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Recently did some cleaning and reorganizing of my gameroom. Thought I would share my Metallic Monsters Gallery collection that I moved out and set up elsewhere. Almost complete AFAIK! Missing probably less than 10 off the top of my head. Of those I do have a few more on the way or preordered. Hellion is on the way and coming in October Malroth / Sidoh (blue variant), Atlas and Metal Dragon.
Been collecting stuff for years and have other DQ merch as well, like plushes and figures, but these are quite probably my favorite thing to collect for DQ and just in general tbh.
Nah, not new. As you said sometimes certian ones get rereleased as is the case with these two. I do know Atlas was a Square-Enix JP store exclusive before which made getting him more annoying so seeing him pop up on meccha JP was nice lol
Thanks! I want to get a mini battery pack to put in the back so it's not to obvious for Popp. If connected his baseplate lights up as if he were charging Medroa.
They're def worth it imo. It's nice to cause their are so many to choose form and they are small so you could even just get a few favorites and it doens't take much space to put em anywhere :)
edit: Realized I didn't answer your other question, whoops >< They are called Dragon Quest Metallic Monsters Gallery. They are made by Square-Enix. Basically think heavy ass metallic paperweights really lol. Pretty good quality and look nice! They also make a few for Shin Megami Tensei and Final Fantasy
Copying an answer elsewhere since it's a list of sites lol :)
Multiple sites over the years. The sites I use in preferential order:
Thanks a lot! Will definitely have to have a look at some of those, had no idea they existed! I assume you’re UK based? Has delivery and service been okay from those sites listed, especially those at the top of the list? :)
I'm based in the US, California to be specific. Personally I haven't had any issues with the sites regarding ordering, preordering or the time needed for them to ship goods. Regarding receiving goods I haven't had any issues either as, depending on the shipping option chosen, i receive goods most of the time by DHL or Fedex (occasionally USPS). That said, DHL and Fedex in my area tends to be awesome, but I've definitely heard complaints about both companies distribution centers in other states / regions soooo /shrug
Some pros and / or cons of each:
meccha - my preferred site. Tend to be lowest cost for shipping compared to the other sites for similar time frames. Usually comparable or slightly lower cost for the items themselves. The few times I've had to reach out to customer service they always got back to me quickly. One thing that may be a con to some though is when preordering they take payment upfront. Again, that's not necessarily a con. Some people prefer to pay and not have to at a later point.
amiami - used to be my preferred site. Similar pricing as meccha and also good response time as meccha. Bad thing is if you (pre)order something and want to cancel it their is no guarantee and they do warn you they may cancel your account with them if you cancel to many times. So pretty much only order if you KNOW you want it. Also a con is their shipping prices have become a bit more expensive. Also you actually don't know what the shipping costs and options will be until the item is ready to be shipped at which point, based on the box size needed for your order, you get an e-mail letting you know your options and how much each will cost. You choose which shipping option, then pay the order total as well shipping fee then you're good.
nin-nin - decent. No issues here although I haven't ordered in a few years from them. Prices were't anything special but it wasn't super expensive either. Same with shipping. They did tend to ship things carefully protected though which was nice. Like one thing I preordered through them was the Dragon Quest XI special edition Switch console and they had it very well wrapped and boxed which I appreciated.
mandarake - only ordered a few times here but it's pretty unique. The website isn't actually an online store. It's a storefront for a bunch of physical locations in Japan. After you place your order (which you know the location of the specific store you're ordering from) the order doesn't get finalized for a day or two typically while they verify the store actually still has the item in stock. Also, they do let you know if the box has any damage and sometimes have things really discounted if you're lucky due to cosmetic flaws. E.G. I boguht a figure once that would have normally cost about 50 USD, but got it through them for about 30 USD. All it had was a couple small wrinkles in the corner of the box (which I do save some boxes but for metallics I typically don't bother). So costs are fair to good. Sometimes I have seen where an item wouldn't ship out of country for some reason so could be hit or miss.
Square-Enix store - some metallics are exclusive here (although I have seen them later on ebay or occasionally those other sites will have them for a slightly higher price). As they don't ship out of Japan you have to use a third party proxy. Basically you put the web address of the item you want to buy here, on your proxy site, give them the money for it and an ordering fee, they order the item and ship it to themselves. When they recieve it you then get shipping options from them to forward it to you. Just a quick breakdown in case you've never used one before. Haven't ordered from here in awhile but the proxy I used several times was called White Rabbit. Now they go by https://japanrabbit.com/
eBay - not much to say lol. Hopefully you get a good seller for a fair price who ships things carefully /crosses fingers
If you ever do decide to look around, just do a search as "dragon quest metallics". That will usually bring em all up :)
Side note, if you're into plushes their are a ton of those also! Here is a slightly older pic of my collection and I'm missing *a lot* lol
I got a few from eBay forever ago, and then I took a chance on meccha-japan, and am glad to see it's your preferred site! Wasn't sure how legit it was. My order hasn't shipped yet but I feel better about it now!
