Shooters are once again getting the real-world 3D respect they deserve. Today NCSX posted pre-orders for the second series of Shooting Game Historica mini-model toys (via a friendly email from NCSX and Kotaku). The stand out ship has to be the Opa Opa from Fantasy Zone, which includes a 16-ton weight. The other ships are the R-90 Ragnarok from R-Type III (with Force power and bits), the Geo Sword from Star Blade, the R-Gray 1 from RayStorm, and the Gaia from Star Luster. After the first series, I'm pretty excited for these. However, I'm going to wait to see if Yujin announces a SP (second product) set of the ships, like they did with series 1. The SP set included 4 repaints, which was good for completists and those that wanted to build a galaxy-saving fleet. I'm sure they will since they could easily have alternate colors for the R-Gray, Ragnarok, and Opa Opa. Yujin's inclusion of the Opa Opa shows that they won't release only "serious" shooter ships, so the hope for other cute-'em-up ships, especially Parodius characters, is a possibility for future sets.

The lone picture of the unpainted prototypes has a mysterious warning with a silhouette of another ship. The quality of the pic isn't that good, so I can't read what it says. What is the silhouette? I'm not sure. I'm guessing it could be a secret sixth ship that will either be packed one per case or each of the five ships will have a piece of it, so you buy each ship to assemble the sixth one. Or it's just an oddly-placed chocking hazard warning. The second set of Shooting Game Historica is expected to ship in late July.