So... it kinda looks like the old thread was purged off the face of these boards. Time to start over?

I guess I'll restart by reposting yesterday's news from the Akiba Gundam Expo:

Gundam SEED revival's in full force. We already know about the updated re-releases of the HG kits, but there's lots of new stuff coming our way, too:

HG LaGowe
RG Skygrasper + Launcher and Sword Striker, plus web-shop exclusive Strike Phase-Shift Down colours.

But I think the most exciting news for me was:

MG Duel Gundam Assault Shroud!

Now that's a biggie. If they're going for Duel, there's almost no way they're going to stop at just that one. So it's a very high likelihood that we're getting MGs of all 5 GAT-X Gundams (well, 4 remaining. Unless they do a Strike 2.0 or something. Duel's frame does look a bit different than the Strike's...), which is huge.

Also, MG Blu Duel suddenly becomes a very possible reality, and that has me extremely excited.


And for you AGE fans:

MG Gundam AGE-1, due in February, with MG Titus and Spallow following closely in March and April respectively, and MG Gafran following after them in May.

Well there goes my money.

It's hard to resist Duel Assault Shroud.

Is that LaGOWE an all-new mould or just a BuCUE with new parts? I might get it, since I'm pretty fond of SEED's dog MS. I probably won't, 'cos I have enough of a backlog (not so much in quantity as it is relative to how slowly I've been building) as it is, but still... it's nice.

Also, the beta for the english version of SD Gundam Capsule Fighter has started, and it's a pretty fun game. It's in closed beta at the moment, but there's plenty of places to get keys (I got mine from their page on Facebook).

Duel w/ Assault Shroud is getting a Robot Damashii too. That's what I'm snagging.

Yeah, we've seen the Buster and Duel Damashii awhile ago, now.

Of course, Bandai has a habit of revealing all sorts of goodies that don't come out anytime soon with that line (and its sister S.H.Figuarts and D-Arts lines).


I'm also very excited for the high possibility of an MG Aegis. It's a unique and fantastic Gundam design, but the lightweight construction of the HG models tended to leave it rather floppy and unstable. A nice solid internal frame would do that design wonders, especially with some of the typical BEECraft styling to sharpen it up.



Looks to be mostly, or completely, new. Joint parts might be re-used, and the neck is similar, but everything else about the LaGowe is different, if only from an aesthetic standpoint.

Oh yeah, I got my MG Sandrock EW today.

But I think I'll wait until tomorrow to start the build, I hate when I can't finish.

I get to pick mine up tomorrow.

Sandrock is easily my favourite of Katoki's Wing re-designs. He took the clunky and drab TV version, and turned it into something rather elegant.

Yeah.

It's much better than the barely changed Deathscythe and Heavyarms, or changed for the worse Wing and Shenlong.

Plus unless you really want the stupid cloak, this MG includes all your Sandrock related needs.

Duel was always one of my favorites, so that's cool that it's getting a MG.

RG Skygrasper with the Launcher and Sword packs is great, especially since I'm thinking of buying Strike but was dreading the thought of them releasing 2 more of essentially the same kits.

And they're re-releasing Strike without the Aile pack? Alright, I guess some people might want that.

And a De-active Phase Shift kit? I personally don't see the point of that, but I've been looking at Marvel and DC statues lately and there always seems to be B&W exclusive versions, so I guess it's just something people like.

I wish they would make a RG Strike Rouge all the customs I'm seen look great.


Are all those 144 kits ones they're re-releasing? Because I must say I own the HG Freedom kit and it is not very good, especially with a RG coming out, I mean both Wing Zero HGs have better wing movement then it and they're 6-7 years older than it.

But the LaGOWE looks really good, and Andy was a favorite of mine.


And those are some nice customs on GundamGuy, Sazabi, Freedom and Strike are my favorites.

They did the RG Strike Rouge. Was an exclusive a month or so ago, IIRC.

I thought so, but couldn't find news on it, only customs.



-Edit- Ah there we go, I searched on GundamGuy first and only got customs, GunJap has the news on it.

RG Strike Rouge must be mine. I shall kill any who seek to deny me a unit of the limited stock.

MG Duel- I have to be honest and say I was hoping for an RG but this could work too. Duel was one of the few cases of CE taking a chance, an ancestor Gundam that ZAFT had to do significant work to to make decent. Add in that Yzak had a good character arc and this is very welcome. Certainly more then redoing a Kira unit.

RG Skygrasper- Not a complete surprise though I do have to admit the Strikers look fairly dissapointing.

MG AGE/Gafran- Dissapointed because the plan for this makes it all sound like a delayed AGE 1/100 TV run line. Why not just do that from the start rather then the awkward Gageing Builders concept? And yes, I know the cynical reason.

Legend BB- Not quite the fresh take I was hoping for but this could work. The idea of revisting solid ideas from past SD and giving them a modern update could work well if done right. Going for Knight, Musha and Commander at the start will at least have my money.

