[Kurona]

Well... we sure do have SO-DO news tonight. SO-DO mainline is releasing a new Premium Bandai set for the first time since I believe Build -- principally this is a set of the three new forms featured in Revice Forward, but it also packs in every single Demons, Jeanne, Aguilera and Destream weapon not yet released in the line (plus Evil's damaged head and improved Evilblades). A whopping 8690 Yen, releases in August with pre-orders starting tonight

[AkibaSilver]

I guess it's good these are getting released in some form - I'd hazard it's the weapons that are probably relegating this to PB? Or maybe older post-show forms just didn't sell great.

[Kurona]

I can definitely tell you it's very easy to get Lone Wolf or Justice Serval for like 400 yen on Manda; only stuff that goes cheaper than that is like the 3 evil book guy monsters from Saber. I guess not directly indicative of sales but it wouldn't be surprising at all -- especially since, uh, these V-Cins are aimed at adult fans that aren't necessarily the target audience of SO-DO. Kids don't know what a Grease Perfect Kingdom is! ... in theory, probably!

I'll admit I'm kinda mad about this. I've gone on before about how it goes against the point of candy toy lines for me when they're expensive premium bandai sets rather than cheap stuff you can pick up for pocket money; but I would kinda understand if it was just the 3 V-Cin forms... rather than wrapping all the remaining weapons into it. Even if it was the weapons as their own Preban package for like 3000 yen, sure; but now I've gotta pay close to 9000 yen if I want Jeanne to have her scythe??? I'm maybe just slightly bitter

[AkibaSilver]

Yeah, that does suck. It also feels like this is unusually expensive, even for SO-DO? Like, I remember picking up the Grease/Rogue PB set off Manda pretty soon after it released for about 4000 Yen, which felt a little much, but both of them had real nice stickers, and then big wings for both Rogue and Mad Rogue and a plethora of extra Build Drivers with hazard triggers and magma knuckles and whatnot. This is, like, double that for one extra figure and more weapons, which I guess are nice but don't seem to add up. It's a shame, and I think it's alright to vent a little that you either pay it or always have that completionist itch of "She'd look real good with the scythe". Best bet is finding someone who's really into Live/Evil/Demons and doesn't care about the weapons, but those sound like slim odds.

EDIT - I went looking for SO-DO Prices because that's appaently better than sleeping, and my favourite is the entire King of Arthur robo, all four boxes, for 500 yen: https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/...0Rider&lang=en. He's so popular! There's also either of the two Saikou arm/leg forms for a whopping 200 Yen! (https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/...0Rider&lang=en / https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/...0Rider&lang=en)

[Tokumonkey]

Wow. The last So-Do Geats article was in December, and we're nearly halfway through February. I know the next wave is getting delayed, but that seems like a pretty significant gap. I'm not sure what, if anything, to make of it.

[Kurona]

I think it's just down to the delays. Pretty much the entirety of the lack of SO-DO news has occurred either during ID5 being delayed or just before that, where they probably had some idea it was going to be delayed. Also add to that that they probably had news for all three of SHODO, SHODO-O and SO-DO CHRONICLE which have probably come across the same production issues, and suddenly there's a complete drought of things to talk about in what would otherwise be a pretty packed slate

[Blade Raider]

I have many thought on this. I'm disappointed because mainline SO-DO, the one that's ages 3+, has not had a PB set since Zi-O and that was great. That said, I don't want these figures and I'm a little glad they won't be taking up space in Geats. However, the accessories are mostly things I've been waiting well over a year for them to make and that sucks. My Demons will never be complete now. I do hope someone that buys this set scans the stickers so that others can print their own stickers for the four weapon molds that are more readily available. It suck all around, regardless.

Then there's the price, let's see how much it increased vs other PB sets. Note that I'll be using the before tax prices because that's what I can find on the blog and the important part is the price difference. I think there's enough accessories here to equate this set to the SO-DO Chronicle 4 packs. I'm going to use the 4 pack with Birth X in it because that's the newest and highest priced 4 pack I could find. It's original price (before tax) was 6200 yen, which was 500 yen more than the Gaim 4 packs. This Revice set is 7900 yen (again, before tax). The difference in price is 1700 yen. While not the worst increase, it is a bit of a jump. The last jump before this was 500 yen. This is over 3 times the increase in price than last time. I'm sure this is rooted in the recent weakness of the yen, but I think there might be a little more to it.

Okay, theory time. I stress that this is a theory based on the information of the last few months. I think this Revice PB set was suppose to be half of a Geats wave. I think that the major delay of ID5 has made them push any future Revice figures that were planned for retail into PB so that Geats can lose a wave. The price of this PB set might be in part because they budgeted these figures for retail and transferring them to PB where they will sell less increased the price more than normal (or it's all form the weak yen catching up). If these were planned for retail, then they probably aren't done with the PB Revice sets yet. SO-DO still has not made Igarashi (the sibling fusion Rider), Chimera, or Get Over Demons. I could see them being a second set.

[Kurona]

There's also Revi and Vice's DGP forms, though I definitely assume those will be just helmet parts (and belt stickers) rather than full figures of their own now. The major thing to me is Revice Shin from the Final Stage -- they'd been pretty consistent up till now of doing Final Stage stuff, and it'd be a shame if they stopped now.

(Vade, also, but if we're talking about things that are likely to be scrapped...)

[ShiShiLeo]

Finally got around to picking up a bunch of SO-DO Geats releases. Only going to do the main 5 riders I think (Geats, Tycoon, Buffa, Na-Go, JackPunk).

For the non-Geats riders, I will probably just stick to their powered up form. The fever suits are a little too busy for me.

Also found a Dark Aguilera for cheap and hoping to repaint it to her base form. Would like to get a hold of Seeker.

For now I'm just waiting on Geats' bike.

[AgentOrange]

I just got both waves of So-Do Chronicle Faiz in today. Haven't had a chance to crack any open besides Delta but I'm really loving this line. I'm glad I never dipped too far into Figuarts because the Shodo and So-Do lines are much more satisfyingly comprehensive and relatively cheap even with the late tax and P-Bandai exclusives