Gundam 00 season 2 will be airing soon and Bandai is not missing a single beat in releasing Gundam 00 merchandise to cash in on the fans’ anticipation of what’s going to happen to Celestial Being’s four Gundam pilots/meisters.

00 Gundam: flexibility for dynamic poses, to rival Revoltech

Bandai’s HCM Pro line will be releasing two Gundam 00 unit this September: 00 Gundam and Cherudim Gundam. The designs for all four mobile suits are blockier or pointier but what I noticed is that the mecha designers appear to be obsessed with pairs, particularly with these units. The 00 Gundam no longer has the seven sword system. Instead, it now has two GN blades of the same size that can turn into beam rifles, two beam sabers and of course, its two GN drives mounted on its shoulders. The flexibility appears to be even more improved now. The range of the joints are greater now and the opportunity for making dynamic poses with the 00 Gundam appear to rival those of Revoltech.

Nurrr, Strike Noir pose, nurrrr.

The other Gundam to be released this September is the Cherudim Gundam. When the previous design had panels, shields and a large rifle, this one has a smaller rifle that can be converted to a shorter beam rifle (which is probably for assault and rapid fire). And as if by some twist of fate, someone from SEED Stargazer managed to get past security and put in two beam handguns on the Cherudim Gundam. I’m not liking the Strike Noir pose. Couldn’t they make a more unique style? One of the nice things about Gundam 00 was that it was in a different league compared to SEED. I did watch SEED, SEED Destiny and even Stargazer. I liked Stargazer but I couldn’t stand the mecha cheese that oozed from SEED and SEED Destiny. But then the season has not yet started. Perhaps this Cherudim Gundam will be popular just as Lockon made the previous unit popular.

View more images of 00 Gundam and Cherudim Gundam at Amiami.com.

I’ll keep it short and sweet. One figurine and two action figures. I’ll go into detail on one of them next week. Pictures from Amiami.com. Enjoy~!

I’ve been meaning to write about this upcoming release ever since I saw it at Amiami.com. This is the HCM Pro Hi Nu Gundam by Bandai.

It looks pretty much exactly like the design of the MG Hi Nu Gundam in a 1/200 scale. It comes with a neat clear stand where you can mount the funnels in action, forming a barrier around the mobile suit. Too bad this stand doesn’t allow for “funnels attacking furiously” mode. Nevertheless, the design of this teensie action figure looks really nice. I just hope the promotion pics are as good as the actual product when it rolls out in stores.

I’m hoping I can get my grubby mitts on these too but with my pending purchase of the GFF Psyco Gundam and my plans for buying two MG Gundam Unicorns this December, I might not have enough money to even commute to work. ^_^;;

This is probably old news to most gunpla and action figure fans but seeing these pics after being away from the net for most of Friday and the following weekend was like a splash of fresh cold water after being parched from all the Gundam merchandise news. There’s quite a number of new stuff but I’ll only take note of three things that either I’d consider buying or are worth mentioning from my point of view.

I always love the merchandise pics shown in Gundam Base Side 1 and the Turn A Gundam pics just made me want to buy this model kit even more! I know there are a lot of Gundam and gunpla fans out there who never really got around to liking Syd Mead’s design but I think this model kit (and the series itself) was quite well done despite the unconventional Gundam design and as I had mentioned before, this is a nice marketing strategy for Bandai because it brings up new interest on the Turn A Gundam series. Have a look at the pics at Gundam Base Side 1 and you might just end up considering buying this model kit. I wonder if Keita plans to do a mod of this baby.

If you already own a HCM Pro SP Sazabi, you might want to buy this one as well. It’s the HCM Pro SP Nu Gundam and I think there are a good number of HCM Pro collectors who have been waiting for this to be released. Now you can have that classic fight scene between the Sazabi and the Nu Gundam in miniature, high detailed goodness.

Last but not the least among the recently released merchandise or soon to be released merchandise is the HCM Pro Eva Unit 01. Revoltech has already released initial, OAV and special edition version of the Eva Unit 01 but they HCM Pro appears to be taking this small action figure contest to the next level. The HCM Pro Eva Unit 01 does not have the sexy poses that the Revoltech version has but it definitely makes up for all the weapons and doodads that come with the package. It has the positron rifle, two magrock E swords and other stuff. It even has an AT Field. For Evangelion fans, I highly suggest that you grab this and add it to your collection.

