the ‘come January I’ll be broke’ edition

Hello and a very good day for all our awesome readers here! We are back with our 25th edition of Let’s Talk Gunpla! in this episode, we will be talking about the huge announcement from the traditional release.

There is just so many announcements, and yes, we finally have more information from Bandai on the MG GM Command, and yes, it’s an official release, not P-Bandai.

Without further ado let’s get into the announcements! 😀

SD Gundam BB DiaoChan Qubeley & General`s Palanquin (SD)

Release Date: 2018/02

Estimated price: JPY 850* (MYR 31.43* / USD $7.44*)

*The price is subject to change, depending on the situation.

The first on the list is from a line of kit that we haven’t really covered at all here. Due mainly to the fact that we aren’t really interested much on the SD Gundam Series, but as time pass by we do find ourselves taken by how awesome some of these kits looked and seeing how much fun a lot of people had with the SD kits in recently.

So, we figured when we saw this kit announced this is going to be a perfect first time for us.

The DiaoChan Qubeley & General’s Palanquin is a new addition to the BB Senshi Sangokuden series and it the design of the DiaoChan is based from the Qubeley (quite obvious from the name actually) typically with how it was with the SD series they are given that hilarious robot anime eyes.

Honestly just look at it, and here we thought the MS Girls Gunpla’s is weird enough (when I think of It the petite beargguys are weirder). The more we look the more we can’t get over how weird that eyes look.

Regardless, the kit overall looked awesome, it really managed to capture the feminine look for this one. Through the color scheme that was chosen and as well the overall design of the kit (As well the Qubeley is really a good choice in making a female based mecha-ish SD character). We are quite attracted to this, but frankly, we do like it enough to justify getting this.

But we do like how this one looked.

HG 1/144 MS-11 Act Zaku AKA Action Zaku (Kycilia`s Forces) HG Gundam the Origins MSD (HGUC)

Release Date: 2018/01

Estimated price: JPY 1,700* (MYR 63.17* / USD $14.94*)

*The price is subject to change, depending on the situation.

Honestly, when the Gundam the Origins anime started I have never imagined that Bandai would take a lot of the unused older MSV Designs and turn it into proper Gunpla. Though honestly, I was surprised that this didn’t come as a P-Bandai item. Not that is a bad thing, but its fucked up nowadays we are starting to be surprised with announcements/releases like this.

Regardless, we do love the overall look of the Act Zaku. The black color fits the Zaku well as it gives the kit more spec ops feel as compared to the more mass-produced feel of the recently released Zaku II Type C / Type C5. The Act Zaku though do share the same name as the Zaku II by the looks of it, it really doesn’t share anything much that is remotely similar to the Zaku II and still managed to look somewhat similar to the Zaku.

The weapons as well look awesome, we are especially taken by the 4 Barrel Bullpup Gun. That gun really looks awesome and as well the look of 2 of the quite sharp/aggressive looking heat tomahawks out of the 4 heat Tomahawks that was supplied to this (the other two was standard heat tomahawks) kit.

This is looking to be a really promising kit for us to own, it had the looks and so far, we haven’t heard anything bad or disappointing on the HG Gundam the Origins so we can be assured that this is going to be an awesome release. We are looking forward to this one.

HG 1/144 Striker GN-X (HGBF)

Release Date: 2018/01

Estimated price: JPY 1,700* (MYR 63.17* / USD $14.94*)

*The price is subject to change, depending on the situation.

The last announcement on the HG kits on this list is by far, the best looking GN-X Gunpla kit versions to date. We could even say that this looks better than some of the recently released MG P-Bandai releases. We won’t waste time by saying this is definitely the kit that we are looking forward to getting next year.

Heck, we already put this one on our to-do list of 2018 and we mostly here still have no clue of what we are going to be doing next year, haha.

We are ending it far too early on this, aren’t we? How can’t we not? Just look at how this kit looked and tell me you guys aren’t excited about this? What a beaut.

Shame that the same can’t be said for the PG Exia ad Battlelouge episode that it debuted in. I really wish they find a way to make this kit into the 00 Gundam canon, because it deserves better, honestly.

btw if you want to waste our time on an ad just give us this instead of doing that episode

MG 1/100 RGM-79G GM Command (Colony Type) (MG)

Release Date: 2018/01

Estimated price: JPY 2,975* (MYR 110.55* / USD $ 26.14*)

*The price is subject to change, depending on the situation.

Yes, we finally got more info on this kit. From the looks and from what we know now, there isn’t anything new that Bandai is actually offering this kit. I believed that when we first talked about this kit in the last Let’s Talk Gunpla (Vol.24) we have covered most of our concerns and thoughts for this kit. Bandai even confirmed that this is kit is more like the RGM-79SP GM Sniper II by looking at the inner frame for this kit.

