It's ironic that POP SA-Maximum - Armored Franky was initially announced as LIMITED edition release and Japan-only exclusive. It turns out not only it has international edition releases, but international distributors started offering preorders for this POP more than a week earlier than the official Japanese preorder schedule (see the preorder announcement here). It is being offered along with the preorder of POP Edition-Z Nico Robin.
Up until now there's no word from MegaHouse yet if there will be a difference between the Japan and international version (aside from the TOEI sticker of authenticity of course) because they haven't started announcing anything yet if they changed the LIMITED classification for this POP yet,... for Japan at least.
Having international versions means that it won't be too expensive for us living outside Japan. I already saw a lot of offers for international release below 15,570 yen. For this expensive POP, collectors who are after it will tend to look for the lowest price offer. It may still be unaffordable for some, but at least its price won't skyrocket up high for about a year or so.
And to celebrate for that, here are the official images of POP SA-Maximum - Armored Franky (notice the absence of the word "LIMITED" now) and all I can say is Suuuupperrrr!!! I'm lost for words now so I'll just let these images do the talking. I hope MegaHouse will be able to cope up with the production for the high demand of this POP and meet the promised release date.
Scheduled to be released on July 2013 for 15,750 yen. Preorders are already being offered at discounted prices at Figmation, Animarket, Hobby Frontier and other international distributors. I preordered mine at Figmation as I find it the lowest price offer in town.
Update (2013-02-16): Amiami, HLJ and Hobby Search did not offer a preorder for SA Franky. It seems to be totally limited/store exclusive in Japan. It's quite confusing that this item (international version) is available on most POP retailer outside Japan while it is being kept limited within Japan.
Update (2013-03-11): I just discovered that in Taiwan Megahobby site, SA Franky tells that it is non-limited in Taiwan as an exception. This is probably the reason why MegaHouse can offer a non-limited international release of SA Franky to the rest of the world.
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