This is the Gundam Astray Green Frame piloted by Trojan Noiret from Gundam SEED Frame Astrays. This model kit is of 1:144 scale and is a high grade model kit. If I have a list of Gundams that I would wish to get the MG treatment, an Astray Frame would be one of them and I don’t care if it’s the blue, green, red or gold. The Astray Frames are what I consider one of the most revolutionary designs in Gundam history although I know there would be a good number of people who would think otherwise. Ever since the Astray Red Frame and Astray Blue Frame came out, I’ve always admired the design of the Astrays. The later redesigns I’m not really too fond of but the Green Frame is pretty much the same as the Red and Blue Frames in their basic form (the blue frame and red frame have received quite a number of add-ons, upgrades and redesigns already). I’m not inherently a fan of the green color but green seems to fit this mobile suit quite well. We rarely see Gundams in green color unless they’re antagonistic or lame. Probably the only other notable green Gundam that I can think of is the Gundam Leopard in Gundam X. And that’s a tanker. This one is green and it looks fast. It’s nothing special except for the fact that Astrays in the SEED universe are considered one-of-a-kind because of the prototype status and their unique capability of being easy to handle for a normal human when during that time, the best MS pilots are coordinators.

This MS comes with what appears to be a unique beam rifle. The handle of the gun reminds me of Kamen Rider Kabuto’s Kunai Gun where the base of the handle has a blade on it. The image doesn’t show the MS using the blade but I assume that once all that energy in the beam rifle runs out, the Astray will flip it and swing away with it like an axe. It also has two beam weapon outputs at the top and bottom of the barrel. This reminds me of that beam weapon that the Powered GM has but then this one doubles as a beam rifle whereas the Powered GM only has it as a melee weapon. I’ve yet to see more pictures of this model kit to see if that blade can switch to the back hilt and act as a spear. (images from Gundam.Info)

Personal Byte: Would I buy this HGUC? I’m not really sure. I’m trying to save my cash for the upcoming MG releases within the next couple of months. Although like I said, I do wish the Astrays would get the MG treatment soon. I would have preferred seeing an MG Astray over an MG Force Impulse Gundam. I wonder if I should get a 1/100 Astray Red Frame and try to convert it to MG using an MG frame… Or I can just wait for Keita to make one and I’ll just ogle it. ^_^;

Saw this juicy piece of news from the chap who updates his blog on Gundams more often than I can breathe: Ngeekhiong! Click on the image to zoom. In the larger picture, you see “1:100″ written twice. I don’t see any MG written there so it’s possible that it’s just a HG 1/100 scale model but I’m so so so hoping it’s going to be an MG release. They’ve already made us all happy with the announcement of Shin Musha Gundam. This would be the golden cherry on top of the icing.

For those who don’t know, the Sinanju is the antagonist mobile suit in the Gundam Unicorn manga. It’s the red mobile suit that looks like the orgy lovechild of the Zaku II Char Custom, Sazabi and Nightingale.

Now for more updates on gunpla, visit Ngeekhiong’s blog.

Got quite a surprise from Gundam.Info. I don’t think this is an official kit or else people would have already started talking about it but so far, the 1/100 model kits that people are talking about are the Gundam 00 ones so I’m scratching this off as a mod.

But what a sexy mod this is! This is Gai Murakumo’s third evolution of the Astray Blue Frame and it’s definitely more gorgeous than its buster sword-wielding predecessor (although I have a feeling others would strongly disagree). I’m liking this design because it matches Gai’s heavy arms theme. It’s very military in look and design while at the same time, it shows that it’s fast. Real fast.

I haven’t seen the manga so I’m not sure if those two swords merge into a buster sword which was the defining feature of the Second L. Nevertheless, this reminds me of the dual sword armament of the Astray Red Frame Mars design. Then it has two more swords mounted in hilts on its hips. There also appears to be a backpack that has thrusters in it. And then, behind the heels or the calves of the mobile suit, you’ll see two daggers that flip out. I’m not sure if Gai can draw these melee weapons or they just flip out like spurs when he’s kicking with his MS. Looks gorgeous nevertheless. Now, just give this baby a large solid round/beam weapon and this MS would be so Rambo.

This is Keita’s latest gunpla mod: the MG H-Nu Gundam. Not a lot of evolution features. He basically went back to the classic look and color scheme that was changed by the MG release. The MG release is the one you see on the right while Keita’s is on the left. The color scheme in Keita’s mod is more loyal to the original design of the Hi Nu and he appears to have returned the girth that seemed to be lost in redesigned MG.

This mod also contains metal parts for boosters, head vulcans, thrusters and other nuts and bolts. To see the rest of the pictures, visit Keita’s site.

