Kimi The Builder

More SEED goodness

HELLO! We are back! 

In today’s 537th edition of our Let’s Talk Gunpla segment, we’ll continue discussing Retail Gunpla releases. Yes, besides the awesome RG Gundam Ver.2.0, there are still more Retail Gunpla kits to cover. 

But instead of covering all the Retail news in one blog post, we’ll only discuss the two new SEED FREEDOM kits that Bandai announced.

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

HG 1/144 ZGMF-1027M Duel Blitz Gundam (HGCE)

Release Date: July 2024

Estimated price: JPY 2,970 (MYR 92.88* / USD 19.63* / EUR 18.14*)

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

We are thrilled to learn that Bandai still has more kits scheduled for release this year! With the movie just one week from its official launch in Malaysia, Bandai wouldn’t announce anything new that soon. But we find it fascinating that Bandai is as excited to reveal more SEED FREEDOM kits as quickly as possible. We’re not complaining since we wouldn’t mind getting more SEED FREEDOM kits. It’s fascinating that the SEED FREEDOM movie gets a lot of new Gunplas in a very short period. Even the last mainline UC movie gets less Gunpla support in a very short period. 

But even with that said, it’s worth noting that the two kits Bandai have officially announced will be recognizable to some readers.

Why? The two are upgraded versions of the original SEED MS, and we’ll discuss both in this blog post. 

First, let us talk about the Duel Blitz Gundam. Why? It would ultimately lead to the standard HGCE Duel Gundam. Because this is the only one we can see, Bandai has laid a proper, solid foundation for us to get the SEED’s Duel with the Assault Shroud armor set. Yes, all they need to do is design the Assault Shroud armor pieces for the Duel, and Poof, we have the SEED version. 

Speaking of the base Duel, we are impressed by the base HGCE Duel’s level of articulation because you can pull off a lot of cool dynamic poses with it. The best bit? Definitely, the part where you can move the main leg connector joints up and down. 

We are excited about this feature because it allows for some awesome dynamic poses without breaking anything on the HGCE Duel. But what we find to be even more impressive is that even with the Blitz armor installed on the base HGCE Duel, you can still pull off some pretty sick poses without the extra armor getting in the way of posing the Duel.

And yes, by the articulation alone, the HGCE Duel looks like a proper upgrade over its HGSEED version. 

Speaking of the HGCE Duel Blitz detachable armor, we’re impressed with how badass it looked on the Duel. We’re also quite surprised to see the Blitz’s iconic weapons in HGCE form. Honestly? We wouldn’t be surprised if Bandai is working on giving us the HGCE Blitz while working on giving us the SEED HGCE Duel with the Assault Shroud armor. But the best part about the HGCE Duel Blitz detachable armor is that the shoulder armor has more hidden and additional weapons packed in it, which makes us think that the Blitz isn’t the only MS from which they take inspiration when they design the Duel Blitz.  

Regardless, we’re excited about this one, and we hope we will eventually get both the SEED Blitz and the Duel in HGCE from this year or next. 

HG 1/144 ZGMF-103HD Lightning Buster Gundam (HGCE)

Release Date: September 2024

Estimated price: JPY 2,860 (MYR 89.43* / USD 18.90* / EUR 17.47*)

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

It wouldn’t be complete if we get the upgraded Duel but not its partner in crime, the Buster. We know the team behind the SEED FREEDOM MS Design realized this, so it makes sense that we also get the updated version of the Buster. 

However, we’d prefer they give Dearka and Yzak an updated, badass version of the Zaku Phantom. But then again, we understand why they do this: It is a fan service for the loyal SEED fans. 

But does that mean the Buster and the Duel are kits made to only serve as fan service? No. As we established earlier, the Duel looks like a massive upgrade to its HGSEED counterpart, and admittedly, even the HGCE Lightning Buster looks like a proper upgrade to the standard HGSEED Buster in both looks and features. 

Speaking of features, let us first talk about what one would expect from this upcoming HGCE Lightning Buster Gundam. 

For one, it has several fascinating features that set it apart from the standard Buster. For instance, we noticed that they changed Buster’s two-cannon base design for the Lightning Buster version. Instead of having two different cannons attached to the back like the standard version, the Lightning Buster has two of the same cannons attached to its back, and both look badass.

But the looks aren’t what impressed us about the Lightning Buster’s two cannons. The part that impresses us is that we can pose it in the iconic Buster pose and simultaneously (without changing parts) have it turn all the way to turn the side cannons into shoulder-mounted weapons. Its waist armor also has small cannons to complement the two big cannons. 

Also, we like that Bandai replaced the shoulder armor missiles with large sensor cameras on both shoulder armor. 

But you might wonder if replacing that would reduce the lethality of the Buster. Well, no. Since Bandai didn’t remove the missiles because they were still there, They placed them in a place we never imagined one would put missiles: near the main vernier of Buster’s backpack unit.  

Yes, we realize the silliness of it, but then again, it is original (and stupid). 

Admittedly, we’re really excited about this release because all signs indicate that we will eventually get the standard version. From what we can see here, it would take little work to convert the Lightning Buster into the Standard version because this version reused many of the same design elements from the standard Buster, except this is all in the HGCE version. 

All in all, we admit that we’re excited for this one. 

Speaking of being excited.

Bonus Pla: Figure-rise Standard Lunamaria Hawke 

Release Date: September 2024

Estimated price: JPY 4,180 (MYR 130.48* / USD 27.62* / EUR 25.54*)

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

Since we missed the Thursday Deadline (due to the sudden breakdown of the workhorse laptop), we decided to create a Bonus-pla segment to thank those who looked forward to our Thursday post. Also, we added the Bonus pla segment since we wanted to find a reason to talk about something besides Gunplas. 

With that out of the way, we must admit that this is THE ONLY ANNOUNCEMENT (besides the RG Gundam) THAT WE THINK ABOUT ALL THE TIME NOW SINCE IT WAS OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED. 

And there is a good reason for this. 

Since the Figure-rise Standard line started covering Gundam Characters, Lunamaria is the ONLY character we look forward to seeing Bandai release as a Figure-rise Standard kit. 

But Bandai might be aware that this is one of the most requested characters ever to be turned into a Figure-rise Standard kit, too, because it took them quite a while to give us this. It is clear to us that they put a lot of effort into the design of the Figure-rise Standard Lunamaria. 

Why do we say this?

Well, for one, the contours and shapes of some parts are just so beautifully crafted, and we like that Bandai managed to lessen the waist gap between the thighs so that you don’t see your life choices as you peer between the Figure-rise Standard Lunamaria’s thigh gaps.

We also like that Bandai went as far as to give this kit a working pilot helmet (that looks cool af) and a very beautifully crafted 2nd body part for this kit. 

It is clear to us that Bandai doesn’t mess around with the design of this Figure-rise Standard kit. Looking at how good this kit looked, we know that as soon as it hits our shores, it will be out of stock. So we’d better start placing our preorders. We don’t want to miss out on our best girl, don’t we? 

And that concludes our 536th edition of the Let’s Talk Gunpla segment. It has been quite a while since we wrote such a huge blog post like this, and admittedly, even though we had some hiccups, we had a lot of fun writing this one. 

We’re looking forward to covering the other retail releases, and yes, we have another bonus-pla segment lined up for that post as well. I look forward to that! 

We’ll be back next Thursday (hopefully, the laptop will not give us more headaches) with a new blog post. So do look forward to it!  

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 enjoy our gunpla/plamo-related posts. We would appreciate it if you guys showed your support by leaving an upvote on our R/Gunpla posts and 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, this post will inspire all of you to pick up 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!