The latest Shokugan news...

Bandai recently unveiled their latest Shokugan figure series which is due to hit the shelves in April next year. With a name only a mother can love, I think that Mobility Joint Gundam has a bit of an uphill battle from the start. What we are looking here is a complete replacement for the slot previously championed for a short while by my beloved MicroWars series. These blocky and stubby figures continue to blur the line between figures and kits. Actually, at this point I think it is safe to say that these are not even figures but simplified model kits.


As you can see from the concept designs the figures are taking more than a cue from the concurrent Gframe "figure" series where you will get the basic mobile suit (or armor) in one box and its option parts in a complementary box (referred to as the "EX" set). They are priced at ¥590 per box meaning a complete figure will set you back about ¥1200 yen. Sure, you get quite a number of accessories for some of these figures but at a price more than twice as expensive as the average Converge, Ensemble (or even MicroWars) figure just how much desire will you have to army build? You'll likely end up with a lot of unused accessories collecting dust in a zip-lock bag for most of the time (don't ask me how I know this...).


Joint Mobi... Mobility Joint figures (man, the name just will not stick) are said to have an approximate size of about 70mm height and 50mm width which will put them quite near to their closest counterparts from the MicroWars range. Since MJG will not feature open cockpits or pilots they appear much slender but perhaps, just perhaps, they can augment the dead MicroWars line-up to some extent (although I have a feeling Bandai will mainly recycle the same old suits once more in the end).


While I don't particularly enjoy the way Gundam figure collecting has turned into some kind of model kit hobby I don't want to give the designers a hard time about it either, because we are aware of the realities faced by the entire industry in 2021. On the other hand, if I wanted to spend time building and painting model kits I wouldn't be into the Shokugan figures to begin with.


Meanwhile, the fast expanding Gframe series is also getting a reboot. After an impressive release schedule the series is taking a breather until February next year when the first "full armor" figures will begin bombarding the collectors again. Not being a Gframe addict myself the way I understand it is the new GframeFA figures will feature armor plating that covers also the back of the figures. The series is being reset to volume 01 and appears to continue the four figures per wave pace, with each mobile suit divided between an "armor set" (containing the armor parts and a static frame) and a "frame set" (with the articulated inner frame). The regular figures are being upped in price from ¥500 to ¥590, again totaling almost ¥1200 for a complete figure. Pretty rough if you ask me.


Wow, they sure are pushing the FA brand hard. The first EX set and P-Bandai exclusive will release in late Q1, and those sets will cost ¥3900 each. There also appears to be some sort of raffle going on where Japanese customers can battle for a Phase Shift Down variant of the Strike Gundam. My wallet sighs of relief that I stayed out of this money sink of a figure series.


On an end note we have also seen the full line-up for Converge Plus #03. The line-up looks pretty nice with a good collection of suits and mobile armors but the equipment pack is a bit of a joke. I have questioned this business practice before but it seems to make even less sense for Gundam Converge. I wish they would just up the price a couple of 100 yen per figure and get rid of the whole spreading parts around hassle that has already infected Ensemble and more recently Senshi Forte. In other news, the red Neo Zeong is getting a reissue (complete with the option parts set) so this is a good opportunity for collectors who missed out on it the first time. The price of the original Neo Zeong is holding up remarkably well on the secondary market so for ¥5500 it is a bit of a steal. The Neo Zeong should hit the shelves inMarch next year so start saving up. Also in the works is a Converge CORE variant of the Unicorn Perfectability so we can look forward to a bit of Unicorn milking as well.

The latest figure news...

Bandai have announced a couple of new figures for the autumn season from the various ranges. Of most interest to the blog readers here is probably the Converge EX28, a brand new variation on the RX-9/A Narrative Gundam with its A-Packs configuration. The price seems to be a bit of a joke though; not sure I would want to pay ¥6600 for what is essentially a basic Converge-size figure with some elongated option parts. While you will be able to parts swap the figure into several forms it still looks rather clunky on that action base but perhaps it will look better in real life. The Narrative A-packs figure is a Premium Bandai figure scheduled for releases in October.
 

More to my personal interest (and wallet size) is the third wave of Gundam MicroWars figures. I must say I was a bit worried we might not see more than two sets but the fact that we not only get a third set but that it also branches out a bit from UC 0079  makes me cautiously optimistic the series might live on. Not particularly enthused about wave three though, while I had expected the Dopp and the Ball it seems odd to include Char's Z'Gok and the Nu Gundam in the mix, a mass-production Gelgoog was sitting really high on my wish list. The MicroWars Gashapon figures have the humble price of ¥500 per figure and will also release in October.
 

Lastly, while we do not really follow Gframe here on the page it should be pointed out that the series is still going strong. Volume 07 was recently announced for release in September, and they will now be joined by yet another P-Bandai release. Collectors can look forward to the appearance of the ZZ Gundam, which will fill out yet another gap in the Gundam line-up which is beginning to look really impressive by now. Still far too few grunt suits in this series however for me to consider it seriously.

