Several new reissues have been announced! These include the Saber Tiger Marking Plus Ver. (December / 7,200 yen), the Buster Tortoise (November / 4,800 yen), and Sturm Tyrann (October / 13,500 yen).

 As an aside, Kotobukiya has posted a notice addressing what a lot of people have been noticing as of late, a significant increase in prices. It's quite obvious what lead to these price increases, but to summarize, a rise in the price of crude oils, infection preventative measures taken in their manufacturing bases in China affecting material supply, and the rapid depreciation of the Yen have all made it far more costly to procure everything needed to output a finished product. Kotobukiya has thus had no choice but to significantly raise the prices of products, starting with their own original IP products being released in July. Hopefully matters will calm down in the future~!

 As we approach the release date of Bandai's Chogokin Liger Zero we've been seeing more and more updates. Tamashii Web posted a blog about the Liger Zero, going over some of the specifics and showing off the box art. It looks like the main box is actually, in a surprise twist, inspired by the original Tomy box art! This is a cool shoutout. The main box is covered by a black dust sleeve which features images of the figure. The amount of articulation in this kit is insane, more than I could cover here, so I highly recommend checking out the article!

 Some highlights include that the Zero is covered in a coat of gloss, with metalics used for key parts. The pilot is gold chrome, the eyes light up using LEDs, it includes a metallic red removable Zoid Core, and by replacing the pilot seat with clear parts, you can increase the brightness of the eye glow. The figure comes with its own stand as well. Dengeki Hobby Web posted an article about the Tamashii Nations World Tour Tokyo event, where these figures (the CAS and frame) were on display.

Twitter Campaign

Tamashii Web is also holding a twitter campaign from June 8th until July 18th, where they'll be giving away a variety of items, including 15 Chogokin Liger Zeroes. This event is for Japan residents only.

 The Tamashii Web article linked above also showed off some images of the CAS units for the Chogokin Liger Zero. What was a big surprise though is that the armors will come with their own suspension stand, allowing you to display one of the armors as if it were still in the hangar. This is an incredibly cool inclusion, as it means that, even if you can't afford 4 Chogokin figures, you can still put some of your armors on display rather than packing them up in a box. These armors are expected to ship out in January 2024 as a full set of armors (Jager, Schneider, Panzer) for 29,700 yen (tax included).

 In addition, a Liger Zero (Frame Mode) has been announced. This means you'll be able to order just the bare Liger Zero without any CAS units (including the basic Zero armor) attached. For those who aren't able to pick up the first release, this is a great opportunity. The Liger Zero (Frame Mode) is also scheduled to release in January 2024 for 27,500 yen. This Zero will also come with one of the suspension stands. If you happened to miss the earlier pre-order window for the full Chogokin Liger Zero, you may be happy to hear that it's also getting a second run, with some scheduled to ship out around August.

 Zoids Official posted a video featuring the Ankyrox Rare Bone Ver. in motion. As a funny aside, it seems the boxes for the Ankyrox shipped out with it being marked as an Ankyrox type instead of an Ankylosaurus type~

 As part of the Zoids 40th Anniversary Project Zoids Official has announced that it'll be posting the first four animes online! This includes the classic Zoids series, Zoids New Century /ZERO, Zoids Fuzors, and Zoids Genesis. These have mostly started airing already, and will be publicly posted on the TAKARATOMYHOBBY youtube channel! Only the first episode is available for a longer span of time. Otherwise, each episode will be available for 1 week, until the next one 'airs'. We'll try to stay on top of posting here when new episodes are available. For those curious, Zoids Official has said they're working on making the series available in more countries, but this may take extra time, so please be patient as they jump through the technical hoops!

 As they've been posting more about the upload date of each series, they've also been posting some nice high-quality art, starting with a Bang image. Otherwise, each series has been posted with its blu-ray box character art, including Chaotic Century, New Century /ZERO, Fuzors, and Zoids Genesis. Chaotic Century has been airing for a bit now, but we'll post what's currently available. As a final note, voyager_vision on Twitter, who seems to have worked on some of the anime storyboards, posted images of the covers!

- Chaotic Century Episode 7

- New Century /ZERO Episode 1

- Fuzors Episode 1

 There's a lot going on this year, and as usual, Mercy Rabbit is enthusiastic about the developments, sharing various works from over the years! Here is a closeup of the Shield Liger Bang HMM art, showing the pilots. There's another showing Irvine from the Command Wolf Irvine box. The classic Murasame Liger art has also been reshared in celebration of the AZ-03 Murasame Liger.

 Throughout the 40th Anniversary Project Animareal has been involved in creating dynamic promotional images to spark the imaginations of fans. Modeler SigemikanZ on Twitter has been sharing quite a few photos of the custom model kits that go into creating these images! As well as others.

 40th Anniversary Key Visual & Logo: Link | Link | Link | Link | Link
 40th Anniversary Key Visual - Blade Liger: Link
 40th Anniversary Key Visual - Liger Zero: Link | Link
 40th Anniversary Key Visual - Murasame Liger: Link | Link | Link
 Additional Customs: Link | Link | Link | Link | Link | Link

 Revolver posted a blog a while back about an exhibit featuring their customs. The blog showed off quite a few photos of their customs, many of which appeared in Hobby Japan Magazine alongside Zoids Wild-centric stories!

 NIKON_LIKE92 on Twitter, who evidently created some of the concept sketches, mosted some of the art for the Gojulas from earlier Zoids products. It's always fun when old employees come out of the wood works to share some of the production materials!

 Zoids Official has announced that Zoids Chaotic Century will re-air in Japan! This is the first time the series will be publicly available in 24 years, and they're even working on bringing it to other countries. This will surely bring new fans to the franchise, fans who will appreciate the classic designs during a time when the 40th Anniversary is focusing on the older shows. We've crossed two months in 2023, and it'll be interesting to see what else is in store for the 40th anniversary going forward!

