Shin SOC News Thread (untouched by the unwashed)

Sanjeev Wrote:
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> Mmmmm... Patraqushe Mirage...diecast...chrome...

Oh yeah baby....and since the KoG shares many of the same chassis details as the Led Mirage lets just go ahead and make the lead to a gold chrome diecast KoG to stand in front of that line of Led Mirages...

gingaio Wrote:
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>
> What's the deal with Nagano? Is he not cool with
> toys of his stuff being made?
>
> Lord knows we all suffered through that Kaiyodo
> figure. I remember ordering that toy the moment I
> heard about it...ah, such a piece of crap.

Apparently, Nagano was so offended by the handling of L-Gaim that he decided to be miserly when it came to handing out production rights for FSS...He insists it is all about maintaining the artistic integrity of his work, but it kind of feels like he has a stubborn grudge.

Sort of like, when I tell one of my students that they need to get busy on their artwork (which they think is finished) and that due dates do, indeed, mean something (despite the fact that the students always argue "you can't rush art"), and then they punish me by not doing their work because they are pouting.

Now don't get me wrong I love Nagano's work, but come on...Everybody knows that you build a larger fanbase with marketing, and nothing kills a fanbase faster than poor marketing...Which the Kaiyodo figures fall squarely in the middle of...I still have mine, but man are they bad...I can live with poor sculpt if the figure is super-articulated (revoltech), I can live with a figure that has a poor articulation but a great sculpt (Mcfarlane), but a poor sculpt and bad articulation (not to mention bad paint, which is inexcusable) is just a travesty. These figures just prove the theory that Nagano has a bone to pick with Bandai...We'll never see a Spec Led Mirage, but he allowed these pieces of poo to be manufactured...?

Speaking of FFS, does anyone here really like the manga? I remember so impressed by the Hobby Japan pictorials as a wee lad, and then getting totally turned of by the wispy characters. :P

drifand Wrote:
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> Speaking of FFS, does anyone here really like the
> manga? I remember so impressed by the Hobby Japan
> pictorials as a wee lad, and then getting totally
> turned of by the wispy characters. :P

I really like the manga, and yes the visual style takes some getting used to. It is worth doing, in my opinion, because FSS is one of the most unique manga that exists. Convoluted, cryptic, epic, strange, and silly can all be used to describe FSS's plot. All that with giant robots...some of which are powerful enough to destroy planets...

Anyway...yeah...sorry for the digression...

I like the FSS manga too and bought all the Japanese volumes so far. Its not something for everyone. But its very good if you have the patience to sort out all the timeline, hundreds of characters' relationship & bloodline...kind of like reading a very long Sci-fi/fairy tale-ish history book, and you get a glimpse of the key events in the chapters of the manga. So you'll need a story guide book on the side as you read, knowing who is who from what era. Otherwise, you'll get very confused.

The only problem I have with it is being sooooooo slow, to a point it stopped having new chapters from time to time. Then Nagano might feel like picking it back up a few years later, then drew some more, then stopped again for another couple years... Though the story is not a continuous one with cliffhangers. It jumps back & forth through the some thousand years timeline, so even if he never goes back to draw more chapters from now on, you can still treat the series as complete as is.

Did they stop printing the English FSS manga? I know they were only available at Kinnokuniya, and were done by Nagano's publishing company, but it seems like they just stopped... I'm not sure if they just caught up to the Japanese volumes or what.

Has Nagano really been that harsh with his designs? Doesn't he have at least partial ownership of L-gaim, considering that he integrated that into FSS? And those toys are being made... I always just assumed that the ornate FSS designs were just too complex for a really good mass market toy to be made.

I tend to think that Nagano doesn't like his designs being change. Ever see HIS version of the ZZ Gundam? I think that might have been what said screw you to Gundam and then go on to create FSS. He did come back in 1998 and do the designs for Brain Powered.

What I want to know is if Gothic Made is still being produced?

Him and Makoto Kobayashi have been my favorite mecha designers for the past couple of years now.

