The HMM-060 Fire Fox MPV has gotten a LABO Article. The previous version was released as a limited distribution product. Since this a standard release, no longer limited, its designation number has changed.

 In addition, we've got some reissues! The Gun Sniper WW, Zoids Customize Part Dual Sniper Rifle & AZ 5 Launch Missile System Set, and König Wolf are all up for rerelease in November! This is quite a lineup, and I know some people out there lost their pre-orders due to issues with distributors falling through. So, hopefully this upcoming pre-order window provides some peace of mind on being able to obtain this Zoid. The best Zoid. No bias.

 We have three new lore updates for the HMM series! The Liger Zero Schneider, Psycho Geno Saurer, and Shadow Fox. Shadow Fox has the same lore (mostly) as the Fire Fox (which is the same but has a couple extra sentences.) As such, it does not depict the sketch pages at the moment. You can view the lore by visiting their model kit pages.

 So, yesterday morning Kotobukiya held a livestream to introduce the upcoming HMM Guysack. The video is worth a watch because man, the articulation that they managed to squeeze into this tiny little bug is impressive. All of their recent kits have been, really. Aside from that, though, there was a lot of interesting discussion going on during the stream. This is all relying on machine translations, so please take with a huge grain of salt.

 Exhibition!
 Kotobukiya will be holding an exhibition in Japan on February 12th, starting at 1pm. Here, they're showing off displays and all of the recent HMM artwork in beautiful quality. This comes one day after Wonder Festival.

 Upcoming Releases!
 They've announced that the next two kit rereleases will be the Lightning Saix MPV and the Berserk Furher Repackage! As someone who hasn't picked up the standard Saix yet, this is tempting.

 New Releases!
 Aside from that, Kotobukiya announced its intention to release the RMZ-012 Guysack, the original OJR! This is a nice surprise, as the OJR color schemes have always had a classic funkiness to them. Pre-orders are expected to open in July as a Kotobukiya Shop Exclusive with its final release planned sometime in Spring 2025. This kit will include clear colorless parts in addition to the orange pieces. If you want the red canopy pieces you'll need to pick up the upcoming Guysack (the first release) being released in July of this year. It's currently expected to be the same price.

 Updates!
 The Salamander they hope to release sometime around or after Summer of next year. It's about the height of an Iron Kong, but has a huge wingspan.

 Fun Facts!
 Apparently when they chose Guysack, they were choosing between it and Helcat, the top voted small Zoids.
 Death Saurer scored the highest in the end-of-year survey this year! The hype surrounding the AZ is real.
 Apparently Redler and Raynos have roughly tied in votes over the years

 

Economic Decisions For Small Zoids?

 Kotobukiya took a few minutes of the stream to discuss the current economical climate of producing these kits. This weighs in especially hard with small kits like the Guysack. Small kits are harder to produce because the profit is quite small compared to something like a Liger kit. They still have to pay for brand new molds, which are quite expensive, but the kits sell for much less. This leaves Kotobukiya often asking themselves about the feasibility of continuing to release small Zoids. Like the Rev Raptor, they are calling for people to order the Guysack to help them determine if it is a worthwhile endeavor.

 This conversation got pretty in depth. They mentioned that a major factor of current Zoid prices is that the average wage where the kits are produced has doubled in the past 10 years. The kits have been struggling to maintain their current production cost, and are finally reaching the point of inching upwards in price. We've seen this in kits like the Red Horn (6800 yen, tax not included) to the Red Horn MPV (9,240 yen, tax included) and Fire Fox (4800 yen) to MPV (6000 yen ish.) They threw out some calculations of what kits would cost to produce today. While some are reasonable (Command Wolf Repackage from 4800 > 6800 yen) others were surprising. Dark Horn, originally 6800, was estimated at 18000 yen if they had to start from scratch.

 To Molga or to Molgas?
 This line of questioning brought up an interesting question. In the past, Kotobukiya released Molgas in a two pack, with different variations. These Zoids are small, they should be cheap, theoretically, but with production costs climbing, staff asked what people thought of releasing them in a different way. They estimated that the cost of producing the Molga & Molga Canory (formerly 4200 yen) would be around 6800 yen now without tax, so if it were released again, it would be released as an MPV at the new price.

 This brought up the question of what people would think if the MPV were released as a single Molga (not a two set) with the weapons of all three variations included, like the Command Wolf Repackage? The full set would contain the Canory Unit, Anti-Air weapons, and Carrier equipment, and would shake out to roughly 6000 yen. There's still a lot of support for releasing the two Molga sets, even at the increased price, and Kotobukiya was clear that this didn't mean they wouldn't release the two-packs anymore. However, there are still many '1 Molga' releases we could have. Rokurou, what with the other web comic Zoids released over recent years, and the NJR color scheme to name a couple.

