Over at Hideo Kojima’s Twitter feed, he recently posted some photos of Yoji Shinkawa posing with a large prototype of ThreeA’s new Metal Gear RAY toy. This is a follow up to the equally large Metal Gear REX released by ThreeA last year. Whilst we love Shinkawa’s designs, we were pretty disappointed with ThreeA’s REX toy. It lacked any real diecast and subsequently felt very cheap. In addition, the colour scheme was also completely wrong and all the lightning felt out of place too. No word on price or release date for this new RAY toy though but it will probably be similarly priced to the previous REX toy.

This year’s Shizuoka Hobby Show is under way and as always it has a huge amount of new model kits on display. With Hasegawa’s new Myzr Eta kit (shown above) from Virtual On Force being notable. Bar that, there’s obviously a large amount of new Gundam related kits on the way and it seems the HGUC range seems to be getting a lot of interesting new entries. If you’re curious about the show then both CyberGundam (here, here and here) and AmiAmi (here, here and here) have lots of photos. HLJ also has a nice breakdown too.

Whilst this is not the first toy of Sakura Shinguji’s pink custom koubu from the Sakura Taisen series, this new Variable Action toy from Megahouse looks to be one of the best. Released at the end of September for 7,800 yen, it has a nice sculpt and what appears to be decent articulation too. Sadly, it doesn’t look like it comes with a Sakura pilot figure (though this likely helps to keep the price down). If you are one of those that enjoy pink steampunk mecha then make sure to pre-order yours here.

Those wondrous people at Sentinel have previewed the upcoming Riobot Detonator Orgun toy set for release this July at 9,800 yen. This is from the anime of the same name, which was Masami Obari’s take on Tekkaman. Orgun was also featured in Super Robot Wars W on the DS. In any case, this figure looks absolutely gorgeous and is something we’ll be definitely picking up this July (you can also pre-order it here).

Gundam Wing fans rejoice as Bandai has just recently announced the XXXG-01s Shenlong Gundam to the Robot Damashii line. Like other Gundam Wing units released in the line, the Shenlong Gundam looks to capture the essence of the TV designs with extra bits like extension parts for its iconic Dragon Hang. It is looking to be tentatively released in September of this year, with preorders starting on the 9th of May at a price of 4410 yen.

Bandai are deciding to grace us with a new Super Robot Chogokin figure of Shin Getter-1 this August. At 7,140 yen, it’s not exactly cheap but neither is it overly expensive either. Like the other toys in this line, expect a lot of diecast and an overall excellent sculpt and finish. As for the design itself, its gaming heritage is extensive and was originally premiered in Super Robot Wars 4. Admittedly it was work in progress for the manga and then later for an OVA but Shin Getter has been a staple of Super Robot Wars for as long as I can remember. It’s likely we’ll get the other Getter Machines too, with Shin Getter-2 being notable with its influence on the drilltastic Gurren Lagann, with the Getter Rays and subsequent Spiral Energy being also of note too. Whilst this isn’t the first Shin Getter-1 toy, with the Aoshima figures being really quite something, it will be more reasonably priced and slightly less huge.

More love for Gundam Sentinel is coming in the form of the Robot Damashii ORX-013 Gundam Mk.V. Scheduled to be released in September 2013, the Gundam Mk.V is being positioned as a Ka Signature product, similar to the Robot Damashii Xi Gundam that will also releasing in June of this year. It will be interesting to see if this is a precursor to a possible cameo in Gundam Extreme Versus Full Boost, just like how the Xi Gundam was announced as a future product before its debut in both the PS3 version of Gundam Extreme Versus and Full Boost in the arcades last year. Regardless, I’m sure we can expect the same quality and articulation for the Mk.V as others within the Ka Signature line. Pre-orders have started April 25 with a price of 8,400 yen.

Following on from our previous post about a forthcoming E-MF-LZ-00X-2 Layzner Mk2 toy, it turns out in fact that we will be likely getting it as a Soul of Chogokin Spec iteration (something we hoped and suspected). On top of that, it seems that demand is high enough for the suitably bling SPT-ZK-53U Zakarl (shown above) to get the same treatment. What’s interesting about this is that fans wanted continuity from the previous, and thoroughly excellent, Soul of Chogokin Spec Layzner. We wholly endorse this request. No word on pricing or release as yet but once we know more we’ll let you know.

Bandai is releasing an expansion pack to their previously released Robot Damashii Extreme Gundam (Type Leos) Xenon Phase. The pack allows you to transform the base Extreme Gundam (Type Leos) into the Eclipse and Agios Phases found in Gundam Extreme Versus Full Boost. And when you combine the Eclipse, Agios, and Xenon parts together, you can also create its Full Burst mode! The expansion pack is tentatively scheduled to be released in September 2013 with a price of 4410 yen.

Sentinel have updated their site for the forthcoming Riobot Blodia toy from Cyberbots. Showing all manner of new shots of the figure, which emphasises its use of diecast (see above), and a promotional video that shows of its various gimmicks. All told, it looks fucking amazing and is definitely going to be the best Blodia figure we’ve ever had. Whilst it is somewhat pricy (10,290 yen) it is a lot cheaper than many of Bandai’s high end outings, which is impressive. It will also be available in 2P colours as well (blue basically). The toy is released this July and you can pre-order yours here.