Though we were quite disappointed to see that the 3.0 manipulators are not coming for this kit, as for how it was for the GM-79SP GM Sniper II P-Bandai Exclusive White Dingo’s Version. I could understand for the GM Sniper II because of that sniper rifle (even with that I still find it hilarious that they don’t come with it, because the white dingo version has it included, and it worked well for that kit), for the GM Command it made sense to include it in since it doesn’t have that huge sniper rifle to contend with. We just don’t understand why.

As well this kit doesn’t come with new weapons as compared to the GM Sniper II or even to its P-Bandai counterpart the GM Command Space Type. When I think of it, I’m more looking forward to its P-Bandai counterpart then the traditional Release. At least even if it’s going to be similar at least there is more value in getting that version then the GM Command (colony version)

It is disappointing overall but honestly, we would still get this one. Though frankly, we won’t prioritize it as much now as compared to the P-Bandai version, yeah, we would still get it.

RE 1/100 MSA-005K Guncannon Detector (RE/100)

Release Date: 2018/01

Estimated price: JPY 3,400* (MYR 126.34* / USD $ 29.88*)

*The price is subject to change, depending on the situation.

When we saw this listed in the announcement, we were going HELL YEAH AN AWESOME LOOKING Mwaitaminiute….WTF AN RE/100 RELEASE? Lol. Well, that’s not the accurate description but it was pretty close. We were both happy and sad when we heard the news.

Let’s get into the reasons on why we were quite happy with this announcement. First of all, this is really a kit that we have been waiting long and hard for since its first debut in Gundam Unicorn OVA part 4 (and then later on in the TV Series). We remember the first time we saw this Mobile Suit in action (though all it did is just to be killed off in a few seconds after we saw it in action, for a bit) and asked ourselves “oh my, that looks awesome, but I never seen this one before which mobile suit is that again?”. We thought with the reveal Bandai would capitalize and make HG kits, but we were not greeted with any news or information of this kit. So, you can imagine how excited we were when we saw it announced.

Secondly, is on the looks. The reason why we liked the Guncannon Detector is mostly due to is war-winning looks. With a lot of the mecha designs in the mainline UC series to be more less the same this Mobile Suit really stands out to look different then its counterparts and it kind of reminds us of some of the MechWarrior designs. The weapons though look quite weird, it fits well with the overall look for this Mobile suit, and yes that kneel down artillery pose makes all of us here wet our pants. Haha.

You might think that then whats wrong then? We are getting something that is going to be awesome right?

In some ways, yes, but Bandai is releasing this under the RE/100 release. What’s wrong with that you may ask? Well, it’s mainly on the price of this thing, you see it’s very hard to really justify the price of the RE/100 (Well maybe except for the RE/100 nightingale) when the other similar 1/100 (namely the IBO 1/100 series) is a lot cheaper. Although we know the RE/100 kits to be awesome and fun to make, but when you pit it against any of the other cheaper MG kits (again except for the RE/100 Nightingale) I bet you would choose the MG because most of the time the cheaper MG kits would give you more value for your money.

We constantly have to battle with our accountant side when every time we go to any hobby shop, and finding ourselves comparing both the cheaper MG and the RE/100 and coming out with the Cheap MG every time. Honestly, Bandai really needs to check on the pricing of the RE/100 kits because honestly, it doesn’t make sense that this is more expensive than the GM Command.

Make the RE/100 more affordable please, you can do it with the IBO 1/100 which I could say it’s almost like an MG already due to the awesome inner frame. Why the same cannot be done for the RE/100 series? If you said it’s too expensive to make, then why not make an HG version of this instead?

Though despite us being disappointed with the pricing situation, we can’t say we aren’t excited still for the Guncannon Detector. No offense to those that like the RE/100-line but goddamn that price man, I can’t really justify the price here.

Regardless, we might still get this one. Might.

With that ends this edition of Let’s Talk Gunpla Vol.25, we can’t believe that we are at 25th volume already! We hope that we will be able to keep giving you guys more content in the future and as well hopefully have a visual version of this format soon! Regardless, what do you think of the announcements thus far? Are you excited for any of the announcements made by Bandai this time around? As well what do you guys think of the RE/100 pricing in general? Do you think the RE/100 is sold fairly or do you think it’s just too expensive? We do look forward to reading your thoughts on this in the comment section below or in our Reddit post, as well on the kits announced in general!

We will be back next week with more let’s talk Gunpla! As well with a new post this Sunday! So, do look forward to that! Do leave a like here and share this article if you so wish! As always, we do hope you all have an awesome week and weekend ahead! As well may you have fun building gunplas and until the next post!

Ciao!

Sources

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/gundam/

https://www.youtube.com/user/GundamInfo