 It was an interesting stream, with interesting questions and insights. These dilemmas are also why we haven't gotten Gilraptor yet, which was estimated to cost 20,000 yen to produce in the current climate. I look forward to seeing where Kotobukiya goes, and I hope they can continue to attract good sales through these difficult times.

- Guysack Stream

 Pre-orders for the HMM Guysack are now live! The kit is scheduled for release in July for 5,940 Yen. It's nice having these small kits, and Kotobukiya is urging people to pre-order, so that the company knows these small kits are worth producing.

 A LABO Article has been posted going over the Guysack. For the first time ever, Kotobukiya is testing the waters for a photography backdrop as the Kotobukiya Direct bonus! They released a photo setup product a while back for a premium price, and it's interesting seeing these make their way into the kits as bonus items. The background will feature a desert theme. It's A2 size and measures 297 mm x 420 mm wide, which is large enough for Liger-sized Zoids.

 In the LABO article linked above we also got our first look at the box art for the Redler BC! This one really snuck up on me. It's scheduled to be released this month for 8,030 yen (tax included.) The box art features the Second Full-Scale Battle, in which the Empire attacked Rob Base during a terrible storm. This battle made use of the Redler BC, which were the first Imperial Zoids to fight their way through the Republic's front lines.

 Kotobukiya has posted a LABO article showing off the painted sample of the HMM Guysack! It'll be on display at the Kotobukiya Collection 2024 in their Akihabara store and pre-orders are expected to open on February 8th. The blog shows off the two types, Standard and Heavy Armor, as the kit includes parts for both. The two cockpit types, though similar to the other whitehead Zoids released by Kotobuykiya in the past, are actually new molds with the side pipes lifted up and the overall design brought up to modern standards. This decision was made because it'd have actually been more expensive to use the Godos parts.

 Last but not least, Kotobukiya will be holding a livestream introducing this painted Guysack on February 9th. Subscribe to their Youtube channel to be notified when the stream becomes available.

 The company also posted a reminder that the sequel Art of HMM book is to be released on the 7th.

 In an exciting turn of events the HMM Fire Fox is up for rerelease in the form of a Marking Plus kit! It'll be rereleased in March for 6,820 yen. The Fire Fox was released back in April of 2013, so its rerelease has been a decade-long wait for many members of the franchise.

 Starting on December 15th, Kotobukiya began giving away HMM Zoids Package Art Special Desk Calendars with every purchase of an HMM Zoid from their store front. This campaign is until supplies last, so I'm not sure if it's still ongoing.

 The HMM Green Horn has gotten its LABO Article, which features example sketches of early box concepts and a look at the decals. It isn't the only one, though. There's a blog for the Red Horn MPV released on January 18th. It covers the differences, such as the inclusion of the round parts from the Green Horn / Dark Horn, the inclusion of clear colorless parts, and the transition from stickers to water slide decals. This blog also gives some insight to development, such as their move away from decal guides to prevent the kit from needing to be delayed further simply to make these charts, and how they strive to make decal sizes match those of old Tomy Zoids, making them cross compatible with the old motorized kits wherever possible. Supposedly, the next blog will introduce their latest completely new item.

 Last but not least, the HMM Death Stinger is up for rerelease in May for 16,280 yen (tax included) and Pteras Bomber in June for 5,280!

 Kotobukiya's Art of HMM Plus, a sequel to their Art of HMM book is scheduled to be released in February for 2,970 Yen! This book will include art from about 20 kits not featured in the previous book, will include most of the instruction manual information, and more. It's listed on some sites as 168 pages. The latest post contains a video showing off a flip through this book with its incredible full color images.

 Those who order from Kotobukiya Direct will receive a special cover which features the HMM Geno Breaker Repackage boxart. Please be warned, however, that a similar promotion was run for the previous book, and Kotobukiya was shipping these covers in a ridiculously long box with the book and cover lined up side by side, and cling wrapped to a cardboard backing. This meant that shipping was way more expensive than it needed to be (6000+ yen). We are unsure if this practice is still in play.

 As many of you already know, the HMM Green Horn is set to release at the end of the month, and one of Koto's stores has posted some new images of what the kit looks like out of the box! The look of the attack boosters fanned out looks quite dynamic, even for a Red Horn variant.

 HMMZ_Art, the account associated with Kotobukiya's Art of HMM art book, has announced that there will be a sequel to this amazing collection of Zoids art and lore! We don't know many details yet, but updates will continue to be posted on the account.

 Kotobukiya recently attended the 61st All Japan Hobby Show, where they showed off our first look at the HMM Salamander! The art was displayed in an intended life-size scale next to the HMM Gojulas, with staff estimating it to be around Iron Kong size. Zoikino was awesome enough to post a more in-depth look at this event, so please check them out.

