The latest Gundam Converge news...

The latest Gundam Converge set - volume 16 - has been announced and I am really impressed by what I see here. I sort of expected that Bandai and FusionWorks felt they were ready with the F91/Crossbone era and here they come with another three figures including two Den'an Zon army builders to complement the Den'an Gei squads from volume 12. I am really looking forward to this set. The figures included are:

- RX-0 Unicorn Gundam Unit 02 Banshee Norn (Destroy Mode)
- RX-99 (AFX-9000) Neo Gundam
- NRX-0013 Gundam Virsago
- MSM-03 Gogg
- XM-01 Den'an Zon
- XM-01 Den'an Zon (Black Vanguard Squadron)

Two of the figures are revamps of older sculpts; the Banshee Norn and the Gogg. With the recently updated Banshee the Banshee Norn was expected. I wonder if they will give us new sculpts of the Unicorns in their Unicorn modes as well. The Virsago is another entry into the After War Gundam X series, can we hope to see army builder suits from this series as well? X has some really great looking designs and extremely little representation in the figure world at all. Converge #16 is scheduled to release in July and the figures keep the standard 500 yen price.

Also announced is the second set in the new and rather cool MicroWars collection. This time we get more mobile suits and vehicles also from the 08th MS Team series. Together with volume one this series is looking to be really entertaining, but I wonder if it will run out of steam quickly as it is kind of gimmicky. I am really hoping to be able to collect a lot of these since they feature pilot and soldier figures. Sure, they don't look super realistic but it is a good place to start. I wish someone out there would make plastic soldier kits with designs from the various Gundam timelines. Who cares if they aren't to scale they would look great with the mobile suits anyway.

MicroWars volume one just released last week and I have been looking to pick some up here in Bangkok but they are pretty pricey here. The Bandai price is the same as for Converge, ¥500 per figure. Volume two is scheduled for release in in July.