i pre ordered the gantarel jr in april, and the date for shipment has changed 3 or 4 times yet no shipment. is this fairly normal? has anyone else received their gantrel jr?

Yeah, that's normal depending on supply. I have a JDM version, the Chibitrel, but the Gantarel Jr has been in the local shop for at least a couple months

What he said. I've had ship dates get pushed back a lot, and for some reason I saw Gantarel Jr's in a shop recently too even though you can hardly find them in stock online.

I've had mine for probably 2-3 months. I forget where I ordered it from though. 

I've had that happen before on just regular orders. It seems sometimes they have issues getting things in stock. 2 years in a row their 25 days of xmas orders had taken over 6 months to fully deliver.