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Gothicmade Growstein Houzairo II, also known as the GTM version of the Kormals Vai-O-La.  This design made its debut with Juzotta of the Bakinnrakkan Holy Empire as its pilot, fighting against Dacchas: The Black Knight.

The design now has its lineage shared with the GTM Baga-Hari (A-Toll) as a result of being designed by Zebee Corter, featuring the same veil system of the Baga-Hari on its shoulders.

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Babylon’s LED Mirage, better known as Falk Rognar’s custom LED Mirage.  For over a decade there was only a tiny image of this design floating online- that changes today.

This design never made an appearance in the manga, and was effectively retconned out of existence with the creation of the LED Mirage V3 during the Majestic Stand (which were all identical units).  As a result, it never showed up in the later FSS Designs artbooks.  To my knowledge, the only publication it ever appeared in was the Characters:4 Fatima artbook from the late 80s.

Despite its lack of exposure, it remains a fairly popular Mortar Headd, especially with western fans.

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https://twitter.com/syujyu0093/status/1094406621583749120

At the recent 2019 Winter Wonder Festival, Our Treasure (a company that shares many of the same employees as Wave) unveiled their new 1/100 Machine Messiah Auge model kit, created by long-time Wave FSS veteran Syujyu.  This is the first new FSS resin model kit since the Wave 1/144 Batsh, which was released exactly 5 years ago in 2014. 

Unlike previous FSS resin kits however, which tend to be fully hand-sculpted, this Auge was completely rendered in CAD.  Supposedly a 1/144 “finished” version of it is in consideration, but it is unknown how that will turn out.

At this time, it’s unknown what the price and release date are.

Regardless, for a series that’s been dominated by Volks products for the past decade, it’s nice to see some new competition again.

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Officially released today (February 9) in Japan! 

The next big artbook release- FSS Designs 6: XROSS JAMMER, adorned with the Zarathustra Apterbringer (LED Mirage) on its cover. 

Comes out on Febraury 9 for roughly 3500 yen.  It will feature costume, character, mecha and more designs from volume 14, as well as the Palsuet arc of the upcoming volume 15.  You can preorder it on Amazon.jp: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4041079918

The last FSS artbook (Designs 5: LITTER.pict) came out exactly 3 years ago in 2016, so this is definitely a valuable update if you want to catch up on Nagano’s new art and designs.

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The next big artbook release- FSS Designs 6: XROSS JAMMER, adorned with the Zarathustra Apterbringer (LED Mirage) on its cover. 

Comes out on Febraury 9 for roughly 3500 yen.  It will feature costume, character, mecha and more designs from volume 14, as well as the Palsuet arc of the upcoming volume 15.  You can preorder it on Amazon.jp: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4041079918

The last FSS artbook (Designs 5: LITTER.pict) came out exactly 3 years ago in 2016, so this is definitely a valuable update if you want to catch up on Nagano's new art and designs.

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Gothicmade Mk-III “Dharmas”, also known as the infamous S.S.I. Kublakhan “Bang Doll”, finally makes its manga debut in the January 2019 issue of FSS in Newtype mag.     

The original MH Bang Doll was based directly on on the L-Gaim Mk-II, but with Dharmas, Nagano has brought the design one step closer to its distant ancestor by allowing it to transform into a Prowler mode as well.  However, despite its robot form here, it is still not the “complete” version of Dharmas as seen in FSS Designs 5, with spiraling spikes on its head and the antenna extended forward.   

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Five Star Stories volume 14, the most recent volume, was just announced for an Italian release for February of next year.  With this, the Italian version of FSS will be the most up-to-date international release of the manga.

Currently, the Chinese version is stuck at volume 12, the English at volume 10, and Korea only recently published 13.  The English and Chinese versions have been frozen for over a decade, most likely due to Nagano’s 2004 departure from Toyspress, who published the original volumes in those two countries.

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Falk Rognar saves Emperor Amaterasu from the colliding Gothicmade Mk-II.  Taken from Volume 14 of FSS.

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It’s Yutaka Izubuchi’s 60th birthday in Japan time, so celebrate by reading this.

Complete raw scans of Yutaka Izubuchi’s first volume of Rune Masquer.  If you enjoy the ornate and grandiose mecha and world of Five Star Stories, you will like this. 

https://anon.click/xabug27

Password is “nereid”

Rune Masquer is Izubuchi’s heart and soul poured onto paper, taking his designs and ideas from Panzer World Galient and refining them into a more extravagant vision, much like how Mamoru Nagano transformed his ideas from L-Gaim into FSS (Also like FSS, Rune Masquer received quite a few legendary kits sculpted by Work Shop Cast, one of the most well-known Garage Kit companies known for their FSS sculpts).  Originally serialized in Comic Ryu magazine in the late 80s, this manga was unfortunately cancelled in the early 90s for unknown reasons. Sadly, only one volume of Rune Masquer ever published, back in 1991.  Izubuchi announced plans to continue this manga around 2010, but other than a reissue of the original volume 1 with a different jacket and a digitally colored version of the same first volume split into three parts, he never followed up on his promise.

This was much more time-consuming of a project than I originally expected.  Much gratitude to those who take their time to consistently create scans, I had no idea how much work any of you guys had to go through until I tried it out myself.  

If anyone wants to translate this, you have my blessing. 

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Jagd Mirage demolishes the Zakker in one swing.  Taken from volume 8.

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Ad for the recently released Volks SAV (Solid Art Version) 1/100 Empress Flame resin kit.  While most of this kit is based on the old Mechanical Moving Empress Flame released in the 90s, the poseable polycap joints of the original have been completely resculpted and replaced with static ones to make this a fixed posed display piece.

Among the plethora of FSS designs, this stands as one of the most iconic Mortar Headds, known even to those unfamiliar with the series.  Alongside Machine Messiah Auge, it is the definitive Majestic Stand design.

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Gothicmade Daccas the Black Knight, from the December 2018 issue of FSS.

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Gothicmade Baga-Hari BS Cobra/ Swans, the definitive version of the MH A-Toll BS Cobra/Swans.  As presented in the December 2018 issue of FSS in Newtype Magazine.

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Recent magazine ad for Volk’s upcoming reissue of their Hyper Expression 1/100 Mighty Series garage kits.  Each one comes with a selection of not only clear parts, but also polished metal pieces as well as photo-etch sheets that make up those intricate folded layers within the frame.  Definitely not a kit for beginners.  And at around $400 a pop, they aren’t cheap.  But there is a lot worse you could spend your time and money on.   

The Mighty Series holds a special place in my heart as the designs that got me into FSS.  For years they remained my favorite Mortar Headds.  While my tastes have expanded since, I still look at these designs with awe and reverence.

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Gothicmade Demoul Zorro (KAN) reveals its hidden face, from the October 2018 issue of FSS.

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Wave 1/100 LED Mirage with Flame Launcher boxart, in higher resolution.  The kit itself was once again sculpted by Naoki Sato.  Its initial release was in 1992, but has had multiple reissues with new boxart since such as this one.  To this day this ancient kit is still being sold and reprinted, and remains popular with both new and old fans of FSS designs due to its relatively low price and ease of purchase.

Not to be confused with the more recent Volks 1/100 LED Mirage V3 Inferno Napalm, a kit that came out much later based on an updated high-heel version of this design whose lineart most people have probably seen before.

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Storyboard scraps from Gothicmade: Hana no Utame (2012).

Nagano is notoruous for having ultra-thin meticulous linework, and being somewhat minimalist with his shading.  While instances of that can be seen in his other artwork and manga, these stylistic tendencies present themselves in their purest form here in these storyboards.