Kimi The Builder

Talking about all the Upcoming TWFM kit releases, part 1

HELLO! We are back! 

In today’s 418th edition of our Let’s Talk Gunpla segment, we will continue where we left off with the retail releases and focus on The Witch From Mercury releases! And my god, Bandai dropped a lot of new Gunpla announcements for this series! 

However, today we will only cover all the Gundams from The Witch From Mercury Gunpla release announcements for this round. We will cover the rest in the upcoming segment. 

So, without further ado. Let us get into it, shall we?

FM 1/100 XVX-016 Gundam Aerial (FULL MECHANICS)

Release Date: March 2023

Estimated price: JPY 4,180 (MYR RM 133.76* / USD $ 28.89* / EUR € 29.26*)

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

When we saw Bandai announce the Full Mechanics Gundam Aerial, we honestly weren’t surprised by its reveal. Seeing how well the HGTWFM Gundam Aerial is selling and all the positive responses that most builders have given to it, it is clear that the positive news gives Bandai the confidence to move forward to release the Full Mechanics version. 

And we think it’s a good move from Bandai too. Seeing how the first episode of The Witch From Mercury anime is currently doing, the announcement of the Full Mechanics Aerial Gundam does help to generate more hype for the series. Especially when the FM version makes the already badass Gundam Aerial look even more badass here. 

In the Full Mechanics version, you get to see in more detail how every single bit of the Gundam Aerial looks on a 1/100 scale. But best of all, it’s nice that you get proper clear bit parts for the colored clear bits for the Gundam Aerial.

However, if you’re hoping that Bandai designed the FM Aerial Gundam with an MG-like inner frame, well, don’t. Because from what we see here, it looks like the FM Aerial doesn’t come with an inner-frame system. 

Besides the pretty good details you’re getting here, we’re also getting some impressive articulation for the FM Gundam Aerial.

But even with that said, the details we see on its armor and its clear bits looked fantastic.

All in all, we here think this is one exciting announcement from Bandai, and it gives us hope that we’ll eventually see the MG version of this out sooner than later. 

Oh, and it’s nice to finally get a proper display stands together in the same release to showcase its badass Shield bits in action. 

HG 1/144 Gundam Lfrith Thorn (HGTWFM)

Release Date: March 2023

Estimated price: JPY 1,760 (MYR RM 56.32* / USD $ 12.16* / EUR € 12.32*)

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

Seeing how most people were becoming fans of the mass production design of the Lfrith, we are surprised that Bandai decided not to release that version before getting to its variants.  

But even with that said, we don’t think it’s a bad idea, especially when we see the variants look as badass as the mass-production versions. 

So, after we spend time looking at it, what do we think of the first variant, the HGTWFM Gundam Lfrith Thorn? 

Well, look-wise, we agree with some of you that this looked like a combination of the designs of Gundam Lfrith, Gundam Guision Rebake Full City, Core Gundam, and the Byarlant. 

Even its color scheme reminds us of the Gundam Guision, which does make us wonder if the color selection is intentional here. 

But what do we think of the Gunpla itself? 

Well, to be honest? We think that it looked a bit weird and funny. But at the same time, we also find it appealing. 

We like that the designers made the Lfrith Thorn’s arm length longer than its legs. Although, we admit that the overall design makes the Lfrith Thorn look like a monkey. But at the same time, it looked practical. 

But best of all, we like Lfrith Thorn’s overall design because it reminds us of all the wacky and funny MS designs from the G Gundam series, and anything that reminds us of those wacky designs wins some brownie points from us. 

Not to mention, we sincerely believe that it is brave of Bandai to return to wacky Gundam designs, especially in a new mainline Gundam series.  

But this isn’t the only Gundam Lfrith variant that we are getting.

HG 1/144 Gundam Lfrith UR (HGTWFM)

Release Date: March 2023

Estimated price: JPY 2,090 (MYR RM 66.88* / USD $ 14.44* / EUR € 14.63*)

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

If the Lfrith Thorn is a wacky and fun design from Bandai, the Lfrith UR, however, is the Lfrith variant with a more familiar look and design. 

But it’s ok because we don’t expect every MS design for this series to look wacky, maybe one or two, yes, but not all of them. 

But even with that said, admittedly, we do like what we see here. The design of the Lfrith UR looked like a combination of the Core Gundam, Heavyarms, and the Virtue Gundam into one MS. 

Honestly? We think this looked pretty neat. 

We here love the bulky look of the Lfrith UR and its Blue-ish green main color scheme. Also, we find ourselves loving the Gundam Heavyarms-inspired chaingun that the Lfrith UR is using here. We also love the badass look of the mounted shield unit at the back of the Lfrith UR. Heck, even the one attached to the Lfrith Thorn looked badass. 

Looking at these two HGTWFM Lfrith variants shield units makes us wonder if the shield works the same way as the Aerial’s shield bits. 

But overall, we think this is a pretty neat Lfrith variant. 

However, we noticed the two HGTFWM Lfrith variants share something in common. The mounting holes at their back. The mounting holes we see in their promotional materials indicate to us that the designers designed these two to be able to mount more badass types of equipment on their backs. 

So, is this an indication that we’ll see Bandai release more part expansions for these two HGTWFM Lfrith kits? If that is the case, we are looking forward to that! 

And that concludes our 418th edition of the Let’s Talk Gunpla segment for today. God, there is still a lot to go with the HGTWFM releases, but we’re looking forward to covering all of them as we move on. And hopefully, we’ll get to the point where we can talk about The Gundam Base Limited’s upcoming releases! 

Anyways, we’ll be back again this coming Saturday (hopefully) with a new blog post. So, please do look forward to that! 

Oh, one more thing before we go, it would be a tremendous help to us all here in the blog if you guys were to leave a like on our posts and subscribe to the blog if you find yourselves enjoying our gunpla/plamo-related posts. We would appreciate it if you guys would take the time to show your support by leaving an upvote on our R/Gunpla posts and by leaving a like on our Facebook and Instagram posts or pages! 

We are also open to any good and bad feedback, so feel free to write away.

Hopefully, by sharing our love and passion for building and writing about gunplas or other plamos here, we sincerely hope this post will inspire you guys to pick up on the hobby. Or better yet, reignite your love and passion for the hobby.

We shall see all of you again soon, and we hope all of you here have a splendid day and week ahead! Oh, before we go, please have an excellent time building your awesome gunplas there and until next time.

Ciao!