May 28th, 2016. Today's Mega Hobby Expo not only offered a first look at the colored Matsuda Takato & Guilmon G.E.M. Series figure announced earlier this month, but was also accompanied by the surprise announcement of a Motomiya Daisuke & V-mon figure pair. Previously Digimon Adventure 02 fans had expressed some frustration in the light of Takato's figure announcement, as studio Mega House had previously only produced a figure for Ichijouji Ken of 02, seemingly jumping straight to Tamers despite having produced figures of every one of Adventure's Chosen Children. The announcement that Daisuke will be receiving a figure of his own has seemingly put these concerns to rest in wake of the announcement, although the figure's time frame has not yet been announced.
The expo also featured the upcoming card tin and accompanying Hyper Colosseum cards, providing a first look at some of the set's reprints. These will be compatible with the D-Ark Ver. 15th, and faithfully replicate the appearance and foiling of the original cards. Particular notable among the cards shown is King Device, an option card which on the original D-Ark Ultimate could be slashed alongside Queen Device to gain simultaneous bonuses to HP, AP, and SP.
The card identifying the V-mon & Motomiya Daisuke figure. Original image uploaded by @mega_girlshobby.
Digimon Adventure tri. voice actor and general Digimon fan Matsuzawa Chiaki tweeted about the expo, expressing gratitude to MegaHouse for supporting Digimon, and expressing hope that Frontier would be next.
March 11th, 2016. The latest color version of the D-3 Digivice Ver. 15th became available via the Premium Bandai web shop today, in a run of just 3,000 units. Like with the black and blue Ver. 15ths before it, the Paildramon Color device is being given a limited run. Based on the color scheme of Motomiya Daisuke & Ichijouji Ken's Jogress D-3, the toy goes on sale for 9,990 yen from 11:00 PM Japanese Standard Time. The finished devices will ship in July. Those that order it will receive a Paildramon illustration sheet.
The Digivice will contain more than 150 Digimon, with more than 80 being usable by the player. There are six available partner Digimon, the selection being derived from Digimon Adventure 02; Patamon, Hawkmon, V-mon, Wormmon, Armadimon, and Tailmon. Aside from the color the device appears to be identical to its predecessors, with the structure of the Paildramon Color's gameplay following the same route as the original Ver. 15th D-3. The LCD toy tours players through the world of the anime series, culminating in a final battle with Armagemon. Imperialdramon Paladin Mode will be available on this Digivice just as he will be in the preceding D-3 Ver. 15th, and by connecting it to a first generation Ver. 15th, tamers can unlock a special message.
As of March 16th, the device is sold out, with "no plans" for a continuation.
February 9th, 2016. The Premium Bandai web shop updated tonight with a surprise product in stock; the D-3 Ver. 15th Digivice Paildramon Color. As with the original D-3 Ver. 15th--which will be sent out this June--the Paildramon Color Ver. 15th will be produced in only limited quantities, fixed at 3,000 units. Preorders will open on March 11th at 11:00 AM Japanese Standard Time, and the final product will be shipped out to buyers in July 2016. The price is identical to preceding D-3 Ver.15ths, 9,990 JPY. (About $90 at present exchange rates.)
The previous twin black and blue models of D-3 sold out just six days after preorders opened. As P-Bandai only sells directly to Japanese buyers, international fans will have to go through a middleman service to purchase the Digivice.
January 1st, 2016. The fifteenth anniversary remake of the D-3 Digivice is no longer available; all six thousand units have been ordered, and will be shipped to consumers in June 2016. The Motomiya Daisuke color D-3 sold out first, becoming unavailable on December 30th, while Ichijouji Ken's could still be ordered until today. The D-3 Ver. 15th is being produced in extremely limited quantities, possibly as a way to test the market for products beyond the original Adventure series. Along with the D-3, a reissue of the original Ver. 15th for March 2016 was simultaneously announced, but those orders closed several days earlier.
