[Tokumonkey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by barnstenchfartface

I guess all those Drive exclusives must be selling like crazy if we're getting V-Cinema forms this early now. Though I suppose the fact that it's a retool also plays a part.

I suspect it's a large part. Gol(r)d Drive was a retail release, which was a bit of a stunner, but it was so easy for them to re-do: Type Speed head, Proto-Drive torso, adjust the paint, and leave out the shift car: done. Bandai has gotten a lot of use out of the Type Speed, Mach, and Chaser (Mashin and Rider) molds. There's just not that much tooling necessary for a lot of these given that the show and its spin-offs kept remixing existing body parts in different configurations. I also think this is one of the reasons Gaim releases dried up: why would Bandai risk significant amounts of new tooling costs when they can produce Riders that mostly reuse existing parts?