Although Dragon Ball Heroes has been public knowledge for some time now, it was only just officially announced midway through October, with both television ad campaigns and the opening of its official website. This new Data Carddass game will be replacing the previous Dragon Ball-related Carddass game, Dragon Battlers, which has been running since June 2009. However, the final set of cards for the system were released this past July, ultimately hinting at its eventual replacement.

The Dragon Ball Heroes official website is now almost fully functional, with the exception of a card list and some of the other main menu options. Of interest are the two new promotional videos that have been posted. The first video is essentially an opening to the game, featuring the new theme “Dragon Soul”, which is not to be confused with the opening theme song for Dragon Ball Kai. The second video is a walk through of the game, giving you a pretty good idea of how to play it (at least better than I could with simple text) and showcases some of the actual game play. Both are available to view on the new game’s official website.

The Dragon Ball Heroes game system will be available in arcades across Japan starting 11 November 2010. In addition, the December issue of V-Jump is covering the system’s release and includes three exclusive promotional cards for the game, called the “first hero set” with Goku, Gohan, and Vegeta.

On top of that, the official V-Jump website has recently posted a wallpaper calendar of the Dragon Ball Heroes cover art. If you love wallpapers, be sure to grab it!

If you are still undecided about whether or not to pick up Raging Blast 2, Amazon is offering a $10 credit toward a future game purchase with the pre-order of either the PS3 version or the 360 version. Not a bad little deal.

Our buddy TanookiKuribo managed to snag a copy already at a local retailer and has been dropping a few bits of info here and there as he makes his way through the game. Of most interest to you folks is probably the fact that the re-made feature Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans (which is sub-only, as previously announced) is indeed available for viewing right from the get-go (no need to unlock it), and Tarble (Vegeta’s little brother from the 2008 Jump Super Anime Tour special) is indeed tucked away and available in the domestic version of the game.

Amazon now has a listing for the fifth Dragon Box from FUNimation with a release date of 08 February 2011. This certainly fits in with FUNimation’s “early 2011” tweet from a little while back, so keep an eye on this one.

When they said “later this month”, they were not kidding! Previously exclusive to the Xbox 360 in North America, the demo for the upcoming Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 is now available on the PlayStation 3 (where it had already been available worldwide, sans U.S. o’ A.). Get your download on, folks.

A lot of folks have been asking about potential digital distribution for Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi Tag Team on the PSP, the domestic release of Dragon Ball: TAG VS, so we checked in with Namco-Bandai. Unfortunately for all you PSP Go owners (and loathers of physical media, I suppose), at least in North America, there are no plans to bring anything other than the game’s demo to the PlayStation Store.

The PSP Go, which features a slide-out control area, no UMD slot, and relies solely on digital distribution and flash memory, was released a year ago in North America in October 2009. It has just received a price drop from $249 to $199 (still more expensive than the otherwise-standard PSP-3000 model at $169), and details are starting to surface about the oft-rumored “PSP2”.

You may have noticed the second Dragon Box from FUNimation going in and out of stock on various online retailers. We had hesitated on reporting about this since there did not seem to be much of an issue — places like Amazon and RightStuf would ultimately get another batch of them, and fans went along their merry way. When the listings began disappearing (even when they would return with more stock yet again), many fans, including us here at the website, were unable to get a concrete answer from FUNimation as to what was going on. Some retailers said that the stock was out, more might be coming in… nothing consistent was getting out there in terms of common language.

In the latest episode (55) of Anime News Network’s ANNCast, FUNimation’s Marketing Director Lance Heiskell dropped by and answered a few questions about the franchise. Kai continues to do well, and the franchise and its purchases are reinvigorated thanks to the television partnerships with NickToons and TheCW4Kids. Furthermore, “Season Nine” from the orange bricks is their second-best-selling item so far in 2010 (behind only Evangelion 1.11).

