Kimi The Builder

Gold strike

HELLO! We are back!

In today’s 587th edition of our Let’s Talk Gunpla segment, we’ll discuss one of P-Bandai’s latest Gunpla release announcements. We admit we didn’t expect to see this announcement so close to the RG Akatsuki Gundam’s release.

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

RG 1/144 Akatsuki Gundam Shiranui expansion & HG Zeus Silhouette Connection part set (RG)

Release Date: December 2024

Estimated price: JPY 4,400 (MYR 126.94* / USD 28.43* / EUR 26.91*)

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

Imagine our surprise when P-Bandai announced this expansion for the RG Akatsuki a week before the start of December (the supposed release month for the RG Akatsuki) to announce the expansion for the RG Akatsuki. Yes, we admit that when we saw the reveal of the RG Akatsuki, we already expected the Shiranui pack to be a P-Bandai exclusive release, and we thought that they would at least take their time with the announcement for this. Not that we’re complaining, since it is nice to know that we don’t have to wait that long for this release.

But the announcement for this expansion wasn’t the only thing that took us aback. We were also quite surprised to learn that this set comes with parts you can use to install the HGCE Zeus Silhouette on the RG Akatsuki. That is one addition we didn’t expect to see since we already expected Bandai to include it in the regular release. But then again, what do we know about what goes through in the minds of those in power at Bandai

However, seeing how quickly the announcement for this expansion set for the RG Akatsuki is made, we wonder if Bandai originally planned to include the Shiranui pack with the RG Akatsuki. We find it very suspicious that the RG Shiranui pack is getting the same release date as the standard release.

Honestly, Bandai could’ve included everything in the same set and charged us whatever they deemed fitting for the RG Akatsuki, and people would still eat it up. Why bother having this significant expansion locked away as a premium release when they could be making more money if they were to have it all released in one go?

But then again, what do we know about behind the scenes in Bandai? The only thing that we do know is that if they keep this BS up, it will come to bite them in the ass eventually.

Anyways.

Let’s focus on the expansion and what to expect here.

Admittedly, Bandai did an excellent job here, looking at how good the RG Shiranui pack looked on the RG Akatsuki. The level of detail matches the overall look of the RG Shiranui, and it’s nice to see the Shiranui funnel gimmick in RG form here. Unfortunately, despite its niceness, Bandai didn’t include beam effect parts for the fin funnels, which is a shame since we think the beam effect parts would make for a great addition here.

However, even with that said, it’s nice to know that Bandai included a display stand with appropriate pegs that would allow you to pose the RG Akatsuki with all its fin funnels detached and in its iconic attack pose.

Also, it is nice to know that we are getting the Zeus Silhouette attachment, which you can use to attach the HGCE Zeus Silhouette to the RG Akatsuki. But we find this bit hard to digest since the RG Akatsuki looks weird with the not-so-detailed HG bits attached. Honestly, we prefer that Bandai give us a modernized version of the RG Destiny that comes with the RG version of the Zeus Silhouette. Then, it would make sense to combine the RG Akatsuki with the badass Zeus Silhouette.

Regardless, it is still nice of them to include this in.

So, the question is, are we getting this set since we have preordered this kit? Since it comes with quite a few useful additions, we can see ourselves getting this. But that depends on how good the RG Akatsuki is first since we aren’t sure how much of the old RG Strike they’re reusing here.

If it ends up being good, we might happily get the expansion, but if it ends up being terrible, well, we might or might not get this expansion.

We shall see.

This concludes the 587th edition of the Let’s Talk Gunpla segment. This P-Bandai release announcement really surprised us. But then again, it could be a new trend that they’re doing after seeing how well the RG Gundam Ver.2.0 expansion performed. Maybe?

We hope this won’t become the new norm for the upcoming RG releases. We prefer Bandai to commit to completing the release instead of locking away some of the best bits as a premium release.

Anyway.

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

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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!