Kimi The Builder

It looks good but is ultimately disappointing.

HELLO! We are back!

In today’s 553rd edition of our Let’s Talk Gunpla post, we’ll continue with our previous Retail releases. We were surprised to see how our readers responded to last week’s segment.

We’ve heard your feedback and understand why some of you might have been upset. Our opinions on some of the retail releases may have been harsh.

However, it is only our opinion; you can agree or disagree with our thoughts and opinions because we aren’t always right at the end of the day. Because of that, we always welcome everyone’s thoughts and opinions on Gunpla-related issues, and we enjoy seeing different people’s views and learning new things simultaneously.

In today’s segment, we will cover another challenging topic. We’ll discuss kits we were disappointed by when we saw the release announcement.

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

HG 1/144 STTS/F-400 Murasame Kai (HGCE)

Release Date: October 2024

Estimated price: JPY 4,070 (MYR 81.96* / USD 17.41* / EUR 16.21*)

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

Is the HGCE Murasame Kai a disappointing release?

Well, to be honest? We struggled with this one.

On the one hand, we wanted to see Bandai give the Murasame Kai a proper Retail treatment instead of relegating it to the P-Bandai side. And we are happy that the HGCE Murasame Kai gets that Retail treatment. What’s more, just like the HGCE Black Knight Squad Cal-re.A, we can see Bandai making an effort to make this kit come with a lot of differently colored parts so the kit would look as accurate as its anime counterpart without needing to have bits painted or having to use color-correcting stickers on the HGCE Murasame Kai as much as possible.

Not to mention, this is one of the best-looking MS designs in the show, too! It also gives us hope that we will eventually see the standard Murasame get the HGCE treatment. However, it depends on how well this sells in October.

On the other hand, despite this being a ‘new’ kit, we feel like we’re only looking at a slightly improved version of the HGSEED version because, once again, we are getting a part-forming HG Murasame. Honestly, it’s not hard to be disappointed by that, especially considering that it has been 18 years since the release of the HGSEED Murasame, and they still haven’t figured out how to design a transformation system without resorting to parts forming.

Yes, granted, we admit that the HGCE Murasame Kai is an improved version. Bandai is trying to create something that (maybe) uses fewer color-correcting stickers than the HGSEED version. We can also see that they improved some articulation points on the HGCE Murasame Kai to give it slightly better articulation than its HGSEED version.

But the issue is that even after 18 years, Bandai still hasn’t figured out how to transform the HGCE Murasame without swapping parts? We know Bandai does this to ensure the kit is stable and solid in both MA and MS forms, as we see with the HG Macross kits.

But that makes it no different from its HGSEED counterpart, which is also a parts-former. If Bandai justifies doing this to keep the costs low, that doesn’t make any sense, especially considering that the HGCE Murasame Kai already costs more than its HGSEED version. If we need to pay more to get a significant improvement on this kit that would also improve future releases, then we don’t mind paying for it.

We would even think the HG Macross fans would thank us for that, too.

RG 1/144 ORB-01 Akatsuki Gundam (w/Oowashi Pack)(RG)

Release Date: October 2024

Estimated price: JPY 4,070 (MYR 81.96* / USD 17.41* / EUR 16.21*)

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

The RG Akatsuki is another kit we were initially interested in and keen to learn more about. Still, we were ultimately disappointed when we saw the release announcement.

Why?

Many expected Bandai to give us something akin to the more modern RG kits. Since the Akatsuki does use the Strike as a base, we hoped that would eventually lead us to get an updated version of the RG Strike. However, that is not what we’re getting here.

Because Bandai is taking the lazy route here with the RG Akatsuki, evidence shows that Bandai might be reusing the RG Strike’s old and dated RG frame system on the RG Akatsuki.

The issue with Strike’s old RG Frame system is that the parts don’t fit well in some areas (especially on the legs) and tend to have loose sections. Yes, you can always fix that with a spot of glue, but if they designed the kit from the ground up like most modern RG kits nowadays, we wouldn’t even have to worry about dealing with the loose parts.

Maybe we are overreacting here. Maybe Bandai has finally figured out how to fix the old RG issues with this. Heck, if they can do it with the RG Unicorn, they can figure out a way to do it with this.

But the other bit we learn about this release that grinds our gears is that the Shiranui pack is confirmed to be a P-Bandai expansion.

Should we be surprised at this point? No.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t be disappointed when we learn that something we have been getting as a retail release gets the infamous P-Bandai treatment for the RG version.

But the most frustrating part is that despite our disappointment, we can still see ourselves getting this because, despite everything, we admit that we are still curious, and the RG Akatsuki looks fantastic.

That is also true for the HGCE Murasame Kai as well.

That concludes our 553rd edition of the Let’s Talk Gunpla segment. Despite our feelings about them, we are still looking forward to these two kits, though we admit that our enthusiasm for them has diminished.

We will return this coming Saturday with a new blog post, and admittedly, the last two kits we will talk about are those that we admit we still need to figure out.

Why? We admit that we are split between those who like what we see here and those who don’t.  

Anyhow.

We’ll return in the upcoming segment this Saturday (hopefully) with a new blog post! So do look forward to that!

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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!