 During May ~ June, a brand new Zoids exhibit will be open in Japan. We currently don't know much about the event, but the site has pages for info and goods that haven't been added in yet. Zoids has held some pretty impressive exhibits in the past, so we look forward to seeing what they bring to this one.

In commemoration of the Zoids 40th anniversary, a nationwide traveling exhibit will be held, looking back on the history of Zoids. In addition to popular kits from past generations and 3D exhibits such as a diorama corner, materials from past anime series will also be on display. This is a memorial event for all generations of fans, ranging from the Showa, Heisei, and Reiwa eras.  * Future schedules will be updated on the Zoids Exhibit website as necessary.  * The content of the event may be subject to change for certain reasons. Please be forewarned that the event contents are also subject to change.  (Event run time from May 26th ~ June 19th.)

 Zoids Official has announced the early planning sketch for the AZ Liger Zero Phoenix! This Phoenix has quite the glow-up, with careful attention paid to make sure the BLOX parts look more proportional on the AZ base than they did on the old motorized version. One big difference is the more seamless integration and design of the cannons, which are both substantially longer and lower-set than the old version.

 Earlier this week Zoids Official posted a New Century Zero clip video, asking about what everyone's favorite NC0 scene was. They also posted a look at the armorless Zero, discussing the difference between the term 'prime state' when it comes to standard Zoids, such as the Blade Liger, and Liger Zero. It also gives us a side-by-side look at how the Liger Zero frame differs from the Blade Liger. There are more modifications than I realized at first. It's nice to see Zero have a fully armored neck. Last but not least, we got a look at the box art for the AZ-02 Liger Zero!

 While discussing what all went into the AZ-02 Liger Zero's development process, Zoids Official also posted a conceptual design of the wild form of Liger Zero, complete with a beautiful digital quality of the artwork that once appeared on the back of the boxes during the NJR era! This would be a fun one to see, but to be clear, at this point this is an early concept art only. Even so, it's always cool to get to see what goes into developing these products!

 TakaraTomy has posted a video introducing us to the Dino Expo kits, showing us what these kits look like out-of-the-box (no additional painting). The bone colors look good, especially with the red eyes.

 By the way, the poll will remain open for 2 more days! This poll will help us decide what projects to prioritize over the spring and summer months. So far, HMM Lore is leading the book-adjascent category, with the FOR manga ranking top for manga projects! If you'd like to provide your own input, feel free to vote~ (This poll does not mean other projects will stop, it'll only help me decide what gets priority.)

 As you all know, we have quite a few projects that get worked on periodically, some of which have been in limbo for a long time. Over the next few months I'd like to focus my efforts more on specific projects, but wanted to know what kind of projects you guys would be most interested in seeing covered. This list includes ongoing projects only. Let me know what you're most excited about in this poll!

 During the tail-end of 2022, Figure King, a magazine in Japan, published an issue discussing the currently-ongoing Zoids 40th Anniversary. This included a look at the franchise's history over the past 40 years, along with product lineups from various series, tons of cool concept art (including some never released before), and an interview with two of the current staff members, Yutaka Tajima and Takashi Nakase. We've added a cleaned up machine translation of this article to our Assorted Magazines article. It's a fun read, for those who enjoy hearing about the development process!

 TakaraTomy has made a dedicated page on their website for the Rare Bone Ver. 2023 kits, which shows off additional images of each, and some nice dino-themed graphics. These two kits are scheduled to release at Dino Expo on March 14th, for 3,850 yen each (tax included.) I haven't seen a confirmation of an after-event resale, but the former Gilraptor Rare Bone was sold on TakaraTomy Mall after the initial event sales.

 Kotobukiya has released the product page for the Kotobukiya Shop Exclusive Rev Raptor Night Patrol, which is scheduled to release in September for 7,800 yen! It'll include some clear colorless parts in addition to the clear green. The decals for this kit are the same as the Rev Raptor + Pile Bunker unit.

 For those wondering about the price, this kit will include both a basic plastic cast gold Pile Bunker as well as a gold-chromed version, based on the old motorized version of this kit released. The price is the same as Raven Raptor + Pile Bunker~ This was truly an unexpected variant, but a welcome one. Pre-orders are already opening, and western fans can pre-order through places like USA Gundam Store, which will receive the kits a bit later, but allow you to order these exclusives without the need of a proxy.

 Kotobukiya's notes from the product page also wish to remind people that chroming will make parts thicker. In other words, be sure that you carefully trim the chrome off of pegs when assembling this kit, to avoid parts not wanting to go together or snapped pegs.

 First and foremost I want to apologize for how long it has been since the last update. Though I've been working on things here and there, most of it just isn't at a state of completion worth posting. Life has been exceptionally busy, so I apologize for the lack of content this time around. More is in the works!

 So, whats changed? For one, there are a few small updates rolling out across the site. This includes minor QoL features and layout updates, including updated styling consistency, fixing transparent borders, and trying to correct for blurriness in parts.

Name List and Index Pages

 The Name List and Index Pages have been updated to use a css formatted menu instead of an html menu that's repeated for every alphabetical category. This means you can select from A, B, C, D, etc. from a menu that will scroll with your page, and will no longer need to scroll up and down to find access to the jump menu. This is especially relevant to the non-alphabetical categories, which were previously only linked at the very top and bottom of the page.

Full Width Graphics

 As you may've already noticed, I've also added support for full-width graphics. This means that sections like the news post and, more importantly, the main section images for each page of the Official Fan Books can now span the full page, creating a more distinctive divide between content. These changes have not been applied retroactively yet. With this I've also shifted stuff around on the main page, hopefully making things look a little less messy.