One of the major villains from the brilliant Armored Core Verdict Day is finally getting the kit treatment, in the form of Kotobukiya’s CO3 Malicious R.I.P.3/M Blue Magnolia Version. Like with Kotobukiya’s other kits in this series, parts are all interchangeable. The detailing and sculpt are also superb, so Kotobukiya still haven’t lost their touch. As with most kits, the price point is pretty decent as well. Coming in at around 7,800 yen it is easily available from most good import sites, though we recommend you get it from here. I really love all the Verdict Day designs, as they all look properly mechanical and beefy. It’s a pity the game didn’t do all that well, as it really was excellent. At least we’re still getting lovely kits of the designs though.

As part of Sentinel’s ongoing Riobot range, we’ll be finally getting a toy of the Metal Gear Sahelanthropus from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Like prior toys in the range, this will also have a good chunk of diecast included. The extra good news, bar the LEDs and accessories, is that T-REX are also working on the design of this. Released in April next year, the Riobot Metal Gear Sahelanthropus will cost 41,040 yen. Considering it transforms and it is pretty massive with it, that’s a fair price all things considered. The mecha itself is pretty anachronistic within the series’ timeline but it makes for a fun boss fight at least (the latter being shown below, though obvious spoiler warning attached to that). You can pre-order this new toy here.

Following the reveal we now have some initial combat footage for the Platinum Games developed Transformers Devastation. We’re loving the cel shading and the combat looks decent enough too but the whole aerial ramming in vehicle mode looks a bit odd. It will be interesting to see how it will play once it is released in October this year. We’re definitely excited for it though, which is a novel feeling to have for a Transformers games.

So a commercial listing for the upcoming Transformers Devastation was recently leaked. This is a cel-shaded brawler developed by Platinum Games, set for release on pretty much everything (as in PS4, Xbox One, PS3 and Xbox 360). The game will also feature all the classic 80’s English voice cast too. After the High Moon games we are a bit wary of someone else handling Transformers, that said this is Platinum we are talking about and they do make well crafted games on the whole. The cel-shading also looks good too but until we see it in motion we’ll reserve judgement, as this kind of thing is notoriously difficult to get right. Set for an October release this year our fingers are crossed for this one!

Kotobukiya have announced an all new kit from their Armored Core Verdict Day range, that of the massive tank AC the Matsukaze mdl.2. Released in August it will cost around 18,8000 yen. That’s a lot for a kit but it’s really bloody massive. The only catch is that this appears to be an online shop only purchase, which is a shame. The other slightly odd thing is that this actually looks a lot like the tank AC seen in the original intro for Armored Core V, so we’re a bit stumped as to why it is included in the Verdict Day range. In any case it’s nice to see Kotobukiya supporting the Armored Core series with more kits, they always do a fine job.

Update: It looks like the kit won’t be a webshop exclusive after all, you can pre-order it here.

Now this is a toy that’s been a long time in coming. Previewed way back in 2011, it now looks like we’ll be finally getting a Riobot Anubis. Following on from Sentinel’s thoroughly excellent Riobot Jehuty it does however cost a bit more. Quite a lot more actually. Clocking in at around 22,000 yen, it will cost nearly double that of Jehuty. There is a good reason for this price hike though, compared to Jehuty this figure is clearly massive and a lot more complex. Still, that’s a lot of money for a range of toys that doesn’t tend to have much in the way of diecast (bar the lovely Blodia) but the spec of this toy does sound like it might be more diecast heavy. So that too might help in the way of explaining the increased price. In any case, this lovely looking Riobot Anubis will be released in October of this year. Prepare your wallets!

In welcome news, it seems we are to get AirMech Arena released on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One sometime this spring courtesy of Ubisoft. This is an update to the already released game on Xbox 360, with the PC original still going strong. A fair few months back, the developers hooked us up with a VIP account on the PC version and we’ve been playing it solidly since. It’s a modern day take on Herzog Zwei and that’s nothing but a good thing. Even the freemium setup doesn’t really get in the way that much and that’s a rarity. The 360’s controls also worked great on a pad too, which was a surprise, so these new versions should be equally competent in that department too. In any case, it’s nice to see solid indie mecha game that harks back to classic gaming and does it with real flair and skill.

Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan, we’ve been sent a toy from Metal Armor Dragonar to review. Specifically, the Robot Damashii Dragonar 2 Custom that’s on sale. In addition, to give the toy some context, we’ve also linked anime footage of it in action at the end of the review.

Wonder Festival 2015 Winter has now come to end and it was a good one. Apart from the legion of amazing garage kit figures on show and on sale, the future commercial announcements were decent this time around. The mother of which being Fewture’s transformable EX Gohkin Garland (shown above) from the first Megazone 23. Now we’ve already been graced with toys of this from Yamato back in the day but they all had serious quality issues (the joints often shattered). This will be different though as most EX Gohkins use a lot of diecast and go through rigorous quality assurance. No word on a price or release date but we want this, really quite badly. Apart from the Garland, we had a lot of cool stuff on show from Sentinel and Megahouse. The former had the amazing Metamorforce Dancouga and also showed the prototype Black Wing too, so a Final Dancouga is an option again. The latter showed off the upcoming Orguss toy and it is utterly pristine and will be a definite purchase come its release in March. Arcadia also had a good Macross showing too this year.

If you want to check out some photos then feel free to go here, here, , here, here, here and here. We will also be doing an event report for Forbes in the next few days too, so keep an eye out for that.

A good friend by the online name of Zaarock managed to find a new Kagekiyo VR in the 360 port of Virtual On Force. The new unit (shown in the video below) is similar to the “Wind” variant but is instead blindingly fast in close combat. The VR was unlocked via editing a save file and whether this was present in the original arcade release is unclear. He also goes onto state that there are multiple unused characters in the 360 port of Force, with both Ajim and Guerlain being playable and utilizing attacks not seen elsewhere within the game. In any case, we love stuff like this and it only highlights the fact that we need another Virtual On game. The full video is shown below.