A pretty UC retail announcement week this is
HELLO!
We are back again this week bringing you guys the 94th Edition of our Let’s Talk Gunpla segment and this week we would be covering news from the retail side! Honestly, we have been aching to be covering all the new retail announcements here since…well most of them here look quite brilliant, to say the least.
Even though we are really happy to be talking about some awesome Retail news this week but what’s even more awesome for us is that this today marks the 2nd year that we’ve been around! Honestly, we really don’t know how we managed to be around for two years, haha. But we do honestly think that we might not have made it this far if it’s not because of the support of all of you wonderful readers here.
Really, we can’t stress enough on how your readership and support means to all of us here. Just to know that we have your support, really inspires us to keep giving the best that we can and hopefully we would be able to keep doing it for the many years to come.
So Thank you, all of you awesome readers, may you be from Reddit, Facebook or Instagram, we really hope that you’ll continue to support us and may we have more good times ahead.
So, now let us now get back to talking about all the wonderful upcoming Retail announcements, shall we?
RG 1/144 XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1 (RG)
Release Date: 2019/05
Estimated price: JPY 2,125* (MYR RM 77.43* / USD $ 19.00*)
*The price is subject to change, depending on the situation
Yes, let us start the segment with something that we are all quite excited with as soon when we saw it announced and one that we feel has all the makings of it becoming a GREAT kit!
Why?
Well, because after a long while we finally see a kit bearing a name that we haven’t heard for quite a while…which was the ‘Gunpla Evolution Project” tag.
YES, they are back! This time they are taking the quite beloved Crossbone Gundam and work in turning the Crossbone into an RG kit! We were quite surprised by the recent RG Crossbone release announcement but we were more surprised to hear that The Gunpla Evolution project chaps had a hand in developing the RG Crossbone!
A tag which so far hasn’t had a disappointing kit attached to its name to date…
As we sat down and see what they had in store for us here, we have to say that there is a lot of things that they are doing to this kit that we are quite impressed with. Like for an instance, that insane level of detail which is seen on the RG Crossbone Gundam especially the one seen on the head unit where you can finally do an open the head unit’s face cover without changing the head unit. What more, they as well gave the RG Crossbone Gundam its iconic Anti-Beam Coated Cloak, which I have to say looked badass here with the kit.
This kit is without a doubt is one that we are pretty excited for, and one that we believe would be another great RG kit. Really, we can’t help to be more hyped up by this awesome kit, especially when you see the Gunpla Evolution Project people again delivering to us another kit that looks freakking badass.
We just hope that it won’t disappoint us like the MG XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam Full Cloth did….Goddamn thinking about it already gave me a bad taste in my mouth.
RE100 XM-07B Vigina-Ghina II (Reborn100)
Release Date: 2019/05
Estimated price: JPY 3,145* (MYR RM 114.60* / USD $ 28.12*)
*The price is subject to change, depending on the situation
Out of all the announcements that we’ve seen coming from the Retail side, this is the only one here that we are really quite surprised to see not being ‘P-Bandai’-zied.
Because most of the time this kind of kits usually would be passed up for a P-Bandai release, especially when one takes a look at it and notice that you really don’t need to do much to convert it into this version.
Really just look at it, the RE100 Vigina-Ghina II only obvious updates that we can see here is only seen on the head unit, backpack unit, the exclusion of the leg verniers and it was as well given a pretty badass looking shot lancer. Oh, before we forget, all of this awesomeness it as well included with a very sexy ‘Char’-ish color scheme given to this MS.
Ok, we admit that is a pretty significant update….but still usually even with this kind of updates, we would still see these kinds of kit getting the P-Bandai treatment. So, yeah knowing Bandai usually we honestly wouldn’t be surprised if this were announced as a P-Bandai since it has all the making of becoming one.
But instead, we get this awesome red Gundam RE100 Vigina-Ghina II as a Retail release, which is a surprise move from Bandai this time and at the same time we are really glad that they did. Hopefully, we would see more kits from both the Crossbone Gundam and the F91 being made for the retail side.
This is probably one that most of us here are quite excited for and as well looking forward to seeing more it of soon!
Moving to the next RE100 release, first, we need to probably need to warn you guys that the next bit, we would be going into a slight rant-ty mode because…well we really do have some strong feelings about this one.
