So how do you sell one of the most anticipated figures from one of the most collected Japanese toy makers? This was a daunting task. We could of sold it to only loyal buyers, like some emails had suggested. Surprisingly though some of the "OGs" would not of been on that list. Conversely many new people have become serious collector of RxH. We could of hidden it on one of our many special ways to sell the more hard to get stuff. We could of just quietly put them up. What it came down to was how do we show Real Head the most respect for a truly amazing gift. Ultimately we decided to be the most fair about it and let everyone fight it out. Like any fight some win and some lose.

Lulubell is two people, Amy and I, and we both work very hard to help as many people in this community as we can. I was surprised and touched by almost every ones kind words and emails. You guys can not believe how hard it was to tell some of our steadiest customers that they missed out. I hope that we never have to do that again. I can assure everyone that we will be spending good money to fix this from happening.

All and all we had a lot of fun and hope that you all did too. Looking forward to doing it again. How about same time next year but in pink.

Damn- Pink to clear fade would be amazing!

So was this 100% a Lulubell exclusive, or will there be some in shop? Not that it matters for me, just for my own curriosity. I know it was marketed as a Lulu only thing, but I wasn't sure.

Also! I think the only good way to deal with small run/major hype releases is what Grumble Toy did with the last Anraku. Have it set up for "free" to take out all the middle man paypal crap, than if you got in you got an email with a paypal notice. It doesn't require any annoying refunds, and you know there's a chance you missed it and you just wait for confirmation.

It seemes all cart systems crash for these types of things, even when the people running them think they're totally safe. I believe we've been told by everyone from S7 to Lulu that "we got it fixed" only to have it crash up again now and than, it's just the nature of it.

Roto has a live inventory system.

I can't say, though, I've ever seen a massive hype release like this or Anraku on Roto. But if it has, and it went fine, then killer!

It happens to everyone.

Not just a Lulu joint....perhaps for the USA, but I know there are sets for Japan.

Yeah..I don't think I've seen a really massive hype release on rotofugi either. And couldn't agree more about the way gt has now changed their selling format for certain releases.
I like how it's now "free" and then you are invoiced later if you win. Granted, I've yet to win something but last time the server didn't lag or crash.

Well Roto seems to like the "just toss it up w/o announcing it" style for shorter run/more hyped things, so the issue doesn't happen as often. BUT that's just on things I notice, that's not to say it happens all the time. Just my observations.

That's very true. Either way I think that it's being handled as best as possible. I would much prefer this to something where the server exploded and I waste two hours just to get the item in my cart.

I agree, Luke and Amy are always cool as hell. It was a fun ride to watch last night at least.

i'm sure almost all of us have been collecting long enough to know how this works (getting the dreaded refund email or having this disappear from our cart - when you do this enough, you know how to maximize your chances). although it sucks to get assed out, i don't expect small businesses to spend a bunch of money on improving their webstores when they get a hot release once in a blue moon

I like that this was announced. We're all from different parts of the globe, so it's good to get a heads up so you can find the time to give it a shot. I'd hate to wake up one morning to find these were on sale and sold out 3:45am on a weeknight.

Luke and Amy rule. Period.
All the haters can fuck off.
I got the dreaded oversold email myself.
But it is what it is.

Amen to that!
Lulubell/Luke/Amy have gone out of their way to bring us some of the coolest toys around.
I'm just pleased I had a chance to even go for these.

Yes please Luke!

As only an observer on this particular release I could sense everyone's excitement and anticipation. It was actually kind of thrilling from the sidelines too. I'm really sorry for folks that missed out, but as Joe mentioned, "it is what it is". I got the sense from a few comments that some, not all were upset with the way Lulu released it. I really hope that's just the initial disappointment of not getting lucky talking.
Luke and Amy have helped me out on numerous occasions, and are genuinely passionate about these figures and the community. Plus they like pink.

I'm sure they handled it the best way they saw fit. That's good enough for me.

On with the hunt, right?

FACT...!!!

One of the biggest reasons i do appreciate the "Heads Up" way of selling is that it's not just a heads-up, but a sort-of warning. Very much like Luke said, "let em fight it out". With a warning you are allowed to pick and choose your battles. Meaning, "hey, if your not interested in this, stay off the site and let those who are interested play the game." Nobody wants to run a race down a busy street, they want a clear open path and to know when the race starts. Some win, some loose.

I have scored some very cool pieces from Lulubell and always appreciate the generostiy both Luke and Amy give to this community.

Luke Roolz, Amy Roolz, Lulubell Rools, RxH ROolz.

so.... you guys think there are like 20 sets of these in the US?

are people so quick to forget that it was standard for rxh sell out in minutes? as has been stated, this release was for an awesome pair of figures that harken back to the og style. an announced sale through time used to seem to be pretty standard for most releases. it's unfortunate that people are pissed that they got an email telling them that their payments were refunded due to a system issue. this used to happen on the s7 site as well. does nobody remember? i was on the road when these dropped, so was more of a spectator than participant. so i didnt get bitten by the gotta have it/check out/check out!!/~excitement.
people need to chill out.
as always holds true in this hobby of ours, you just gotta have a little patience. luke and amy have always done right by me.
sorry to ramble.

I think Luke and Amy are the spawn of Satan sent to Earth to goad us into unholy anarchy and self-destruction . . . . Love 'em to bits!

I don't want to throw too much into this as I was lucky enough to score one and it's always irritating when the people who "win" tell everyone to stop complaining. But I remember a store's anniversary sale where I missed everything. No galtans, no RxHs...and then a month later you couldn't beat the "for sale" RxH's off with a stick. I think a lot of times our frustration has nothing to do with the store and everything to do with our fellow collectors...

Can you believe that we have been waiting for these for a year now? I was just looking through the old threads on the blue fade set, and realized they were from May 2008. Anyway, I think the sale went fairly smoothly with that in mind. Not sure if a comparison to other stores is really fair since they probably all use different shopping cart software. I don't think anyone is really safe when there are 10x the normal number of people on the server, every one pressing the order button at once.

Thanks to Luke and Amy for handling this in a fair way, knowing the probable outcome of any open sale of these two. We all just got the toy(s) or a refund; they had to slog through the mess of simultaneous orders in a short time frame.

I hope stealth and logang scored, seeing as they were the main proponents of this set.

now that this blue set has come and gone, any chance this guy might be lingering?



I so want this one badly... Jason, what's the word... or is it just a proto with no shot of production?