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HobbyLink Japan is an online company. Based on 50 reviews on TrustPlane, it has an average rating of 2.4 out of 5 stars. Last reviewed March 4, 2026.
I have used HLJ for over twenty years. Since September of 2025 I do not recommend them anymore. They are absolutely overcharging for shipping. The change in amounts between the second week of September and first week of October 25 was stark and obvious. They no longer get stock as quickly, shipping is delayed. Customer service oscillates between friendly and rude.
Used to be an easy recommendation but now their listings very often don’t have images, they have changed the window in which you can cancel preorders to be incredibly narrow and orders and deliveries are massively delayed.
Used them since 2018 but the removal of the backorder system makes getting kits harder when I have a job or the notification only comes up as I'm asleep i can live with no cancelling figure preorders after a certain date at least that is very well explained and honestly a good site ui but the amount for people locked into preorders or can't get back orders or the potential for bots to abuse the new notification system has killed this site as a viable option which is a shame
This website is a scam. I placed an order for $175. A few days later I got an email saying I had to pay an additional $250 for shipping. After I paid they now say they are having problems with logistics and can’t ship but also can’t give me a refund. It has now been over a month with no response. Don’t get scammed!!!
I had a disappointing experience with HLJ. My order arrived late, and one of the items was damaged. Customer support wasn't helpful at all and basically ignored my messages. For the prices they charge, I expected way better service. I won't be ordering from them again.
when you pre-order something, you expect to have it as soon as it comes out. now with shipping times, i fully understand not having it instantly. we can't teleport things after all. what i do not expect is to be told the thing i pre-ordered is now on back order, and god doesn't even know when i will be charged. ok. let me cancel it so i can get it somewhere else then. "no."
I have uaed this company for a long time and I am telling you now, do not start. I got into the bad havit of preordering something and forgetting about it. A mistake on my part of course but now one I cannot fix. I am stuck having significant amounts of my paycheck taken at the start of the month for stuff I nolonger once because they changed their cancellation and refund policy to essentially:"No", they will also not let me close my account with them leaving me stuck in this position, this cannot be legal.
I’ve been a HLJ customer for a very long time, my last order I placed was for a RG Gundam Kit I had ordered, paid, put into warehouse as I’ve been severely ill. I had forgotten over a significant amount of period and when I found out my order was cancelled and the money had been refunded into online credit, I was fine with it. I became more ill and had forgotten over a period of time and apparently your credit expires. I emailed them them and no reply. They basically rob you off your money and they’re good at that. Avoid this company at all costs. Bunch of thieves
Cannot guarantee stock from preorder anymore. Customer service team provide same excuse blaming COVID and Bandai suppliers
Cannot guarantee stock and offer to pre-order. This happens MULTIPLE times. Getting more and more untrustworthy. It is a complete waste of time to wait for the items to be available (never happened).
refuse to make exchange on a defect item. The customer service representative, Ken Matsuda doesn't bother to help and only replying BS that AI nowdays can do better.
I cannot find the words to express my gratitude to HLJ for showing me, once again, how little they care about their customers. Seriously, I mean that from the bottom of my heart.To anyone who uses their services, I only hope that you never, ever have to contact their customer service. I have never seen such uncooperative, closed-minded people.
Decided to ship out my items from private warehouse but was told there will be a long delay due to operational changes. No estimation on when they will be able to dispatch my items at the moment.
Such poor form with the store credit. So I decided to buy something to utilize some left over store credits. To my surprise their store credit was expired and I was left having to fork out my own money because of their outdated system that cannot apply the store credit AT THE TIME OF PURCHASING. Also the lack of stock is just astonishing. At this point they are more like drop shipper rather than an actual hobby store. @Todd: pls delete my damn account from your system as I wanted none of your business.
Greta and fast customer service very kind and helped me resolve my issue with ease. would recommend 10000000% also very fast shipping
They've sent my package to wrong country, the package was stuck in "processing" without the option to cancel it, i wrote an email to them 5 minutes after making the oder to cancel the it. All my emails were ignored and the package was sent anyway, all i got is mail that can be sums up as "lol not our problem"No refund no anything. I got basically scammed out of my money
I payed in advance and waited patiently for my product to arive, just to get an email that they could not figure out how to get the money and banned my account. Why would you not check this in the first days of payment? Now the product is out of stock and I'm left empty handed 0/10
I had a payment rejected by my bank and they suspended my account. I contacted them to change the payment method and they just told me that I could forget about buying with them. From then on, they no longer responded to any of my messages or questions. They simply ignored me and marked it as resolved. I have now lost all of my reservations that I had with them.
I've been into Gunpla since a few months. Naturally I ran into HobbyLink Japan. At first their prices seem amazing, especially when compared to my local (Dutch) prices. Of course, there's shipping and customs fees to take into account. Especially the shipping fees are pretty hefty, 18 euros for standard untracked and 22 for standard tracked shipping to the Netherlands (with far more expensive shipping options available). Add to that a 15 euro customs fees and my 28 euro Full Mechanics Aerial suddently wasn't that cheap anymore. That said their website is pretty good, they offer the option to store items in a private warehouse for later shipping and communication about the delivery is good overall. My item took 7 days to arrive and was well packaged. It could be worth it for some of the rarer models but, they usually only have very few gunpla models in actual stock with the rest in backorder without a definitive delivery date. All in all it's a hard website to recommend.
I recently made 2 purchase orders last Dec 2024 and 3 purchase orders last Jan 2025. No problems encountered whatsoever with all of these. Items were new (as it should be), packed preperly and securely, priced reasonably, and shipped as advertised on the shipping method used (if not earlier). Handled all my queries professionally. Highly recommended seller.
According to TrustPlane, HobbyLink Japan has a 2.4/5 rating based on 50 verified reviews as of April 2026. Source: trustplane.app/company/hlj-com
