New Polyresin Jun figure available

There's a brand new polyresin figure statue of Jun coming out! A company named R.A.W.S. ("Real Art Work Series") is producing the Jun figures as a limited edition of 300. The 28cm x 9.7cm x 9.7cm figure is mounted on top of a base designed to look like Jun's yoyo, and the base bears a serial number. It retails for 14,800 yen
(15,540 yen, after taxes), roughly US $137.00.

The Jun figurine is scheduled for release in late November/ early December, but you can preorder. If you don't know of a good Japanese hobby store, try CD Japan (http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/goods/goods_detail.html?KEY=NEOGDS-1224#) and Hobbylink Japan (http://www.hlj.com/product/HAP80337). I have dealt with Hobbylink Japan and a good friend can vouch for good service from CD Japan. He also mentioned that CD Japan has a preorder deadline of September 25th—better order soon!

Gatchaman Teaser at Cinema Blend

If you have had difficulty accessing Imagi's site, you can now view the Gatchaman trailer here:

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/First-Look-At-Gatchaman-10084.html

Quick Gatchaman teaser at Imagi's site

Imagi has put up a very brief teaser video featuring a little action with Joe's car and our first view of the Godphoenix. The Imagi site also has a collection of still shots from the video, some of which you may have seen on Felix Ip's blog here and here. Check 'em out.

Imagi's site: link

Cosplay at Comic Con

Unfortunately, I had to leave San Diego early and miss the Masquerade, and there was a Gatchaman entry this year:

Phil Foglio does a nice introduction:


Here's a longer video of the contestant. The music is Animetal's rendition of the Gatchaman theme.


And here's an earlier contestant from 1998's Comic Con, this time in the OAV version of the costume. The music here is from the American commercial for the OAV.



Thanks, Tatsunokofan!

Imagi Updates

Felix Ip, the Art/Creative Director at Imagi, has some very interesting images posted on his blog. Screenshots 01 features renders that weren't available at the time the trailer was run at Comic Con. Screenshots 02 features images from the trailer. According to the blog, character designs were modified after the trailer.

Gatchaman Screenshots 01

Gatchaman Screenshots 02

Also, from the comments, I would not expect Imagi's Gatchaman film to release until 2010. From the looks of their promotion, Astro Boy is definitely showing first.

IMPORTANT NOTE: There has been a lot of fan feedback on Felix Ip's site, and he appears to be listening. Go express your opinion.

Also on Butterboom.com, here are the newest pics of the logo and the team, taken from an Imagi sell sheet for the Gatchaman licensing company. The logo I saw at Comic Con. The team I didn't.

News from Gatchacon

Gatchacon, the unofficial con-within-the-San Diego Comic Con, is under way. This year's t-shirts feature a schematic of Battle of the Planets robot narrator 7-Zark-7 and the slogan, "He Thinks So You Don't Have To." Finally we get to see where his FOSDIC is.

Imagi has a booth at the con this year, and their major push is the movie, "Astro Boy" (to the tune of Linkin Park's "Somewhere I Belong") along with an ad for an older project, "Cat Town," and the demo reel from Gatchaman. In the Gatchaman reel, we see glimpses of Jun and a little bit of Ken in uniform plus a flash of the G-1, but the focus is on Joe in his civilan car stealing a suitcase of cash(?) from some thugs and evading some seriously scary gunfire. He looks good, and the demo is impressive... But this is an old demo before Imagi changed their ideas and their staff.

I have heard some of the ideas being bounced around for the latest version of the movie, and to be honest, although these ideas have supposedly been scrapped as well, I'm not encouraged. Something about how Gatchaman was an ancient legend worshipped since the day of the samurai... Bleh. That's been done to death in other films. As it stands now, according to current press releases about Imagi, the movie has been pushed back to 2009, and that interferes with Tatsunoko's Japan release of the live action Gatchaman movie. Things aren't looking good for this film, and I dearly hope I am wrong about this.

Capcom vs. Tatsunoko: Fight!

Imagine Ken Washio battling Street Fighter's Ken.

According to Brian Ashcraft's post at the Kotaku blog, Famitsu Magazine has announced that Capcom is putting together Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes, a fighting game featuring its characters pitted in tag battles against Tatsunoko's best heroes... the Gatchaman among them. Other characters slated for inclusion are Ryu (Street Fighter's, not Gatchaman's), Chun-Li, and Casshern.

EDIT: Check out the screen shots from the game at Famitsu.com: Link