Not much big news about Gundam recently. The merchandise list for April has being announced on Bandai’s Hobby Net, and the English version. The spotlight is on MG No. 97 Mass Productive Zaku II Ver. 2.0. However, I think I have blog more than once on that particular kit, so I’m going to repeat any of them anymore. Other products include HGUC Blue Destiny and Acguy, HCM-Pro Freedom Gundam, and SD Verde Buster, which I’m sure you have seen them somewhere in my blog and from other Gundam sources as well.
Musha Gundam kit from GA Graphics
I found out about two upcoming kits of Musha Gundam and Musha Zeta Gundam (formally called Kengou Zeta) from Mark Parrenas’s Winterheim HDD, which I’m really interested in at the moment. There are some more images on GA Graphics, and the producer seems to be Bandai (since I don’t read Japanese, I can just guess from some Hiragana which seems like ‘Bandai’ to me – seen them many, many times from my model kits). Since the two kits are still in their prototype form, it is hard to speculate whether they will come out as model kit, or resin kit, or finished figures. The action of the legs and the arms seem really promising though. As Bandai has amazed us from time to time with its modeling technologies to produce some really kick-ass Gundam models and figures, these two samurai warriors deserve a close attention to, just like MG Zaku II Ver. 2.0 or the previous Hi-Nu Gundam before they finally arrived before our eyes.
Say, I think Bandai can actually develop a new product line based on these fantasy MSs which only exist in games and anime, but never touch any of the timelines of the Gundam universe. Previously, Musha Gundam, Kengou Zeta and other Gundams that wear ancient Japanese armor only comes in SD format, a handful ‘lucky’ ones were made into conversion kits for existing models. Personally, I don’t really like the SD version of these samurai Gundam. Not only are they hard to paint, some are incredibly ugly, even in such a small scale, like this one. And when they are not that ugly, the design of their armor seems to be too exaggerating, like this one.
Some SD kits featuring unbelievably illogical transformation, this one. Some can combine between different kits to form a bigger MS, much like Transformers Superlink or some of the childhood sci-fi anime we watched. Almost every Gundam before SEED and SEED Destiny has their SD Samurai form; some are extremely close to the ‘normal’ version, like this one; while some has distinct features, which only seem logical in SD form, like this one.
Anyway, my opinion about these Samurai Gundams is that they are only meant for small kids, since as grown-ups, we know that they never exist in any series, or the formal Gundam timeline to be exact. We would pay more attention to the ‘genuine’ stuff.
That was until I saw this guy on Danny Choo’s blog.
Musha Gundam from Gundam Musou, a video game for PS3 - image from Danny Choo’s blog
Danny Choo hopes that it would come out under Gundam Fix Figuration; I on the other hand, am hoping dearly that Bandai would give it a MG treatment, with special coating material for the golden armor, metallic coated parts for the spear and katana, complete with a full action inner frame to mimic the action in the game…
Don’t call me insane if you see me salivating from just imaging the possibility.
Like I said earlier on, manipulation of different materials like special coating parts, metallic hydraulic pipes, mesh pipes, wires, LED parts for lighting, special clear parts for beam saber and thruster effects and so on could be the next emphasis of the MG line. If you think that Bandai would one day runs out of tricks, think again. It’s which MS they would consider to release that should be the question, and how the designs of the kits seem to be out of reach, since every kit has their own specialties, it’s impossible to guess for one who is not in the design committee. As of now, since there’re no new anime series to help us to speculate who’s next, everybody seems to be possible as the next MG.
So, don’t be too surprise if Musha Gundam becomes MG 100, it’s still quite possible you know, since it’s based on Gundam RX-78-2, and Bandai could design the kit to be convertible between the original Gundam and the Samurai form as well.
Full of tricks? Well, you’ll heard that plenty of times when it comes to describe Bandai’s Hobby Department.
