^{Though I've heard conflicting reports regards their veracity.}

^{Still...do want.}

UPDATE:  OK. After some digging and the rather belated realization that Miyata is an anagram of Tamiya (thanks to Rick in the comments)  I've determined that a company called  Platz,  IS releasing some Girls und Panzer kits.

However, this epic "box art" is unofficial and produced by a PixiV artist who goes by the handle of sdkfz221.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:33 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 That is some gorgeous artwork - thank you for posting it!.

These look like well-made parodies though (I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, that they're not pirate-kit boxart from certain places that shall go nameless).  The kitmaker is Tamiya, not Miyata, and the stars are flipped upside-down compared to the real company.

The good news is that there are GuP tank kits out there... if an $80 model kit appeals.

Posted by: Rick at Mon Apr 22 22:03:53 2013 (e3hYu)

2

They placed the crew members correctly in the Panzer IV, but they blew it for the Lee.

Aya, the meganekko with twintails, is the 37mm gunner but they've put her in the sponson, not in the turret. (Aaaand, another catgirl bites the dust)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Tue Apr 23 15:25:49 2013 (+rSRq)

3  I'm pretty sure that the 75mm gunner is normally at the other end of her gun. (I don't think they're actually at battle stations.) With a six person crew I'll cut the artist some slack

Also:


^{"For your cruel indifference to our well being...you must face the ChenSaw!"}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Apr 23 16:16:25 2013 (F7DdT)

4 The one sitting on the 75 is the driver, Karina.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Tue Apr 23 16:51:49 2013 (+rSRq)

5 FWIW, Tamiya has had their own kawaiiko mascot for decades now.  Back in the 1980's, they would run full-page ads in RC car magazines, with their spokesman spokesgirl Moko-chan and her bunny rabbit sidekick giving "lectures" about how to get the most from your radio-controlled model car, and how to upgrade with all the latest Tamiya gizmos.  You could even get limited-edition decal sets of her to decorate your RC car.

Posted by: Peter the Not-so-Great at Tue Apr 23 19:01:26 2013 (ElBzz)

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While perusing the comments at Chisumatic, I recently discovered that this internet thing is even more awesome than I was previously aware.

You see, Pete Zaitcev and others have compiled a surprisingly comprehensive meganekko database.

^{Image not in the database}

How did I miss this?
Oh well. This is why it's important to scroll through Steven's comments.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:26 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Via Crunchyroll and Anime News Network comes word that XEBEC has announced that Yamato 2199 is about to be aggressively marketed internationally.


The title of the international version will be Starblazers 2199.

Oh Fabrijous DAY!

This is interesting as Star Blazers was the release name of the show in the US and Canada. Several of the name changes in the US version like renaming the ship itself ARGO were actually done by the Japanese creators. I 've gushed excessively about the old show and the remake several times before but it really is good.

Yamato 2199 has managed to remain quite faithful to the original while adding quite a few surprises for those familiar with the show. 

 The premise of the show is straightforward enough.

Earth discovers that it is not alone in the universe...8 years later the aggressive interstellar empire Earth encountered has brought humanity to the brink of extinction. The planets surface is rendered uninhabitable by a combination of constant bombardment, radiation and invasive alien plants that have absorbed most of the oceans...and still the aliens attack. At this dark hour, the earth is contacted by another alien race which offers them a device that can restore their planet. Unfortunately, it won't fit on the blockade runner and apparently can't be made from local materials, so instead the aliens sent plans for an FTL drive so the humans can come get the physical device. The humans install the FTL in the hull of a sublight starship ship they were constructing to carry a few survivors off planet. To conceal it's construction, the ship was being built within and below the hulk of the old battleship Yamato which accounts for it's appearance. Now, this jury rigged ship with an FTL drive that the crew barely understands must break through the blockade of the solar system, travel 168,000 light years to the greater Magellanic cloud...and back,...and do it in a year if they are to have any hope of saving Earth....and the aliens will fight them every step of the way.




With such a large cast and sweeping story it might seem unlikely that the show would have much character development, but the writers really have managed the ensemble well thus far.  In contrast to the single female crew member in the old show, several women have been added to or re-imagined into the old cast.  This has actually added a good deal of depth as they are, for the most part interesting and well written. Yamamoto, for instance is one of the best realized female military officers since Van Dread's Meia Gisbourne from over a decade ago. Several of the enemy characters are quite interesting as well.

  While it is not hard sci-fi by any means, the show also throws a good deal of actual science into several stories.  The exact physics of their FTL is handwaved (by the fact that the crew really doesn't understand how it works), they work in bits of recent astronomy news and make a real effort to keep their non-FTL techno-babble grounded in actual physics, biology and IT speak.

Despite it's bleak premise, '2199 thus far, has managed to be remarkably optimistic and even inspiring. It has been quite intelligent as well, much more so than most sci-fi TV. Additionally, the show has done a far above average job of conveying a sense of service professionalism and even the ethics of command and leadership.

About halfway in, Yamato 2199 has been superb, I'm crossing my fingers that they don't muck it up in the end.

Assuming they don't, I'm  genuinely looking forward to seeing what the US version is going to be like.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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...that despite the otherwise satisfying ending of the show, we never did get an explanation for this.

So perhaps that is the hook for any Girls und Panzer sequel, the dark truths behind Miho's plushy cabinet.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:48 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 03:08 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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There. That helps.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:45 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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