A few places have been covering the recent release of the Metal Composite Gundam Unicorn toy as of late. Despite being a remarkable piece of engineering, some inevitable comparison shots between this toy and the previously released 1/100 scale Master Grade kit have surfaced. Now, before your brain melts out the side of your head, the Master Grade is on the left and the new Metal Composite toy is on the right. The fact that they look nigh on identical is testament to the technological advances Japanese toy production has made in the last decade. Bear in mind that the kit on the left would have had to be assembled and painted by hand, whereas a factory produced toy – which has a diecast endo-skeleton no less – looks just as good out of the box. This is why the Metal Composite toy also costs in the range of 18,000 yen but unlike a kit you can actually play with a toy without it breaking. In short this looks like the ultimate incarnation of Hajime Katoki’s brilliant design and is well worth grabbing before it goes out of stock. The Unicorn was also featured in Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus, a game we enjoyed quite a fair bit in our review.

A very entrepreneurial Japanese modeller, by the name of ostraking, has managed to inject a selection of lights into the various Kotobukiya and Hasegawa Virtual On model kits. From the Type 94 Temjin from Fragmentary Passage, based off the MBV-04-G Temjin kit from Kotobukiya, to the HBV-502H8 Raiden from Oratan (also from the Kotobukiya line). What’s impressive about these is that much of the surface light sources in the games aren’t easily backlit in a real world kit, this is especially true of the Fei-Yen from Force that has very flat skirt sections – something ostraking has handled with great skill.

What do you get when you combine Halo’s number one star and a Zaku II? You get the custom job you see above, built upon a Master Grade Gundam Zaku II Ver. 1.0 kit. Via Figure.fm.

Bandai have announced a new range of toys helmed by Hajime Katoki, hence the “Ver. Ka” suffix (as that stands for “Version Katoki”). The first in the line is the Lancelot Albion from the second season of Code Geass. Admittedly, there was a Robot Damashii variant of this design already but it seems that this version will be bigger and far more detailed.

As far as games are concerned, both the original Lancelot and the Albion upgrade were only really featured in the somewhat lacklustre Code Geass adventure games that were released on the PSP, PS2 and DS. The mecha haven’t been given an action game as yet nor featured in something like Super Robot Wars.

The mecha design in Code Geass was actually penned by the gaming luminary Yasuda Akira, or “Akiman” as he is more affectionately known. So having his work re-touched by another gaming mecha designer, in the form of Katoki, might be a little strange for him maybe (though Katoki is admittedly respected by other artists, despite his somewhat frosty demeanour). The next Ver. Ka toy in this new line will be the indomitable Gurren Lagann, which is briefly previewed at the bottom of the page linked above.

In any case, this new Albion toy will be available in June for 5040 yen and you can pre-order it here.

The 26th Miyazawa Model Exhibition is currently underway and despite the worryingly deluge of moe related nonsense, there are some mecha trinkets that are quite interesting. With the GFF Metal Composite Gundam Unicorn, pictured above, being paraded before its grand release at the end of this month. There are also various Kotobukiya kits on display as well, from Border Break to Armored Core and even Virtual On.

Talking of Unicorn, the recent Blu-Ray release in Japan has managed to shift 56 thousand copies in its first week, which is pretty damn good. It will be interesting to see how the series develops though, as that will have an inevitable knock effect to the gaming side of things. It’s clear that Japanese fans want some of that Universal Century timeline though. With any luck the Project Pegasus team that helmed One Year War on the PS2 might even get a shot at making a new Unicorn themed effort. That would be, as they say, “seriously sweet”.

For those that like some mass produced spirit in their mecha, the recently HGUC kit of the D-50C Loto from Gundam Unicorn appears to have serious knee joint issues. Set at 1/144 scale the kit is also tiny, to the extent that it can double as one of the feet on the Soul of Chogokin Dancouga!

The Loto is also part of the wider canon, as it acts as the base for the Guntank R-44 seen in Gundam F-91. In any case, if you were thinking of buying this kit – then you might want to hold off until Bandai resolve this flaw.

The mecha from Gundam Unicorn were recently featured in Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus, though the Loto was absent from the roster there are rumours that it could be included in the upcoming DLC.

Over at Moeyo (link somewhat NSFW) there’s a suitably cute preview of Kotobukiya’s upcoming D-Style White Glint from Armored Core For Answer. It turns out that, like it’s bigger Variable Infinity cousins, the D-Style variant will also be customisable (once other designs make the transition obviously). The eye detailing will also be accurate as per the original seen in the game as well. This little chap is currently being displayed in the Kotobukiya Direct store in Akihabara.

Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan, we’ve been sent a kit from Border Break to review. Specifically, Kotobukiya’s 1/35 scale Cougar Type I . Our review only covers the kit in its out of the box and unpainted form (however, we have also included painted photos towards the end). In addition, to give the kit some context, we’ve also linked some gameplay footage of the design in action from Border Break at the end end of the review.

The mighty Gunleon from Super Robot Wars Z, a game we loved in our review, will be receiving a garage kit rendition courtesy of StudioXBEE. The Gunleon was an OG super robot introduced in Z and played a prominent role in one of the two narrative arcs available in the game. The design itself is somewhat inspired by Gaogaigar, as it has the signature lion head chest in its powered-up form (though this is actually a reference to a very long lineage of mecha designs that use this motif). This kit was on sale at the recent Wonder Festival for 18,000 yen, so whether it will receive a wider release is unlikely. In any case, it’s a very faithful rendition of the design and it seems only fitting to sign off with a video of the Gunleon strutting its stuff in game.

The somewhat under-appreciated Wave have finally previewed their upcoming 1/72 scale MBR-04-MkVI Tomahawk destroid kit from the original Macross. Despite Yamato already releasing a toy of this design, kit connoisseurs rightfully revere the workmanship of Wave. After all, they’ve been making Five Star Stories kits for years and those mecha designs are some of the most intricate and complex ever conceived.

However, the Tomahawk’s past is a chequered one in the annals of mecha gaming. Specifically, it was re-purposed in BattleTech to form the obviously derivative Warhammer (even the official BattleTech artwork inadvertently retained the UN Spacy logo). It wasn’t long until FASA were sued, as the Tomahawk was but one of a plethora of designs lifted from various notable anime series of the time. That said, the recent MechWarrior reboot also fell foul of this plagiarism as it re-used the Warhammer in its teaser trailer, kicking off a whole new legal mess in the proceedings.

The sad aspect about all this is that the legal steps being taken aren’t meant to recompense the original Japanese team who penned the designs, but instead the Western company that distributed them. In any case, this kit is released in June for 6,800 yen and you can pre-order it here.