I've being off line with Gundam news on the net for some time now, and the latest update for me is still regarding the previous Shizuoka Hobbby Show. Read
Gunota Headlines yesterday, and realized that so many Gundam products have bing announced, with details on release dates and prices. You've seen them before on Gunota, I supposed, as well as
Winterheim, but I'm going to repeat them anyway, along with my own thoughts about each of them.
All images are from Hobby Net. Click on the image to link to the product page. Since the prices are based on Japanese releases, all of them are inclusive of 5% tax.
MG Gundam Ver. OYW Real-TV Color (late July, 3360 Yen) - since this model will be a repackaging of
MG Gundam Ver. OYW in the real-TV color, it was announced explicitly at this will not be MG 100. Such announcement was crucial before Shizuoka Hobby Show, as many thought that Bandai's plan for MG 100 is going to be this one. Anyway, if it's not on the official count for MG 100, it means you're not going to get anything new out of it. Along with the change of color, you should consider yourself lucky if you get a new set of decals and sticker from this kit.
HGUC Blue Destiny Unit 1 (31 July, 1575 Yen) - hate to say this, but the only thing new for Blue Destiny 1 is the GM head! The change of armament set (beam rifle and shield of the previous
Blue Destiny Unit 2 to ground type machine gun and ground type shield) hardly provides any surprise, since the two 'new' weapons can be seen in
HGUC RX-79[G] Ground Type Gundam.
HGUC Zock (late July, 2625 Yen) - Salute to Hajime Katoki
senshe for the courage to redesign this fella, even though it's obvious that even for a master like him, he has no idea how to make the legs better. I think since Zock has very little mobility, and lack of any hand-carried weapon, Bandai poured in all effort to make the interior better, most notably the movement of the mono-eye camera. If the response for this kit is good, we might even get to see the MG version of Zock in the future.
SD Stargazer (late August, 630 Yen) - I've seen the picture of the actual model on display during Shizuoka Hobby Show, and frankly, the beam rings which are supposed to be the biggest selling point of Stargazer were being designed pretty badly. Instead of the whole ring coiling the model, they are just bits of transparent parts hanging on the backpack. But then again, maybe it's just a prototype during the event. Also, foil sticker of both normal and Voiture Leimier activation mode SHOULD BE available as well.
GFF Metal Composite 1-100 G3 Gundam (late July, 12390 Yen) - Just a re-release of the
previous Gundam into G3, basically only the color and the marking change. Well, if you want, the packaging can be counted as well, since it's so expensive. Make me wonder if Bandai will do the same thing to
Super HCM-Pro Gundam as well.
GFF Metal Composite Psycho Gundam (late August, 10500 Yen) - Probably one of the more anticipated releases among today's discussion. The incorporation of metal parts is most probably for the stability of the model and the transformation process. Since it's in 1-144 scale, Psycho Gundam will dwarf your other GFFs when they being placed together.
GFF Musha Gundam (late September, 5040 Yen) - I discussed about this fella not long ago, it's so great seeing it being made into a GFF figure. The armors are really wicked. My favorite are the shoulder armors with the pipe-like border which are gold in color. No doubt the final color will be the same as well. Better still, this GFF features two set of armors - the light (?) - not shown here, and heavy (?) versions. Would be nice to see just how flexible it'll be in posing with its trident, spear and katana.
Zeonagraphy Zaku II High Mobility Type (late August, 8190 Yen) - The three High Mobility Type Zaku II shown here are truly from the MSV series, with unknown pilots and information. At first I thought the red and blue versions are from the
Dual Stars of Carnage, but their left shoulder armors are the typical three-spike version, instead of horns from skull markings. Since the set are just the same Zaku II in different color scheme, one have to be a hardcore Zeon supporter to be willing to buy this.
EMSIA Gelgoog Cannon (late July, 2100 Yen) - Still fresh from the memory of
HGUC Mass Productive Type Gelgoog/Gelgoog Canon, and another Gelgoog Canon will be released. Bandai is really sly. Can't see much from the image, but the designs on the shoulder joint, knee, torso and so on will decide how well this kit really is. I'm not surprise if the final product features the same compatibility like the HGUC version.
EMSIA Wing Gundam Zero Custom (late September, 2625 Yen) - I was wondering just how long Bandai'll withhold this from the fans. The featured wings were improved for both the PG and MG versions, but Gundam fans who do not assemble models are still buying hard plastics :-) I'm looking forward for more updates on this kit, specifically details about the wings.
MSIA Shiranui Akatsuki (late July, 1890 Yen) - Not bad at all for a MSIA figure, the gold armors are pretty shiny to me. Those who do not fancy the
Cosmic Region version or the actual
1-100 model can go for this one. Then again, it only comes with the Shiranui pack, not inclusive of Oowashi Flyer. That's bad, sicne you'll need to buy another Akatsuki just for the backpack.
HCM-Pro Evangelion Unit 01 and 00 (Unit 01 - late August, 3990 Yen and Unit 00 - late September, 3360 Yen) - I used to think that these two releases means that Bandai is waging a war with
Kaiyado's Revotech series, but it turns out that there's no war at all. These two HCM-Pro figures are quite tall (both 18cm) and a whole array of not just weapons, but equipments and accessories are included. Not too bad for Evangelion fans, but of course, watch out for the prices as well.