Heeeere's Quatre!

I'll probably have to go back and fix some problem areas with part fitment, but for now I'm content just to have Sandrock built and on my desk.

Well, Master Grades are Master Grades, they'd be made some time anyway so why not just do them during the series? The Gage-ing Builders line strikes me as a toyline rather than being models, so I don't see any conflict there, and a gradeless 1/100 kit line would seem kind of pointless from my point of view when there's already MGs for the size and HGs for the complexity. I haven't been following the franchise during any previous series' airing, since I really got into Gundam after the end of 00, but they seem to be handling it fine as far as I can tell.

Well at least the name rocks

I'm quite happy by the new wave of plamo news, especially the SEED MG being the Duel, considering that suit totally rocks.

also I had to glue RD wing zero's one hand onto the balljoint, it got to the point where it was not just unable to hold the gun, but the hand didn't even stay on.

thankfully, the balljoint is on a swivel joint so the hand didn't lose much mobility.

EDIT: also I have an opinion question for you all,

should I display/play with tallgeese 3's beam saber with the gun attached or removed?

The point of MGs is to be a high quality versions of designs which contain as many in story gimmicks as reasonably possible. How can you achieve this if you start making them whilst the show is still running? 00 didn't get a single MG until the show was over, with a special announcement for Exia after the final episode. If MG Exia had been made whilst the show was still running, would we have got something as cool as the Repair parts? If I buy an AGE MG, I don't want to come away feeling dissapointed because they left out something that would have been entirely possible had they waited a few months. There are tons of AGE-1s out there right now. Why not wait and really make the MG something special for fans to own to embody the iconic nature of the show?

I'm sure bandai is fully aware of what gimmicks occur in the show.

If they know it all, what's the point of hiring creative teams to make the shows? Some ideas only develop once the episode is in the can. I highly doubt every single idea for AGE is set in stone right now.

They could always put any extra weapons and such in with the Titus and/or Sparrow; after all, you'd need to buy both of them to get AGE-1's gimmicks in full anyway. I can see where you're coming from, certainly, but I doubt it'll be much of a problem - especially since AGE-1 will (presumably) only be around for a third of the series.

Interesting new ep.

Very interesting.

The show was first planned as a video game but Bandai/Sunrise liked it so much that they did it as a proper show. The whole AGE Systems very existence is so Level 5 wouldn't have to add more than one Gundam to the show.

Since Bandai, much like Hasbro would want to have lead time with producing toys to match the airing of the show they would want to have an idea what to expect. Bandai is also evil. They can very well get people to buy variations on the same design with newer features and accessories.

So in the end they probably win anyway.

Buy yeah. I could imagine waiting a few months until the power and speed variation limbs appeared and made a variable MG. Buying the same expensive items with new limbs feels a bit...

Really like Desil.
Emily annoys the hell out of me.

Well now, I think this is the first Gundam series where instead of jacking his Gundam from someone else, the hero's Gundam gets jacked instead.

Well, there was that punk kid who tried to jack the Shining Gundam from Domon. Ended badly for him, though.

Well yeah.

Decil is a fun character so far, and I'm looking forward to the next episode.

So I'm pretty much guessing at this point that HIGHLIGHT to view:
Yurin, Decil, and Flit himself are all tied to the UE. In fact, much like the Innovators, they all have ... VERY brightly colored hair, don't they? Each one kind of sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the rest of the cast.

Decil's interesting, more interesting than I expected for a character his age. Given just HOW young he is, though, I kind of wonder if that isn't setting him up to be even more significant in the second act or so of the show.

I am loving Grodek, just all around. This has all gotta come back and bite him in the butt at some point, but for now he's really impressing me.

I think Emily's reactions are entirely understandable, given she's a young girl herself and merely concerned with Flit not dying a horrible, burning death. Especially given that he's sort of been just scraping by so far, up to the point he even got HIGHLIGHT to view:
Gundamjacked this week.

Should we maybe have a separate thread for AGE discussion, like we had going for 00?

Eventually, somebody's going to slip up and post something that nobody wanted to see. I'm doing my best to skim past AGE discussion myself, but I'm a fast reader...

It's spoiler-tagged though.

I'm sure we'll be fine with spoiler-tagging discussion of the latest AGE episode; the toku thread does this with several shows and doesn't end up accidentally spoiling things.

I was under the impression that Gundams tended to get stolen by other members of the crew at least once in any given series. It pretty much always ends badly- presuming they can get it out of the door it ends up getting trashed by Enemy of the Week.

I'm aware of all that. However, we know fully well that things can change between even initial announcements mid-run. Perfect example- Anew in 00 was announced with character art which made her look shifty, since she was going to openly be a spy competing with Lyle. Then the sponsors insisted on a doomed romance plot, so this got shifted into her being an unwitting pawn for Ribbons. Even more importantly for mecha, things can change based on viewer response. Buster ain't selling? Let's stick Dearka on Archangel.

