On Augest 5 Bandai held a anouncment session for their newest line of robot toys that will be called “Robot Damashi” (Robot Spirit).  To be released as part of the Tamashi Nation brand it is aiming to be the next standard in collectable toys.  The reason they chose to use robot in the name and not something like Mobile Suit is that not only will it cover Gundam it will cover many other robot and mecha from other series such as Code Geass, Eureka Seven and Macross Frontier.   

Before we start there are various rumors about the Bandai main headquaters that are always out there.  I can personally confim at least one but more on that later. First let us take a look at what it looks like from the outside.   

Yes this is what the headquarters of one of the largets toy companys in the world looks like.  As you can see from the photos it was raining so some of the character are wearing their very own raincoat that was tailor made to fit them.  They don’t wear their raincoats when it’s not raining of course which means that there’s someone in the building who’s in charge of putting them on whenever it starts raining.

Ok the rumor about the Bandai headquarters that I was talking about earlier is that the elevaters there talk using the voices of various anime characters.  I didn’t believe it too but now I can personally confirm this rumor.  The elevater I used was the Amuro Ray elevater and while it wasn’t that loud you could tell it was Amuro telling you that you were on the third floor!!

Ok  Here how the session went. We were in the third row right behind the press so we had a pretty good view of everything. They showed a short movie before the President of Bandai Kazunori Ueno , a postion that is  called CGO (Chief Gundam Officer), made the announcement of the name of the new line. The curtains come and out comes the Robot Damasi Logo with a large picture of the Gundam that will be the first product to be released in the middle!! 

What is the concept for Robot Damashi?  Here’s the movie they showed about it.  It shoul combine the good parts of plastic models with new methods of manufacturing that are used in there to Chogokin Damasi series to make a collectable figure that will look much closer to the original mold.  They are calling it a combination of Hybrid Modeling and Hybrid Materials. 

Next the two mecha designers Ebikawa and Yanase who did the mecha designs for the new Gundams from the soon to air “Gundam OO Second Series” were introduced and their new designs were shown on the screen.

 The next speaker was Harutoshi Fukui the best selling author of the “Gundam Unicorn” novel series as well a such novels as “Lorelei The Witch of the Pacific Ocean”.  A well knowned Gundam freak he talked about the new toy line and the possibility it had to change the market.

Next was the detailed marketing plan for the new line.  I won’t post most of them but a photo that may be of interest is the second one that features the release schedule for the new line.   The design for the package can also be seen in the third photo.  

Following a speach by the president the sesion was over and everyone there rushed to the table in the back to check out the new toys and take pictures of them. 

First there were a few tables that explained the history of Bandai robot toys.   The tables explaining about Robot Damashi was next.  There was also a example of how the Robot Damashi series would look when it was placed in a store.

Finally we get to the toys.

First as this is Bandai the Gundam stuff will be up  first.  All four of the new Gundam OO mecha’s were shown of course but to show it won’t be just about the new stuff Turn X a mecha from “Turn A Gundam” series was also on display.

Next will be the Code Geass  mecha toys.

Last was the Macross Frontier and Eureka Seven items.  A uncolored sample of the VF-25 Messiah was on display.

 The retail price for the items have yet to be announced but as they as collectable toys they shouldn’t be too expensive I would believe.