The next in Kotobukiya’s very successful Variable Infinity range will be the Oracle from Last Raven. This was an AC piloted by a Raven called Evangel and whilst he was also prominent in Armored Core Nexus, he even adorned the game’s cover, it wasn’t until Last Raven that his role in the corporate/Raven conflict came to a head. Very much on the side of the corporations, Evangel was a noble and disciplined opponent, but also suffered from a bit of an inferiority complex. This isn’t the first time Evangel’s Oracle has been given kit form as one of the very first Variable Infinity kits was his AC from Nexus. This new kit will be released in December this year.

Update: Dengeki has shots of the Oracle kit, as well as the Sunshine, at Wonder Festival.

After ten years, it finally seems that Turn A Gundam is coming to the West. As Bandai Entertainment plan to bring the 50 episode anime series to Western shores in the coming future, whether this will encompass the two movies as well remains to be seen. Since its release in Japan Turn A has become a cult series, due in part to the somewhat bizarre and originally very controversial mecha design, penned by none other by Syd Mead. Over the years these designs have grown on the fanbase and many know appreciate the fact that series was very much ahead of its time. From the gorgeous score by Yoko Kanno to the deft characterisation and narrative from a calmer Yoshiyuki Tomino, Turn A is a series that is quite a mature and thoughtful work. The fact that it will finally receive a Western release is good news indeed, though arguably a tad overdue.

Unsurprisingly, Turn A has graced multiple games over the years. From Super Robot Wars Z to the Gundam Musou games as well as Another Century’s Episode 3 not to mention the Gundam Vs games, the SYSTEM ∀-99 (WD-M01) ∀ Gundam has made its mark on gaming in recent years. Due to the immense potency in the anime though, it’s a problematic unit in terms of games design; as an attack that can wipe out all technology via nano-machines is a bit tricky to implement in a functional sense. The gaming connections of this series also span to the character design too, as Yasuda Akira (or “Akiman”) was one of the original designers on Street Fighter II, amongst many other Capcom games. He went to work with Tomino again on the brilliant Overman King Gainer, which even featured a protagonist who was an ardent gamer.

Over at Tokyo Hunter they’re preparing for this summer’s Wonder Festival. From a lovely Arcee kit, including dat ass, to an amazing rendition of Samus. However, our favourite is the SD version of Dancouga from God Bless Dancouga, pictured above, that was used in Super Robot Wars Alpha 3. Whilst Gigabrain released the God Bless variant a while ago, along with a much more limited Final, this is the first SD version as inspired by the game. Anyway, if you want to pick any of these up place your orders now. Bear in mind though that these are meant for experienced garage kit builders only. In any case, enjoy the montage of Dancouga attacks from Alpha 3 shown below, as well as its somewhat epic final attack as seen in God Bless.

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A fair few places are covering this year’s Tokyo Toy Show, with Dengeki Online’s contribution being pretty thorough. From the upcoming Super Robot Chogokin Cybuster, pictured above and featured in the recent Nintendo DS port of The Lord of Elemental, to the Composite Ver. Ka Temjin, it’s clear that mecha gaming has had quite the impact on the Japanese toy community in recent years.

Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan, we’ve been sent a toy from the original Macross TV series to review. Specifically, the VF Hi-Metal VF-1J in Hikaru Ichijyo’s colours. In addition, to give the toy some context, we’ve also linked some anime and gameplay footage of it in action in Macross Ultimate Frontier at the end of the review.

There are few variable fighter designs in Macross that are quite as iconic as Hikaru’s VF-1J. With the simple white colours and red highlights, the design is instantly recognisable not only in terms of the series that birthed it but also the character that pilots it. Unsurprisingly, this VF-1J has been featured in multiple games over the years from some of the earlier Alpha iterations of Super Robot Wars to more recently in Artdink’s Macross PSP games.

This particular toy is very interesting on several counts though. From it helping to re-boot the old Hi-Metal Macross toyline from the 80′s to the curious hand parts that are available, though more of that later. Compared to the recent Fire Valkyrie toy that was released not that long ago, the VF-1J sports far less parts swapping in terms of the transformation. Except for the cockpit canopy and hands it is pretty much “good to go” out of the box.

Bandai have also been making more of a shift towards smaller more cost effective toys in the past year or so and this is very much a culmination of that in terms of the engineering. Despite the “Hi-Metal” moniker though, there are pretty sparse amounts of diecast in the toy with it only really being used for important joints as well as the transformations “backbone” if you will.

Due to the transformation aspect of this toy, we will be covering the three distinct modes separately; that of fighter, GERWALK and battroid.

