Now we can finally move on to talk about new awesome things.
HELLO! We are back!
In today’s 171st edition of Let’s Talk Gunpla segment, we will be continuing where we left off with the recently Retail news and today we will be finally finishing all this newest batch in today’s segment. Which we will be mostly covering all the HGBD: R’s additional Gunpla parts for their existing HGBD: R kits.
So without further ado, let us get into it, shall we?
HG 1/144 Unnamed Villain Armor unit expansion (HGBD: R)
Release Date: 2020/06
Estimated price: JPY 722* (MYR RM 26.97* / USD $ 6.45* / EUR € 5.97*)
*The price is subject to change, depending on the circumstances
The one thing that we all here have learned from seeing the Gundam Build Diver: ReRise series gunpla releases as a whole is that the creators of this series really LOVES the Nu-Gundam. Because in this particular series alone we have seen two Gundam Build Divers interpretation of the Nu released as a Gunpla kit. One of them was the Nu-Zeon and another is this.
An armor unit for the ‘Evil’ Core Gundam variant.
Eventhough it doesn’t look exactly like the Nu, but alot of its Nu like features does make the kit look really good. We are a fan of the “2 faces” horns here it does make the armor look really unique.
Not to mention the thornier design and look of the Armor piece does make some parts of the Armor Nu look really good. Although what really impresses most of us here, is the fact that they managed to take a look that most of us are quite familiar with by now and make it look as if this is we saw the design for the first time.
We are really impressed by this Armor unit.
However….
HG 1/144 Unnamed Villain Armor Weapons Expansion (HGBD: R)
Release Date: 2020/06
Estimated price: JPY 595* (MYR RM 22.23* / USD $ 5.31* / EUR € 4.92*)
*The price is subject to change, depending on the circumstances
When we saw these, we here don’t understand why Bandai didn’t just include the weapons together with the Armor as one part set release. For something that is technically quite crucial to the overall release, we here do find it weird that Bandai decided to release them this way.
They excluded out the funnels, the beam saber and the beam rifle out so they can sell them as a separate release. This is are all essential additions that you need if you are thinking of fully converting your Evil Core Gundam into that badass looking Evil Core Gundam/Nu hybrid.
That is if you are as well blessed with good luck. Because as some of us here have experianced, if you are late to the party then the possibility of getting the exact parts that you need to create the variant that you want might be close to impossible.
Although, looking at this does make us wonder, if Bandai actually has plans to release all of these as a regular Gunpla release, with the Evil Core Gundam included? Because looking at the way that they are going at, we feel that it made no sense for them to separate the releases like this.
But the Evil Core Gundam isn’t the only one that gets this kind of treatment…..
HG 1/144 Unnamed Hero Gundam Armor set Expansion (HGBD: R)
Release Date: 2020/06
Estimated price: JPY 722* (MYR RM 26.97* / USD $ 6.45* / EUR € 5.97*)
*The price is subject to change, depending on the circumstances
Because from what we are seeing here, the Hero Core Gundam as well gets a pretty sweet looking armor piece too.
and just like the Unraven Gundam, the armor parts do look really well crafted here. WE like the fact that it looked more polished now when compared to the 1st season’s Core Gundam variant.
Especially when you have the armor piece attached on the Core Gundam.
Which brings us slowly to the next bit….
HG 1/144 Hero Gundam’s New Armor set Weapons Expansion (HGBD: R)
Release Date: 2020/06
Estimated price: JPY 510* (MYR RM 19.05* / USD $ 4.55* / EUR € 4.22*)
*The price is subject to change, depending on the circumstances
Just like the ‘Evil’ Core Gundam ‘Nu’ armor and weapons set that we just discussed previously, we are not a fan of the weapons being sold separately to the main Armor piece.
But when something looks like this, which looks like its unrelated to the kit. We are quite fine with them selling it separately like this. Because it doesn’t look like it something that is essential for you to add on, unlike the Evil Core Gundam/Nu variant that we discussed previously.
Although that is not the only thing that is good with this weapon set because we as well do find that this is quite a unique mounted weapon system. Why? Well because unlike all the other mounted weapons that we’ve seen, which usually would be a mounted missile pod or a beam cannon, what you get here is an arm-mounted melee weapon.
Although this might not be the first time that we see an arm-mounted melee weapon used like this, but it may be the first time that we see a huge arm-mounted melee weapon that looks as big as ZZ’s arm beam cannon used on an MS like this (refer to the picture below). Honestly, we are quite curious to see how this would actually work in the anime. Maybe then we can get a clearer picture of how this weapon system actually works in-universe.
Overall, even though we all here do like the HGBD: R expansion parts that the announced this round, but we do want to stress out on how much we are not a fan of Bandai’s way of selling all of these parts.
Yes, we get the idea that they are trying to make both Core Gundam variants to be like the gunpla version of the 30mm kits. But at the very least with the 30mm kits, we can understand the concept that they are trying to do with those. Where not one variant of the mecha is the same and you can customize the Mech to be whatever you want it to be.
Look Bandai we are fine if the weapons and armor being unrelated to each other, but if you designed it in a way that makes it essential that you have the whole set like we see with the Evil Core Gundam/Nu Gundam variant, you better make damn sure that you include all of that in one release.
With that concludes today’s 171st edition of our Let’s Talk Gunpla segment! What do you think of all of these retail HGBD: R additional gunpla parts release announcements? Are you looking forward to these retail HGBD: R additional gunpla parts releases? We are sorry if we ended this segment with a rant, but we only did it because we love all the awesome additions that was made here, and it was a bit disappointing to see Bandai doing this when they could just sell everything together.
Yes, although we do realize that the parts are sold quite cheap, that shouldn’t be a reason to do this. It’s just that we hope that Bandai would make life easier for the builders when all the parts release as a singular release. So the late adopters (like us most likely) won’t have to go through the pain of not being able to get the parts that you want when you want to get related parts together in one go.
Hopefully, we hope that this would be the last time we see Bandai pull this off.
Anyways, we will be back again with more Let’s Talk Gunpla segment next week on the same day, next Wednesday and Friday! Kimi as well will be back again this Monday with a new Unboxing or a Review or a WIP blog post. So do look forward to that!
Please do leave a like and comment if you enjoy this post from us here in the blog or you can as well do so through our R/ Gundam Subreddit posts and thorough FB or Instagram! Your support really means the world to all of us here in the blog and we as well sincerely hope that you all continue to support us along the way of this gunpla journey that we are all on. As well feel free to give us some feedback and comment if you think there are areas in the post that we can work on, to further improve our blog posts in the future!
We hope by sharing our love and passion for gunplas here, it’ll inspire you to pick up the hobby or reignite your love for gunpla!
Anyways, we shall see all of you again on Friday, and we hope that you all have an awesome day and week ahead! Oh as well please do have an awesome Gunpla building time there as well and until next time!
Ciao!
Kimi The Builder 