Tober

That would be nice but I doubt it given that the Regult is an exclusive item, so they can't really mark down a retail price. I wonder how long until we see the heavy, light and scout versions up for order.

The story is a bit vague, but the question was asked again at this year's BotCon where the special guest was Hideaki Yoke. From OTCA.com.au round-up: 'He also talked about the Origin of the Optimus Prime/Convoy toy. It was intended as the leader of the Diaclone series, so had to be something special, but the first designer appointed to the task, didn't finish it due to his obsession with Sports Cars. A team was then put together to finish the design, which means the classic, iconic toy can't be creditted to just one person.' He also commented about it at the 2005 BotCon. From transformers.wikia.com: 'At BotCon 2005, Hideaki Yoke revealed that Optimus Prime (or more accurately, Diaclone Battle Convoy) was not designed by a single person, but rather a team of Takara designers as the one who was originally assigned the job had fallen behind. It is said that a young Shoji Kawamori was also a member of this team at some point, who would design THS-02 Convoy over 20 years later. The patent for the toy, however, lists Hiroyuki Obara as the designer.'

Got a reply this morning from HLJ: I'm definately aiming for it!

I pre-ordered and emailed them asking for clarification as to weather it's assembled or not. I previously inquired weather they intended to stock it but they weren't sure back then. Will let you know their reply.

Many thanks!

First we need to know when we can get it. If there is a second batch being offered does anyone know when it will be available? At least that way we could be prepared for it.

This place has it. Amazon Japan has it too. HLJ have it on backorder.

Anime Export have started processing orders.

DAMN! My friend tried on the 17th... Hope they do a second batch. It would make sense. Thanks for the info tho.

Word I just got from my usual supplier is that it is now sold out - has been since last week. I don't remember it being mentioned that there is a pre-order limit. Can anyone confirm this or know if there will be a second opportunity to place an order?

1/48 VF-1S Hikaru Strike.

Rodimus is looking great! Gimmicks that are relevent. No, they invoice you when it's ready to ship.

If you took the photos HG were using then you own them, regardless of weather it's their product or not. If you can prove this claim you could really kick their asses for copyright infringement. Poetic justice really. Well if you do feel like trolling then the website tineye is a reasonably robust reverse search engine for pictures. It's not perfect and still in beta but I've had some good results come from it.

22% is for the Japan site, 17% for English.

All the parts are sorta laid out in order in that pic - feet down the bottom, legs in the lower middle/side, boosters at the top sides of the cockpit in the middle.

Anime Export are a safe store to order from. You should note their shipping policies tho. Japan post is privatised tho, so they tend to be more expensive than Hong Kong stores. Robot Kingdom are the favorite as far as the Aussie TF community goes. They have it listed at US$160 which works out to US$207.23 to the USA by registered Air Mail. So basically, yeah. You can expect to pay around the $200 mark regardless of where you order from.

Anime Export have the cheapest price I've seen so far at 11760Yen/$139.17USD plus shipping from Japan.

My favorite design is the Lambda Shuttle from RotJ The Snowspeeder is my favorite fighter design. I also liked the Black Boa and Copperhead from Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

Yeah, sorta: Wave 1 Wave 2 Wave 3 Wave 4

I would certainly buy a set. I already have a spare set of Mospeadas for customising. $200 for a conversion kit is small change compared to scanning, modelling and printing the parts myself through CAD systems.

I'm up for a set. Nice work too. Are you planning to do conversion kits for the Blowsperior and Bartley at all?

I'm interested in a few sets.

What theory is that? I noticed Robot Kingdom has a pre-order for $160.

MP Rodimus Prime prototype pics.

A 1/24 Griffon would be awesome.