Takara Tomy and JAXA Team up for Lunar Cruiser Prime

Takara Tomy is teaming up with Japan's JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, along with Toyota to create a crowdfund to produce Lunar Cruiser Prime. The figure is based on JAXA's Lunar Cruiser which will deploy from their Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon (SLIM) in August. And if you think this is Takara Tomy cashing in on a timely crossover opportunity you'd be wrong. JAXA claims they were inspired by Takara Tomy's ability to make small, complex robots and tapped them to design the SORA-Q changing robots that will also be dispatched onto the moon. How great is that? The Lunar Cruiser Prime figure itself stands around 7" tall and comes with a solar panel and antennas that can be positioned in different spots.

Obviously such a unique collaboration means some unique ways to obtain one. First there's standard purchasing when he's available at retail in late March 2024 for 11,000 JPY. But there's also a Japanese crowdfunding option through Campfire that comes with some unique perks. For 11,000 JPY through Campfire the figure will be available a month earlier in February 2024. For 14,300 you can add a stand (the same stand first seen with MP Beast Wars Megatron) with Lunar Cruiser Prime written on the side. And for 50,000 JPY you can get a special message from original Convoy/Optimus Prime and Lunar Cruiser Prime actor Tessho Genda himself. The campaign begins June 8, though it's not yet known when the retail pre-orders will open.















This is a pretty different collaboration that we really haven't seen the likes of before. No word on if Hasbro will take part in any form of sales, but we'll keep you posted as we find out more!

Credit(s): Campfire, Anime News Network