Kimi The Builder

<insert the catchy Pink Panther theme>

HELLO! We are back!

In today’s 599th edition of our Let’s Talk Gunpla segment, we’ll discuss two of P-Bandai’s latest Gunpla release announcements. Interestingly, we are getting two HG Zaku releases, and both are coming from the same-ish lineup.

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

HG 1/144 MS-06R-1A High-Mobility Zaku II Char Aznable Custom (HGCDI)

Release Date: March 2025

Estimated price: JPY 2,750 (MYR 80.65* / USD 18.03* / EUR 17.33*)

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

We find it funny that it took P-Bandai this long to give us this version of Char’s Zaku II finally. It’s not like it would require them to use a lot of resources to make this, especially considering it is basically just a recolored version of the HGOrigins Black-Tri Stars Zaku II R1A’s.

Regardless, we are happy that we are finally getting it, so we can now finally complete our collection of HGOrigins Char’s custom Zaku’s.

We know what some of you are thinking: What exactly are we getting here? As we mentioned at the start, you’re getting the recolored version of the HG Black-Tri Stars Zaku II R1A’s, specifically the Gaia/Mash version.

So, if you are expecting this to get some new unique weapons set, don’t because you get all the same things as you get with the Gaia/Mash version.

But don’t despair because there is a reason why you should get this version: you’re getting new decal designs explicitly made for this version.

Yes, admittedly, there are some of the same decal designs that come with the previous HG Origins Char Zaku II kits included here, but at least we are getting a few new decals this time. But best of all, since this is a P-Bandai kit, we know that we are getting waterslide decals for this kit.

And getting waterslide decals is always a plus.

I know that to some, this is something that you might not be interested in since you can easily convert any existing HGOrigins Black Tri-Stars Zaku II R1A’s into this version. But to some of us here, time is not something we have in abundance nowadays, and finding the time to make our version of the Char Zaku II R1A is difficult, so we appreciate P-Bandai for releasing this.

Although, it would be even nicer if Bandai released this as a standard release instead.

HG 1/144 MS-06D Zaku Desert Type (Pink Panther Forces Ver.)(HGOriginsMSD)

Release Date: April 2025

Estimated price: JPY 2,640 (MYR 77.43* / USD 17.31* / EUR 16.63*)

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

Seeing the HG Char R1A announcement is not something that we’re surprised by, but seeing the announcement of another variant of the HGOrigins Zaku Desert Type, we are pretty surprised to see.

Why is this a surprise? It’s because this is a version of the Desert Zaku that we have never seen before, and it is nice to know that there are more Zaku variants out there that we haven’t seen yet.

But I know what all of you here are thinking: is this the same kit we got with the other P-Bandai releases? Well, yes, it is. You even get all the same stuff, too. Like the Char’s R1A kit we discussed earlier, this is another recolored version of the already released P-Bandai exclusive HGOriginsMSD kit. But unlike the Char’s version, the HGOriginsMSD Desert Zaku has always been a P-Bandai exclusive kit. So this is one release, and we didn’t expect P-Bandai to suddenly have this kit make a retail release.

But even with that said, despite the fact we’re getting the same kit here, the Pink Panther version of the Desert Zaku looks cool. Some of you might not like this since it is in pink. But the thing is, this color scheme reminds us of the WWII British SAS’s Pink Panther Land Rovers. And those SAS chaps are hella cool in our books.

Looking at this, it makes us wonder if Bandai is trying to pay homage to the badass WWII service members or if this is an actual thing in the lore.  

Regardless of their intention, it’s incredible of them to do this. It looks cool, and we love how the Desert Zaku looks pink. We also like how the decals look on this kit, which makes us even more excited about getting this badass kit.

And yes, we are getting this despite already owning two of the bloody things.

This concludes the 599th edition of the Let’s Talk Gunpla segment. Despite them being the same things we’ve gotten from Bandai/P-Bandai, we are excited about getting either of these kits. And that is something we here didn’t expect to find ourselves liking.

We are unsure at this point if we’re excited because we like them or because we crave some new Gunplas.

But alas, it is nice to finally get some new Gunpla news in the new year-ish. Hopefully, we will see more retail and less P-Bandai news this year.

Anyways

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!