Bandai appears to have taken an aggressive stance all over again and started rolling out Gundam products before the new Gundam series hit the tv screens. I’m particularly interested with their upcoming HCM Pro line. There are also FGs which are covered by Danny and Marvin Ryan but I was never really a big fan of these kits. A lot of paint and detailing needed for it to look halfway decent. So since they’ve covered the fab four for the FG line, I’ll be covering the two units released for the HCM Pro line: Gundam Exia and Gundam Dynames. Gundam Exia and Gundam Dynames are the first two mobile suits seen in the teaser with Exia doing that backhand slash move and Dynames flying in from above and opening its head-mounted sniper scope camera.

The HCM Pro line looks quite promising because Bandai was still able to maintain the articulation that’s made it popular among collectors. Nevertheless, I miss the metal parts from the older versions so you can easily tell from the pictures post at AmiAmi.com that these ones were rather rushed. Nevertheless, they still look good for rushed merchandise although I still believe that they could have done better with the Gundam 00 line of products.

Gundam  Exia comes with basically a whole arsenal of melee weapons and a shield. I’m not sure if Exia sports any ranged beam weapons but if you look at the pictures at AmiAmi, you’ll see that it does have beam melee weapons…a dagger. Yeah. A neat thing that comes along with the set though is the HCM Pro stand. It reminds me of those old connector toys where you link up rods with corner fixes to build stuff.

Gundam Dynames is obviously the sniper unit of the bunch with its head mounted scope, large beam rifle that reminds me of the beam rifle used in Evangelion but perhaps on a smaller scale and its green color which seems to be a staple color for gun-toting mobile suits like Leopard as well as in other series like the rider that uses guns and cannons in Kamen Rider Ryuuki.

I’m not sure if I’ll be purchasing the entire line of HCM Pros for Gundam 00. I doubt that this will be the first HCM Pro I will be owning but I’m definitely looking into purchasing Exia.

Links taken from Gunota Headlines.

Yeah. Been a while since I actually took time off to write an entry. It’s been quite a rollercoaster ride here at the office what with all the preparations for a business trip for me and a couple of other fellows who will be needing some seeeeeeeeeeerious product training abroad. Preparing three visas for three people ain’t fun people. Let alone the fact that there’s massive schedule crunch time involved.

Anyhoo, done with that. I’m happy now. Chil’s back home and my life’s back to normal…well, for the next couple of weeks at least, before I head off to another country.

Now, let’s have some Gundam Double O news. Saw in Gunota Headlines that Famitsu added some more stuff in their coverage of that Gundam 00 expo and one of the pictures shows a diagram of the figures and model kits that will be released in the latter part of this year. The lines include FGs (First Grades…the ones that can’t even bend their frickin’ knees), HGs (High Grades), a 1/60 Gundam Exia (nope, not a PG), MSIA and 00 Region where Katoki will be redesigning the Gundams in the series to fit this excellent action figure line. Here’s the outline written out by Gunota:

FG (First Grade) Gundam Exia – September
FG Gundam Dynames – September
FG Gundam Kyrios – September
FG Gundam Virtue – October
HG Gundam Exia – October
HG Gundam Dynames – November (December?)
HG Gundam Kyrios – November (December?)
1/60 Gundam Exia – October (or maybe November or December…
HCM-Pro Gundam Exia – October
HCM-Pro Gundam Dynames – October
HCM-Pro Gundam Kyrios – November

There are also pictures of other merchandise including the Fix Figuration Metal Composite line. That Psyco Gundam is HUEG! There are also a couple more pics of the MG 100 Prototype and if you ask me, it’s lookin’ good.

Gah, I still need to pick up my two Zaku preorders before this month ends… Anyhoo, I need to get back to work. If you guys want to see more of Famitsu’s coverage, just visit their site. All the goodies should be there.

I guess I simply couldn’t let the day end without talking about Gundams. Gundam collectors already know that the picture about is Bandai’s Super HCM Pro RX-78-2 Gundam. It’s in 1/144 scale.

Now those who collect action figures and just stumbled upon this news today might think, meh, it’s just another action figure. There’s already GFF and EMSiA. What more can this one offer?! A lot, I tell you. A lot!

Here’s some eye-candy before I go any further.

What more can this one offer, you say? If you look at the detail alone, this action figure already rivals the the MG line and this one already comes colored and details unlike the MG line and HG line where you still need to paint them to bring about this detail. You’d also need to significantly mod those model kits to be able to make them pop panels like this baby can easily do with ease.

It’s probably just like HCM Pro where there are individual hands for poses and holding weapons.

