Bandai have finally shown the fruits of their recent alliance with Gainax in the form of two new Super Robot Chogokin toys; that of the mighty Gurren Lagann and the majestic Gunbuster. Both figures will be released next year, with the former in January and the latter in February. In addition, their pricing at around 6,000 yen a piece is also pretty reasonable. What we’re most confused about though is why these designs in particular. There are already a lot of Gurren Lagann figures on the market and Bandai already did an amazing Soul of Chogokin Gunbuster, not to mention the Composite Ver Ka release too. Anyway, there will be a separate option parts set and both figures will have interchangeable parts.

Bandai have announced the later alternate colour version of the Billbine as one of their premium online shop only items. Pre-orders start today and the toy will be released in February of next year. Costing 4,275 yen it’s in the same price range as the original, though if you can find the latter at that price then good luck (as it’s already pretty rare now). If you live outside Japan then getting a hold of this will be a bit tricky but we will be nabbing one for sure. As “upgrades” go in anime, the alternate colour for Billbine didn’t actually do that much. Rather it was the supposed result of field maintenance and parts replacement during the extended battles back on Earth. Personally, we prefer the original colour scheme but the dark blue and green colours do make it look pretty tough.

Following on from the Naked Jehuty announcement, it now also seems that a Revoltech of the Ardjet orbital frame (shown above) will also be released at some point in the future. It’s a slightly strange choice for a figure, as Ardjet is a rather minor antagonist and lacks the same kind of fan fervour generated by Vic Viper. In any case, it seems that Konami are keen to pump these Zone of the Enders toys out to help promote the HD versions released in October.

Shown on Hideo Kojima’s Twitter account (as well as on Konami’s own Tumblr), we now have the inevitable Revoltech of Naked Jehuty. This being the final form of the orbital frame as seen at the end of Anubis (as shown below). This particular toy is a prototype that will be shown at the forthcoming Tokyo Game Show, so no news yet on a release date or price. As with all the Revoltech Jehuty toys, this is the one we’ve been waiting for and the sculpt and paint job look excellent.

Whilst it was recently revealed at this year’s Wonder Festival, Kotobukiya have officially announced the release of a truly gorgeous 1/100 scale Metal Gear Rex kit in December of this year. This is not to be confused with the huge and hugely expensive threeA toy, as this kit is smaller and costs a lot less (as well as needing to be assembled and painted obviously). The sculpt also looks spot on and for the money this is something I’d rather have over the threeA toy, as the latter has no diecast to speak of (which at that price is fucking disgraceful). As always, you can pre-order the kit here for a very reasonable 6,240 yen.

Well, we now know how much the forthcoming 1/60 scale VF-4G Lightning III will cost. That of an eye watering 26,985 yen. In addition, this will only be available to purchase via Yamato’s online shop. Whilst the toy will be released sometime this December, orders will be opening up later this August. Despite the price tag, we will be getting this as we’ve always loved the VF-4 and this toy looks to have a really remarkable sculpt.

Update: Yamato are now taking orders here.

At this summer’s Comiket in August, SEGA will be attending and selling all manner of nifty paraphernalia. From some cool Border Break merchandise to some equally lovely Virtual On gear. The latter even including some nice One Man Rescue book sets. This was a sidestory that tracked the shift in technology and political power bases between the original Virtual On and Oratorio Tangram. Apart from the One Man Rescue books, there is a t-shirt and some “cels”. All of which seem to be very reasonably priced.

Following on from our previous Revoltech Jehuty and Revoltech Jehuty (Anubis Version) reviews, our good friends at HobbyLink Japan have sent us the Revoltech Jehuty with Vector Cannon. This being the special super weapon of sorts that Jehuty acquires towards the end of Anubis. Due to the fact it already uses the base Jehuty figure, we’ve only covered the new Vector Cannon elements. In addition, we’ve also included some game footage at the end of the review.

As you know, we’re fans of the lovely Dreamcast game Rise from the Ashes and we especially adore Yutaka Izubuchi’s fantastic design of the RGM-79SP GM Sniper II. We’ve also already reviewed the Robot Damashii toys, both of the classic design and the White Dingo variant. Well it now seems we’ll also be getting a limited release HGUC kit of the latter. It comes with more guns and even a Minovsky tank too. Unfortunately it’s one of those premium Bandai shop items. In any case, the kit is release in September and will cost 1,890 yen.

Over at AmiAmi they have a lovely preview of the soon to be released Revoltech Jehuty with Vector Cannon. What’s especially interesting is that there is a nifty mechanism for dropping down the Vector Cannon into firing mode (as shown here). To be honest we were thinking of passing this one by, as we’ve already covered the last two Revoltech Jehuty toys but this looks too cool to pass by. The toy is released on the 15th July for 4,980 yen.