by Loran
With the new episode of Gundam Unicorn less than a month away from being released, I thought I should take a look at the last episode. Simply put, that episode was about an hour’s worth of mecha porn. Sure, it was very light on the story (and overall, kind of a weak episode) but it had enough action to keep me entertained, and it delivered everything I’d hoped to see in a Gundam OVA episode. What made the episode so great for me was the wide variety of mobile suits we got to see, ranging from the original Gundam, to Zeta and ZZ, and even some new designs in the form of MSVs.
Naturally, Bandai seized this opportunity. We’ve got a slew of new kits that have been released within the past month or so, but we also got some reissues coming our way of suits that don’t exactly need new kits, or ones for the kitbashers. Frankly, they know their market.
On the front of HGUC reissues, we got a reissue of one of my favorite older HGUCs, the Dom Tropen. The first version of the kit doesn’t excite me much, but they took the wise route and reissued the Sand Brown version, which not only looks cooler, but comes with tons of extra weapons.
To accompany the Dom, both versions of the Desert Zaku got reissued. Sadly I still don’t have either version of this kit, but from what I’ve been told, the ZZ version is the superior release because it comes with parts for both units. One of these days I’ll actually make one of these.
Since the Zeons always had the edge in terms of naval combat, we’ll be seeing some reissues there, but only one of them is worth mentioning at all: The Kapool! Yeah, the lovable Kapool from ZZ and Turn A was actually made out to be kinda scary in Unicorn. Of course, if you want your Kapool to be accurate to the one in the episode, you’ll need to paint it.
The same goes for the Z’Gok. For some reason they showed up clad in some weird green color scheme that looks like something I would have made out of boredom about four years ago. I’m glad even Bandai won’t waste another HGUC slot with this recolor.
Also, the original Zogok is seeing the light of day again. I’ve always wanted to kitbash one of these, but I’m not sure how. I figure by the end of the project, there won’t be much left of the original Zogok kit…
As for new releases, there’s the Zaku Sniper Yonem Kirks Custom, the green Marasai, and the Juaggu! I’ll be covering the last two in a few upcoming reviews since I’m waiting for mine to arrive. I was upset about the announcement of the Marasai and Zaku over some of the episode’s other designs initially, but taking a closer look at them I’ve changed my opinion. As for the Juaggu… man, I never thought that thing would get an HGUC.
The Nemo is also finally getting a kit next month, in EFSF colors. Not as cool as the Zeta colors, in my opinion, but better than nothing. I already covered the GM III, GM II, and GM II Semi-Striker, so look up those reviews.
Unfortunately, the only way to get the Guncannon Detector and Byarlant Custom is in Robot Damashii form, and they’re web shop exclusives. The Efreet Schneid has yet to receive any merchandise.
This summer looks to be a good one for Gunpla, I’d say. The next episode of Gundam Unicorn will be out soon, so keep an eye out for new Gunpla from that as well. As always, keep your eyes peeled at FPNYC for new releases!
