Kimi The Builder

Finally, a solid Retail release lineup for 2025

HELLO! We are back!

In today’s 569th edition of our Let’s Talk Gunpla segment, we’ll discuss some of the retail side’s latest Gunpla release announcements at yesterday’s highly anticipated Hobby New Item Info event on Wednesday. This event is a crucial platform for unveiling major Gunpla releases, making it a significant date in the Gunpla community’s calendar.

In the previous blog post, we discussed our thoughts on upcoming kits that we look forward to seeing. However, only two of the three kits we hoped to see did get greenlit, and we are still waiting for updates on one kit that we are looking forward to seeing the most. We share your disappointment in the delay in its inevitable announcement. But there are also some announcements that we are pretty surprised to see announced! It’s always exciting when the Gunpla world throws us a curveball.

So, today, as usual, we will discuss three of the kits we are most excited about getting from this announcement, and we will continue on the rest in Saturday’s blog post.

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

HG 1/144 MRX-010 Psycho Gundam Mk.II (HGUC)

Release Date: March 2025

Estimated price: JPY 11,000 (MYR 330.67* / USD 76.14* / EUR 68.43*)

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

It’s rare that we see an HGUC announcement that, after looking at only its promotional materials, makes us sure that we are looking at one of the best HGUC kits in 2025.  

We admit it’s a bold claim, especially considering we’re still in 2024 and haven’t built the kit.

But just looking at how much new stuff we’re getting, we are calling it now: This will be one of the best kits in 2025. Heck, even if they decide to release it this year, it would also be in the running to be one of the best kits this year.

You might be wondering why we like this kit so much.

There are a few reasons, but the main one is that we can see how hard Bandai worked to make this look as exceptionally detailed as possible on an HGUC kit. How thorough, you ask?

From what we learn from its promotional materials, there is a cutaway of a single section of the HGUC Psycho Gundam Mk.II. They highlight that every colored part in this section has separate colored parts. The color separation on this kit looked so good that we initially thought we were looking at a RE100 kit.

But then again, it made sense why they could do this. Size-wise, this is bigger than most HG kits that we get, so we understand why Bandai could make separate molds for the colored parts.

Even with that said, it doesn’t discount the fact that they did a damn good job here.

The other thing we liked about this is that it comes with many incredible gimmicks, like the fantastic embedded arm beam saber, the reflector bits, the detached, remote arm feature, and, best of all, they included the partially destroyed head unit part.  

So, if you want to make it look battle-damaged like that one scene in the Zeta anime, you can always swap heads.

Overall, this kit looks promising, and we are excited to see how it all comes together when it’s finally released in March next year.

1/144 Option Parts Gunpla 15 (Cavalier Aifrid)

Release Date: February 2025

Estimated price: JPY 2,970 (MYR 88.82* / USD 20.55* / EUR 18.46*)

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

Seeing the announcement for the Cavalier Aifried released as an Option Part release is one announcement we admit we were all taken aback by.

Given its popularity, we are sure that it will receive a standalone release bundled with the HGCE Strike Rouge.

But Bandai seems to have other plans for it, and with this announcement, it is clear that we’re not getting a SEED FREEDOM version of the HGCE of both the Cavalier Aifrid and the Strike Rouge.

Although we are disappointed that we are not getting the HGCE version, we understand why this isn’t getting the complete HG treatment since it is just an attachment that you use to attach the MS of your choosing.

But it does not matter much because, at the end of the day, we are still getting something that looks pretty badass here, which can still work with your existing HGCE kits or any 1/144 scaled kits.

However, from what we can see from the promotional materials, it is clear that the option parts version of the Cavalier Aifrid fits quite well with any HGCE you have. However, it shouldn’t be that surprising since the recent Strike Gundam additional weapon option part releases also fit well on the HGCE Strike.

The other thing we like about this is that the Cavalier Aifried attachment comes with a surprising number of weapons systems, which we admit look quite impressive. Not to mention, they look pretty awesome, too. But we acknowledge that we don’t remember seeing the Cavalier Aifried ever using its weapon system. Or were we mistaken?

But one thing is for sure: looking at how well the option parts color separation for the Strike Gundam is, we are sure that we would get the same treatment here, too.

But even with that said, we are still impressed by how awesome it looked.

It is also nice that they included attachment points for other HGCE releases, enabling you to attach some of the various HGCE backpack units from different kits.

They also included an extra beam rifle with this release, which you could only initially get from the HGCE Lunamaria’s Gelgoog Manace.

Admittedly, we are very excited to be getting this one.

MG 1/100 ASW-G-XX Gundam Vidar (MG)

Release Date: February 2025

Estimated price: JPY 6,600 (MYR 197.38* / USD 45.66* / EUR 41.02*)

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

Even though we expected to see a new MG being announced at this event, we didn’t expect to see a new MG kit for the IBO series.

Even though it is a welcomed surprise to see a new IBO MG kit announcement, we are sad that we got the Vidar first before they covered Tekkadan’s other Gundam frames.

But enough about our feelings about Vidar getting the MG treatment; let’s discuss our thoughts on this release.

Despite some of your opinions and feelings about the IBO anime, the one thing we can all agree on as Gunpla builders is that the MG Barbatos is one of the best things Bandai has released in a long time.

After looking at the upcoming MG Vidar’s promotional materials, we wonder if it would be as good as the MG Barbatos.

Honestly? We think it would be because there is much evidence that this is the case. For instance, its inner frame. Seeing some of the promotional materials that we’ve seen, we can confirm that the same inner frame that we got with the Barbatos will make a return here, but with some improvements made to some of its joints, most notably on the shoulder part. We are getting improved shoulder articulation, which would help make MG Vidar’s poses look more dynamic.

The other thing we liked about this release was the MG Vidar’s armor pieces. We appreciate how aggressive the armor pieces look here, but they do align with the aggressive armor pieces of the MG Barbatos.

We also liked how the MG Vidar’s weapons looked here. It is clear that the team behind the MG Vidars’ design went all out to make this look as badass as possible.

That’s why we wouldn’t be surprised if this is the MG kit most builders aim to get next year.

But despite our excitement about this release, the only thing that we all hope for is that they fix some of our issues with the MG Barbatos with this release—especially the one on its feet unit.

This concludes the 569th edition of the Let’s Talk Gunpla segment. We still have a few more kits to discuss, and we will return this coming Saturday to continue our discussion.

Anyhow.

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

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!