Bandai dropped a boatload of figure news this week. These are mostly in the Gashapon arena but we'll begin with a new set of Shokugan figures in the MicroWars line. Just a few days ago I was lamenting the fact that the series seemed dead in the water with no news for a very long time and here suddenly volume four is dropped on the Bandai Shokugan portal page.The series has unfortunately abandoned the UC0079 era before delivering a Dom or a Gelgoog and instead continues to flesh out the Char's Counterattack line-up with a suit for each side and then puts a Destroy Mode Unicorn and the TOLRO-800 utility suit from Unicorn at the end together with the Hildolfr tank from MS IGLOO. I'm not sure exactly how that decision process went but I'm glad that there is still life in this line. Volume three is just around the corner and this fourth wave is planned for released in February 2020.
The sixteenth EX figure for the Mobile Suit Ensemble line was hinted recently and here we have the first official photo of the real deal. It is indeed the YG-111 G-Self (Perfect Pack) as identified by one of our readers. Bandai mentions that the figure will come with various gimmicks and parts, perhaps even one or two additional packs? The oversize (and rather ugly) action base indicates that there is a lot that could be going on here. Preorder is supposed to start today.Bandai also showed off computer graphics for a new figure in development, some kind of Full Armor Gundam evolution if I understand correctly?
I would also like to point out that the Bandai Gashapon development team is currently running a questionnaire on their blog. They want to know if people want the Ensemble EX figures to come more often or not, if they should focus only on rare large machines such as mobile armors or pump out as many variations as they can take, and lastly whether they should develop the Ex-S and Deep Striker variations for the S-Gundam. I went ahead and put in my preferences but it wouldn't surprise me if they just filter out and disregard IP-addresses from outside of Japan.
So there you have it, massive news ahead for the autumn and winter season, knowing that the Xeku Eins is coming is enough to make me overly excited...
note you forgot to mention part 12 of ms ensemble.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I didn't see it announced on the Gashapon blog so I just figured I missed the announcement. It sits on the Ensemble checklist though.
DeleteLooking forward to Micro Wars 4! To me the lifeline of this lineup the are the support vehicles as the Mobile Suit are not as good as Ensemble.
ReplyDeleteHopefully Micro Wars could survive until they got models from Alternate Universe
Agreed. For me it is the soldier figures that are the main draw, as these are useful for any type of diorama build. Sure they are not to scale but I think they work well with both small figures like Converge or larger ones like the MSIA and Robot Spirits line.
DeleteHi are you going to review Ensemble 10 and 11?
ReplyDeleteIt likely won't happen any time soon. Volume 10 hasn't been available or sold out through my regular channels and eleven is just fresh out the door, so unfortunatley it might be a while.
DeleteAhhh I hope you do get to review more Ensemble. I enjoy your commentary and in depth review of thesebso far. I have been wondering as well since I am trying to collect these Ensemble and missed out on series 04 with Nu Gundam. Wondering if that's really worth USD 100+ on eBay? Or skip for Ensemble 13 which looks to be amazing.
DeleteIt is tedious that figures sell out so quickly. The Bandai devs keep moaning that people aren't purchasing enough Gashapon figures on their blog but at the same time you can hardly find brand new figures a few weeks after they are released. Preorder seems to be their answer to anything these days.
DeleteI work in Toy Distributor company so perhaps i can provide some insight for the circumstances.
DeleteFor overseas at very least Bandai heavily rely upon the distributors to get the item reach the end customers. And the distributors rely on the smaller retailers to take quantity which in turn submitted as Preorder Quantity to Bandai. For Candy Toys, distributors like my company rarely willing to take retail stocks because it is difficult to sell them due to the mark up price with operational costs considered.
So the safest bet for Bandai Candy Toys outside Japan is still preorder indeed but it only comes in boxed edition
You're right of course. The days of decent margins and risk taking are pretty much gone. Stores are not willing to (or cannot afford to) take the risk of getting stuck with non-moving stock, the same goes for the distributors and also for Bandai itself. Even the design teams need their projects to be more or less instant successes or the lines will be quickly axed. I recall a post on the developer blog where they mentioned that a line that does not suceed within three volumes (or roughly a year) is in dire straits although sometimes popular series seem to be allowed to live on a bit, like Senshi Forte. And now we heard that the regular Ensemble volumes aren't doing that well either...
DeleteI never expect the pressure that Bandai designer side had, considering they are the one of biggest player in the market so they are able soak up some flops.
DeleteThough i thought Ensemble series did quite well and it is Forte with Converge that is struggling instead
These days everyone in a corporation has [an expensive] financial controller breathing down their neck and a beam saber pointed at their throats. Here is a quote from the Gashapon blog that was made recently when talking about Ensemble.
Delete通常弾は本当に利益全然でてないというか、弾によっては赤くなったりもしてるので。10月以降は特に・・・。私も綱渡りで生きているので、失敗は許されないのです。しかしながら、やっぱりPBなどで多くの受注をいただいた分は還元したいなということで、13弾に思いきってみました。何が来るかはお楽しみに！
Providing that Google Translate got the gist of it right, it translates roughly to:
"Ordinary bullets are not really profitable, or some bullets may turn red. Especially after October ... Because I live on a tightrope, failure is not allowed. However, after all I received a lot of orders for PB and so on, I wanted to reduce it, so I thought about 13 bullets. Look forward to what will come!"
The latest news also featured that query about Premium Ensemble. Basically the Bandai dev team plans to go all-in on PB next year and invited people to comment on if they would like Premium Ensemble frequency upped to one a month and similar questions. There's no love for the little guy here. :)
I didn't know the scarcity of these Ensemble figures. Having just got back from Japan, there were numerous Gashapon machines that had them, spent around 3000 yen to complete set 10 before finding them sold in boxes in Lawson convenient stores. It may be different if we are outside of Japan as now I'm relying on what I can find on eBay only which has ridiculous listed pricing.
ReplyDeleteYes, I like to think of eBay as a last resort option only. I very rarely pick stuff up there these days. I usually pass through Bangkok a couple of times per year and can normally find all the latest sets there but this autumn I struck out on both Ensemble 10 as well as Senshi Forte 09 and 10 which was a bit painful. On my last trip I brought back two full boxes of MicroWars 1 but this time I was only able to secure a single 5-pcs set. I kinda get the feeling I will have to spend on full boxes from amiami or such if this trend continues.
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