Welcome to July! If you’ve noticed this summer is a little sparse on new releases, you can thank 30 Minute Missions, a new model line from Bandai of original model kits designed to compete with the Frame Arms Girl figure line from Kotobukiya. There are a ton of these coming out in June and July, but since they aren’t Gundam mecha, I haven’t been listing them (the same way I don’t list Bandai kits from series like Xabungle or Patlabor, etc). Gundam Planet has the scoop on this new line if you’d like to learn more.
This summer I haven’t been doing much building myself, but I’ve rediscovered Instagram and am following some talented Gunpla builders there. Check out Gundamstagram, texmerquise, and justiniusbuilds for starters. Any Gunpla ‘grammers you’d recommend to me?
In the meantime, check out the new releases for June and preorders for July and tell me what you think.
High-Resolution Model Gundam Astray Noir 1/100 (pictured at top)
I reviewed the High-Resolution Modem Gundam Astray Red Frame this January for Anime News Network and was impressed by the sophisticated inner frame and the glossy armor on top. Think of the price tag as exchanging your money for more time: this took me just five hours to build, while an equivalent Master Grade would take me at least double that.
MG Gundam NT-1 Ver.2.0 (pictured above)
Celebrating Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket’s 30th anniversary, this MG Gundam Alex has a classic look that’s poseable, sturdy, and packed with gimmicks. For example, there’s a complete armor set that you can place on top of the body armor—a first in Gunpla as far as I know! By the way, I was today years old when I learned that “Gundam Alex” is a pun on “Gundam RX.”
I thought Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative was Just OK, but I can’t deny that it featured a lot of cool-looking mobile suits that we saw for the first time. One of them was this Suppressor, which comes with Unicorn Gundam’s Beam Magnum and stealthy black-and-purple armor.
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