A bunch of badass Retail kits!
HELLO! We are back!
In today’s 458th edition of our Let’s Talk Gunpla segment, we will discuss all the latest retail Gunpla release announcements! And after a somewhat long wait, the retail side finally revealed a new RG Gundam-related announcement!
So, without further ado. Let us get into it, shall we?
FM 1/100 GAT-X252 Forbidden Gundam (Full Mechanics)
Release Date: June 2023
Estimated price: JPY 6,380 (MYR RM 216.35* / USD $ 48.56* / EUR € 44.74*)
*The price is subject to change, depending on the situation
For the life of us, we can never understand why Bandai refuses to let the three Blue Cosmos Gundams get that MG treatment.
Yes, their introduction and the three’s involvement throughout the SEED series are forgettable at best but come on, they deserve the MG treatment like the rest of the SEED MSs.
But it’s not like we have a problem with Bandai’s decision to make the Forbidden an FM release. We’re okay with it if there is hope that we’ll see them getting that MG treatment eventually. But knowing Bandai, we don’t think we get to see them getting that MG treatment.
Even with that said, after we spent time looking at the FM Forbidden Gundam, we admit they did a good job here, especially on the looks and the gimmicks part.
Yes, you heard us right Bandai Full Mechanics design team got the Forbidden’s looks right. What do we mean by this? It means they designed the aesthetics of the FM Forbidden Gundam to match the MG SEED REMASTER and the SEED Ver.2.0 kits. That enables the FM Forbidden to be a good companion piece to the MG SEED REMASTER or SEED Ver.2.0 you want to pair it with.
Which is impressive, if we were, to be honest here.
The other thing that we are impressed with is its MA transformation gimmicks. Admittedly, when we compared its transformation gimmick to the raider, yes, it is not that impressive. But it’s hard to deny that it accurately matches its anime counterpart, from its looks to its transformation gimmicks.
All in all, this is one of the most impressive and exciting things we’ve seen, and we are really looking forward to getting it!
SDCS RX-0 Gundam Unicorn 02 Banshee (Destroy Mode) & Banshee Norn part set (SD Gundam Cross-Silhouette)
Release Date: July 2023
Estimated price: JPY 2,200 (MYR RM 74.60* / USD $ 16.75* / EUR € 15.43*)
*The price is subject to change, depending on the situation
Admittedly, we are surprised to see Bandai announcing a new SDCS kit in 2023.
We all thought that with the release of the MGSD kit and seeing the Gunpla builder’s positive reception of the MGSD, we assumed that there was no way Bandai would announce another new SDCS kit.
But it seems we are wrong because Bandai just announced a new SDCS for the retail side.
Honestly, though, this is one of those things we do not mind being wrong. Because we all here agree that the SDCS is one of those lineups that we all here have a lot of fun working on. Not to mention, it has a lot of badass-looking kits to work on. Honestly, we are all excited to get a new SDCS kit.
And what better way to restart the SDCS line than by releasing another Unicorn variant, but this time it’s the turn of the Gundam Unicorn Banshee?
Even though we are still experiencing that Unicorn Gundam variant fatigue, we don’t mind getting this version of the Unicorn as an SDCS kit. Because admittedly, this is one badass-looking SD Unicorn Banshee variant we’ve seen. And the best thing we like about this release is that they included the banshee norn parts, so you can easily convert your SDCS Banshee into that lovely Banshee Norn variant.
The only downside to this release is that they still refuse to include the Cross-Silhouette frame for this release. I believe that if they were to bundle the Cross-Silhouette frame with this Bandai probably be able to encourage more people to pick up the SDCS kit.
All in all, we are looking forward to this one. Hopefully, it’ll be as good as how it looked.
RG 1/144 OZ-13MS Gundam Epyon (RG)
Release Date: July 2023
Estimated price: JPY 4,620 (MYR RM 156.66* / USD $ 35.17* / EUR € 32.39*)
*The price is subject to change, depending on the situation
I bet no one out there expected Bandai to announce the RG Epyon. Even all of us here didn’t expect Bandai to release this.
We expected Bandai to announce something different besides another MS design from the Wing series. But then again, we should’ve expected it, especially considering most builders we talk to that have built the 2021 RG Wing Gundam love that kit.
And unsurprisingly, many of them are very excited with the news of the upcoming RG Epyon.
And after looking at this kit, we can understand why one would be excited about this upcoming RG release. Honestly, this might be one of the best-looking RG kits from the Wing series that we’ve seen.
There is a lot to love here, for one, the overall looks and design of the RG Epyon. We are impressed they made it look manacing in MS and MA forms. Not to mention, they made it look good too! So good, in fact, that they managed to make a non-fan like us interested in getting the RG Epiyon.
But the real reason that really sells us the idea of getting this RG kit is its badass MA form. Yes, the only reason why we are interested in getting this is that it looked so badass in that MA form.
It’s hard to imagine anyone that would want to pass this up.
And that concludes our 458th edition of the Let’s Talk Gunpla segment. Even though we didn’t get any new MG or PG news, we are still quite impressed by the quality of the kits Bandai announced this time.
It has been quite a while since we’ve seen several retail releases that we are really excited about!
Hopefully, these kits will turn out fantastic!
Anyways. We’ll be back again next Thursday (hopefully) with a new blog post. 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 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 all of you 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 