The latest Gundam Converge news...

Bandai's Converge ten year anniversary keeps going and the development team recently dropped a minor explosive piece of news; they are developing yet another Converge figure line. Shortly after the birth of the #Plus line featuring figures not realizable within the traditional 500 yen price limit it went for larger or more elaborate designs priced at ¥900. Now we can say hello to the latest concept; FW Gundam Converge SB where "SB" stands for Space Battleship. Yes, it is time to branch out into the warships segment, an area that has been dead for the past couple of years as far as release go. This however, will be with a Converge-style super deformation take on the idea.

Converge SB will be a strict Premium Bandai-affair which just goes to show just how much of a niche-market spaceship miniatures are. There was the MegaHouse Cosmo Fleet line that ran between 2007 and 2012 which produced many wonderful miniatures that are hard to come by these days but even that extensive line was only really able to dip its toes into the wonderfully heterogeneous world of Gundam-themed spaceships. I don't know exactly how accurate the Google Translate effort was in decoding this announcement but it suggests that "it will be a series ... which has a lineup of 'battleships' that were active in the 'Mobile Suit Gundam' series!". Depending on how you read this translation you can interpret it as a short series of ships related to the original television series only. Another interpretation could be the most significant and well recognizable "battleships" that have been visible in the various series; think White Base, Albion, Argama, Ra Cailum and so on. Either way it seems I should get my hopes up for the Alexandria or Kusanagi to sail in on the screen any time soon.

Converge SB ships will apparently not stray too far from the regular mobile suit figures which makes sense from a collecting and price-tag perspective. This of course makes it a bit awkward to pose the ships next to the mobile suits (it would be worse trying to do it next to the larger mobile armors such as the Neo Zeong or Neue Ziel) but it can probably work if the ship sit in the background. As much as I love warships (and keep hunting down those expensive resin kits) this series looks like it will have to fight a bit of an uphill battle to reach success. Personally I would have appreciated an awakening of the CosmoFleet series where old ships could have been reissued next to new ones that didn't make it the first time around.

Alexandria, when?

So far the only announced vessel is the SCV-70 White Base (which is also one of my least favourite Gundam-themed ship of all time) and I will be looking forward to see what is announced next. If the series goes Musai and Salamis my interest will be be piqued but something like the Nahel Argama and Ra Cailum seems more likely. The White Base is currently open for pre-order and has a price tag of ¥4950. Delivery is scheduled for August.

The SB figures will come with simple flat bases but Bandai takes the opportunity to plug their generic Shokugan figure stands in the same post. These will set you back another five thousand yen which is rather pathetic. But if you have the money to spend, sure...

Lastly just a reminder about two of the upcoming projects also running the campaigns right now. The Converge #Plus02 line-up is expected to ship in July and the new collector boxes which have also been plugged for Converge (Bandai sure is milking it hard right now) are expected to be delivered in June. On the lower end of the spectrum, Converge #21 should be out pretty much any day now. Good, old retail figures... :)