 The HMM Redler Booster Cannon is officially up for pre-order! This adorable little dragon is scheduled to release in February of 2024, for 8,030 yen. As we learned earlier, it'll also come with the clear colorless parts needed to paint them special colors!

 The HMM Konig Wolf released over the last couple of months, sporting some of the best articulation we've seen in years among traditional Zoids! Hobby Japan published an article looking at this amazing kit I'm not biased you're biased. Kotobukiya Akihabara store has a display featuring the default wolf and the Heavy Arms version, and also posted a Heavy Arms photo shoot. A LABO article shows off even more photos.

 The HMM Geno Saurer was also announced to be rereleased in February 2024.

 Last night Kotobukiya hosted a live stream where they built an HMM König Wolf. A straight build, with no trimming of parts, was accomplished in just two and a half hours! We're seeing a big simplification of parts in newer Kotobukiya designs. Different people have different views on this, but personally, I love this. I haven't had the time to build HMMs in a long, long while. The idea of being able to build the HMM Wuf in a day, without having to spend literally all day doing it, is so exciting. This will also be a blessing for customs.

- Build Stream

 Kotobukiya posted a new LABO article that finally introduces the unpainted samples for the Redler Guylos Ver. This includes box art, waterslide images and applied examples, box art concept sketch, and more. In this blog we also got to see a beautiful clear view of the upcoming Redler BC. Many people wondered why the Redler didn't already come with clear colorless parts, and Koto has answered this question: Prices have been on the rise due to manufacturing demands and limitations, and including these parts would've made the Redler even more expensive. The upcoming Redler BC, which'll be a Koto Direct exclusive, will contain these clear colorless parts, as well as be packaged with the Booster Cannon set. The decals will be the same as the Redler Guylos Ver. + Booster Cannon CP.

 The blog also introduces the first online (official) look at the HMM König Wolf box art. We saw pictures of this on Twitter when it was shown at the physical Stand River venue, but this is our clearest look thus far! Wolf is right around the corner, releasing around July 29th.

 During the stream, Kotobukiya announced the upcoming Red Horn Marking Plus! This was an interesting choice, because Red Horn was released as recently as 2020 with a box art and design that have both stood well against the test of time. It seems that the Marking Plus will also be including a brand new sprue, which'll contain the Search Light parts for the head seen in Dark Horn variants. Normally these are part of a much larger sprue, but Koto decided to make a tiny 4-part sprue just for these to better match Katahira's gorgeous concept art (seen in the banner above.) This is a lovely shout out to one of their contributing artists.

 There's a number of other kit rereleases that've been announced through various sources over the past while. Here's what we've got coming up!

 October: HMM Sturm Tyrann (13,500 yen)
 November: HMM Buster Tortoise (4,800 yen)
 December: HMM Saber Tiger Marking Plus Ver. (7,200 yen)
 Firm Release Not Decided: HMM Gojulas Marking Plus Ver.

 The various Kotobukiya twitters have been posting this set of photos showing off what the HMM König Wolf is going to look like out of the box! With white-armor Zoids you're always battling a negation of details as armor lines disappear against the stark white armor, but the extra darker divits in the wolf armor goes a long way to break it up compared to its Tomy brethren.

 When Stand River was hosted I was, unfortunately, rather busy handling things offline. There were a few new kits announced though, and the first one we'll be mentioning is the HMM Guysack!

 This kit was announced to have a Normal version and a Heavy Armor version. Many of us grew up with the Zoids anime series, so to us, the most recognizable Guysack is the Heavy Armor version, which will feature additional tail armaments including additional weapons, radar, and a gun seat, as well as featuring an angular cockpit and tanks on the sides of the body. This will likely reuse the same whitehead style cockpits already established in the Godos variants. The Normal Type featured in the battlestory used the more rounded cockpit, simpler tail equipment, and what looks to be an additional cylinder/gun/missile on the sides.

 While fans of the series had many ideas about what might be announced or revealed at Stand River, nobody was expecting this one! Kotobukiya announced its intentions of making and HMM Salamander, an absolute monster of a flying-type Zoid with a huge wingspan. Though we don't have any pictures of this kit or its overall design yet, the Salamander is already packed with details, so we're looking forward to seeing what liberties they take with its design. Hopefully it has better luck than the MSS Salamander!

 Kotobukiya has announced an upcoming HMM Redler BC, which will be packaged with the Booster Cannon CP! When the HMM Redler variants released, a lot of people turned a curious glance to the lack of clear colorless parts, which have become a standard of most Kotobukiya releases. Well, now we know why! This combined variant will include the clear colorless parts people have been hoping for. This kit will be a Kotobukiya Shop exclusive.