Kimi The Builder

The Gunpla releases from the Shizuoka Hobby Show 2023! Part: 5

HELLO! We are back! 

In today’s 474th edition of our Let’s Talk Gunpla segment, we will be taking the time to talk about the SD side of the Gunpla release announcements from the Shizuoka Hobby Show 2023. However, we won’t cover all of the SD release announcements at this event, especially since most of us aren’t big fans of the SD series, and we will only talk about the ones that we think are relevant to most.

Finally, we get to cover that one SD release we’re keen on. 

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

SDCross Silhouette F-Kunoichi Ken (SDCSBM)

Release Date: September 2023

Estimated price: JPY 1,980 (MYR RM 65.72* / USD $ 14.24* / EUR € 13.31*)

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

We have seen some good, some meh, and some pretty badass releases from the Gundam Build Metaverse series, but the one release announcement from this series that we are really impressed by is this SDCSB release. 

Yes, admittedly, even though Bandai only made one SD for this series, it looked so impressive that we genuinely feel they should’ve made more ‘custom Gunplas’ in this SDCS form.

The best part? We know this kit would have a decent amount of articulation, unlike its other SD variants.

But enough of that, let us focus on this SDCS kit, shall we?

Even though it is clear to us that (design-wise) Bandai based the SDCSBM F-Kunoichi Ken base design on the F91. But funnily, this might be the first instance of the F91 in SDCS form. 

But being based on the F91 is the only thing it shares with the F91 design because the rest of it? Well, it looked thoroughly redesigned.

Admittedly, we’ve seen tons of impressive SD redesigns that Bandai created throughout the years. But none of the SD redesigns really managed to make an SD look as feminine as the SDCSBM F-Kunoichi Ken.

Yes, there are SD kits that Bandai made that looked feminine too. But none of them would have the SDCSBM F-Kunoichi Ken’s level of articulation, detail, and good looks.

And best of all, we love how the beam hair and scarf looked on the SDCSBM F-Kunoichi Ken.

We’re so impressed by the looks that we had to include it in today’s post, and yes, this is the one SD kit we are looking forward to getting the most.

MGSD ASW-G-08 Gundam Barbatos (MGSD)

Release Date: TBA

Estimated price: TBA

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

When we heard that Bandai was planning on releasing a new MGSD kit, we were excited, but when we saw the actual kit they were planning to release, admittedly, our excitement died down immediately. 

Why?

It’s because, unlike the MGSD Freedom Gundam, the MGSD Barbatos doesn’t look a step up to its MG counterpart. In fact, it looked like its standard MG counterpart. It’s just that it’s in SD form.

However, despite saying that, it is impressive that Bandai still managed to create an MGSD Barbatos that looked just like its MG counterpart. The inner frame design of this MGSD looks like what we get with the MG version. Bandai even went as far as to follow the same Gold color scheme for some parts of the inner frame.

And seeing that it is an MGSD kit, we expect this to have the same level of articulation as the MGSD Freedom Gundam. 

But even knowing all that, we still find ourselves unimpressed by this MGSD release. Maybe it’s because it looked just like the MG version we find ourselves unimpressed.

After seeing how much the MGSD Freedom improves upon the MG 2.0 version, we hoped the MGSD Barbatos would do the same. We hoped that Bandai would give us a more detailed look at the Barbatos’ inner frame. Unfortunately, well, we didn’t get that here. 

But we get why they do this. Since it wouldn’t take them too long to design something that roughly looks the same, unlike the MGSD Freedom, where we reckon it took them longer to create the inner frame part. So that may explain why after the strong release of the MGSD Freedom, it doesn’t take them long to announce another MGSD kit. 

But honestly? We’d prefer if they were to utilize the time creating the MGSD Barbatos instead used it to design the MG Barbatos Lupus Rex. 

I’m pretty sure that most of the Barbatos fans would love that. 

And that concludes our 474th edition of the Let’s Talk Gunpla segment and our coverage of the 63rd Shizuoka Hobby Show 2023. There is a lot of badass announcement from this event, and we admit this year have been one in that we had fun seeing all the badass Gunpla releases. But we’re sad there isn’t a new retail MG release announcement at this event. We hope to see more MG release announcements from the retail side at this event next year. 

Anyways. We’ll be back again the next coming Thursday (hopefully) with a new blog post. Yes, we will be off this weekend, but we’ll return next Thursday with a new blog post! So, 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!