toyboxdx toy blog brog: is graceful art of daily expressing japanese toy  

We’re adding a new money shot everyday, I think for no particular reason. Oh wait — that’s right. You’re a toy FREAK. That might be the reason.

If you’ve got ’em, share ’em…

Best,

Alen

OK — I was too hung over to get this stuff in here before, but here’s my Wonderfest preliminary report as first published in the BBS. More photos coming later; it was an interesting show.

1) As Roger mentioned in the BBS, CM’s is releasing a fully-transforming Legioss (Alpha) and Tread (Beta) fighter set. Looks to be about the size of the Toynami Masterpiece version, but with really different proportions, particularly around the intakes on the chest. Beta/Tread looks amazing. The Japanese site Yacolog has great photos posted already, but here’s one I took from an angle that shows some of the transformation mechanism. They’ll be releasing three color variations, starting later this year.

2) Yamato is releasing a fully-transforming Bubblegum Crisis Motoslave in 1:15 scale (same as their recent Megazone 23 Garland). Interestingly, and a little sadly, the late Taku “Professor Robo” Sato was involved in its production, apparently one of his last projects. (Fewture’s also releasing his Mazinger 1969, the very last design of his that went into pre-production before his unexpected passing.) It comes with a “Hardsuit”-wearing Priss and is about half the physical size of the Garland.

3) Also on the Yamato front, they’re releasing a DX-sized, fully-transforming Bryger from the “J9” series of shows. Could a perfectly-transforming Sasuraiger be next? One can hope.

4) Yet MORE on the Yamato front: a fully-transforming, ultra-realistic Groizer X is in the works. Who’d a thunk it?

5) The One Million Yen Evangelion: made of fiberglas and standing 2 meters tall, it towers over the average person…. Got a spare $10K to blow? It’s yours. The scary thing was, there were no shortage of people dropping by who seemed to be actually considering it.

6) A built-up resin kit of the Manon Type Gorg. Garage kits like this are really what WF is all about.

7) Desslar sofubi!! Nearly anything’s fair game for garage soft vinyl figure makers these days. These Gamilas baddies from Space Cruiser Yamato were being sold as completed items, not kits. If more “urban vinyl” looked like this I’d be happy.

8) A huge 1:48 Blizzard Gunner from Dougram. This was a very limited-edition, one-day-only amateur model kit production. I wish Takara had made a Dual Model (or even a 1:144 collection series version) of this sucker!

9) A new manufacturer by the name of “Honkytonk” has announced their plans to release “the largest Votoms product in history.” No pics yet, but the guys behind the table said it would be a 1/6 scale Scopedog made out of FRP (fiberglas-reinforced plastic) and retail for… Wait for it… Somewhere around $3000. Ouch. Release date: this summer. Or so they hope.

I love kanji on cardboard. So I was close to completion till Harkavy reminded me of the need to secure the latest High Complete Models. Fresh from Japan thanks to Hobby Link Japan, it’s Bandai’s newest entries into the classic line. HCM 26 and 27 come shrinkwrapped together like a box set. There’s something Fraser-esque about the look and feel of it. I’d never be able to open this if these were vintage toys.

The Gundam RX-178 Mark II Titans and HiZack RMS-106 EFF repaints go beautifully together. My sole complaint? The white boxes. Once you start accruing the dirty gray ones, these seem chintzy compared to the old-school recycled sleeves. I’ll let pics speak for themselves.

This is a test of the Emergency Rumble System. Hide the women and livestock.