| APAGear II Archives | Volume 1, Number 11 | November, 1999 |
Hi there, folks! Welcome to APAGear II, Volume 1, Number 11.
This month, the big news is of course the announcement that Sony Pictures Family Entertainment has licensed Heavy Gear from Dream Pod 9 for production as an animated series! (Read the press release!) For some of us, the bigger news is one of the steps Sony took: They've lined up Bandai America, Inc. to do the merchandising. That means loads of Heavy Gear stuff that Dream Pod 9 could never afford to create, produce, and market on their own.
(Archivist's Note: I dropped the press release because the Heavy Gear cartoon has been out on DVD for a while now. It should be available online or at your local media outlet if you're interested. - Banzai)
|
|
My four Aestivalis models, unpainted. From left to right, it's the ground combat frame, the aerial frame, the Akatuki custom frame, and the zero-gee frame. |
Having recently assembled a Shinohara Heavy Industries AV-98 Ingram and AV-X-0 (from Mobile Police Patlabor) as well as the ground combat frame, aerial frame, zero-gee frame, and Akatuki custom frame Aestivalises (from Martian Successor / Mobile Battleship / Meteor Schlachtschiff Nadesico), all snap-together robot kits from Bandai, I'm quite thrilled with the idea of getting a bunch of scale Gear models...
...Especially after seeing how Bandai packages their kits! The four variants of the Aestivalis each came with the same basic two sprues that comprise their leg and arm actuation as well as their torsos. It was a third and fourth sprue that had the different styles of armor. Imagine the same thing for, say, a half dozen different Hunter models: Two or maybe even three sprues all the same for each kit, with another sprue of parts that make it unique. They could even go the route they took with the Patlabors: For the AV-98, they have one kit that has two different heads and two different sets of shoulder armor, which is probably more like the variants on the Hunters. (They have some other AV-98 kits that include even more variations, actually.)
So any way, I'm excited that DP9 finally gets a big break -- probably it's a very seriously big break! I'm also terribly excited that Bandai might possibly make model kits. (Don't quote me on that, by the way. It's entirely speculation here, folks, and not actual information!)
Of course, it would be too bad that Fusion would have to give up their line of resin Heavy Gear models, but judging from some comments made on the Heavy Gear mailing list, it sounds like they don't mind too much. They'll still have the Jovian Chronicles models as well as the Heavy Gear miniatures, after all!
That's all I have to say this month. See you in about 4 weeks!
Your Vaguely Humble Servant,
Christian Schaller
APAGear II Distribution Manager
This month's Keener goes to Janne Kemppi. Jason English is the runner up.
| APAGear II Archives | Volume 1, Number 11 | November, 1999 |
Heavy Gear is © 1999, Dream Pod 9, Inc. All rights reserved. APAGear is not affiliated with Dream Pod 9 in any way. Submitted material remains the property of the creator.