One of the previous comments posted here in my blog were from a chap named ninjascience and he owns an interesting website full of Gundam and other mecha-related information that I have not heard of until I actually viewed his site. One of these interesting things is the Meaningless War of 0091 which happens two years before Char’s Counterattack. I’m aware that the units here are mostly MSVs. Nevertheless, their designs look really awesome and I’m wondering who actually worked on them. They look a bit BEECRAFT-ish to me. ninjascience wrote that there are three episodes of this side story. I noticed that it features mostly mobile armors and transforming mobile suits similar to the Zeta Gundam’s waverider mode. Here are some of the mobile suits featured in this story:First up is the MSZ-016ZIII “Zeta III Gundam” developed by Anaheim Electronics and is claimed to be the basis for the design and technology used for the Nu Gundam.

I’ve always assumed that the official versions of the Gundam only reached up to Mk. III and then the rest are MSVs. I’m aware that this one’s an MSV but it looks really good. This is also probably the first “higher version” that I’ve seen that had significant modifications to its functionality, meaning the Mk. IV is a transforming mobile suit similar to the Zeta Gundam. The RX-274R Gundam Mk. IV “Siren”:

Last but not the least is the MSN-04 “Chanel” which is claimed to have been developed alongside the Sazabi and is the female version of the two. It derives its features from the Quebeley with energy-efficient funnels but lacking the diffusion beam rifle that the Sazabi is equipped with. In the end, Char chose the Sazabi since he believed that the quantity of funnels wasn’t as important.

Information and images are from MechaScientific c/o ninjascience.

Gundam Unicorn has released a new mass production unit that looks like the lovechild of the Zeta Gundam and the Hyaku Shiki. The gold color, head shape and leg design alone speaks volumes of references to Char’s Hyaku Shiki from the Zeta Gundam series. But the long beam rifle and its Waverider Mode is very obvious reference to Camille Bidan’s Zeta Gundam from the same series.Here’s the translation from Gunota Headlines:

MSN-001A1 Delta Plus (Earth Federation)

Head height: 19.6 m

Base weight: 27.2 t

Generator output: 2,460 kW

Maximum thrust: 92,400 kg

Sensor radius: 16,200 m

Armor: Gundarium alloy

“Anaheim Electronics variable MS supplied to the Nahal Argama after losing the majority of its mobile weapon complement to fighting with the Kshatriya. An all-purpose strike machine useable in all domains with its waverider form, which flies under 1G of gravity and has unassisted atmospheric entry capabilities. Since it is a nonstandard prototype difficult to place in a unit, it’s thought it was sent to the Nahal Argama, which makes use of a lot of similarly nonstandard things for a single warship.”

Gunota Headlines has confirmed that the MG coming out this December is the Gundam Unicorn and it can transform from Normal to Destroy Mode. Can’t wait!!! 

After quite some time, I have once again updated my sidebar picture. Just keeps getting uglier and uglier eh?

This is the last leg of my business trip. One week here in Wessling, another couple of weeks in Karlstein and then back here in Wessling for a whole month. Then finally, I head back to the Philippines!

I have little to write about at the moment. I’m settled in my desk in our Wessling office and the only one who would dare wear Crocs to work.

Just blabbering but for those who might be interested, here’s a PV of Gundam Unicorn. I’m not sure if they’re actually planning to make an OVA but it seems like Bandai’s gearing up to start a promotional campaign of this manga alongside the Gundam 00 series.

Gunota Headlines featured an update in the Gundam Unicorn website and it features the MS used by Full Frontal. And as always, Katoki does it again. This wonderfully designed mobile suit has a lot of features that are similar to the look and feel of the Sazabi minus the bulky exterior. So you can just imagine how fast this baby can go and how agile it can be given that the system it’s using is the prototype for the NT-D system that the Unicorn is on.

I can’t wait to see when Bandai is going to release this in the GFF line alongside the Gundam Unicorn. I hope they will be two separate units rather than doing that armor change thing.

I haven’t been able to write much as of late. Things just keep getting busier and busier here in Germany. I just got back from my trip to the UK and how do I celebrate coming back to the land of excellent engineering?

Hell yeah!

Remember this?

Well, apparently, that’s really how it transforms. The Gundam Unicorn official website has finally put up the section for Gundam Unicorn (Destroy Mode). With the looks of the mobile suit, Destroy Mode looks quite appropriate. This transformation looks very sexeh and I love the look of the legs and the arms. I really wish this becomes a model kit. At least there’s already a precedent. Hi Nu Gundam never came out in the anime but they made a model kit out of it. Or at least have Katoki make a GFF out of it. A Metal Composite one. Ok…I’m getting way ahead of myself but this mobile suit just looks so awesome.

Pity it can only stay in that form for five minutes before the pilot goes insane from massive brain pain.

Check out the site’s translation at Gunota Headlines. Images are from the official website and from SRW Hotnews.