So did all of you had fun doing the math for the contest? I thought it was pretty easy, no? ^^;. A few words from me before I announce the winner. I’ll explain the steps on how to get the correct answer (the way I actually did it) and the hints I gave.
First off, the answers. I had some good chuckle. They ranged from 3800 yen to some 90,000 yen xD. That was kinda hilarious. Honestly, some of you were trying way too hard to do the math judging from the explanations in the emails xD. Of the 70+ entries I’ve received, only THREE(!!!) were within 1000 yen of the answer.
HINTS EXPLAINED!
I did emphasized “READ CAREFULLY”. I even added that in the rules. Some of you missed it judging by some of the emails ^^;. I worded everything as carefully and concise as possible. I thought my clues were generous enough. Please allow me to explain.
Amount in YEN- This wasn’t in the hint but it is a hint. One should’ve assumed I ordered the items from a Japanese site if I wanted the answer in yen; it doesn’t make sense (impossible) to make you find the exact amount in yen if you have to convert from dollars because the exchange rate changes. Someone commented that yen made the contest harder in which I replied “that makes it a lot easier actually”. Some of you were explaining the dollar-yen conversion to me and all that in the email= It was unnecessary xD.
“I got 20% off on the GUNPLAS“- Again, read carefully. I said “GUNPLAS”. Very few of you picked up on this. This is a reference to rainbowten.co.jp, a Japan-based website. Their Gunplas are regularly 20% off retail. Also, I’ve mentioned from time to time that I shop at rainbowten. They are my main source for gunpla.
“Everything came in one box”- A little shipping research or knowledge might’ve helped here. Given the obvious value, weight and size of the contents plus that it’s all in ONE BOX, one should’ve assumed it was shipped by EMS. SAL has a weight limit of roughly 5 lbs (2kg). The shipment was northward of 11 kg. Just for the record (not sure if I mentioned it in the past or not), I almost always use EMS for shipping. I rarely pick SAL as shipping choice (only for really cheap stuff I absolutely don’t care about). Some of you asked me for the weight and what type of shipping I used… well, I provided the hint. Some even asked where I lived- If you follow this blog, you would’ve also knew that I live in the states.
THE ORIGINAL ORDER
Like I’ve said above, I ordered everything from rainbowten with EMS shipping. I did all the math myself before ordering so I knew exactly how much I had to pay. here’s the original order I did:
Haha There wasn’t any conversion necessary. All you had to do was hop to rainbowten, grab their prices (all in yen), and figure out the shipping. If some items were out, then you just need to go to HLJ, grab the missing item’s price and dock 20% off. Some figured it out and did go to rainbowten but… chose the wrong shipping which threw their answers off ^^;. You could’ve calculate shipping in two ways:
– Go to HLJ, find the weight of each item and total them, then look up the EMS rate for the corresponding weight (HLJ has the chart on their site). 11,000+ g = 16200 yen for shipping.
– Send a shipping inquiry to rainbowten.
I did both of those to make sure I was right in my calculations… then I placed the order. My total for the order came out to be 58440 YEN.
As I’ve mentioned above… only THREE people came close. In the order I’ve received them…
– ChrisEXE guessed 58531 yen. For awhile, I thought Chris have won (again). He was oh so close to winning the MG Infinite Justice- only 91 yen off. I was referring to him when I said “someone might be heartbroken” ^^;. Heck, I was so sure he won that I was planning on how to type this post up to congratulate him again. Alas, someone else beat him in the final few hours…
-Rndm guessed 58290. Very close too.
Now for the winner! Congratulations goes out to “Dennis T.” for guessing 58400 (he said it was a random guess xD). Off by 40 yen. Dennis, if you read this then please send me your addy where I can ship out your prize. Thank you for playing!
Once again, this was a fun contest just like all the other times. I surely enjoy hosting these giveaways as a show of my appreciation toward you all ^^. Hope all of you enjoyed this one as well and stick around for more in the future. It’s definitely not over yet! Thank you all for participating!
…
Oh just one last thing before I forget. The very last entry gave me the best laugh. The person addressed me as “Danny Choo”! ^^; ahahaha. I was very flattered and all and I greatly admire Danny (my giveaways were influenced by him) but I’m not him…
I AM Z :)
ガンプラ命 
@DarkFayte: wow, i guessed the exact same amount
Grats to the victors and better luck next time for the rest of us.
p.s. damn Z you spend allot of money on plamo!
wow, congrats!
you’re all monster bro! able to count that close ^^
Congratulations to the winner!
How do you pay for about $500+ dollars worth of gunpla Z?
I thought you were a poor student.
o0o man… I have a lot to read xD. I figured the people who got close (between 56-59) were the ones who did the right math but just got the shipping wrong ^^;.
erazer, i would cry and smack if I actually spent that much in one go xD
neosonic, when I was looking at the entries, I was mainly looking for anyone with 58xxx as their answer ^^;.
Saito, it took hosting this giveaway for you to see that? ^^;
ahya, this was back in 2007 (it’s this very order that is responsible for my huge backlog). Meticulous savings. A penny here and there. A dime drop here… and soon I’ve saved enough ^^;.
can you send me the MG IJ anyway?
Man, then you must have had a LOT of pennies and dimes man. Hahha come to think you must have a bajillion pennies and dimes. Look at all the plamo and stuff in your room. 0.o next contest, price of your GFF case collection.
my apologies. hehehehehe, now I’m gonna live by the example set by Z. thats it I’m gonna retire playing Wangan Midnight 3 so I can save up a lot faster than before ^^,
pademon, sure
ahya, that’s actually… not a bad idea :D. It’ll be easier but a lot trickier though.
erazer, how is that game compared to…say, Initial D?
I got scared for a moment and thought my blog got destroyed…
Enjoy the snow, everyone!
lol. i started freaking out when i saw the snow too!
woooo, congrats to Dennis T.! my guess was 80,000yen haha. I didn’t think about rainbowten at all, HLJ was always my first. And i did’t know how to calculate the shipping so I just halved the total shipping cost. I did consider abou the 20% off on Gunplas too but still my answer deviated so far away from the real answer.
nice one Z, keep it up :)
Yeah Its almost similar to Initial D only difference is where you race, how many can participate, and how your car handles. In Initial D you race on the mountains “touge” style and only 2 can participate, while wangan midnight you race on the many highways on Japan, (not limited to Tokyo) and up to 4 racers can participate.. These 2 arcade games “Destroyed” my savings many times, but the games are really fun to play, especially with a bunch of buddies to play with. XD ok I’m out of this thread’s topic sorry.
NO WAY! OMG Z! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!
I cant believe I actually won! It was not as easy as I made it seem in the email tho! I went to HLJ to find the total like others and was frustrated with the shipping cost. I WAS going to submit just 58000 but that was way too clean of a number so I randomly threw in 400 yen to make it look more scrambled.
THANKS AGAIN FOR HOSTING THIS GREAT GIVEAWAY! IT WAS REALLY FUN!