Gundam Military De-generation?

When Bandai announced its Mobile Suit Gundam-themed action figure range I was gushing all over it. Were we finally to see an extended figure range of small and affordable MSG characters and no-name soldiers - and in action figure form with an extensive range of accessories at that? It was the most refreshing figure reveal in a long time. Well, since then my impression has cooled somewhat. The first couple of waves were fantastic - the two sets of infantry soldiers and two sets of mobile suit pilots lay the foundation for something truly special. My only major complaint at the time was the fact that Bandai missed out on offering different head sculpts so that I could buy multiple figures and quickly build a larger force. Instead they opted for different head sculpts of the same characters, often with very specific expressions.

After the initial success things started to deteriorate a bit. Cue the third wave which began throwing in characters represented only by statues, with the occasional optional arm accessory at best. Next the line switched to including large and expensive vehicles, of course with unique character figures and accessories available only through these, and prices began to rise. At the current pace there will soon be more releases of motorcycles and cars than actual figures. And now... well, the latest accessory is a goat. I mean, come on...


In Q4 the line will take another step into fresh territory. Cue Gundam Military Generation PROFESSIONAL. Yeah, you heard that right. MegaHouse apparently heard our wishes for more character variety and so are produd to introduce unpainted figures to solve that issue. But wait, not only unpainted; these are re-issues of the already available figures in unpainted form. No new head sculpts, no new hair styles, no new expressive hands but some ruined brick wall accessories instead... If these catch on I have a sneaky suspicion that the line may switch over to only unpainted for any future releases. We shall see.

GMG Professional is slated for release in December 2023 and the individual figures will sell for ¥3025. When they first appeared in prepainted form they cost around ¥4300 (but if they were to be reissued today those prices would likely be much higher). I don't really think that Bandai were that keen to produce these unpainted figures and that it is simply a sign of the times in general, as more and more pre-painted figure series are getting squeezed by ever-rising production costs.