Upon booting the game, the player will be asked a set of cryptic questions, in Japanese no less, on how they want their “cavalier” to be equipped. Will you choose either the Varmonch and Lutheran Shield, or even the Minenwerfer? Bear in mind though, that if you choose poorly Lord Zolt’s forces will make you pay dearly for your lack of foresight. After all, the realm’s destiny lies at your heavily armored Cavalier’s feet. To clarify, Frame Gride is a slightly different take on the mecha genre of gaming.

We now have details regarding the Volks 1/100 scale kit of the noble MBV-707-G Temjin from the much loved Virtual On Oratorio Tangram. In short, the kit will be made from injection plastic (something of a rarity for Volks, as they historically manufacture garage kits) and will cost 5,040 yen. Released this December, it’s in the same ballpark as the excellent Kotobukiya kits. However, it is somewhat odd that Kotobukiya are no longer making Virtual On kits. That aside, the sculpt on this kit looks rather nice indeed and it’s nice to have a new kit of this design. Especially as it’s been previously rather poorly serviced (the less said about the Kaiyodo figures the better really). Considering that this is our main VR and one we won a tournament in Japan with it’s nice to have a decent kit of it on the way finally.

Following on from the Virtual On Memorial Event we mentioned, 4Gamer have a nice breakdown piece. Despite the appearance of peeps from Volks and Haseagawa regarding all manner of kits, the interesting stuff came from Mori Yasuhiro (a designer at Sega who worked on both Marz and Oratan, he’s also the guy wearing the Tangram t-shirt in the above picture). Notably that there may be a new Virtual On game surfacing during the series’ 20th Anniversary in 2015. Now, this isn’t the first time this has been said but we do know that since Force there have been multiple attempts at making a new Virtual On game (with Border Break being the unwitting results of one of those attempts). Anyway, we hope that whatever is planned finally sees the light of day (preferably if it’s an arcade game too obviously).

Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan we’ve been sent the Riobot Blodia as seen in the classic game Cyberbots. In addition, we’ve also included some game footage of the mecha in action at the end of the review.

Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan we’ve been sent the Super Robot Chogokin Shin Getter Robo 1 as seen in Change!! Shin Getter Robo (though its origins predate that by quite a bit). In addition, we’ve also included some game and anime footage of the mecha in action at the end of the review.

There’s a rather interesting Virtual On Memorial Event being held online this Saturday. It will feature various exhibitions of the various games (basically top players kicking the shit out of each other for your entertainment). As well as talking head type segments with various people to do with the series (though Juro Watari appears to be absent on this, which is odd). Some people from Hasegawa and Volks will be present too, though Kotobukiya aren’t for some reason. In any case, the event will be streamed via NicoNico. As this is a week before TGS, our virtuaroid sense is tingling somewhat. New game perhaps?

Whilst this is not the first toy of Sakura Shinguji’s pink custom koubu from the Sakura Taisen series, this new Variable Action toy from Megahouse looks to be one of the best. Released at the end of September for 7,800 yen, it has a nice sculpt and what appears to be decent articulation too. Sadly, it doesn’t look like it comes with a Sakura pilot figure (though this likely helps to keep the price down). If you are one of those that enjoy pink steampunk mecha then make sure to pre-order yours here.

Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan we’ve been sent the Robot Damashii Nu Gundam and Robot Damashii Sazabi as seen in the climactic film Char’s Counterattack. In addition, we’ve also included some game and anime footage of the mecha in action at the end of the review.

Bandai will be releasing some very cool HG UC kits from the much loved Dreamcast game Gundam Rise from the Ashes. These will be the White Dingo coloured RGM-79 GM and RX-77D Guncannon Mass Production Type, as well as Visch Donahue’s MS-07B Gouf and MS-14G Gelgoog (with each pack costing 2,100 yen and 2,520 yen respectively). Like the previous HG UC White Dingo GM Sniper II, these new kits will also only be available via Bandai’s premium online web shop. That aside, it’s pretty wonderful that we’re getting these kits at all. Both kit packs will be released in February of next year.

You can now pre-order the Todd Guiness and Tokamak Rovsky coloured Robot Damashii Dunbines via Bandai’s online premium shop. These are shortlived units from Aura Battle Dunbine, leaving only Show Zama’s iconic mauve Dunbine to hold out for the remainder of the series. Whilst we already bought the other Robot Damashii aura battlers we may pass on these but it’s pretty cool that Bandai are at least doing toys of them. Buying both toys will cost you 8,400 yen and they will be released in April of next year.