Does Bandai still make SpaceWarp?
No, They quit making it sometime around 1988
Does Bandai Still sell replacement parts?
No, they were selling parts up until sometime around 1995 when they sold out
Where can I get replacement parts?
Please look at the replacement parts page for some reliable sources of parts
Why did Bandai stop making and selling SpaceWarp?
I don't know, but my theory is , since it was sold primarily in specialty stores, it never received a wide enough market showing. Therefore it wasn't as profitable as they hoped, and they cancelled it.
Will Bandai ever make and sell SpaceWarp again?
I don't know, But we can always hope, and write them letters saying how much we want them to make it again.
Where can I get a SpaceWarp now?
You can usually find them at Ebay, and other online auctions. Sometimes you can pick one up at a garage sale. You can also find them at thrift stores. You might be able to find them at antique toy stores , but I can't confirm that.
Here is the information on where to obtain Bandai Spacewarp's within Japan:
The best source for finding these is Yahoo Auction Japan. You can also check
eBay Japan, but
most often they are available on Yahoo.
http://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/
http://www.ebay.co.jp/
Here are the search queries for Spacewarp in Japanese at Yahoo:
http://search.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/search?sb=desc&desc=SPACEWARP&alocale=1jp&acc=jp
AND Here are The Links for Ebay Japan
It is best to use Internet Explorer with the Japanese character set. It should
try to install
itself into IE when you display the page.
Check this periodically, there are various sets auctioned off at different
times
The most difficult part is getting a Yahoo account. It's not too difficult if
you compare it
to the US Yahoo Auction as you work along, and many of the hyperlinks are in
English so hold
the mouse over them and read the bottom of your screen. They will end up
emailing you a
confirmation number which you must then go back to the site and paste into the
box to
activate your account. This is a long number string which should stand out from
the Japanese
writing in the email.
Some auctioners are not willing to ship to the United States. One contact I have
worked with is
willing to ship to the the United States. His email address is
fwjd6818@mb.infoweb.ne.jp and he
is willing to purchase Spacewarp's on your behalf and then ship them to you if
the seller is
not willing to ship to the United States. He
knows English which is extremely helpful as well.
Some other useful tools for finding them have been Google
(http://www.google.com)
and FAST
(http://www.alltheweb.com) since they are the world's 2 largest search engine
spiders at this
time. Search for keywords: Spacewarp, Bandai, Black Wolf, the various set names,
etc...
I believe the most useful information here will be the
contact in Japan
for you. He has been very helpful for me. Even when you find Spacewarp's within
Japan, it can
be difficult to get around the language barrier and since he knows English, he's
very easy to
work with.
A good website to convert Japanese webpages to english webpages is Gist http://translate.copernic.com:8090/ . There is one problem with them however, that is they sometimes remove their Japanese translation section.
You might also want a good Monetary converter as well to figure out just how much You're spending , A good one can be found at this site http://www.currency.co.nz/agent/message.mv
