Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan we’ve been sent the Super Robot Chogokin Mazinkaiser as seen in Mazinkaiser (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.

Over at AmiAmi they have a stupidly lovely breakdown of the upcoming Arcadia 1/60 YF-19 toy set for release in April of next year. As always we’re taken aback by the quality of the both the detailing and sculpt of the new toy, especially as we already own the previous Yamato version. Whilst the price is pretty steep, it’s clear that there is a lot of new engineering on this new toy and as such we feel that the price hike is somewhat validated. Don’t forget that you can still pre-order the toy here.

As an aside, apologies for the lack of updates recently. We’ve relocated to Japan and the move has been rather intensive, as you’d expect really. Normal service and regular updates should be fine from here on in though.

There’s a nice preview of Arcadia’s upcoming 1/60 scale YF-19 toy over at Moeyo (Warning: link also contains boobage). There’s a lot of nice sculpt and detailing work here, which makes the rather steep price tag somewhat more palatable. Considering the release is in April of next year, we’re saving for this little beauty already. You can pre-order the toy here.

Now that this year’s Tamashii Nation event is underway we’ve had all manner of reveals, many of which are pretty surprising. First off is the confirmation of the DX Chogokin YF-30 Chronos (shown above) from Macross 30 and it looks rather magnificent indeed. Following that we have the re-appearance of the 1/35 scale RX-78-2 Gundam Ver. Ka that’s part of the Gundam Fix Figuration range. This last appeared back in 2009 and many thought that it was dead and buried. No word on price or release date but expect the former to be a pretty long figure. After that there’s the Soul of Chogokin Gaogaigar, whether this will do the much loved Final Fusion gattai sequence is unclear but likely considering the history of the toy line. After that there are all manner of new Robot Damashii figures, from the aforementioned Skullheart, to the Zwarth and even the Kshatriya. Though the real surprise is the Geminass from the Wing sidestory G-Unit. Even the Virsago Chest Break from the latter half of Gundam X is on the way. A special mention also needs to go to the new Hello Kitty chogokin, as after 40 years she will finally get her own mecha. Shown no mercy Kitty-chan! If you want to browse the rest of the show’s coverage then you can do that here, here, here and here.

Over at AmiAmi they have a really lovely preview of the forthcoming Super Robot Chogokin Genesic Gaogaigar toy slated to come out in March of next year. Price-wise it looks like it will be in the same range as the other toys from this line, a considerable reduction compared to the Max Gohkin toy released a few years back. Admittedly this will be a smaller figure but the sculpt and accessories are arguably as good if not better. We’re also pretty sure this won’t be a webshop exclusive either. For those unaware, the original Gaogaigar was designed by none other than Kunio Okawara but the later Genesic version was handled by Kazumi Fujita, an interesting parallel to that of the original Gundam designs and their Zeta counterparts. Anyway, this is one of our favourite super robot mecha and to have it made more accessible is a lovely thing indeed.

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There are some really great photos of the upcoming 1/60 scale YF-19 by Arcadia. Despite the new sculpt and missile hardpoints on the wings, the interesting addition is the new swept back wing setup. The gunpod looks a lot beefier and cooler too. Whilst this will cost 32,800 yen come its release in April of next year, there’s a lot of new engineering here to make that price seem somewhat justifiable. You can pre-order the toy here.

As we previously covered, Bandai are finally releasing a Robot Damashii Hi-Nu Gundam. We now know that it will cost a very reasonable 5,775 yen and will be released in January of next year. The really good news though is that this will be a regular release and not a webshop exclusive. This toy won’t come with the Hyper Mega Bazooka Launcher though but apart from that omission it’s weapon compliment is pretty thorough.

What with a veritable Layzner bonanza happening as of late, Wave have revealed that they’ll be releasing a garage kit of the formidable SPT-ZK-53U Zakarl. At 47,250 yen it won’t be cheap and pre-orders will start this December, for a release in February of next year. This is a separate release to Bandai’s teaser of another toy.

We now know that the new 1/60 scale YF-19 by Arcadia will be released in April 2014 for the eye watering price of 32,800 yen. Admittedly this isn’t just a re-release of Yamato’s old 1/60 toy but all new and based off the engineering used in the Fire Valkyrie toy. It also comes with a lot of extra missiles and the FAST packs seen towards the end of Macross Plus. Still, the price is a lot more than we were expecting. No wonder Yamato went bankrupt!

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).