Compared to previous years, Good Smile Company / Good Mecha Smile is doing things a little differently for this year’s Mecha Smile Impact. Instead of a single big bang reveal of everything in their development pipeline, they opted to split it between the Winter and Summer. This would not only help maintain recall and excitement for their upcoming products, but it would also allow them to compete with other companies doing reveals around this time.
Mecha Smile Impact 2024 Summer was held last June 21 and as expected, they had a whole slew of upcoming items ranging from the mainstream to the more obscure. And I’ll be doing several posts based on some arbitrary category. Let’s start with a couple that would be great alternatives if you’ve been eyeing the RIOBOT versions of these kits.
MODEROID VR-052F Mospeada
Sen-Ti-Nel has been doing Genesis Climber Mospeada figures as part of their RIOBOT line, and they are actually doing reissues of the Ride-Armors this year. I initially had Stick’s Mospeada on pre-order but because of more important financial considerations, I had to cancel. Not only are they expensive, but they are very delicate action figures so an alternative in the form of a transforming model kit would be very viable.
While it is a transforming kit, we’ve yet to determine if it’s a full transformation or it would require replacing parts. I would assume this is going to be developed with the help of the folks from Sen-Ti-Nel based on previous collaborations so there are opportunities to come up with better engineering. This is also likely a non-scale kit but I also hope it will scale well with their MADOX-01 kit.
MODEROID Delphine [2nd/3rd Forms]
Another RIOBOT figure I always wanted to get, but never had the chance, is Delphine from Break Blade or Broken Blade. To those unfamiliar, it is a manga series which was animated into six 50-minute features and it probably has one of the better portrayals of real robots in animation. I’m even inclined to believe IRON-BLOODED ORPHANS was somewhat inspired by Broken Blade with the way combat is presented. And it is definitely helped by the hero machine Delphine.
It was one of the first RIOBOT releases and tracking one now at relatively acceptable prices is a challenge. So Good Smile Company is once again doing a great deed by making the design more accessible. They teased Delphine in both its 2nd and 3rd forms, with the latter equipped with heavy armor panels. I’m inclined to think these will be separate kits as the core body between the two have differences.
MODEROID Orgun
Another kit teased in previous Mecha Smile Impact events is MODEROID Orgun, which is seen here as a gray prototype instead of a CG render. Orgun is another earlier RIOBOT figure that I wasn’t able to get my hands on so it’s great that after several years, we can have the MODEROID version. No release information has been revealed but in case you’re closely watching its development, then here you go.
These reveals are clear examples of “good things come to those who wait” and it is a good thing that no one knows what Good Smile Company has on its sleeves in terms of what they consider to be viable MODEROID releases. More of my unsolicited thoughts from Mecha Smile Impact 2024 Summer are coming your way so stay tuned!
