a risk that comes with buying from Yahoo Japan?
Hi guy,
As turkitage told you, you can buy a statue to Berserkberserk! He s a reliable man and the statues are awesome!
For an official AOW statue, try ebay!
Also, there's ArmoredBerserk, a French guy like me, who are selling some statues! there s Italian Guts who are selling statue!
I bought him Zodd revelation set and you can trust me, he s a reliable man too (even if I had a problem due to shipping... A part has been broken)!
I hope you ll find what you 're looking for!
Courage!
As turkitage told you, you can buy a statue to Berserkberserk! He s a reliable man and the statues are awesome!
For an official AOW statue, try ebay!
Also, there's ArmoredBerserk, a French guy like me, who are selling some statues! there s Italian Guts who are selling statue!
I bought him Zodd revelation set and you can trust me, he s a reliable man too (even if I had a problem due to shipping... A part has been broken)!
I hope you ll find what you 're looking for!
Courage!
turkitage
ターク
StinkyTofu said:
Yeah, that is a good price for it so far - $61. You're right, it doesn't have much of a description but I'd e-mail Masato @ http://www.m-world-service.com/ (or whoever is your choice of 3rd party vendors) and he can look and see if it says the description there somewhere or e-mail the auctioneer the condition. If the price stays that way then I'd imagine around $90/$100 total for shipping/service fees - which is still a really good deal for a resin Episode of Birth Feast Guts statue.
I don't know your budget, but if you have $300+ bucks, I highly recommend purchasing yourself one of BerserkBerserk's statues. The guy is our resident Berserk Michelangelo! 
I've done business with him recently (I bought one of his painted 1:6 scale "100 Man Killer" statue), and I can vouch for honesty and craftsmanship. Personally, I think his sculpts are superior to a lot of Art of War's releases. The pictures posted in the "1:6 Scale 100 Man Killer" thread fail to do his statues justice; they're truly remarkable to behold in person. For a friggin' statue of a manga character, Guts looks like he's poised to rise from his seated position at any moment!
I've done business with him recently (I bought one of his painted 1:6 scale "100 Man Killer" statue), and I can vouch for honesty and craftsmanship. Personally, I think his sculpts are superior to a lot of Art of War's releases. The pictures posted in the "1:6 Scale 100 Man Killer" thread fail to do his statues justice; they're truly remarkable to behold in person. For a friggin' statue of a manga character, Guts looks like he's poised to rise from his seated position at any moment!
turkitage
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Madam President said:I don't know your budget, but if you have $300+ bucks, I highly recommend purchasing yourself one of BerserkBerserk's statues. The guy is our resident Berserk Michelangelo!
Well, Sounds like he is looking to spend less then $100 since he mentioned he's in college etc. But I think most people that bought berserkberserk statues here would agree with Madam President. If you have $300 dollars then no doubt getting his 1:6 scale statue is an incredible deal. You won't get that kinda of quality and big of a statue for that price. The sword handle is cloth! and the sword belt/satchel are leather!
Madam President said:
Art of War makes fantastic statues but in the end they are mass produced so I can't really compare his statues to theirs. But no doubt the quality, attention to details, paint job, and over all sculpting is the best I've ever purchased from what I consider professional work.
Turkitage said:
Thanks for all the wonderful info you guys! Yea, the statue by berserkberserk looks awesome, but I currently don't have $300 to spend. I can afford $150 max right now, and there seems to be a lot of inexpensive Art of War statues on Yahoo Japan, around 5,000 yen for Guts. I'm just a little hesitant because of the quality that they might be in. But I'm planning to work this summer, so once I save enough money I might look into buying one of his statues. Does he have any other statues besides the "100 Man Killer Guts," Pippin, and "Golden Age Guts" which he is working on? Is there a site which contains info on these statues, such as height, price, and material used?
turkitage
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StinkyTofu said:
The original one you linked is a good buy and is resin quality, I'd go with that personally. Berserkberserk might have a website, I don't know, but he has just started semi recently making these statues for us and has only made those 3 so far. I believe the material is resin he uses and you can possibility post or PM him the details. Often in his pictures he puts the statues near other items so you can get a general idea of how big it is, so you should be able to gauge.
StinkyTofu said:
Modify your post then copy that [./quote] at the very bottom of your post (right after "Sorry") and paste it at the end of my paragraph at the top (right after satchel are leather!"). Each quote has an open [.quote] and a close [./quote] without the periods before and after the message. Just make sure next time, for simplicity sake, when you click reply with quote you start typing after the closed quote [./quote].
Update: Yeah, there you go!
G
Gnomeking
Guest
I have a toycom version of guts birth feast I'd sell for $80 cuz there is a minor crack on the hilt of the sword which ill fix before selling. If your interested.
Gnomeking said:
Sorry Gnomeking, but I already bought Guts Birth Feast from Yahoo Japan. Thanks for the offer though!
So I just received my invoice for the "Guts Birth Feast" statue I ordered through shoppingmalljapan.com which I bought for 5000 yen. They used a 75 yen conversion rate for the dollar, but I checked online and the exchange rate is 80 yen. Is this normal? I have never bought anything from Japan before so I am not familiar with it. Any help would be appreciated.
Turkitage said:Well, maybe they messed up or using an outdated exchange rate?
You can simply point out to them that even on their website it says 80 yen to 1 usd in addition to your sources.
Very true. I hadn't noticed that Turk. I have already emailed them and am waiting for a response. Thanks Turk for the response!
BTW, what do you think of AOW Zodd III? Is this a good statue? How much is shipping for a brand new one in the original packaging from Japan?
i used smj for a little over a year... it was recommended to me by a friend and overall the service and packaging are great and i really like that you can bid on auctions yourself in real time... their charges and the fees do add up and end up costing a bit more than competition - had a few invoicing surprises myself.
an exchange rate of 75 does seem a bit off, but it's not completely unreasonable. often times proxies use a much more conservative exchange rate to cover currency fluctuations. for example, this march when the big earthquake took place in japan, the yen rose from 80 to 76 per dollar overnight then quickly dropped to about 82... things are a bit more stable now settling around 80 but it'd still be risky for proxies to use actual rate.
personally i prefer proxy services that deal directly in japanese yen, so you can use more accurate and current exchange rate. my new proxy has treated me very well and i swear by it.
i missed the days back in 2007 when the rate was 1 to 120...
an exchange rate of 75 does seem a bit off, but it's not completely unreasonable. often times proxies use a much more conservative exchange rate to cover currency fluctuations. for example, this march when the big earthquake took place in japan, the yen rose from 80 to 76 per dollar overnight then quickly dropped to about 82... things are a bit more stable now settling around 80 but it'd still be risky for proxies to use actual rate.
personally i prefer proxy services that deal directly in japanese yen, so you can use more accurate and current exchange rate. my new proxy has treated me very well and i swear by it.
i missed the days back in 2007 when the rate was 1 to 120...
wenjamin said:
who are you using now?
turkitage
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StinkyTofu said:Very true. I hadn't noticed that Turk. I have already emailed them and am waiting for a response. Thanks Turk for the response!
BTW, what do you think of AOW Zodd III? Is this a good statue? How much is shipping for a brand new one in the original packaging from Japan?
No problem.
I like Zodd III, it's a pretty cool solid statue. I actually prefer Zodd II limited edition. I think it looks cooler, but both of them have a pretty good dramatic pose. Main reason I went with III is because I got a real good deal. $200 including shipping. I'd image you could get it for about $300 or less with shipping.
For the size of the statue, it's really worth it ... considering the pose too!