So without further ado, let us get rant-ty
RE100 1/100 MS-06FZ Zaku II FZ (RE100)
Release Date: 2019/05
Estimated price: JPY 2,975* (MYR RM 108.40* / USD $ 26.59*)
*The price is subject to change, depending on the situation
Yes, we are going to be talking about (more like ranting about) the announcement of the RE100 Zaku II FZ.
Honestly, when we saw this we were pretty shocked because this is the opposite of what we were expecting to see being made for retail. Because this was one of the kits that we have been talking about here a lot that we would love to see being made as an MG release…
but yet here we are…..
But before we get into why we are shocked by what we saw, let us first talk about the kit. The RE100 Zaku II FZ is definitely without a doubt one of the best looking Zaku variants that we’ve seen being made into 1/100 scale, ever. Even from looking at the CG render that we are seeing here, it does seem like Bandai made some improvement to the RE100 line up. Like, for instance, they FINALLY GAVE A PROPER “FINGER IN THE TRIGGER” HAND MOULD and some new improvements made to the shoulder unit which shows that this particular Zaku variant has some pretty impressive articulation, better then most RE100’s that we’ve seen in the market.
It is one badass looking Zaku II Variant, and it was as well one that we would admit is the closest thing to the Anime version that we have seen so far. Plus with the fact that all the familiar gimmicks that are making a comeback here with the kit, like the waist armor ammo and grenade storage. As well with the B-type head unit, which we would admit is really winning some brownie points from us.
From a first glance, it looks like this is a very impressive looking RE100 kit and as we looked at this, we can’t help to feel like Bandai really made this kit to cater to us, the fans. It looks like a kit that is made for us.
Which makes us wonder…why then would you release it as an RE100 release?
When we look at this we can’t help to feel quite dumbfounded, like seriously we can’t understand what is going through their mind when they look at this fan favorite kit and decided collectively that this, after having most of the other War in the Pocket kits being made into an MG kit thinks that this should get an RE100 release instead.
As we looked at this, we all really can’t help to feel like Bandai just gave us a huge slap on the face with the announcement of this kit.
Why do we feel as such?
Well, first and for most like we said before, this is the very first 1/100 scaled War in the Pocket kit that doesn’t get the coveted MG release. You might be wondering, why is this a problem since they are all being made on the same scale, this is not really a problem. Well yes, but the reason why I brought this up, even though we admit that this is a minor issue is that because it matters to those that probably is a collector.
Because imagine what a collector goes through when he/she goes his/her collection list and see this:-
- MG 1/100 RX-78NT-1 Gundam “Alex” Ver 1.0 and the upcoming Ver 2.0
- MG 1/100 MS-18E Kämpfer
- MG 1/100 RGM-79SP GM Sniper II
- MG 1/100 RGM-79G GM Command
- MG 1/100 RGM-79GS GM Command Space Type
- RE100 1/100 MS-06FZ Zaku II FZ
Yes, it is the real odd one out. Not to mention as well that it breaks the whole continuity line up.
We can as well understand how those that love the Zeon based mobile suits from the War in the Pocket series or those that are thinking about completing their MG War in the Pocket collection would feel when seeing this list. Because we were asking the same question too, on why the same obscure-ish Feddie suits get more MG love than the more ‘integral’ to the story plot Zeke suit. It is really an unjust thing that Bandai is doing here and we honestly cannot stand this Zeke injustice and it is unfair that the Zeon has to endure this nonsense.
Goddamn, we got a little bit out of hand there, but I do hope you get our point there. Now moving on…
Secondly, the overall quality issue. The reason is brought this up is because we’ve been hearing some stability issues plaguing some of the RE100 releases from first-hand accounts from friends and we admit that because of a lot of the horror stories that we’ve heard, we kind of has been put off from buying the RE100 kits because of it. We really hope that might not be the case for this kit, but if we were, to be honest? We won’t be surprised if the same problem plaguing the RE100 series would be present here.
Which we are a bit concerned with because recently we see a lot of Bandai related plamodels from different IP’s being planned for release. Which does make us wonder if they are shifting their existing resources into making other non-gunpla related stuff? Or are they slowly moving away from making gunplas to focus on more bigger IPs then instead of focusing on the main money maker?
Even though, we can’t confirm any of these claims that I’m making here and I sincerely do hope that all of these is wrong because there is a lot that we are seeing being released for the Gunpla line up which is still looking quite badass. But we really can’t shake the feeling up by just looking at how much kits from different IP’s they have released or are going to be releasing in this year. Because looking at all this different IP’s being made, one can’t help to feel that Bandai is slowly gravitating towards them and we wouldn’t be surprised if we are seeing fewer kits coming from them.