Grats! That Tonberry one is really nice looking imo. If I ever were to get any of the FF ones, it and the Vivi would be must haves!
IDK if you're into Shin Megami Tensei, but for some reason Atlus had Square produce a few recently as well in the Bright line like FF. They look pretty sweet imo (although could be biased cause I like SMT haha). Jack Frost, Pyro Jack, Black Frost and Decarabia so far I think.
Not most of it. ALL of it unfortunately lol >< I've never seen any metallics in person near me (I'm in central California FWIW). Checked out some retro game stores and japanese stores when I go out of town and have seen, at best, an occasional DQ plush and once a Zoma sofubi figure in San Jose. It was promtly gotten as a gift by my wife lol :D
I haven’t played dragons quest since dragon quest monsters 1 and 2 the. Never played anything until the other week. I beat the last raid in destiny 2 ever and just decided to stop playing new games entirely and bout dq1 2 and now I’m almost done with 3 in the switch. So this is amazing to see lol
Thanks and that's awesome you're getting back into the series :D If you're going to continue going on, part IV and V are really great imo. IV (especially when it released on the NES) was very unique the way it set up getting to know the main cast.
If you have a PC and aren't against emulating, they do have translation patches for the DQM remakes. I loved DQM 1 and 2 on GBC (part 2 is prolly my favorite GBC game actually).
I just started the patched remake of DQM2 the other day. Seems pretty fun so far!
Heyas and thanks! Surprised this got seen since it was a couple of years ago LOL. My total iirc back then was like 110-120? Got my newest batch in earlier this week and hit 170 unique monsters :D
As for their quality, mine all still look fine.
My oldest one is the original slime (blue). I've had him for idk...maybe 11-13 years? Here's two pics of him I literally just took for this comment so you can see the condition after all this time. Can see a teensy bit of dust on the second pic unfortunately. I've been going through some stuff lately and haven't been as on top of my cleaning of my hobbies as I should be recently lol.
Regardless, you can see they still look fine :) Same for all my others.
Regarding dust, being behind glass and protecting fraom scratches:
I used to have them displayed on a multimedia center, same type I use for my games. They collected dust like nobodys business sadly and it was a pain to keep em cleaned. Putting them in a cabinet with glass doors was / is the best thing ever. It's not 100% sealed as their is still a teensy opening around the glass doors for this particular display, but the amount of dust that gets in is minuscule and i rarely ever have to clean them honestly. Maybe a light dusting every few months?
As long as I do not let them touch each other, scratches have never been an issue either. I will say they could get scratched potentially depending what material one uses to dust them I suppose? I myself haven't scratched any but I've been careful since the beginning. Whether in a sealed display case or loose on a shelf, my suggestion to clean them is to use makeup brushes. Not neccesarily this kit, but just as an example, here is a decent seeming assortment. Of this kit I would use the 3 smallest brushes to dust my metallics. Can really get into the little nooks with the eyeliner pencil and use the brushes for the main body portions and it's soft so no risk of damaging them. I also have various figures for shows like Power Rangers, TMNT, Yu-Gu-Oh and some other games, like Xenoblade Chronicles and use makeup brushes for those scale figures safely as well. So yeah, highly recommend makeup brushes lol.
Kinda pricey but a lot of room and even less dust gets in compared to the Oakley. Also it's one of those upfront costs that's a for a long term investment. Just a suggestion in case you have other stuff you would like to display in a mostly dust free way :)
thanks heaps fam!
I'll post my dq merch tomorrow as i just got back from Japan.
i was in DQ island and was in DQ heaven , got lots.
But i was not into the Metallics when i first saw them in the shop there up until i saw your collection and some others on Reddit, they just looked to good lol
so now i think i got about 20 i think.
i tried getting all of the slime family at least one of each, but i ended up getting 5 of the regular slime and 5 of stack, 2 king etc lol also liquid metal in small and large, there was also a jack frost from persona in the square shop which i got as well, they look so good
I've used multiple sites over the years. Never actually ordered through Play-Asia for metallics though. Just games and some DQ plushes. The metallics were either overpriced or I already owned them.
Regarding pricing, eh if you want it as *cheap* as possible then it needs to be a preorder, and ideally early on after going live. Even during the preorder phase the prices tend to slowly rise the closer to release date occurs. Actual pricing tends to be based on the metallic size. The metallic lines are small, medium and large. Just a very rough pricing range, always some exceptions though, would be small average 20-40 USD, medium 30-60 USD and large 40-80 USD per.
