Talking about the last bit of the upcoming retail releases at the start of 2023
HELLO! We are back!
In today’s 440th edition of our Let’s Talk Gunpla segment, we will continue where we left off with the last week’s latest retail Gunpla release announcements. Finally, we’re at the final two retail releases! Even though we’re now at the final two releases, that doesn’t mean these are ones that we don’t find interesting.
We, in fact, do find these interesting.
It’s just that we’re still trying to decide whether we are preordering these or not.
So, without further ado. Let us get into it, shall we?
SD Gundam Cross Silhouette Tornado Gundam (SDCS)
Release Date: April 2023
Estimated price: JPY 1,760 (MYR RM 58.02* / USD $ 13.12* / EUR € 12.34*)
*The price is subject to change, depending on the situation
With the absence of a new SDCS lineup announcement last year and the introduction of the new MGSD lineup, we all thought Bandai finally killed the SDCS lineup.
So to see a new SDCS release announcement does come as a surprise to all of us here, especially when the upcoming SDCS kit is another good-looking MS Design from the SD Gundam G Generation series.
Admittedly, we are fans of the SD Gundam G Generation’s unique MS design, the Tornado Gundam. So, as you can imagine, we are all excited to see the Gunpla form of the Tornado Gundam.
Not to mention, we are happy to see that they even made it look impressively good. What is more impressive here is that Bandai even went as far as to give the SDCS Tornado all the features we all know that the SD Gundam G Generation had. Like the underarm Gattling Gun, the Mk.II inspired beam rifle and an articulated backpack unit.
And since it is an SDCS kit, it also means that it will come with parts that would enable you to convert it into the Cross Silhouette version, which comes with better articulation when compared to the SD version.
But admittedly, despite our adoration for this kit, we’re still on the fence about this.
Yes, it does look good overall. But it still had bits that reminded us that this kit has that SD kit DNA. What that means is that you have a lot of parts that had empty bits. And not to mention, some of the gimmicks that this kit gets don’t come with an actual mechanism to make it work properly. Instead, they give us two versions of the same part to make the ‘gimmick’ work.
We know that it is an easy fix for those that are a bit anal about how their kit looked, but at this stage, we wish that Bandai would make a bit of effort to make it look like a real improvement over the previous releases. To see it be like all the other previous SDCS kits is a bit disappointing. We wanted it to get the same revival treatment as the RG series, but instead, they decided to be lazy here.
Yes, we like what we see here, but we are unsure if we wanted to support a lineup that doesn’t look like it had any hope of seeing any improvement or that it’ll continue growing.
HG 1/144 Demi Barding (HGTWFM)
Release Date: May 2023
Estimated price: JPY 2,090 (MYR RM 70.22* / USD $ 15.58* / EUR € 14.66*)
*The price is subject to change, depending on the situation
The HGTWFM Demi Barding might be the first MS design from this series that we find ourselves a little unsure of what we feel about it.
Even in its Gunpla form, we struggle to find reasons to like this.
Yes, we admit that it is a badass version of the Demi Trainer, and it is nice to see that the same people behind the Demi Trainer design and construction had something looking badass like this.
We also like that the HGTWFMM Demi Barding looked like a combination of the GM design from the war in the pocket series and the Gundam Guision. We also love all the badass gimmicks this kit gets, like the beam saber storage in the thigh armor part and some of the backpack gimmicks.
But the thing that takes us out from liking this kit more is the weird addition to the HGTWFM Demi Barding’s backpack, a Demi Trainer head unit. Despite it being a unique addition, and yes, it makes this release stand out over the other HGTWFM releases. However, it is not an addition that we here find appealing.
In fact, we find it hard to take this release seriously when looking at it at the back and seeing another Demi Trainer head unit. It’s like the designer purposely put it there for a laugh. But it is not to say that we do not understand the practicality of having a second sensor or having two pilots operating in one MS. But they could’ve designed it to look more practical than placing another MS head at the back.
But we admit that there is still some appeal to this, and we might reconsider if Bandai made it look badass in battle.
For now, however, we will not be preordering this.
And that concludes our 440th edition of the Let’s Talk Gunpla segment for today. Finally, we get to cover all Retail releases!
Admittedly, we are a bit disappointed that all they announced this round is new HG kits. We were expecting to see new MG kits or new RG kits. But we suppose that is not a part of Bandai’s plan for the first half of 2023.
Anyways. We’ll be back again next week’s Thursday (hopefully), so do look forward to this Saturday’s week’s post!
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!
Kimi The Builder 