Supernova Murasame Liger

[Darth Escargot]

If we have a rule against KOs and "third party" kits, I can't find it, but I won't be mad if this thread gets deleted.

If not, though, I thought this might interest quite a few of us - Supernova, who a lot of people know for their unlicensed Gunpla, apparently have a HMM-ish kit of the Murasame Liger coming out soon. I've never built a Supernova kit, so I don't know what we can expect in terms of quality, but if the pictures are any indication, it should look pretty nice.


www.usagundamstore.com/products/supernova-za-1-72-murasame-liger

[bladeligerzero94]

Looks like a third party kit to me.

[Leon35]

So this has the ZA logo, but this is different from Kotobukiya's Zoids Aggressive? Or a tie-in from a 3rd party?

That teal looks gorgeous

[Leon35]

Correction! Teal armor is being offered for the first shipments! Anyone know how to get a copy with the teal parts?

[Hanyoutai]

This is a ZA Murasame Liger up-scaled to 1/72 scale and released as a model kit. The ZA is essentially a model kit in its own right. In the factory it comes off of sprues, has all the necessary part halves, etc. Only, it's pre-assembled and glued together. This is surely where some of the cost cutting measures for Supernova come into play. They can still release a solid product, at a decent price, without needing to cut many corners on quality.

From everything I've heard and seen about it, it's a pretty good quality kit. A simpler model kit that's fast to build, but haven't heard any complaints about the actual quality yet. Some stores have released the kit and fans are already getting it, but a few still have it listed as pre-order. Guessing supply delays.'

We're also still waiting to figure out a bit more about the teal armor. Most stores were calling it bonus for the first run, but store info on the kit has been pretty inconsistent (for example, many not calling it a model kit-) and someone mentioned it came with all of them? I'm guessing the multiple stores are more likely correct on that one, but we'll see.

[bladeligerzero94]

Apr 3, 2020 15:00:19 GMT -5 Hanyoutai said:

This is a ZA Murasame Liger up-scaled to 1/72 scale and released as a model kit. The ZA is essentially a model kit in its own right. In the factory it comes off of sprues, has all the necessary part halves, etc. Only, it's pre-assembled and glued together. This is surely where some of the cost cutting measures for Supernova come into play. They can still release a solid product, at a decent price, without needing to cut many corners on quality.

From everything I've heard and seen about it, it's a pretty good quality kit. A simpler model kit that's fast to build, but haven't heard any complaints about the actual quality yet. Some stores have released the kit and fans are already getting it, but a few still have it listed as pre-order. Guessing supply delays.'

We're also still waiting to figure out a bit more about the teal armor. Most stores were calling it bonus for the first run, but store info on the kit has been pretty inconsistent (for example, many not calling it a model kit-) and someone mentioned it came with all of them? I'm guessing the multiple stores are more likely correct on that one, but we'll see.

So it's a bootleg HMM?

[Hanyoutai]

ZA/Zoids Aggressive, but yeah.

[Darth Escargot]

Apr 3, 2020 15:00:19 GMT -5 Hanyoutai said:

From everything I've heard and seen about it, it's a pretty good quality kit. A simpler model kit that's fast to build, but haven't heard any complaints about the actual quality yet. Some stores have released the kit and fans are already getting it, but a few still have it listed as pre-order. Guessing supply delays.'

Yeah, I realized after posting the thread that some people apparently already have it. 

Anyway, Supernova has a pretty decent reputation among Gunpla fans who build third party stuff, so I'm sure the kit's at least decent, and it'll probably be a cold day in hell before Kotobukiya makes a Murasame Liger.

[Leon35]

Oh? they dont have the liscense for this?

Given Koto's lack of response to BT kits over the last decade, I doubt Supernova will recieve any pushback.

[Darth Escargot]

Apr 3, 2020 17:09:56 GMT -5 Leon35 said:

Oh? they dont have the liscense for this?

