Kimi The Builder

Beautiful Retail HG goodness, part 1

HELLO! We are back! 

In today’s 437th edition of our Let’s Talk Gunpla segment, we’ll talk about some of the latest Gunpla retail release announcements from the Hobby Next Phase Winter 2022 event that just hit the internet recently. 

From the looks of it, it looks like there is a lot of new badass HGs coming next year. But we are not going to talk about all of them in this blog post. We’ll first talk about the ones we’re looking forward to most here in this blog, and then we’ll wrap everything up in the next blog post.

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

HG 1/144 RX-77-02 Guncannon (Cucuruz Doan Island Version)(HGCDI)

Release Date: May 2023

Estimated price: JPY 2,530 (MYR RM 84.91* / USD $ 19.13* / EUR € 18.02*)

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

Admittedly when we have that discussion about all the upcoming HG kits that we think Bandai might reveal, we purposely avoided talking about this one. Why? Well, we here assumed at first that the HGCDI Guncannon was a P-Bandai exclusive HG kit.

And boy, we got that one wrong. It looked like the HGCDI Guncannon will be the first HGCDI kit to get that retail treatment.

But it is the kind of thing we don’t mind being wrong about here.

Anyways. From what we can see here, the HGCDI Guncannon looks pretty impressive. We would even go as far as to say that this version looked better than its HGUC Revive counterpart. Even when compared to the HGOrigins version that they based it on, we would go as far as to say that this version looked even better than that.

Yes, we’re aware they based the HGOrigins version on the test type variant, so it makes sense why the HGCDI version looked better. But still, one can’t help to compare those two together.

Admittedly, we find it strange that despite sharing so much from the HGOrigins version, the small changes Bandai made to the head unit design and that small addition of the HGCDI Guncannon’s chest unit was enough to make this look better than its HGOrigins counterpart.

Maybe it’s also because of the badass red color scheme Bandai used here and all the badass decals it gets. Or it’s because the HGOrigins Guncannon is already a badass-looking kit, and since the HGCDI Guncannon has the same HGOrigins Guncannon’s DNA, it doesn’t require too much work for Bandai to make it look even better.

Whatever the reason is, we all agree this is a badass-looking Guncannon variant.

The other thing we liked about this release is the HGCDI Guncannon comes with two backpack unit options. That means you can easily recreate the two Guncannon versions piloted by Kai and Hayato in Gunpla form. Also, it means that all we need to do to get that two versions is to get two of these.

The other thing we liked about Bandai, including in this option part for the HGCDI Guncannon, is that it reminds us of the old HGUC Guncannon (not the Revive version, we are talking about the one released in 1999).

Why?

Because of that version of the HGUC Guncannon, you can easily swap the cannon part, just like what we see with the HGCDI Guncannon.

And that is the real reason why we are excited to get this one.

HG 1/144 Zowort Heavy (HGTWFM)

Release Date: April 2023

Estimated price: JPY 1,760 (MYR RM 59.06* / USD $ 13.31* / EUR € 12.54*)

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

The reveal of this version of the Zowort doesn’t surprise us. 

When they revealed Zowort Heavy during The Witch From Mercury episode 4, we all wondered when Bandai would give this Badass MS that Gunpla treatment it deserves. But at the same time, we wonder if this version of the Zowort will be locked away by P-Bandai because there was always a possibility that the P-Bandai would lock this away as a premium release.

So yes, we are glad to see that this gets the retail release and to be honest, this HGTWFM kit is the one we all here are looking forward to getting.

Why?

Well, it’s because it looks like the more badass version of the GM Spartan.

What’s more, unlike the lighter look of the standard Zowort, which doesn’t look like something that formidable in close-quarters combat, we can see that they designed the Zowort Heavy specifically for close-quarters battles. Even despite sharing the same look and characteristics as the standard Zowort. 

But why is that, you may ask?

For one, the HGTWFM Zowort Heavy gets a more war-like look and a more war-like color scheme. Secondly, it comes equipped with magazine pouches attached to its front armor skirts, like a spec-ops operator unit. Lastly, it comes with badass backpack weapons.

But despite all the new things the HGTWFM Zowort Heavy is getting, we can see that it still retains many of the same characteristics as its standard version. That is why despite our adoration of this, we do not think the building experience of the HGTWFM Zowort Heavy would be any different. In fact, we are expecting this to be more and less the same. 

However, if given a choice between this and the standard Zowort, we would definitely get the HGTWFM Zowort Heavy.

HG 1/144 Gundam Schwarzette (HGTWFM)

Release Date: June 2023

Estimated price: JPY 2,090 (MYR RM 70.14* / USD $ 15.81* / EUR € 14.89*)

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

We want to admit first that this HGTWFM kit looked awfully familiar.

Look-wise it reminds us of the Gundam Vidar from the IBO series. Even the Gundam Schwarzette weapons designs looked like the MS Designers got inspiration from seeing Gundam Vidar’s weapons.

But then again, we shouldn’t be that surprised to see some of the MS designs in this series have some connections in design from the IBO series since they had Ippei Gyōbu working on the MS design for this series as well.

But even without us noticing the Gundam Vidar DNA (or using it as a reference on the design) on this one, it does look like it had some of Dilanza’s DNA. So does that mean the Jeturks decided to make their own version of the Gundam? Or is it that the Jeturks originally designed the Dilanza’s to be a Gund-Arm MS, and because of the Gundam ban, they decided to redesign it? 

Whatever our speculation on this MS design is, we’ll wait and see until we see it animated so we all can learn more about it. 

Anyways. Let us now shift our focus back to the HGTWFM Gundam Schwarzette. 

Despite what we said about the HGTWFM Gundam Schwarzette having the Dilanza (and the Gundam Vidar) DNA on it, admittedly, the only thing that we can see it shares with the HGTWFM Dilanza is its chest unit. The head, arm, and leg units looked like something taken from any of the HGIBO Gundam frames (unfortunately, not the HGIBO Gundam Vidar). We wouldn’t be surprised if Bandai reused some of the familiar IBO joint systems on this HGTWFM kit.

But even with that said, it does fit with the overall look. 

Also, we think that the HGTWFM Gundam Schwarzette’s Vidar-inspired handheld weapon looked badass. But to be honest? We think it looks like a more refined version of the Vidar’s handheld weaponry.

All in all, we are as well excited to get our hands on this one as well. But seeing how most of the HGTWFM kits we wanted to get go out of stock as soon as they hit our shores, we hope the HGTWFM Gundam Schwarzette will still be in stock long enough for us to get it as soon as it hits our shores.

And that concludes our 437th edition of the Let’s Talk Gunpla segment for today. It’s nice to see the retail side come out swinging after weeks of letting the P-Bandai side hog all the new Gunpla release’s glory. Even though all the new announcements are from the HG lineup, we are still happy that Bandai is still giving us peasants something to look forward to next year.

Anyways, we’ll be back again this Saturday (hopefully) to continue where we left off. 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!