For those that like some mass produced spirit in their mecha, the recently HGUC kit of the D-50C Loto from Gundam Unicorn appears to have serious knee joint issues. Set at 1/144 scale the kit is also tiny, to the extent that it can double as one of the feet on the Soul of Chogokin Dancouga!

The Loto is also part of the wider canon, as it acts as the base for the Guntank R-44 seen in Gundam F-91. In any case, if you were thinking of buying this kit – then you might want to hold off until Bandai resolve this flaw.

The mecha from Gundam Unicorn were recently featured in Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus, though the Loto was absent from the roster there are rumours that it could be included in the upcoming DLC.

Over at Moeyo (link somewhat NSFW) there’s a suitably cute preview of Kotobukiya’s upcoming D-Style White Glint from Armored Core For Answer. It turns out that, like it’s bigger Variable Infinity cousins, the D-Style variant will also be customisable (once other designs make the transition obviously). The eye detailing will also be accurate as per the original seen in the game as well. This little chap is currently being displayed in the Kotobukiya Direct store in Akihabara.

Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan, we’ve been sent a kit from Border Break to review. Specifically, Kotobukiya’s 1/35 scale Cougar Type I . Our review only covers the kit in its out of the box and unpainted form (however, we have also included painted photos towards the end). In addition, to give the kit some context, we’ve also linked some gameplay footage of the design in action from Border Break at the end end of the review.

The mighty Gunleon from Super Robot Wars Z, a game we loved in our review, will be receiving a garage kit rendition courtesy of StudioXBEE. The Gunleon was an OG super robot introduced in Z and played a prominent role in one of the two narrative arcs available in the game. The design itself is somewhat inspired by Gaogaigar, as it has the signature lion head chest in its powered-up form (though this is actually a reference to a very long lineage of mecha designs that use this motif). This kit was on sale at the recent Wonder Festival for 18,000 yen, so whether it will receive a wider release is unlikely. In any case, it’s a very faithful rendition of the design and it seems only fitting to sign off with a video of the Gunleon strutting its stuff in game.

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The somewhat under-appreciated Wave have finally previewed their upcoming 1/72 scale MBR-04-MkVI Tomahawk destroid kit from the original Macross. Despite Yamato already releasing a toy of this design, kit connoisseurs rightfully revere the workmanship of Wave. After all, they’ve been making Five Star Stories kits for years and those mecha designs are some of the most intricate and complex ever conceived.

However, the Tomahawk’s past is a chequered one in the annals of mecha gaming. Specifically, it was re-purposed in BattleTech to form the obviously derivative Warhammer (even the official BattleTech artwork inadvertently retained the UN Spacy logo). It wasn’t long until FASA were sued, as the Tomahawk was but one of a plethora of designs lifted from various notable anime series of the time. That said, the recent MechWarrior reboot also fell foul of this plagiarism as it re-used the Warhammer in its teaser trailer, kicking off a whole new legal mess in the proceedings.

The sad aspect about all this is that the legal steps being taken aren’t meant to recompense the original Japanese team who penned the designs, but instead the Western company that distributed them. In any case, this kit is released in June for 6,800 yen and you can pre-order it here.

The insatiably iconic White Glint from Armored Core For Answer is getting yet another kit from Kotobukiya. In the form of a new “D-style” super deformed version to be exact. This also marks the first time any Armored Core designs have been rendered in kit form like this. The kit will be available in June for 2100 yen and it stands at a proud 10.5 cm in height. What this kit does potentially suggest, due to its new proportions, is that having AC’s featured in Super Robot Wars isn’t beyond the realms of possibility.

Over at GA Graphic there is a lovely preview of the upcoming 1/72 scale TYPE-LAHIRE Stasis kit. Despite the somewhat erroneous header that states that this is a Ray Leonard frame, it’s actually made by Omer in the games (though it was meant to combat the high speed nature of Ray Leonard’s Aaliyah frame). The Stasis was exclusively featured in the recent Armored Core For Answer and was quite a nimble opponent. The design was also one of the few that wasn’t penned by a guest illustrator, but instead created in-house. This kit ships in April for 5,200 yen and you can pre-order it here.

Like so many others, I’ve been looking forward to the next update from Danny Choo, who always provide excellent coverage of events like Wonder Festival 2010. Yet, perhaps because he’s been so busy with the show (due in part to his responsibilities with Good Smile Company I’m assuming), his blog has been a bit on the quiet side as of late. So due to boredom, I decided to check the archive, and stumbled across a great round-up of some truly incredible examples of papercraft. Click on to see more…

Model kit maker Hasegawa has announced that they’ll be releasing a Guarayakha kit in the near future. This rather cute looking mecha is a VR from Virtual On Force (though it also appeared in Marz too). This VR is rather interesting in terms of the narrative, as it’s meant to contain the terrifying force that is Jaguarandi. Unfortunately, this plan backfires and it actually allows Jaguarandi to manifest itself more readily (killing the pilot when it does so). Jaguarandi was an enemy in the original Virtual On that was triggered if you took too long on the initial missions in the game, it was a very fast and powerful VR with the sole purpose of stealing as many credits from the player as possible by being a particularly brutal opponent. Jaguarandi was replaced by Ajim in Oratan but returned in Force and Marz.

The more observant of you will realise that this isn’t a Kotobukiya kit, as this is due to Hasegawa having the rights to Force as well as Marz. As such they’ve been producing kits from these games for a while now (with the Shirokis Temjin being our favourite). On the whole Hasegawa kits are more technical in their construction than the Kotobukiya efforts, not to mention requiring a far defter hand when it comes to painting the finished kit. Guarayakha will be released later this month for 3,200 yen and you can pre-order it here.

Over at Hobby Stock there is some nice photo coverage of the current Wonder Festival. Apart from cool stuff like an SD White Glint kit, Kotobukiya also announced their intent to make a kit of SAV-07-D Belgdor from the original Virtual On. Belgdor is an interesting design both functionally and aesthetically, as it was the most real robot VR in the game (as it used solid ammunition amongst other things). It was also one of the weaker units too but that didn’t stop the versus community from coming up with a variety of techniques to keep Belgdor competitive, with the usage of rowing being notable. Belgdor also received various updates in both Oratan and Force; from Grys-vok, to Stein-vok and finally the Vox series. No word on a release date or pricing as yet but like the other Kotobukiya kits it probably won’t be that expensive.

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