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I asked if I have "Time For L-Gaim" but I got "No Reply From The Wind".

fujishig Wrote:
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> Did they stop printing the English FSS manga? I
> know they were only available at Kinnokuniya, and
> were done by Nagano's publishing company, but it
> seems like they just stopped... I'm not sure if
> they just caught up to the Japanese volumes or
> what.
>
> Has Nagano really been that harsh with his
> designs? Doesn't he have at least partial
> ownership of L-gaim, considering that he
> integrated that into FSS? And those toys are
> being made... I always just assumed that the
> ornate FSS designs were just too complex for a
> really good mass market toy to be made.

I haven't seen the FSS English comics for a long time, even though I frequent the Kinokuniya in my area. They might have stopped coming out with new ones long ago, and highly doubted they published up to where the Japanese manga stopped. There just aren't that many copies of those thin English ones, when each only covers a fraction of the Japanese's single volume.

When it comes to FSS toys, I don't think the designs are really too complicated for figures. They have been making injection plastic model kits of those for like a decade. So they could easily make an ABS action figure if they choose to. But they just never do (probably due to reasons related to questionable profit of doing so), and leave the franchise stay in the resin kit market. Its kind of like the Ma.K franchise, while having cool designs and collectors/modelers love them, they don't have a TV show or an on going media to keep them hyped enough to appeal to the general public as a mass production toy line. Though Ma.K did a bit better, with at least some Kubricks & and some figures from the past years.

Unless Bandai really want to surprise us, and do a SOC Knight Of Gold all of a sudden. :D With 18K gold no less, like they did with Gold Lightan.

Kaiyodo did do a small run of action figures in the late 90's. It looks like they had very limited articulation.
[www.hlj.com]

At my local Half Price Books, they have a ton of FSS english manga on the clearance rack. Other than that, I haven't seen any at my local Kinokuniya either.

Volks seems to be focusing on the Muv-Luv figures right now. There are so many great designs out there that never get their due, sad really. Not to come down on Votoms or Evas, but FSS mecha are a great source for remolds w/ slight modifications and color alterations.

No love for KOG.

More pics of Daitarn please

I got my L-Gaim today. I won't say too much since I plan to it review for CollectionDX.

Good
-Nice amount of metal
-VERY articulated feet and legs
-Nice glossy ABS plastic
-Good size (almost the size of a 1/100 Gundam).
-The right amount of hands

Bad
-The leg panels pop off TOO easily when you raise them too far.
-The joints in the knees are crazy tight
-One hip is loose
-A bit hard to get the weapons in the hands

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I asked if I have "Time For L-Gaim" but I got "No Reply From The Wind".

I got my L-Gaim as well. To be honest I'm not sure what to think. It's not a bad figure, but I feel like it could have been better. A couple notable flaws are the leg articulation, which is lacking in the hip area. In addition, a fully-loaded "binder" shield is too heavy for the arm to hold up at the shoulder, making poses tricky. The buster launcher is massive and a little unweildy. The "power cables" are a pain to put in. The opening "random slates" on the legs are prone to falling off a bit more easily than I'd like.

Overall however it is not a bad figure. It's got a great, dynamic sculpt, feels solid, and is articulated enough to pull off some pretty dynamic poses. It has all of the accessories one would expect for the L-Gaim, and the included "Lilith-Gaim" model kit is very cute.

I can't really recommend this figure to gokin fans in general, but any serious fan of L-Gaim should be happy with the figure.

Daitarn plans

[www.toysdaily.com]

Daimos is oot.

[www.toysdaily.com]

No confirmed reports at this time on whether or not he's also aboot.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/2008 09:35AM by Hellequin.

Some Daimos pics.

[www.toy-world.com.hk]

That's a pretty nice looking 'bot toy.

Heh - I can remember when a new SOC would get this place all juiced up!

---------------------------------
hassenpfeffer

That was lifetimes ago. Now everyone is old, bitter and jaded. With gokin wounds that throb whenever rain is a-comin'.

