I could be wrong here, but I think part of the reason import Disney IP figures are expensive when sold domestically in the US is because of Hasbro's license. All other companies are blocked from distributing 1/12th scale in the US. I think BBTS gets around it by ordering the figures and either marking them up past a certain threshold, or ordering the figures close to retail and charging less of a markup than they would on wholesale - just enough to make a small profit and to keep people in the BBTS ecosystem.
SHF's Star Wars figures couldn't even be advertised in the US. If you go to the Bandai USA site you wouldn't even know they had made a pretty big lineup of 1/12 SW figures. They could only advertise their movie realization line, which was larger than 1/12 and consisted of samurai versions of the SW characters, and could be sold in the US. If you see the Tamashii setup at a con stateside, there's no Star Wars except for the movie realizations.
However, they were able to show Sony Marvel characters like Venom and Scarlet Spider, as well as the Marvel vs Capcom Cyclops, probably because the video game license is a separate thing and falls outside of Hasbro's ability to block them. If so, this is a pretty smart way of making Marvel figures that they can sell and market in US stores. In theory, this should make the SHF Capcom figures significantly cheaper than MAFEX bought at domestic sites that don't have that loophole. However, Bandai is aware of what US customers are used to paying in dollars, and are choosing to price them at $100 a pop, when they are $67 in translated yen. This is similar to how they price their DBZ SHF figures... 3,400 yen equals a $35 figure at US retailers, even though it's only ~$23 if you are doing a direct conversion of currency.
TLDR - Unless the de minimis exception is reinstated, it's probably a better deal to buy SHF non-Disney Marvel from US stores, depending on your state's sales tax. Best shipping I get (which is slow, not DHL or Fedex) from Japan is around ~$15 per figure. So Cyclops would cost me ~$85 after conversion fee, to my doorstep. From BBTS, he'd be $114 (with 10% sales tax and shipping). That's a $32 difference, and significant. But without de minimis, that figure could theoretically be $165, which is ridiculous. There's a possibility the de minimis will be reinstated for items valued less than $100, then we're good to go. Or that they will streamline the process and we'll pay a 15% tariff on the item itself, which would bring Cyclops up to $95.50 shipped to my doorstep from Japan. Still cheaper, but with a lot of what-ifs and potential headaches. Up to you whether it's worth that risk.
