HobbyLink Japan Reviews 135

Bought 3 x Hasegawa kits for less than half the price you'd pay in the UK and even with shipping it still works out as a bargain, especially as two of the kits aren't readily available in the UK. Models arrived very well packed and less than a week after the order was placed. Ordered once before from HLJ and had the same hassle free experience. Will definitely use again.

Their prices are lower than many other sites. The price does go up after shipping, but HLJ allows you to see how much shipping will be before you place an order.
They shipped my items quickly despite my order being placed during the holiday season.

They are scammers. They never refund anything, they never notify you about any payment problem, but they charge you for the shipping cost and they go as far as claiming that your account was banned because you started a payment reclamation. Their replies are rude and unprofessional and to put it simply, they are also racist (replies stopped coming in after I confirmed I was from Mexico and they are unreachable now, they don't answer emails nor messages and still waiting for either a refund or an explanation of what happened)

Quick turnaround. Often have best prices globally. Don't be put off by slightly odd "warehouse" system for some orders. It works just fine. Have ordered 3 or 4 times with no problems. Excellent shipping costs to Australia.

Simple put try to buy some thing, at decent price. Wouldn’t let me pay.
12 hrs took me to update my payment.

Then guess what ?

Price went up, how convenient- will not be using them and definitely don’t recommend

Used to shop here often, as the shipping prices to the US used to be reasonable.

The past year to two though they have hit an absolutely insane price level.

Even ordering a single tiny red LED that does not even weigh 10g and is super small costs $27 to $45 depending on what method you use to ship it. If you actually add something like a single figure to your order then you are looking at $40 for 4 month freight shipping, or up to $72 for other methods. Perhaps that is just the global situation right now, but it makes actually ordering from here no longer a good choice.

2023 update:

Thanks for updating the interface and for adding back the sort by date option fixed my review.

Good site

Excellent service - quick, efficient and on time, delivered exactly when promised. Highly recommended.

If I had relied too heavily on the reviews here I would have missed out on getting my items at a decent price.

Placed my order on 20th June, and they arrived today. Packaging was great, box was in a very good condition (ie not battered about in transit).

Will certainly use again in the future.

Shipping prices are insane and they only offer express from dhl and fedex or a cheap 6 month boat ride around the world. What is even worst is you pay for 1-3 day delivery and it take the standard 2 weeks. Why can't they offer the standard shipping rates. I think HLJ is overcharging and pocketing the difference and why only these 2 shipping companies??? The more I think about it the less I want to buy from them. Sure they models are a little cheaper but when you consider the exchange rate fee which is way over the top plus the insane shipping price it just be cheaper to buy locally. Only issue with my local shop is it takes anywhere between 6 months to a year for the new stuff to arrive on their shelf's. But I am going to support them then look after a foreign shop that don't care to look after their customers. That not including the other issues I have with hlj there private warehouse is a joke they take money when ever an item comes in but not give you any notice when this will happen then threaten to close your account if you don't pay straight away. Then you have the flip side where they just delete stuff without telling you then you find that when you browse their website you find the thing you ordered but its now at a higher price. I have got items still in there that are pushing 2 years and still not eta when they get it in. Or and don't buy food apparently dhl can't ship that which is bullsh*t since I bought a Japanese candy/noodle bento box and dhl shipped it just fine. They whole business model is terrible.

THINK TWICE BEFORE ORDERING. PRiCE IS DECEPTIVE. COST MORE WHEN you factor in shipping cost and their use of third party REACH USA.Price of items seem cheaper, but the cost of shipping and it uses a 3rd party Reach US LLC cost more than if you buy from another website. You are not told of the shipping cost at check out because most of my items were not available for 3-5 days, I used PayPal to paid and was not aware that HobbyLink uses Reach USA another party til after the transaction had already occurred. Reach charges a much higher conversion rate for Japanese Yen to US dollars. My total cost should have been around $688 but I was charged $771. The shipping cost was $221. Will never buy from HobbyLink again!!

Having successfully order from HLJ, I ended up using their private warehouse option for shipping my current order.

I placed my order and then one of my back order kits came in 5 minutes later. I was able to contact the support team and they pulled it back so i could add the new kit.

Great customer support and while yes it takes time to ship that's part and parcel of Gunpla right now and international logistics.

Will definitely use them again

Second review for HLJ I’m writing, the first was 2 stars because it was incredibly slow compared to other Japanese retailers for the same price. As well as this I had waited months for them to fill a backorder on another item and eventually gave up and cancelled.

This time it’s one star because since my previous review I’d placed an extra 4 orders to try and get items that weren’t available anywhere else, but each had sat for 3 months or more ‘on back order’ until I cancelled as they had appeared in stock at other retailers.

That’s right, out of the 6 or so orders I’ve made with HLJ they’ve only ever been able to fulfill one of them, and then I had to wait almost 6 months for it to be delivered.

Just don’t bother: there are other places that will deliver quicker, cheaper, faster and will actually get the items in stock. I said in a previous review that you should only use them if you can’t find an item anywhere else. I rescind that sentiment now - by the time they get it in stock it will have been available elsewhere for either the same price or cheaper, and it frustrates me to no end watching Gunpla YouTubers getting bought off and providing sponsor links when the company can’t even stock what’s being sponsored.

I made a preorder with the company and they did not honor it. They wasted my time and we're not helpful about it. Instead of recognizing their wrongs, and system that does not work, they cancelled my order and offered no help to fix the problem. I do not recommend this company.

11 items that i received only 1 item is correct and i have sent email to hlj but so far they only replied me one time and said they are looking into the discrepancy but now almost 1 week, still no answer from them

Ordered goods to the UK, they arrived quickly and in excellent condition.

Literally it sucks, i buy in may a beyblade set, and it stoped moving in day 2, they say that there is support to my country but very slow with EMS, the only help that support gave me is that i have to waith 28 days, until then, they cant ask in a formulary where the hell is my package, and in 30 days!!!!!! They have time to receive an answer and continue asking till arrives. The worst is that i cant even ask a refund because the package wasnt lost, i only can receive the product price (costing the shipment 2 times the product), and here i am waiting for a response from a response and cant do anything, imposing all the charge to the costumer and not even intermediating, perhaps in your countrys there isnt problems, but with mine, really sucks, even packages from Wish arrived sooner, if that is the case, dont give support to my country because you cant do anything and if dont intermediate dont offer a service that amazon or ebay do 100000 better

I am very happy with HobbyLink Japan. I ordered 4 items from them and I received all 4 in perfect condition and faster then expected. I would not hesitate to order from them again. THANK YOU!

Used to be one of my favourite model kit shops before changes were made to japanese shipping costs. SAL used to be reasonable and affordable...but nowadays it's too expensive, and unless you order in bulk its not interesting. Your cheapest alternative is to ship your order with surface delivery, but the delivery times are ridiculously long (my last order was shipped in february...im writing this in may of the same year and I still haven't got it, I'm starting to think the order got lost on the way). Paying anything between 30 and 50 dollars to ship a 40 dollar kit just isn't worth it. Granted, this is not HLJ's fault, but as far as im concerned, business with them is over. Looks like we're back in the 90's, when ordering stuff from japan cost a fortune in shipping. As a cherry on the cake, their website lags like all hell and is generally terrible. Shame.

Excellent service.
But for choice of courier service I hope that " Hobby Link Japan" should listen to me.I found Purator sevice to Canada in the last several months has been totally irresponsible. I cannot reach out to Japan Hobby Link for this complain.