Nonetheless, tis a very pretty toy. More pics yet: [www.toysdaily.com]



...And now more Daitarn 3 blueprints: [tw.myblog.yahoo.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/2008 03:05PM by Runaphen.

Love that Daitarn 3 transformation sequence at the bottom of the blueprints link.

---------------------------------
hassenpfeffer

It was awsome, but the time it took for the guy to travel from his flying car thing to the head was ridiculous

I dunno, it was a little reminiscent of Daimos. My sister used to ask me what the enemy was doing during these sequences. Gaogaigar had it right with the smokescreen.

I wonder if the cannons will telescope out of the legs on Daitarn 3?

I see Daitarn 3 being hard work, even for Bandai. Be interesting to see how they solve that much anime magic.

I hope the Diatarn comes with C-3P0 and Darth Vader figures, just like the real show:

[altjapan.typepad.com]

Yet yet more more Daimos Daimos.

[www.toysdaily.com]

[gamu-toys.info]

Tetsujin pics: [www.toysdaily.com]

I didn't like the way it looked before. Torso looked too broad and the head looked too small. Looks a lot better to me now. Fucking awesome in fact. Not sure if that's because they actually changed some things or I was just being a picky bastard before.

Anything new on the two SRW mechs Bandai are cooking up?
I haven't seen as many magazine scans around recently.

The only recent thing I've seen is this:

Awesome, thanks Hellequin, hadn't seen that yet.

Fort Max Wrote:
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> Anything new on the two SRW mechs Bandai are
> cooking up?
> I haven't seen as many magazine scans around
> recently.


I think this is the SOC. Not sure yet though.

Found it here: [www.toysdaily.com]

Edit: Nevermind. It's another Koto kit. [www.toy-world.com.hk]
I thought they had already released that one.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2008 04:27AM by Runaphen.

They had, this is a new one that's properly to 1/144 scale and costs a rediculous amount of money.

Some new SOC stuff. GX-31V is a complete repaint.

[www.toy-world.com.hk]

[www.toy-world.com.hk]

[ga.sbcr.jp]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2008 12:24PM by cf18.

cf18 Wrote:
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> Some new SOC stuff. GX-31V is a complete
> repaint.

Well this might be the first time I buy a repaint..

SRW: [www.toy-world.com.hk]


Spec Dragonar Badguy thing: [www.toy-world.com.hk]

Since I have both versions of Dragonar-1 (which were quite well done. Wish I could say the same for L-Gaim), I'll have to get the Falguen.

I've started watching the anime now.

--------------------------------------------------------------

I asked if I have "Time For L-Gaim" but I got "No Reply From The Wind".

Runaphen Wrote:
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> Fort Max Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Anything new on the two SRW mechs Bandai are
> > cooking up?
> > I haven't seen as many magazine scans around
> > recently.
>
>
> I think this is the SOC. Not sure yet though.
>
> Found it here:
> [www.toysdaily.com]
> tml
>
> Edit: Nevermind. It's another Koto kit.
> [www.toy-world.com.hk]
> id=6546&extra=page%3D1
> I thought they had already released that one.

This stuff is the exact reason I can't stand most modern robot design - WAY WAY too busy.

More serious than thou

GX-31V has shooting weapons:
[www.toysdaily.com]

Wowsers. Looks way better than I was expecting.

It's like rubbing salt in a wound.

--------------------------------------------------------------

I asked if I have "Time For L-Gaim" but I got "No Reply From The Wind".

cf18 Wrote:
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> GX-31V has shooting weapons:
> [www.toysdaily.com]
> tml

I can't believe it doesn't have the old skool belt logo... I'm totally crushed..

Any new pics of the Falguen?

--------------------------------------------------------------

I asked if I have "Time For L-Gaim" but I got "No Reply From The Wind".

SOC T-28 to be officially released this weekend in Singapore, at the Anime Festival Asia 2008:

[www.afa08.com]