Whilst a vast majority of AGE concept is likely already pencilled in, there are always things that will change and new fun ideas that will only be hit upon whilst getting close to that episode. To give a direct example- which would you rather have? The clunky 1994 Master Gundam with barely any articulation or gimmicks or the 2011 HG with the cloak, Foonie and even a cloth wielding Master Asia? That's the kind of iconic nature I'd expect to see. Sometimes you need some breathing room to truley grasp what are the strengths of something.

To all honesty the closest I have ever been to a Gundam toy has been holding a standard Seed kit packaging a few years ago at a fair.

But I completely understand what you are talking about. Even I think its weird to pump out high priced collectors goods when the show is barely five episodes out the gate and the two upgrade variants hasn't even been featured beyond the toyline.

Even on a corporate trixter level that is a bit unsure since it will more than not seem like bulljive in hindsight. The "revive of original" or whatever that silly tagline was just reeks of it. Trying to sell your premium brand item based on your new IP with how close it is to the original just seems silly to me. It's not like hobby shelves will be out of original series Gundams any time soon.

I still don't feel I have enough MG's from 00.

I really think they should still be doing at least one or two new MG's from 00, and that they were a bit quick to basically abandon it completely (for now).

There have been some indications we might someday see a Reborns MG. However, the big issue now is that MGs just aren't profitable for a range of reasons and this is why they hit upon RGs. It's more economic for Bandai to make an involved 1/144 then an involved 1/100. It may also be part of the reason we're starting to see nostalgia products aimed at the 90s and 2000s fans.

It would have been nice if Bandai hadn't just completely canceled the MG GN-XIV without telling anyone.

Something of a scoop, HLJ have put up some AG kits for Jan 2012. These include Gundam AGE-2 Normal and Genoace II.

Bandai is trying way too hard to make good on their goal of out-plamoing their 00 line...

We're going to get tons of kits of variants and recolors and stuff, even more than 00 had.

As far as I'm concerned, we don't have enough 00 variants.

We're still missing Marute-mode Harute and Full Armor Zabanya, a transformable Seravee II, Dynames Repair, the GNX-IVs, and heck, it'd even be nice to get the Hellions. I'm less excited for the Gagas, but for completion's sake...

We also haven't gotten a Trans-Am Qan[T] yet, which is kind of a hole in my collection...

GN-XIV is inexcusable, Bandai should have given us more than a B-Club conversion kit and a Tamashii Web exclusive Robot Damashii.

We're also missing Setsuna's Flag .

Speaking of the GN-X, Samuel Decal is selling a purple LED unit for those of you who own the MG.

Looks worthwhile to me.

Huh? There's no such thing as a purple LED.

Not really accurate, anyways. IIRC, the chest condensers were never shown illuminated (and the MG certainly doesn't have any text in the chest, unlike the Exia), and the drive cone should be red like all the other GN[Tau] Drives.

Well I dunno, it glows purple.

You don't HAVE to buy it.

Just sayin' .

For purple glows, it's usually a paired red and blue LED. But given the small space involved in the Gundam lighting units, I'm surprised the pair could actually be crammed in that space properly.

The other issue there is that blue LEDs are so much more intense than red ones, the light usually doesn't blend well, with the blue simply overpowering the red (and I think those high-end model Lightsabers, specifically Mace Windu's, used a diffuser screen of somesort to blend the LED lights as well). So I'm rather curious about the electronics setup in those, if the guy actually managed to cram a resistor in there as well or something.

I've got a red unit from my Trans-Am Exia to give to my GN-X, so I'm cool on that front.

D'oh, speaking of Trans-Am Gundams, I totally forgot to pre-order the MG Trans-Am Raiser. Being a web-shop exclusive, of course the after-market prices are insane.

Luckily, BBTS still has a pre-order open, so at least I'm paying $160 for it (at a maybe ~$30 markup), and not $300 off of eBay...

So during the summer riots, a major Sony warehouse that stored various CDs and DVDs got torched. Beez's stock was in there and the result is there are now no more copies of Gundam Wing Remastered Part 1. Bad news for me, a guy who as I've said has finally been getting around to buying the UK complete collections. But the real sting? People have started putting copies on ebay for prices like £225.

Class act, guys. Fans are being denied copies thanks to looters who grabbed what they wanted and then set fire to everything else. Your gross profiting from this is much the same.

More wacky AGE spoilers are up on GG Infinite.

View at your own risk.

They don't seem to gel with what we already know.

From what a friend told me, they're likely true. Bandai released an image of a Zedas trading card and forgot to blur the text for a few hours. Fans translated it and it includes various info, including the apparent pilot.

Personally, am I the only one getting tired of the way GG does things? Between posting spoilers with little warning, dedicating huge posts to custom jobs he likes and now the uneeded unboxing videos, I'm really missing the likes of Gunota Headlines and Ngee Khiong.