Doesn't look like it. If they did, you'd see the Zoids logo somewhere. And yeah, if Kotobukiya doesn't have the resources to go after bootleggers like BT that are literally just doing straight-up knockoffs of their kits, I doubt they're going to do something about this one. Even Bandai lets a ton of stuff slip - afaik Supernova are still making Gundam kits, and it took Bandai years to finally start going after Dragon Momoko.

[Hanyoutai]

Mine should be at the post office, so looking forward to building it. I'll comment again after having a better look at this kit! But it's good to know Supernova has a good reputation.

The thing about this Liger is that there's just honestly nothing like it in the official lineup. A lot of Zoids fans are particular about the scale of their kits, and we have big Bio Zoids but no decent large Murasame Liger to fight them! The moto is a brick, and even the Tateishi Store conversion kit (if you manage to get it) is pretty clunky. It really sets this product apart, as it'll be the only high quality 1/72 Murasame Liger kit available to the market.

That's also probably true, Koto will probably never make a 1/72. So this will be a cool addition to the collection of any Genesis fans. Especially if they also make Mugen and Hayate!

[Darth Escargot]

Well, I'm gonna say that I take issue with the idea that motorized Zoids aren't "quality" there, Hanyoutai, but the motorized Murasame Liger was definitely pretty lame, considering it came almost entirely pre-built.

The bigger point, though, is that it's definitely somewhat legitimate for Supernova to be making this because the original Murasame Liger is hard to come by if at all, the ZA action figures aren't to scale, and Kotobukiya will never make an HMM Murasame. You can't really make the argument that this is somehow taking money out of Kotobukiya or TT's pocket because it's not competing with any of their products like the BT knockoffs.

Incidentally, I also kind of wonder what the legal situation is here. As far as I know, the reason there's so many Transformers KO companies that have been around for years and years is because TT can't actually go after them unless they use the same names or the actual Autobot and Decepticon logos. In this case you have the same name, but I wonder if you could trademark the name "Murasame Liger" because the term murasame has been used for so many things, but since the kit apparently consists basically of upscaled parts taken from the ZA toy... I dunno.

But I guess the bottom line is that if Kotobukiya was going to do something about KO product, they'd go after BT first.

[Hanyoutai]

I'm referring specifically to the Murasame Ligers~ I definitely don't have any issues with motos as a whole. In fact, I greatly prefer the motorized Tomy kits over the HMMs, and they make up almost all of my collection. The Murasame Ligers though? They're clunky bricks that were overall just very unsatisfying. They cut corners (like using stickers for important visual features like the mane), the gimmicks take away from some of the actual key visual gimmicks (the sword rotating to both sides), and they take away one of the main joys of Zoids: Actually building it. For people who disagree with all of that, and want a 1/72 Murasame Liger, they're looking at paying $100 by the time they're done with shipping and fees. With all of these things taken into account, the possibilities of the Supernova Liger become more and more attractive.

Koto sadly also seems to have stopped the ZA line. Which is a shame. They were awesome figures, even if not to scale. Excellent choices for people who are short on shelf space in particular.

That's an interesting question. I'm guessing they just can't be bothered to go after them for a product they aren't (or have no plans to) produce anymore. The most I've seen Koto post about it is a public notice appealing to people not to buy bootleg products, but they never did go after BT, far as I know.

Haven't built mine yet but it arrived in excellent shape. The box even had little corner protectors! Never had that before. Everything seems well packaged and I'm excited to get to the actual build over the next couple of days.

[dchan]

I'm firmly against buying or promoting knockoffs/unlicensed products as a whole, but as mentioned above this kind of skirts that line by being in another scale. The Genesis ligers would be pretty low on my wish list for Koto kits anyway, but I have to say the promo photos of this Murasame look pretty sharp.

[empirewolf13]

I am against buying knock offs unless it’s not somthing officially released like this murasame or the weird bt jager/Schneider combo