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December 25th, 2015. In less than five minutes, the Japanese clock will tick over to 11:00 AM on the 25th, and the Premium Bandai web shop will begin opening up preorders for the D-3 Ver. 15th Digivice. The 15th anniversary D-3 is an extremely limited product that will only ship a cumulative six thousand units between its black and blue models. Given the short window of acquisition and strong demand, this leaves western fans with a conundrum--how do they purchase a product deliberately made unavailable to them?
Enter the middleman service. This is a section of commerce which acts in place of a foreign consumer, buying the product and shipping it to them. This is how westerners acquired last year's Digivice Ver. 15ths, and it's how they'll acquire this year's D-3. Some proxies operate through eBay, while others are independent sites hosting their own services.
Be aware that the middleman has to eat too. You will not be paying the base price of the Digivice; P-Bandai is normally a case of the manufacturer selling directly to the consumer without an intermediary, and introducing a proxy service into the equation effectively adds a layer of markup because of the additional labor it creates. The import service has to turn a profit on buying the device and selling it to you, which generally takes the form of either a flat commission fee or a percentage fee derived from the base price. They also have to pay for shipping and transportation costs, and this means that you will probably be paying closer to $100 rather than $80, possibly more. The good news is that many such middlemen deal in huge volumes of product being sold to hundreds or thousands of consumers, which reduces the markup on any individual product.
However, products like the D-3 are sometimes limited in how much quantity can be sold to individual buyers, which means each intermediary can only acquire a specific number of them. Meaning each resource has a limited quantity that they can sell. So where can you buy these devices?
Option 1: eBay
A small number of sellers have been taking preorders for the D-3 ahead of the actual preorder date open. Whether these preorders will be reasonable or not when compared to what independent sites are offering remains to be seen. Currently there are four listings available on eBay, two sets of black & white, and one black and one blue separate:
Each of these offer free shipping. The up front cost reflects slightly under a 40% markup from the $80 base price (the set of two is technically $10 cheaper, but only if you were planning on buying both versions in the first place). While these listings provide "free shipping," that's implicitly a formality--the persons selling these devices still pay to ship them, and instead is including the shipping cost in the base price along with all other expenditures. Some sellers are attempting to charge $154 for each D-3, which is very questionable when others are offering it for $120.
Option 2: Independent Sites
These order options will not be available until the device itself goes on sale. These sites are run by a single store rather than being available through a commerce network like eBay, and are sometimes managed by only a single person. The reason the D-3 isn't available early is because these stores are waiting until they can actually purchase the stock off of P-Bandai before they list it. It's somewhat questionable whether the eBay stores were behaving ethically in listing the D-3s without actually acquiring them first, as there's a remote possibility that they will be unable to purchase the Digivices and be forced to refund their buyers. You may see a fairer deal from these independent sites, which will charge either a flat rate like $10 per order, or a percentage of the original price on top of it. However, expect that shipping and handling costs will still factor in.
The catch is that no one quite knows which sites will have the D-3 available. Some may buy D-3s but not list them immediately after the products go live. Others may list them immediately. The product could sell out in a few hours, or the high price may intimidate consumers out of buying Bandai out of their stock up until its release date in June. Part of the reason the D-3 is so limited is that the company isn't sure that Digimon series other than Adventure can sell anymore.
December 25th, 2015. The Premium Bandai web shop has updated with a new trailer featuring the upcoming D-3 Ver. 15th Digivice, which will become available for preorder in a few hours. The revised D-3 will include over 150 types of Digimon, including six possible partners based on Digimon Adventure 02, and the never-before-playable Imperialdramon Paladin Mode. According to the updated D-3 homepage, the new device will connect with the Ver. 15th to unlock a "special production and message." Many more details have been given on the official website, and are summarized below.
Based on this information, the new Digivice has very likely been programmed with the original Digital Monster rules available for battle, ensuring connectivity with almost all two-pronged Digimon toys released since 1997.
