It has been a bit quiet on the Bandai Gashapon blog for a while now. Most posts have been about some RPG called Touhou LostWord and concerned themselves mainly with snoozefest acrylic charms and the like. We do know there is quite a lot of Mobile Suit Ensemble stuff already in the works while it is more tumbleweed town when we get to Senshi Forte and that Ensemble spin-off that I almost forgot the name of; Robot Concerto. Moving on to Shokugan it is equally (awfully) quiet also on the MicroWars side. But anyway, a couple of days ago we finally had a Gundam-themed update and it took me some time to try to wrap my head around it.
Yes, behold the latest announcement on the Gashapon frontier; Ultimate Mechanix Unicorn Gundam. A remote controlled transforming Unicorn Gundam head with coloured lights. And here I was thinking that Gashapons are those cute little toys that fit in small capsules and are chucked into vending machines for a bit of spare-change light-hearted fun...
There is actually quite a long story written by the author on the
blog, take some time to read it through your favourite translator for some Gashapon division gossip and history. The main takeaway is that this is some sort of pet project of the current Gashapon product development head that has been five years in the making. You are encouraged to
preorder since the price has been kept low to make it available to more collectors. The price is not forty, not thirty but only 25 000 yen! (I have already been burnt by this writer before but this time it does seem to be a legit product...) Expect delivery late 2021.
Thrown in at the end are a couple of quick notes about the good stuff. The ZGMF-X09A is confirmed as Mobile Suit Ensemble EX28 and Senshi Forte #13 will hit the shops in February. There is a bit of semi-ominous choice of wording about continued difficulties for the Senshi Forte line and how this set holds the fate of the future in its hands. Yet at the same time there is news that volume 14 is currently in development so make of that what you will..
Not covered by the gashapon blog but MSE18 is confirmed and open for pre-orders on amiami
ReplyDeleteLineup:
-Prototype Gundam
-Silver bullet suppressor
-Zaku Warrior
-Zaku Warrior (Luna Maria Model)
-Gigan
-MS weapon set
Cheers, that is a very interesting (and exotic) line-up. However, I am really not feeling this new chikanery of expanding he standard waves to six figures that they will introduce with wave 17.
DeleteI'm going to have to assume that it is the Senshi Forte flop all over again; set A will probably include the green ZAKU Warrior and set B the red one effectively making them needlessly rare (especially for an army builder type figure). Presumably they will also alternate Gyunei's and Quess' machines in A/B configuration in wave 17 but that is easier to stomach since you really only want one of each but they will likely go up in price fast.
Some news from Gashapon Twitter since the blog updates very slow and little.
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/gasha_komagata
Preorders for Freedom ver. GCP, Justice and Meteor are on-going via P-Bandai.
Virtue is likely MSE:EX29, after EX28 which is Justice.
Calamity is developed under MSE:EX lineup and they have a CG image of Raider.
Gundam SEED seems to be bringing good money to the whole candy toys/gashapon business.
These news bring a tear of happiness to the corner of my eye. I never would have dared to hope for any of the experimental O.M.N.I. machines to make it into Ensemble. Let's hope for some ZAFT suits and a Dagger to go with them as well.
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