So the much loved Blodia from Cyberbots will be getting a rather lovely looking toy, from Sentinel’s increasingly amazing Riobot line. We’ve covered this before but now we have some very nice pictures of the toy in question. As an aside, Sentinel’s Tumblr is worth bookmarking too. Despite the different player colours, which is a nice touch, the paint scheme on the figure looks very nice indeed and it also appears that the toy will have some manner of diecast (this being a good thing obviously). Still no word on a release date or price but it’s nice to know that Sentinel haven’t forgotten about the Blodia.

Without much of a fanfare at all, the original Virtual On was released on PSN and XBLA earlier this week. As forewarned, the release was indeed Japan only (for both platforms) but thankfully neither version was region locked. Meaning that if you have a Japanese account then you can buy and play either version just fine. In terms of the port, it’s not quite as thorough as the PS2 SEGA AGES release but it’s as pure. In that it lacks all the various options, such as widescreen and split-screen versus, but it does afford online multiplayer and system link version (though only for the 360 version on the latter). As for the online there are already plans for a tournament. Anyway, we can heartily recommend both ports of the classic arcade game and look forward to seeing our readers online.

Namco Bandai have released a new trailer for Gundam Breaker for the PS3/Vita. This video shows off more of the customization options players can have with the different units in the game. From the RX-78-02 Gundam with Zaku II arms to a Strike Freedom GM, the different parts will alter your ability to move, attack, and defend. The customization options look similar to how the MS Saga RPG for the PS2 allowed players to mix and match different mobile suit parts and create units of their liking.

There’s currently some interesting stuff going on at the Tamashii Nations Akiba Showroom, as we have the release of Battle Robot Damashii around the corner. Apart from showing all manner of new toys, with the lovely Robot Damashii RX-105 Xi Gundam above being notable, the really cool stuff is the AR elements of the exhibit. For this you need an iOS device and this app. Seeing Ideon pop into existence looks to be pretty cool. AmiAmi has a nice update on all this too.

As part of the build up for the release of Macross 30 at the end of February, Bandai Namco are running a series of videos narrated by Sheryl Nome. These are sort of a continuation of her Macross Seminar series that was used on Macross Frontier to help newer viewers understand the background of the Macross saga. Considering the game actively tries to cover multiple eras within the franchise, it makes decent sense that they’re trying to help explain more of the backstory to people. Both of the current videos are linked below and you can pre-order the game here.

Following on from our previous Revoltech Jehuty, Revoltech Jehuty (Anubis Version) and Revoltech Jehuty with Vector Cannon reviews, our good friends at HobbyLink Japan have sent us the Revoltech Naked Jehuty. This being the final and most powerful incarnation of Jehuty from the end of Anubis. In addition, we’ve also included some game footage of the mecha in action at the end of the review.

A few days ago, SEGA did an online video broadcast talking about the remaining games in their Model 2 Collection (of which the classic Virtual On is one). The important information is that the remaining games will be released on February 13th for 800 yen or 800 MSP a piece. The slightly odd and saddening aspect to this is that, unlike the other games in the collection, these last two games will be released in Japan only. Now it’s not clear whether this just means limited release or that the games will be regioned too. Naturally we’ll know for sure when they’re eventually out in the wild.

Whilst we weren’t very happy with the Zone of the Enders HD Collection, one of the main reasons for this was done to the appalling framerate that crippled the games (especially the second). However, Konami have made the collection available for download via Xbox Live and PSN. At a pretty reasonable 3,600 yen it’s not badly priced but more importantly the fact that you’re installing it to your HDD may alleviate some of the framerate/loading issues. Currently this is Japan only but what with the dire American voice acting in the Western release, that’s the only version you should be buying anyway.

As was hinted at a while back, the mighty RX-105 Xi Gundam will indeed be getting the Robot Damashii treatment. Pre-orders start today and it is also a Bandai premium online shop purchase. Coming in at 10,500 yen it’s probably one of the most expensive Robot Damashii toys yet made. There is good reason for this though, the toy is utterly huge. It’s being done to scale with the other Gundam mobile suits and at 26m in the original novels, that practically dwarfs the original RX-78-2 Gundam (that’s just a meagre 18m). To put this into perspective, the mobile armor PMX-000 Messala from Zeta Gundam has a lower head height (23m) than the Xi Gundam. There are some nice comparison shots of the new toy too and it shows the scale difference off very nicely. Apart from the height, this will also be part of the Ka Signature splinter brand. So it’s going to have Hajime Katoki handle the the modelling and finish. The Xi Gundam was also recently added to Gundam Extreme Versus Full Boost as well as a DLC pack for the current Gundam Extreme Versus. In any case, it’s one of our favourite Moriki Yasuhiro designs so we’ll be getting this for sure.

We now finally have details on Kotobukiya’s much awaited first Armored Core V kit, dubbed the AGNI it uses a different config to the Super Robot Chogokin toy (despite looking somewhat similar). It will be released in may this year for 6,090 yen. As Kotobukiya have a record for making thoroughly excellent Armored Core kits, we’re looking forward to this one.