According to the updated D-3 Ver. 15th homepage, the in-game quest map will be based directly on the world of Adventure 02. The first area "Digital World 1" will be based on the Digimon Kaiser arc (episodes 1~21) of 02, with Chimeramon as its area boss. The second area "New York," will be based on the third movie Hurricane Touchdown!!/The Golden Digimentals with Cherubimon as its featured Digimon. The third area "Digital World 2," will be based on the Dark Tower Digimon arc (episodes 22~37) with Black War Greymon as its boss, area 4 will be Japan based on episodes 38~39 and featuring Triceramon, area 5 will based on the World Tour arc of episodes 40~42 and feature Mammon, and area 6 will be set in Tokyo (episodes 43~50) with Belial Vamdemon as its boss. Finally, area 7 will be set in Odaiba, based on Diablomon's Counterattack, with Armagemon as the final boss.
Hurricane Touchdown!!/The Golden Digimentals has had a disputed status in the fandom for many years now, with a significant number of fans arguing the film to be noncanon based on alleged discrepancies between it and the TV anime. Its inclusion in the Ver. 15th Digivice, as well as the inclusion of a Crest of Destiny in the most recent toy lineup, points to Bandai considering the film to be in continuity with 02. It's important to note that the company has never actually taken an anti-movie 3 stance, and no product has ever definitely stated that the film is noncanon.
Unlike last year's made-to-order Digivices, the D-3 Ver. 15th is being produced in far more limited quantities, with only 6000 units being manufactured between the Motomiya Daisuke and Ichijouji Ken editions of the Digivice. Each D-3 order will come backaged with five separate illustrations which collectively form a single interlocked image, featuring Yagami Taichi, Ishida Yamato, Ichijouji Ken, and Motomiya Daisuke.
１５年の時を経て…冒険は再び、フルスピードで回り始める―
"Through fifteen
years' time...The Adventure once again, begins to revolve at full
speed--"
December 18th, 2015. This month's issue of V Jump magazine contains several new pieces of information about the upcoming D-3 Ver. 15th Digivice, which will go up for preorder on the Premium Bandai web shop in less than seven days' time. According to V Jump, the D-3 will contain more than 150 Digimon, over 80 of which can be trained by the player. Tamers will not be locked to just V-mon and Wormmon; they will have their choice out of six Digimon partners, including Armadimon, Tailmon, Patamon, and Hawkmon.
For the first time ever, the D-3 will include Imperialdramon Paladin Mode from Diablomon's Counterattack, who was previously only available on the D-Arc Digivice. Moreover, the D-3 Ver. 15th will be able to connect and battle with original Digivice Ver. 15ths, maintaining connectivity between last year's and this year's models. Those that purchase the new D-3s will also receive a set of 5 illustrations featuring Yagami Taichi, Ishida Yamato, Motomiya Daisuke, and Ichijouji Ken. Only six thousand D-3s will be produced in total
between the black and blue D-3s, each of which will be priced at 9990
yen (approx. $81 at present exchange rates) and the devices will ship in
June 2016.
Although not overtly stated, the presence of four additional Digimon lines suggests that there will not be any additional versions of the D-3 Ver. 15th, as there were for the Digivice Ver. 15th. The original D-3 released in 2000 had just two base Digimon per device, but with thirteen evolutions for each Digimon.
December 1st, 2015. Bandai of Japan has put out the formal launch announcement for its next line of gashapon toys, which will include a set of memorial goods in commemoration of Digimon Adventure. The Digivice collection will include nine different colors, based on the original Digivice's base colors and the eight variations used during the Chosen Children's super evolutions. There will also be a set of eleven tags with crests, comprising the original eight plus the crests of Destiny, Miracles, and Kindness. (These crests are derived from Digimon Adventure 02 and the two-part movie Hurricane Touchdown!! / Supreme Evolution!! The Golden Digimentals.) The Digivice and crest collection is currently available at select machines, and each capsule costs 300 yen. (Approximately $2.50 at the current exchange rate.)
Gashapon toys are a popular market for collectible toys in Japan, distributed randomly through blind capsule machines. While the individual capsules can range from 100 to 300 yen out of the machine, due to the difficulty of acquiring a complete set, select items in each collection can sell for much more on secondary markets. The previous set of Adventure gashapon toys was briefly previewed by actress Mimori Suzuko during the November 20th promotional livestream for Digimon Adventure tri.