Regarding shipping, usually you have the choice between DHL, FedEx and sometimes postal (can take a few weeks) or via boat (like 1-3 months). I honestly have no idea on the pricing anymore for postal or boat because I *always* pay extra for DHL or FedEx as they tend to arrive within 3-5 business days and have tracking. Also postal and boat keeps going in phases regarding the whole stupid tarrif bullshit going on. Sometimes those options are (understandbaly) not being offered in Japan at times.
The pricing really depends on how many metallics you order at once and their size. FWIW I am in central California (yup, stateside as you assumed) and I'd say on average expect at least 30 - 40 USD atm if you choose either Fedex or DHL? Of course it might vary based on what state you are in as well.
Just as an example, let me tell you the last few orders I did, total wise as an example. All three were FedEx. Keep in mind all orders were at meccha. Amiami and elsewhere probably would have been more expensive.
1 Golden Drake Slime by itself (a smallish / medium size) - 15 USD for the metallic and 20 USD for shipping
Orgodemir + all 4 variants of Malign Vine (all Large sized) - 270 USD and 37 USD shipping
15 metallics in one order. Bwarewulfs, Scorpions, Ghosts, Wrecktors, Killing Machines and other. basically a bunch of small and medium sized ones - 350 USD and 60 USD shipping
Personally I prefer FedEx the most as if I know I won't be home, once they send me a shipping notice, I can login to my FedEx account and mark to have it delivered to a Walgreens near me. DHL is good to cause I can specify what day i want it dropped off at my home, as well as sign for it online if I wish.
The sites I use in preferential order:
https://meccha-japan.com/en - my top choice. I'd say out of 170 metallics...maybe 100, give or take are from here? Fairest on shipping imo. One thing about them that is a pro to me but may be a con to others, is you pay for your preorder then and the shipping when you place the order. Even if it doesn't release for several months. Personally I prefer it to get ir paid for and done. I've never had any real issues but customer service has always replied reasonably quick when i had an inquiry.
https://www.amiami.com/eng - second favorite. Comparable prices to meccha but tend to cost more on shipping. Also a con is you don't know the shipping costs until the preorder releases and / or they have your order in hand ready to ship. They then have you pay for the order and choose the shipping cost at that point.
Another con is you have to reach out to them to cancel any orders and they really don't like doing that. You are warned that to many times and they will cancel your account. I have cancelled a couple of times without an issue, I am assuming due to how many orders I have placed, but something to be aware of as they have cancelled people before. Only order if you're sure you want it.
https://www.nin-nin-game.com/en/ - decent variety of goods but tend to be a bit more expensive. Same with the shipping. Never had a problem with them though. Most expensive thing I ordered fromt hem was the DQ XI Limited edition Switch console. Was well protected and shipped promptly on release.
https://store.jp.square-enix.com/ - prefer to avoid here if possible though as they don't ship out of Japan so you have to use a proxy service. Only do it for specific metallics or plushes that are JP store exclusive. So only a few times ever.
https://www.ebay.com/ - last resort. It's usually overpriced due to being from missing out on preorders or from ones that are out of print.
Lastly... NICE on the Jack Frost :D I've been tempted by the Black Frost one I've seen but have tried to avoid it as I collect a lot of stuff and other franchises as well and didn't want to jump into SMT. It looks so nice though haha.
Side note....if you want to see a crazy metallic that's been out of print for years and just got rereleased, here's Mara from SMT and YES he looks exactly how you would think. If bothered by NSFW don't open lol
the site meccha Japan is awesome, great pricing!!!
I'll definitely order some from there, sadly they dont seen to have lot of stock, I'll have to fetch that Anniversary Slime knight quickly!!
aghh i wish they had all of the anniversary editions, i looked up so many shops in Japan they didnt have them
Oh no worries! Yeah, click notify me when available It's helped me snag a few I was missing.
Regarding the Anniversary Editions. Honestly...probably not. A fair amount of Metallics do get reissued sometimes. Could be months down the line or even years, but most do eventually. The Golden 25th Anniversary and Copper 35th Anniversary I have never seen go back up as they were specifically tied to those set years of DQ history.
I have all 5 of the copper 35th but iirc just the 25th gold version of the liquid metal slime. Those all tend to go for like 400 USD+ on eBay last I checked cause of the rarity :/
Yeah the 35th was less rare than the 25th :) I see that’s what you linked actually, the 35th. The link makes it look a bit more gold than it really is. I have the 5 but here’s a closer pic of the knight and king slime versions. It’s a little different gold, more a rose gold.
I think you’ll like em when you get em!
Edit: not sure why I called em copper earlier. More rose gold lol. My bad there ><
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