Toy: VF Hi-Metal VF-1J
Price: 5500 yen
Size/Weight: 29.0 x 20.1 x 6.7 cm / 400g

The fighter mode is very clean in terms of the sculpt and the toy comes with two wing types as well; one for affixing the missile parts and another for just plain display. You can even swap out the jet intakes and landing gear. Unfortunately, the GU-11 Gun Pod doesn’t affix underneath the fighter like with the Yamato toys and instead needs an additional part to hold it in place (and then only with one of the Tamashii stands, sold separately). Unlike the Fire Valkyrie though, you can open the cockpit but this is meant for the transformation as the battroid “cover” is a parts swap.

Like with the other recent Bandai Macross toys, GERWALK can be a bit tricky to pose but much of that is down how they’ve handled the feet in this toy. Specifically, the forward facing “toe” is actually on a polycap joint of sorts. In theory this means you can pivot the foot for better posturing but it causes issues when you use GERWALK, as it doesn’t support the mode quite as well as it would have otherwise. Once posed though the mode is striking in its accuracy. Again, you get the feeling that this would look more dynamic with the Tamashii stand.

As a toy it’s very much meant to be played with and the price point is also very competitive. If you’ve always wanted one of the larger Yamato toys, or even any of the classic 80′s toys, but lacked the funds then this will more than easily satiate that desire. It’s clear that Bandai want to take the Macross throne away from Yamato and, whilst they’re not there yet, they aren’t far off. It will be interesting to see what more variable fighters Bandai decide to make after this and we’re partially hoping they may even try the much maligned VF-4.

Overall then, this is a fitting tribute to one of the most recognisable mecha in anime history. It’s also sad to think that Hikaru’s voice actor Arihiro Hase, who tragically committed suicide in 1996, is no longer with us. That fact alone makes this design really quite poignant in terms of its significance.

Over at Gpara they’ve covered the news that an old Temjin statue will go on tour around three Japanese art museums in the coming months. Specifically the Aomori Museum of Art, Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art and the Iwami Art Museum. This is also part of a robot art festival but it nicely ties into the upcoming release for the Virtual On Force port coming later this year. This specific Temjin statue, the MZV-747-J, was actually used at the 2002 Tokyo Game Show to announce Virtual On Marz’s release. The problem is that the 747 series of Temjins in Force sport a different and more subdued colour scheme, so this statue is a bit out of date with that really. This Temjin from Marz also featured in Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 on the PS2 and the recent Super Robot Wars K on the DS.

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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The iconic PTX-003C Alteisen has finally been previewed in its new Super Robot Chogokin form over at GA Graphic. This design was one of Banpresto’s earlier original generation or “OG” efforts for Super Robot Wars and was apparently meant as a riposte to Capcom’s Blodia from Powered Gear and Cyberbots (though that information remains largely apocryphal). It was first featured in the second Compact game on the Wonderswan and then went on to reappear numerous times after that in both games and anime. This new toy, out in October, looks to capture the design rather magnificently and for the price of 5,040 yen it’s a bargain too. Considering that Bandai are using their prior Chogokin expertise on this new toy line, these toys could end up being rather special indeed.

The wondrous news of a MBV-04-G Temjin toy on the way has finally manifested itself via an official site from Bandai. Despite specifying both the release date for October this year and the price of 5,040 yen, the site also sports the “theme tune” of sorts for Temjin (or more accurately the stage music where you face Temjin in the original Virtual On). Called In The Blue Sky it’s been a recurring anthem of sorts for the series as a whole. The site also shows a curious lighting effect for the beam sword, whether this is a photoshop special (most likely) or an actual feature remains to be seen. In addition to the site going live there’s also an interesting interview with Juro Watari (effectively the “creator” of Virtual On) over at the official Virtual On site about this new toy.

Over an 2chan they’ve managed to uncover (via a scan from this month’s Hobby Japan) the truth behind the mysterious animated gif we reported on Tamashii Web. It turns out that the next Composite Ver. Ka, a new toy range personally supervised by renowned Japanese mecha designer Hajime Katoki, will be none other than his very own design of the MBV-04-G Temjin from the original Dennou Senki Virtual On (they’ve even updated the image banner on the Tamashii Web site to this effect too – despite still using the Oratan font). This is not the first time an original Temjin toy has surfaced, as SEGA made a selection of toys back in the late 90′s. In any case, Temjin is by far and away our favourite VR from the series, not only in terms of functionality but also due to its clean and classic aesthetic. What’s nice with this new Composite Ver. Ka toy is that it will also feature the rail gun used by the initial prototype (something that you see in the leaderboards background in the game itself). If you’ve never played the original Virtual On (shame on you!), then the SEGA AGES PS2 port is unarguably the best version to date and in some ways even eclipses the arcade original, as you can force a higher framerate amongst many other things (you can also still buy it here). Though the PS2 port does lack sticks, unless you mod a pair of old Saturn ones (like we did). In commemoration of this toy announcement it only seems fit to show the original game in all its wondrous glory and be sure to check out our feature on the Virtual On games too. Enjoy!

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