Posted on : 01-06-2015 | By : Cacophanus | In : News

Over the weekend Bandai held their latest Tamashii Nations event in Akihabara. We went along to check it out and it was quite an eventful one. From all the new Robot Damashii figures on display to all manner of new chogokin Bandai are really going all out on capturing the classic mecha crowd. While they also have a lot of new very nice Star Wars and Avengers figures on the way, which is definitely a good thing for their business and the fans, the sheer love being poured into the older anime series from years gone by is really great to see.
From Zeta Gundam, to L-Gaim and Dunbine the Robot Damashii line is taking no prisoners. We also have a new line of classic Macross toys to look forward to in the form of the Hi-Metal R range. This is a reboot of the Hi-Metal toys from a few years back, that in turn was an update to a classic line of toys from the 80s. These new toys also include the Zentraedi and Destroids too and they look magnificent.
We also got to play with the upcoming Robot Damashii Penelope and it was amazing. The sculpt and detailing is incredible and the articulation is incredibly good as well. Thankfully we already have the Markings Plus version on order. To see more about the event then check out the photos here.


Posted on : 19-05-2015 | By : Cacophanus | In : Reviews
Back in 2009, during the last days of the PS2, we saw the first game in the Z series made digital flesh. It was quite the departure from the previous Alpha series and also boasted an all new 2D animation engine. It was also a pretty damn fantastic game, that used focus groups of three units to offset the formations of enemy attackers.
Not long after that the PSP saw host to the second part of the Z series, in the form of Hakai-hen and Saisei-hen. These were more streamlined and dropped the formation approach for single units while still retaining some lovely animation. Then last year we received the first part to the third instalment, called Jigoku-hen it was split across PS3 and Vita with cross save functionality enabled. Taking a middle approach with having each group comprising of two units, it sat neatly between the first game and its portable offspring. That made sense as it was both a console and a portable game. It also looked incredible.
So now after six years we have reached the end of the road with the Z series and Tengoku-hen doesn’t disappoint.



Kotobukiya have announced an all new kit from their Armored Core Verdict Day range, that of the massive tank AC the Matsukaze mdl.2. Released in August it will cost around 18,8000 yen. That’s a lot for a kit but it’s really bloody massive. The only catch is that this appears to be an online shop only purchase, which is a shame. The other slightly odd thing is that this actually looks a lot like the tank AC seen in the original intro for Armored Core V, so we’re a bit stumped as to why it is included in the Verdict Day range. In any case it’s nice to see Kotobukiya supporting the Armored Core series with more kits, they always do a fine job.
Update: It looks like the kit won’t be a webshop exclusive after all, you can pre-order it here.


Posted on : 09-04-2015 | By : Cacophanus | In : News