AX2000 - Kotobukiya Panel

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Kotobukiya Panel
Besides the awesome Guest of Honor Panels and Film Premieres at Anime Expo, there are a variety of other unique specialty panels that are just as engaging. One such panel was the wonderful Kotobukiya panel held on Sunday morning. Originally scheduled to be the Super Techno Arts / APPP / Kotobukiya panel of three companies, both Super Techno Arts and APPP couldn't make it to the show, so it was primarily focused on Kotobukiya. On hand were Hoashi Yumi, Director of International Operations of Kotobukiya, and Maeda Tsuyoshi, a master modeler of the mecha division in Kotobukiya.
Hoashi first began the panel by making an announcement on Super Techno Arts behalf:

Both the original and new JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE OAV DVD's and VHS tapes should be out by the end of this year in the U.S..

For Kotobukiya, Hoashi released their U,S. figure lineup for the rest of this year:

JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE figures - Jotaro Cujoh and Star Platinum

•   ARMORED CORE 2 mecha figures (coinciding with the U.S. release of the PlayStation 2).

•   FRONT MISSION 3 mecha figures.

•   JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE action figures.

•   Masamune Shirow's REQUIEM female statue.

From there, Maeda gave a brief self-introduction: "I'm Maeda. Early on, I realized that I prefered 3D products to 2D, so that's how I ended up as a modeler. I worked on some of the early GODZILLA live action sets, building the props for that. I also created the KAMEN RIDER (MASKED RIDER) bike models / master molds [for the toy line], like the Cyclone Bike and Rider Indigo series."
ARMORED CORE figure After that, the panel opened up to a Q&A session, wherein Maeda also managed to go through his entire process for modeling, from the early stages to later tweaks; essentially giving some wonderful insight on how he creates master molds.
Finally, Hoashi clarified what the exact JOJO'S action figure lineup was going to be: First there would be Jotarou + Star Platinum, then Kakyoin + Hierophant Green, and Polnareff + Silver Chariot. There's also a mysterious fourth figure, that she wouldn't give away yet.