Of most interest and relevance to our audience, however, was a confirmation that FUNimation’s Dragon Box sets are “limited”. What that exactly means was not described in any detail, unfortunately, but it was also confirmed that the second set is indeed low on stock. What it sounds like is that the Dragon Box sets have either a finite stock that will be exhausted, or will be dwindled down as interest dives. You can listen in to this week’s podcast for a little more speculation, and we will certainly do our best to follow up with FUNimation and get some definitive answers.

In the mean time, you may wish to pick up any sets you have not already grabbed! Here is a quick link list for your convenience:

• Dragon Box 1: $32.49 @ Amazon / $44.99 @ RightStuf
• Dragon Box 2: $41.49 @ Amazon / $44.99 @ RightStuf
• Dragon Box 3: $40.99 @ Amazon / $44.99 @ RightStuf
• Dragon Box 4: $36.49 @ Amazon / $44.99 @ RightStuf

The fifth set is due out sometime in early 2011. As should be apparent from our reviews of the first and second sets, these are exactly what we have wanted for years upon years, and we toss our full support behind them.

As many of you know, the great Daisuke Gōri unfortunately passed away earlier this year, leaving the role of Mr. Satan in Dragon Ball Kai uncertain; a few of his other roles were immediately recast (such as Ryūzaburō Ōtomo as King Cold). Something we missed earlier this week which a lot of you have sent our way is that Mr. Satan may have a confirmed voice replacement. In the Japanese release of TAG VS for the PSP, the character is played by Unshō Ishizuka, a newcomer to the franchise but one with experience in many other past and current shōnen properties. There has been no official word whether or not Ishizuka will continue onward to play the character in Kai. Many prior voice replacements in video games ended up being temporary before a final re-cast in Kai (Tenshinhan, Kame-Sen’nin), but this is in the midst of production. We will keep an eye on this one, for sure.

Back over here in North America, Amazon is offering up something called the “Dragon Ball Z Kai: Saiyan Set” on Blu-ray. Rather than a combined “season set” style of release, it appears to literally just be parts one and two (previously released) shipped together in one item order. Its list price of $79.98 is a savings of somewhere in the ballpark of $20 over the individual items separately, and still a savings of a couple bucks even with Amazon’s own lower prices. If you have not yet picked up either set, their $71.99 price may be worth looking into.

One of our forum members, TheBlackPaladin, has done some great digging around ANMTV regarding the upcoming dub of Dragon Ball Kai for Brazil, who will be third in line to receive the show internationally following U.S.A. and Mexico. It seems that the local Portuguese dub of the show will be retaining its original Japanese title (sans “Z”), the new dub is already being worked on, and it will air on their Cartoon Network beginning in early 2011.

Similar to the Mexican dub, however, the new Brazilian dub will have a number of re-cast voice roles. Confirmed to be re-cast so far are the characters Vegeta, Piccolo, Gohan, Yajirobe, and Freeza; confirmed to return include the actors and actresses for Bulma, Chi-Chi, and Kuririn. Also returning will be Wendel Bezerra, the original voice of Goku, who took up a campaign on Twitter and directly appealed to the show’s producers and licensors (having a “long talk” with them about the role and its fans).

Much of this situation directly mirrors the upcoming Mexican dub of Kai with its financial issues, voice replacements, and online campaigns fronted by those directly involved in its production.

Speaking of the Mexican dub, rumors of the English version somehow coming into play with its translation may indeed be true. While FUNimation does not appear to have any influence over the production itself, as voice actor and director Irwin Daayan previously hinted, materials received appear to be FUNimation’s (including the “Z” title addition), and the script may be based on FUNimation’s English adaptation rather than directly from the original Japanese. Some fine translation work over on our forum revealed that the new Mexican versions of “Dragon Soul” and “Yeah! Break! Care! Break!” appear to be based on FUNimation’s own lyrics for the songs (which change certain lines rather than adapt them from the original lyrics). It should be noted that, as of right now, this is only the case with the lyrics to the songs, as no proper footage from the series exists with the upcoming Mexican dub to compare just yet.