Nope. Look at them. The design look almost exactly like the MG hands. That’s awesome for a 1/144 action figure. They couldn’t even do this with the GFF line. And look at the panels. It’s like something from a souped up PG RX-78 or something you’d see from G-System significantly minimized!

So if you’re considering buying a new action figure, I suggest you put this in your to-buy list. Definitely worth a buy.

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Today from Gunota Headlines:

This month’s hobby mag news UPDATED
HGUC Blue Destiny Unit 1 – July, 1,575 yen
MG Gundam One Year War 0079 ver. – TV color version, July, 3,150 yen (this is NOT MG 100, btw)
HCM-Pro Zaku IIJC – June, 2,100 yen
HCM-Pro Akatsuki – full set, July, 5,460 yen
HCM-Pro Evangelion Unit 01
GFF Musha Gundam – regular/Gundam Musou version
GFF Psyco Gundam – 1/144 scale

Now this is a rather interesting bunch of future releases. They’ll be re-releasing the MG Gundam ver. OYW but in TV color plastic. None of the pale pink, off-white and light-blue plastic used in the Gundam ver. OYW first release. I can also bet that the HCM Pro Akatsuki Full Set is going to be a much-awaited release for this line of 1:200 action figures. We also see HCM Pro going out of the Gundam range and including Evangelion into their production line. Revoltech competitor? Perhaps! Looking at their Super HCM Pro, I think we have a strong contender here! Then there’s the GFF Musha Gundam which I might consider buying if I find the promotional pictures enticing. GFF Psyco Gundam! This will be HUGE! The 1:144 scale HGUC Psyco Gundam alone was big enough to be fit onto a PG Strike frame!

And before I head off, here’s a couple of photo reviews of the HCM Pro RX-79(G) Gundam of 8th MS Team fame: Momoja’s blog, Hiro’s blog.

I’ve written about both of these in my past entries. But today, when I went to Gunota Headlines for my daily dose of Gundam, these two subjects came up again. It appears that the there are now more images out regarding the platinum Gundam Fix Figuration that’s on display. The Gundam made of precious metal is on display at Baselworld 2007 and was covered in AlfaGT To Zatsudan. It just never ceases to amaze me as to what lengths people are willing to take their hobbies and interests. A completely platinum Gundam action figure was never in my possibilities list but then there have been gold Hello Kitty jewelry before, so why not Gundams, right? I can see my fiancee fearing for the worst: a diamond-encrusted Gundam head engagement ring.

At Bandavisual, they’ve put up the Super HCM Pro official website which will showcase their Super HCM Pro line of action figures starting off with the original Gundam: the RX-78-2. Nothing there as of this moment. Just a splash page but it’s an interesting sign of things to come. Will the MSIA line survive this?

Doof~! Been on quite a long weekend thanks to some Catholic celebrations held during Holy Week. It’s Monday evening here and this is the first time since last Thursday that I was able to go online. I saw that Danny got a head start on raving about the new Super HCM Pro RX-78-2 Gundam that comes with lots of really nice panels and oodles of decals and details to boot. Quite a lot for a 1:144 action figure. Kicks HGUCs and MSIAs in the mechagonads if you ask me but then I’d still assemble HGUCs for the sake of building 1:144 kits. But man, does this Super HCM Pro look awesome~!

But before I start showing pictures of that, I’ll show some stuff I ran into during my daily dose of Gunota goodness.

First stop is an obscure item that you’d expect to come out of Japan’s eccentric but cool minds. A wooden RX-78-2 Gundam. Image taken from Amiami.com.

Nice. But I wouldn’t buy it… Next up is oodles of images from Moeyo if the up and coming MG MS-06J Zaku II ver. 2.0. Looks awesome. I’m definitely getting one to put beside my Gundam ver. OYW.

Click on the image above to head to the gallery~!

Aaaaaaaaand then there’s the really good stuff. This is the up and coming Super HCM Pro RX-78-2 Gundam action figure. It has more details and decals than your conventional out-of-the-runners HGUC model kit, has better articulation than an MSIA, has more panels opening up than your run-of-the-mill Master Grade and probably costs more than a GFF Gundam ver. Ka…maybe…

But remember that this is just the promotional photo set. Even Prime looked really good in his Revoltech promo photos but you end up with an action figure that has a longer neck, smaller head and less macho air than what’s shown in the pictures. I sure hope the same doesn’t happen to this one.

I can rave more about this action figure which appears to look even sexier than the Gundam ver. OYW (oh God forbid!), but instead, I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Continue Reading