Kimi The Builder

Part 3, the last one, for now.

HELLO! We are back!

In today’s 626th edition of our Let’s Talk Gunpla segment, we’ll finally cover the last three kits from the New Hobby Item Next event that was held a few weeks back. We are aware that we have been slow to cover this (since we have been quite busy handling other things recently and thankfully, things are finally starting to go back to normal), but we are getting there and we hope that after this week we will be able to keep up with the ‘new releases’ momentum.

But enough of that, let us now continue where we left off, shall we?

HG 1/144 UGY-R266C Monkey Rodi / UGY-R267MM Monkey Crab Rodi [598 Unit] (HGIB0)

Release Date: November 2025

Estimated price: JPY 1,870 (MYR 54.83* / USD 12.98* / EUR 11.02*)

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

Even though the anime isn’t officially released just yet, we are lucky enough to have already been getting a lot of really awesome MS designs from the IBO: Udr Hunt series recently. Yes, we know that most of this MS design that we have been ‘getting’ for the retail and P-Bandai side currently is due to the IBO:Udr Hunt Mobile Game, but since we didn’t play the mobile game and more of an anime watcher, seeing new releases before the official airing of the anime here does help to create some excitement for fans and nonfans of the IBO series for this upcoming anime.

So what are we expecting to get here?

Well, it is clear to us from reading through its promotional materials that the upcoming HGIBO Monkey Rodi is (mostly) based on the 2015 HGIBO Man Rodi. The reason we mentioned that it is ‘only’ ‘mostly’ based on the HGIBO Man Rodi is because there are changes that Bandai made to convert it into this new version. What changes, you say? Well, you can see the changes made on the chest, arm, and head units. It also comes with a new color scheme, new weapons, and they even went as far as to include the Crab arm units, so you can turn this into the Monkey Crab version.

Yes, we are also surprised that Bandai decided to lump everything in one package instead of splitting it up like they normally do.

Seeing all the good stuff that this kit is getting, it does make for a strong argument for one to get two of these to complete their Monkey Rodi collection. Honestly, we are surprised the Crab version isn’t locked away as a P-Bandai release. But we are glad that they didn’t because the Monkey Crab variant is cool as heck.

But despite all that, we are not expecting the experience of building this to be any different from building the HGIBO Man Rodi. Not that we mind it, especially when it looks this good. Plus, we are always keen to support a retail release like this, where they release everything in one package for the masses instead of releasing one for retail and another for the ‘Premium’ exclusive release.  

HG 1/144 ASW-G-61 Gundam Zagan (HGIBO)

Release Date: December 2025

Estimated price: JPY 3,080 (MYR 90.31* / USD 21.38* / EUR 18.10*)

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

Speaking of the HGIBO kit, fortunately, the HGIBO Monkey Rodi isn’t the only IBO: Udr Hunt HG kit that is getting the retail treatment, because we also will be getting the HGIBO Gundam Zagan. The best part, these two will be released one month apart from each other!

Yes, we have spoken about this one when it was first revealed at the Shizouka Hobby Show discussion, and we admit this is the HGIBO Udr Hunt kit that we are all looking forward to getting the most.

Why?

Well, just look at it!

It’s chunky at all the right places, and best of all, it looks cool as heck.

Plus, since it is a Gundam, we are interested to see how the HGIBO thin Gundam frame works with the Zagan’s Armor set.

Admittedly, even though Bandai didn’t reveal much the last time we saw this, it looks like there isn’t really much info for them to release from the last time we saw the HGIBO Zagan. Because, surprisingly, everything that we see from the teaser is really what we get here.

We know how ignorant we sound, here by saying that. But admittedly, we really never played the Mobile Game, so we really don’t know much about the lore of this MS design coming in.

It is quite interesting to see how agile the kit is, even with all the bulky armor. Additionally, it’s nice to finally understand how the ‘mounted shield’ works. It appears that our previous assumption about it being a shield was incorrect, as it has now been revealed to be Gundam Zagan’s mounted shield scissor weapon.

Honestly, we don’t understand the IBO MS designer’s obsession with huge scissors. Since this isn’t the first time we get an MS with a HUGE scissors as a weapon.

But even with that said, we admit that it does look cool as hell.

And yes, we are looking forward to getting this.

EG 1/144 XXXG-01W Wing Gundam (Entry Grade)

Release Date: October 2025

Estimated price: JPY 1,100 (MYR 32.25* / USD 7.64* / EUR 6.46*)

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

Out of all the reveals that we saw back in the Shizouka Hobby Show event and this recent Hobby New Item mini event, the EG release announcement is something that we noticed most people didn’t talk about. Even we are guilty of this, we admit, back when we first saw the reveal for this latest entry of the EG series at the Shizuoka Hobby show, we all didn’t really find this release all that interesting.

But it wasn’t because we think it is going to be a bad kit or anything, it’s only because we just aren’t that interested in the Entry Grade line.

But it is not to say that this is going to be a bad kit, no. The more we learn about it, the more we feel that this would be the kit that most beginners to the hobby would pick up instead of the rest.

Why?

Because we think the upcoming EG Wing Gundam looks good.

Even those that we talked to who are not fans of the Wing Gundam find this to be one of the best-looking EG kits we’ve received to date. That says a lot about the level of quality we are seeing here. We think one of the reasons why this looked so good compared to other EG releases is that, despite it being an EG kit, the level of detail we see here is exceptional.

Every single detail on every section of this kit is sublime. Which is impressive, considering that this is supposed to be an entry-level kit. WE are so impressed by the level of detail that we see on the EG Wing Gundam parts that it made the HGAC version look like the entry-level model.

And that is one impressive feat.

And unlike some of the new HG releases Bandai made recently, we know for sure that the EG Wing Gundam will come out to be a color-accurate kit. The only thing that one needs to do to make this kit look fantastic is panel line the whole kit, which we imagine isn’t going to be all too daunting.

But the best part about this kit, despite it being an entry-level kit, we are glad to see the articulation is as good as its HGAC counterpart. Although, since it is an EG kit, we know that it will come with the same ‘joint gap’ issue that plagues other EG releases.

We don’t imagine Bandai will ever fix this issue for their EG releases, since fixing it will kill the point of getting the HG kits.

We admit that even though we might not be interested in this at first, the more we look at this, the more we find ourselves drawn to this EG kit. Also, we know that this will be a fantastic kit to start with for beginners. How do we know this? Because from our own experience building the EG kits, we always find the EGs a joy to work on. So, if this is the kit most beginners decided to be their 1st Gunpla kit, we are sure to see more people getting hooked on this hobby for sure.

This concludes the 626th edition of the Let’s Talk Gunpla segment. After last week’s rage post, we admit that we are happy to be back covering the rest of the Hobby New Item releases.

Yes, we know that by now we are kind of late to the party, but it is still nice to be able to cover this regardless.

Now we can finally move on to the newer kit releases!

Anyway, we will be back soon with a new blog post! So we do look forward to seeing you guys then!

Also, you might have noticed a slight change to our posts, which is because we recently added a donation tab to our posts to help keep this site running and to fund our future projects. However, we want to clarify that we will not be placing any of our content behind a paywall. All of our content will remain free for everyone to access.

The reason why we decided to add the donation tab is that after managing this blog with our funds for so long, we’ve found that even with ads, it hasn’t been enough to maintain the site without putting ourselves in debt. We have tried our best not to resort to this, since we are doing this blog for fun, and we really didn’t plan to earn money from doing this.

However, since the start of the year, we have been struggling financially to keep this site running, and we refuse to give up on it after putting so much work into it.

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Once again, thank you.  

Also, we hope to see you again soon!

Ciao!