Though it must be said that we have no problem with RE100 line up in general. Despite people saying that the RE100’s is technically just bigger scaled HG’s kit, but we appreciate the existence of RE100 line up as a platform for Bandai to release weird and obscure MS to test the market. But ever since we see them taking on the MS’s that is seen in the anime and ones that are as well fan favorites into the RE100 we are starting to see Bandai becoming lazy with their UC 1/100 releases.
Even though we do feel like a lot of what we are seeing here its made with fans of the Zaku II FZ but it felt more like a lot of the gimmicks there feels like it was built there to appease the fans, to cash in on us. It wasn’t included because they really wanted to create something awesome, because if they do want to do that. They could’ve given us an MG version.
and that’s why when we saw this, we are quite disappointed to see that they are taking this approach.
Regardless, we are going to still support the release of the RE100 Zaku II FZ, because we hope if we were to be able to show our support for the Zaku II FZ we might be able to see it being made into MG still….maybe…we hope
Hopefully, we would still be able to get the Gelgoog Jäger as an MG release and oh speaking about War in the Pocket kits….and the MG Alex
MG 1/100 RX-78NT-1 Gundam “Alex” Ver.2.0 (MG)
Release Date: 2019/05
Estimated price: JPY 4,930* (MYR RM 179.74* / USD $ 44.03*)
*The price is subject to change, depending on the situation
Finally, we get to talk about the MG NT-1 Gundam Alex VER.2.0 and frankly its good to be able to end this weeks segment with something positive for once.
The MG NT-1 Gundam Alex Ver.2.0 is a kit that we have been hearing rumors about it since late last year. However, at the time we aren’t that sure whether we would be seeing it be announced as an MG release or an RE100 release. Because all we the piece of information that we had at the time is that there would be two 1/100 War in the Pocket kits that is set for release in the middle of 2019, it was really vague at the time so we really don’t want to report on it yet. Because we know that Bandai does have the tendencies to cancel a project halfway through.
So when we finally saw it, we have to admit it was more than what we were expecting it to be and for us to have the chance to talk about it on this special day? Does really make us really happy!
When we saw the MG NT-1 Gundam Alex Ver.2.0 for the first time, we admit that this version is looking to be a much more a formidable version what we’ve seen with the previous version. Which had a lot of new spiffy upgrades over the previous version, in which we felt like the upgrades were quite impressive. They as well finally gave it a proper inner frame, which suspiciously looked similar like the one seen on the MG Jegan. But the one that we felt which was the most impressive change over the previous version that was made here for the MG Alex Ver.2.0 is that on the addition Cobham Armor inner frame.
Seriously we all here do think that the updated MG Alex Ver.2.0 looks like it’s going to be a brilliant kit and not to mention that we are as well really super impressed by the level of detail and upgrades over the previous iteration that we are seeing here. Yes, even though we are getting two 1/100 War in the Pocket kits but this is definitely the one that we are really looking forward to and definitely the one that we feel is worth investing money on.
It’s just sad that Bandai still thinks that we wouldn’t want an MG Zaku II FZ at this time, because we would definitely be getting the both of them together side by side to recreate the epic final battle…
The part before one becomes a pretty burned hamburger.
With that ends our 94th edition of our Let’s Talk Gunpla segment! What do you think of this week’s Retail announcements? Is there anything from this week’s retail news that you are really looking forward to? This week there is a lot of awesome (and not so awesome) kits set for release in the coming months, and to be frank, regardless of what we feel about some of the kits that we talked about here. We do admit that things are looking quite positive overall for the retail side and we are quite excited to see more of them soon!
Even though, we are going to be getting that Zaku II FZ as an RE100 release. That means there is no MG Hamburger figure that comes with the kit..dang we really wanted to place that in the cockpit of the Zaku instead of Having Bernie there as a pilot. That would definitely be a good plastic meme.
Anyways, we will be back again with more Let’s Talk Gunpla Segment on the next coming Wednesday and this Sunday Kimi will be back with an unboxing of a very familiar kit! So do look forward too that!
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Anyways, we shall see all of you again next week, and we hope that you all have an awesome week and weekend ahead! Have an awesome Gunpla building time there as well and until next time!
Ciao!
Kimi The Builder 