My goodness... is someone in the Aznable family having a birthday in August? Like a zap of lightning from a clear blue sky, Bandai and FusionWorks suddenly drop not one but two Converge CORE sets dedicated to Zeon superstar Char Aznable.
CORE 022 is a four figure set lining up four mobile suits all piloted by Char under one flag or alias or another. Each figure is a reissue of recently modernized and released Converge figures with some additional markings slapped on to them. The Hyaku Shiki and the Sazabi get metallic coats and no less than three of the figures get unique accessories. Here come the Heat Hawk for the Zaku II, the Beam Naginata for the Gelgoog and the Beam Saber for the Hyaku-Shiki. That is all fine and dandy but the production model Zaku and Gelgoog figures should have received these accessories already at their original release...
CORE 023 is another two figure reissue set but here we are talking repaints; the new RX-78 figure has already been repainted in Real Type colours and here we get a red machine for Casval himself; as seen in the Mobile Suit Gundam: Gihren's Greed game. I don't know if the Core Fighter is also present in that series or not but we do get a spiffy looking red machine to go with it anyway. I'm sure many collectors would have loved to see a Core Fighter in the traditional colours outside of the very rare Operation V set, who knows maybe it will also be reissued further down the line.
With all this Char Aznable spectacle I'm sure a lot of you are wondering where Char's MS-09RS Rick Dom is hanging around. My guess is we will eventually see it pop up again as well, bundled with the Gundam figure in G3 colours. But before they can do that, FusionWorks must first get around to modifying the new MS-09 Dom figure into a Rick Dom (which is maybe not that far away now that they are working through the War in the Pocket era figures in the regular waves).
Both these sets look really neat and I am sure they will be really popular. Preorder is available here and here and both sets are scheduled for delivery in August.
In case you missed it, scroll to very bottom of those pages.
ReplyDeleteEX31: Neue Ziel II (is that even "canon"?)
http://bandaicandy.hateblo.jp/entry/20200220_fwgc
Second Victory Gundam (not to be confused with V2), and Guncannon Mass Production Type
http://bandaicandy.hateblo.jp/entry/20200306fwgc
Looks promising, can't wait to build the War in the Pocket figure range. The Neue Ziel II will probably be a nice entry also. The original Neue Ziel is such a fantastic figure; chunky, durable and it has that unmistakable Converge look to it. Unlike some more recent EX-figures that are driving me nuts because of how delicate and finicky they are to handle.
DeleteAlso slated for Converge #20 is a reboot of Perfect Strike, see middle of page here
Deletehttp://bandaicandy.hateblo.jp/entry/20200214_gundam
Nice, it looks like it is only the Aile Strike though. Maybe there will be a 3000 yen P-Bandai Perfect Strike down the line. :) It also looks like Gframe is about to get a GINN, now that is making me severly jealous. Hopefully Bandai will recycle that design and drop it in Ensemble and/or Converge as well. Man... I've never been tempted to go Gframe until this moment.
DeleteBoth confirmed: http://bandaicandy.hateblo.jp/entry/20200316fwgc
ReplyDeleteNeue Ziel II, along with CORE Neue Ziel I. Latter is bit of a scam like the Dendrobium re-hash. Guess I'll have to stock up on those P-Bandai 0083 option parts sets now.
The better news is at the bottom of the page. Another entrant to #20: Rick Dom Anavel Gato Custom!
So now we have 4 members of Converge #20 confirmed. Wonder if they'll "pair" up the Gato Rick Dom with a regular colored one to make that the hard-to-find-pair that's common in many releases.
More Victory Gundam madness to follow -- the bottom of the blog above shows a poll showing what Victory suits people most want to see. All baddies, Gottrlatan tops the list followed by Zanneck, Rig Contio, and Rig Shokew.
ReplyDelete