We first saw threeA‘s gorgeous looking Metal Gear Rex exactly two years ago today. But virtually nothing been said or seen ever since. To the point that those who still remember it have naturally assumed that the statue was quietly cancelled. Then earlier this year, threeA passed along a blog post of what looked to be a rail gun, one similar to what Rex was sporting, but which also lights up. A feature that no one knew about, at least based upon the prototype pics.

No further information was given, but at least it was evidence that Rex was still alive. And just a few days ago, another update was provided, with concrete info at long last. Aside from looking better than ever, we can also see that the cockpit and its “eyes” also lights up. A timeframe in which all interested parties was also given: this upcoming January. No word how much it will weigh, but it sure looks heavy, especially since we do know its height: 42 cm, or 16.5 inches.

And according to Ashley Wood, who is not only Hideo Kokjima’s go to illustrator for all things Metal Gear these days (aside from Yoji Shinkawa, of course), but is one of folks who runs the threeA empire: because every part is ABS and requires injection molds, the price tag will be steep. It’s also worth noting that he still considers Rex a toy and simply a statue, which given its size and cost is what most of us were viewing it as. The rumoured price is somewhere between $400-500.

Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan, we’ve been sent the Robot Damashii L-Gaim Mk. 2 toy from Heavy Metal L-Gaim. To help give the toy some context we’ve also included some videos of it from the original anime and a few games it has been featured in over the years at the end of the review.

Along with a slew of other toy announcements today, Bandai have finally come clean on the fact they are indeed going to release Robot Damashii toys of both the L-Gaim Mk.I and Mk.II respectively. If you remember the Heavy Metal L-Gaim mecha, designed by the glam-rock-tastic Mamoru Nagano, topped the wishlist of fans for new Robot Damashii figures not that long ago.

Unsurprisingly, with such a classic Yoshiyuki Tomino real robot series it’s been featured in numerous games over the years. From a variety of Super Robot Wars titles to the more recent first two Another Century’s Episode games (not to mention Real Robots Final Attack, but we prefer to ignore that little “gem” if we can).

L-Gaim has also had quite an impressive toy history too, from lovely HCM figures to a very recent and utterly amazing Soul of Chogokin Spec toy. These new Robot Damashii figures will hopefully be a bit more affordable though. Currently there’s no word on whether the L-Gaim Mk.II toy will retain the transformation but it’s quite a simple sequence so it’s quite likely it will. Both toys will be release early next year in Japan and can be pre-ordered here and here. What with us being massive L-Gaim nerds, we’ve also linked the lovely openings from the series as well as a few game clips of the respective mecha in action below.

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Update: GAGraphic has some nice shots from the current Tamashii Nation show.

As part of Bandai’s increasingly infuriating Tamashii Web shop exclusives, they have finally announced that they’ll be releasing Soul of Chogokin Spec toys of both the Dragonar 2 and 3 units from Metal Armor Dragonar. Now, Dragonar has had somewhat of a resurgence since it was featured in all three of the PS2 Another Century’s Episode games (though it had obviously been featured in a multitude of Super Robot Wars games prior to that). Up and till this point however, Bandai had only released toys of the Dragonar 1, specifically two variants of the design; one with original proportions from the show and another that was stylised by Masami Ōbari. These new toys obviously seem to fall into the latter Ōbari stylised camp, not that we’re complaining. At present it’s not clear whether these toys will also sport the “lifters”, backpacks with wings on effectively, that were used in the show but we may see more options surface in the oncoming months. Both toys will be released in December, though you’ll obviously have needed to pre-order them online first. Personally, we’re holding out for the day when they finally release a Dragonar 1 Custom.

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