Was doing the rounds of Japanese based online hobby shops and I saw that some of them had the 1/60 DX VF-171EX Nightmare Plus (Alto Saotome ver) up for pre-order already. Bandai really shocked us with the announcement earlier this week that they were releasing a DX Chogokin of the much coveted VF-171EX Nightmare Plus of Alto Saotome from the Macross Frontier anime series.
. According to the literature found at the Tamashii page on this, the VF-171EX Nightmare Plus EX will stand about 300 mm in Battroid mode. It will be made out of ABS plastic and some diecast metal. This toy will come with 3 sets of spare hands, a gunpod, an Alto Saotome figure and a stand.
Amiami has it up for pre-order at 10290 yen, HobbyLink Japan has it up for pre-order at 12880 yen, Hobby Search has it on pre-order for 11,900 yen. Product release will be on June of this year.
Before the announcement of the release of the VF-171EX Nightmare Plus by Bandai, I remember musing as to how possible it would be to modify the recently released 1/60 VF-17D Nightmare by Yamato Toys into a VF-171EX? Guess that wouldn't be needed anymore.
Its sad however that Bandai didn't decide to bundle the DX VF-171EX already with its armor packs, as the VF-171EX can usually seen with it on in the anime series. Hope they don't make it a Japan web exclusive. Oh well, we'll always have shapeways *snicker*
To paraphrase the immortal words of Jerry Maguire : "Help us, Help You Bandai!"
