Well this is a disappointment. The one form of Drive I actually had interested in owning and I find myself completely disappointed with how it's being handled to the point where I don't even see it being worth the effort.

And as was said before, coming out the same month as Knuckle makes it not even a contest to which I'm getting.

I don't know whether to regard the sticker thing as an icky cost-saving measure or a nod to collectors who'd prefer the figure without all the could-be-considered-tacky labels. (I also suspect that's why they included a promo picture without the stickers.)

I didn't plan on picking this up anyway, but knowing that it has stickers puts me off even more. I don't inherently hate stickers and was fine with them for Blade, but in this case I just don't see any reason why the stickers are necessary.

I think it's to cut down on qc issues

Maaaan. I hope they're at least transfer or waterslide decals, because foil stickers would be terrible with this design.

While it's gonna be a pain to get the stickers on ('cuz I have BIG MEATY FINGERS), it'll definitely be worth to get. That, and I think it's so that they don't have to worry about QC issues with painting them all on. But I hope that the adhesive is GOOD.

where can I get this figure if I live in the states? is ebay my only option?

Through a middleman site, such as Anime-Export, or once it has been released, I'd go with Mandarake instead of eBay, as the prices there are usually much cheaper.