The latest Gashapon news...

Today's item is actually not related to Mobile Suit Gundam at all, at least not from a canonical perspective. As far as toys and toylines go though, Bandai's up and coming Robot Concerto figure line is an obvious evolution of Mobile Suit Ensemble. Not only does the engineering and concept seem a direct follow-on to MS Ensemble but even the graphical profile including choice of font is directly lifted from the MS Ensemble material (although this may perhaps change at the time of commercial release).

I'm not going to pretend to know anything about the IP at all, but the figures themselves look so much MS Ensemble that I get the feeling they might be fully compatible with each other. The Bandai design team mentions a new skeletal structure however, so it is possible that this is not the case. the aesthetics of the figures do look rather MS Ensembe as well. I could easily see these being used to customize Ensemble figures or to introduce custom factions or PMC's into the Gundam timelines. Looking for an excuse to collect them? Why I never...

It is interesting to note that the first wave introduced on the Bandai Gashapon blog appears to consist of two mechs/mobile suits/whatever-they-are as well as two component packs. This annoying trend seems to be here to stay. First we had the Build Model Gundam figures where each wave was four figures and a fifth pack containing all the weapons. Then they cut it down to three mobile suits, a vehicle and an equipment pack in Mobile Suit Ensemble and if this promo material is anything to go by we are now down to 50% figures and 50% accessories in the Robot Concerto series, the same tedious practice as with Gframe.

We don't have the release date or price for these figures yet but if MS Ensemble is anything to go by they should end up somewhere around ¥500 per piece I imagine. While I won't follow these figures closely they might make an appearance on the blog if I end up picking some up in the future.