The latest Gundam Gframe news...

I must confess that I thought that we had heard the last from this Gundam Shokugan series, Gframe. That unholy combination of an expensive model kit sold in multiple candy toy boxes. Bandai had so far unveiled three sets of figures with the last volume scheduled for September. I had expected the series to peacefully go to sleep after that. Instead, Bandai decides to go really big with a massive S-Gundam/Ex-S Gundam special release.

This monstruous release is scheduled for October with a price set at ￥4500, where a basic Gframe figure costs ￥1000 (you need to purchase an A and a B box at ￥500 each to build a complete figure). Although I can see no mention or link on the release page that this would be a P-Bandai item, the url of the figure ends ominously with "pb01".

Is there any love for the Gframe series out there? I haven't heard much about it and decided to steer clear of these figures myself since they are not size compatible with the other 1/220 Shokugan figures. For a bit of 1/220 action you can still get a really nice looking S-Gundam as well as two versions of the Ex-S Gundam in the STANDart series already.

More photos of the Gframe S/Ex-S Gundam figures are found on this Bandai blog page.

The regular Gframe figure series lineup currently features nine mobile suits.

G-Frame - The Bane of Universal Unit?

Hi kids! Do you remember Universal Unit? Bandai's current 1/220 size Mobile Suit Gundam candy toys? They replaced Assault Kingdom in August 2016 after the AK brand had been quietly disappearing from the limelight, much like Gundam STANDart disappeared before it. Universal Unit expanded very quickly and by May 2017 the series had produced four waves of regular figures as well as seven larger figures, all in all 34 different designs in about 8-9 months time. It was pretty impressive. Well, since Universal Unit 4, things have been really quiet on the 1/220 scene since then. Bandai's most recent candy toy reveal may have had some part to play in this turn of events.

Fast forward to September 28 2017 and behold... a brand new highly articulated candy toy figure series! With Mobile Suit Gundam G-Frame Bandai continues to blur the line between what is a candy toy and what is a model kit. In our recent reviews of the Senshi Forte super deformed figures we discussed how even the tiny Gashapon figures are becoming more elaborate in their designs,featuring more and more complex joints and points of articulation. And with G-Frame the Shokugan size figures are taking a new leap away from the multi-part complex Universal Unit figures into creating figures composed of armor parts being attached to an inner frame, that is a skeletal structure responsible for all the articulation to which parts are than attached. However each figure appears to be given two different frames, one more or less static (like a coat hanger) and one flexible and posable.

If you have seen the Universal Unit reviews here on the blog you'll have seen constant moaning about "Who is this figure series for? Aren't people getting more value for their money by buying Bandai's own model kits instead?". The G-Frame concept warrants this question even more.

What is even more perplexing is the concept Bandai have in mind for selling the figures. The first volume is supposed to contain the Sazabi, the Nu Gundam and a Unicorn Gundam in Destroy Mode. However, the figure set is supposed to be sold not in three but six different packages. The presentation is a bit unclear to me here but it appears that you will find the "Armor Parts", i.e. the bulky painted components in one box together with a simple straight inner frame. The fully articulated inner frame, the weapons and some additional stands and display pieces for the figure are then found in a separate box. Universal Unit had a similar lame concept that the mobile suit's different accessories were scattered into an A and a B version, but at least each box contained a complete figure. Here it seems a single box will contain only half a figure...

These questionable antics are probably a sneaky way of lowering the price of each box. Still, half a figure will cost ¥500, meaning you'll have to shell out ¥1000 to get the complete figure (providing you can find both boxes at the point of sale of course). This seems a bit steep for candy toy pricing. At the time of writing, Mandarake is for example selling Bandai's 1:144 scale Sazabi kit for ¥1800.

The G-Frame figures are touted to be about 11 centimeters high which should be a bit taller than the typical 1/220 scale figures we have seen from Bandai's Shokugan ranges before. However all the mobile suits in this volume are also quite tall so it is possible they will still scale decently with previous figures.

G-Frame is scheduled for release in February 2018 and the line-up is supposed to be as follows:

1. RX-93 Nu Gundam Armor Set (Armor Parts / Movable Hanger Parts)
2. RX-93 Nu Gundam Frame Set (Bust / Weapon Set / Movable Frame)
3. MSN-04 Sazabi Armor Set (Armor Parts / Movable Hanger Parts)
4. MSN-04 Sazabi Frame Set (Bust / Weapon Set / Movable Frame)
5. RX-0 Unicorn Gundam (Destroy Mode) Armor Set (Armor Parts / Movable Hanger Parts)
6. RX-0 Unicorn Gundam (Destroy Mode) Frame Set (Bust / Weapon Set / Movable Frame)

Link to the official Bandai page here.