Wonderfest 2014

I think it has been couple of years already i do limited coverage for Wonderfest which is one of the major event where the companies in hobby industry showing some future release for their products. I always pay attention to Kotobukiya and maybe Megahouse or Bandai and as always lots of stuff to be shown but not the one i look forward to. Shingeki no Kyojin and Nintendo as well as Kancolle products are shown a lot  in the wonderfest.

 
From Kotobukiya section there are couple of new SRW kits from OGs2 but no Masoukishin. It appears Kotobukiya will be going to release AS Belial kit as Laevatein follow up soon which indicate there is a chance that FMP series will be reignited in some way  considering Z3 is coming up which Bandai also even prepare a Metal Build for Laevatein. Muvluv got some new 1/144 kit but for non scale, Takemikazuchi got 1.5 version which probably address the issues of the former version. The upcoming Frame Arms is also being displayed which are 2 knight esque model which indicate that Frame Arms are likely to take different directions than it used to be.

I was expecting Sentinel going to show their new RIOBOT lineup but i guess they plenty already last year. Megahouse is going to release something for Orguss which is likely to be action figure and as for Max Factory, i am quite surprised that they catch up with Dougram lineup quite fast as numerous grunt units models are shown. The notable one is Soltic and Iron Foot which is the MP version of Dougram. Guyver figma is confirmed for this year at long last and Archer from FSN is getting figma though i am not too interested due to the figure size. That's all my coverage for this year's wonderfest and hopefully i will still do the next year.

Max Factory 1/72 Dougram

Well it is abit late for a pre-release thread but there are things i want to talk about this Dougram kit. It has been more than a decade that Dougram got any kit treatment and thanks to Max Factory a new version of the kit is available for the nostalgic fan of the series. The kit will be released on this December with price around 3300 yen. The kit will be 1/72 scale which will be around the same height as HG kit and the proportion is really faithful to original Okawara proportion. Dougram is a prototype Combat Armor developed by anti earth government rebels in Deloyer to spearhead their revolution from oppressive rule of Earth. Dougram proved to be a very powerful Combat Armor as it outperforms most Combat Armor like Soltics and the cannon on its back capable to one shot any Combat Armor. Dougram itself is piloted by Crinn Cashim who is a son of prominent politician of Earth as he decided to fight for Deloyer's cause after seeing the atrocity that Earth done to Deloyer.

This i's what Dougram would roughly look like if the series air in the present and no doubt Randgrith from SRW is a homage to Dougram. As i discussed before, the main appeal of Dougram is not the mecha itself but the political intrigue which is something that you won't see on average mecha anime in 80s and i can guarantee it is comparable to LOGH. The conflict of the Deloyer also kind of remind me what Sirius uprising from LOGH will look like in mecha flavor considering they share same theme. Lastly while i doubt Max Factory will release all combat armor, i think Soltic would be a possible release and a mass produced dougram would be cool to see as well.

Wonderfest 2013 releases

Every year as always Wonderfest bring something surprising for collectors and especially for mecha fans. I am not really following RIOBOT series but from this Wonderfest, Sentinel introduced couple of awesome mecha figures. First is the RIOBOT Blodia from Capcom's mecha fighting series Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness which is piloted by Jin Saotome, the main character of the series. I saw Blodia first in action in Marvel Vs Capcom through Blodia Punch then played Capcom Beat em up called Armored Warrior in which it is one of the playable character and finally the Cyberbots itself which i played on MAME. I wonder if Reptos will get a Riobot eventually since Blodia managed to get it through. While there is a slim chance for me to get Blodia at least i will be getting Cyberbots from PSN.

Apart from Blodia, Riobot Jehuty which was announced a while ago got prototype model which really gorgeous and looks like Anubis soon will be following as well. I am still looking forward to the Riobot Orgun which has been taken a while but still get a better chance to me to get it compared to Blodia.

Usually i don't really care with Max Factory releases on Wonderfest but certainly they caught my attention this time with Figma Guyver and Dougram Plamo. I am actually fan of Guyver which is quite interesting and have been looking for a good physical rendition of Guyver 1 but no luck and Max Factory finally decide to release a figma for it. As for Dougram my wish seems to be granted again in one way as Max Factory decided to create Plamo for Dougram, Soltic and Blockhead in 1/72 scale which would be the same as average 1/144 Gundam kits.

Finally in the Kaiyodo and Kotobukiya section, with popularity of Rathalos Blademaster Kaiyodo decided to expand its Monster Hunter Revoltech lineup with Jinouga/Zinogre Blademaster which seems to come with SnS and other weapon which is quite random since Jinouga had weapons in all weapon tree IIRC.

For the Kotobukiya, it is abit disappointing this time since there are no major release for SRW or Muvluv appeared in the exhibition but at least the 1/144 YF-23 Blackwidow is pretty much confirmed now. HMM is also getting Gojulas which i bet will be as expensive as Iron Kong. This Year's Wonderfest seems to add plenty of stuffs again in my want list which is too tempting.

Fang of the Sun Dougram

- Revised February 2026

For over six months I’ve been marathoning this mecha classic after seeing it highly recommended by fellow /m/an. At first, I had difficulty getting into the series due to the aging animation, and at times I even thought Dougram was about cavemen fighting with robots. But this early work by Ryosuke Takahashi,the creator of VOTOMS turned out to be one of the hidden gems in mecha animation history.

Dougram revolves around a group of youths called Fang of the Sun, who wage guerrilla warfare against the Earth Federation to fight for the independence of the colony planet Deloyer. The main character, Crinn Cashim, is the son of one of Earth’s most powerful men. He breaks away from his father’s influence to become the lead pilot for the resistance.