Some interesting news...

This was brought to my attention this morning. The forthcoming Master Grade Gundam Astray Blue Frame was originally claimed to be able to mount all Strike packs, which, for starters, was an interesting idea. As far as I know, the Gundam Astray Blue Frame never was modified to mount Strike Packs. Furthermore, the connections for the Master Grade Strike Packs and the High Grade Strike Packs are different. Well, the Ruli PlaModel site today posted the answer to that question.



The Master Grade Gundam Astray Blue Frame will come with adapters to mount both HG and MG Strike Packs on it, and will also come with an adapter to allow any MG-type Strike Pack to attach to any HG Strike derivative. Also a part that makes it so the Frame Arms can attach to the new SEED kits.

The second thing that was brought to my attention is the fact that apparently Bandai is adding a new subline to their Master Grade line: Dragonball characters. It apparently WASN'T a typo when Bandai announced a MG 1/8th Son Goku. Happinet Online posted a picture:



The model will feature gimmicks like flexing muscles and a moving shirt. I know it doesn't sound like much, but I guess Bandai put a lot of work into it. Bandai did pseudo-organic once when they made their MG Dunbine. I guess Bandai has figured that they've pretty much mastered robots, and want to move on. I can respect that, as long as they don't neglect their robot fandom.

Way early prototype of the MG Infinite Justice

Found this in my random wanderings of the internet. Bandai just showed off a very early prototype of the upcoming Master Grade Infinite Justice Gundam.


Bandai did a really good job with the MG SEED Gundams so far, this one should be no exception to it.


You can see that the build is really early. All that's being worked on at the moment is the external sculpt of it. You can see that many parts that would be moving or removable are one solid piece.


Also missing is the signature backpack/glider/booster thing.


I've been of two minds about this MS. I've never liked the color of it, I think it would be much better in a deep red instead of the pinkish color it comes in, but if I ever got myself a pink Gundam, this would probably be it. I'll be following this and posting updates as I find them!

Gundam Unicorn Dual Beam Gatlings

I swear, we need cool stuff in the states.


Apparently when you buy one of the Gundam Unicorn novels, it comes with an accessory kit of weapons for the Master Grade Gundam Unicorn. Now, first of all, the Gundam Unicorn is perhaps the coolest looking Gundam ever. Plus, it also has the Destroy Mode, where it's coolness level reaches over 9000!


The kit comes with two beam gatlings, either of which can be held individually by the Gundam.


Also, both guns can be connected to the same arm to have sort of a cool Heavyarms mode.


Seriously, if you've got a Master Grade Gundam Unicorn, you should look into going over the Japanese eBay or Yahoo sites, and ordering one or two through a proxy service.


More pics at Dalong.net, in case you didn't notice.

EDIT: Oops, I guess that's what happens when I steal bandwidth!

The MG Strike Freedom is out!

So! It is out! I visited Hobby Search as I often do, and I found the scans to the MG Strike Freedom sitting there, waiting for me. There are so many cool things in this kit! First of all it has some really sweet gimmicks built into it. As I have mentioned, the entire internal frame is molded in gold plastic. There's a bit of concern for me in terms of the Special Edition though. First of all, the gold plating. I understood that the gold plating on the SE Ver was supposed to be a gold chrome. This picture shows parts that are clearly gold chromed, whereas this picture shows parts that could have somewhat of a metallic sheen to them, but by far are not chromey. I supposed it could be a scanner issue, but as this picture shows, there is clearly no plating on the SE Ver gold runner, it looks the same as this frame in the regular kit. I know someone out there is looking at this and thinking that I am a freak for analyzing this so much, but analyzing is what I do. Anyhow, if I am gonna end up getting three types of gold in a kit, I would just as soon get the regular release and spray some gold paint on it. But enough of that.

The MG Strike Freedom has some cool torso flex. One of the things I liked about the MG Wing Zero Ver Ka was the torso flex, though I was kinda bummed that it could only flex forward, not backward. I knew at the time that it would be remolded into the Endless Waltz version, and knew that it was built to facilitate it's wings-spread-firing-straight-down pose it had when attacking that bunker. Anyhow, the MG Strike Freedom flexes backwards, to make it's flying poses look wicked cool!

I really love the attention to detail on this. When the Strike Freedom combines it's two gun together to make a more powerful rifle, the butt of the forward gun needs to rotate out of the way to accomodate the second gun. This part now has a cool sticker on it that shows it to be a secondary sensor scope. Also cool is the way the rear skirt armors move out of the way to allow the hip guns to move to the back. Oh, and I really like that the hip guns have a cool extendy feature on them too!

The wings are cool, they have all the internals, including the actual DRAGOON mounts, molded in gold. Something cool that I have never realized until I read the instructions, (probably just because I don't understand Japanese) is that the wings, which move to widen the distance between the DRAGOONS, move automatically when the wings are rotated.

One thing that has me interested, though I haven't gotten to the bottom of it yet, is the beam shield. On one of the previous posts I had about the MG Strike Freedom, I mentioned that the shield had a variated look to it, though I decided that it could have been painted that way. Then, on another post, I saw pictures of those two kits in the case, and one of them had a shield, and it looked the same as the "painted" one, even though the kit itself appeared to have no paint on it. Now, thanks to Hobby Search, I have seen images of the shield straight out of the box. The Special Edition Ver. looks to be completely blue, wheras the regular Ver. looks distinctly varied. Now, I have two theories on this. I discussed this issue with my brother Benjamin, and we decided that it was possible that Bandai had molded it with two colors of plastic, injecting them both into the mold at the same time, which would allow them to mix and streak and make the distinctive shading. The fact that one shield seems to be done right and the other seems to be too blue actually is in line with this theory, assuming that it was a new and imperfect technique. Arguments against this theory would be that, for example, the shield is not on a runner or molding frame of any type. Even the big Strike Freedom Lightning Edition shield, or the massive base for the MG Ex-S had frame parts on them. The second theory is that the shield is somehow printed to painted to have that look. The fact that it is not on a frame supports this. Furthermore, if it was done by hand, there would be a certain degree of variance to them, like the differences between the SE Ver and the Reg Ver. However, there is the issue of too much variance for it to be a printed thing, but it would be too expensive for a person to paint all the shields. Who knows? *shrug*

Anyhow, this kit looks to be totally cool, and I am totally thinking about getting one. You can find them at most online stores that import Gundam models.



Technorati Tags: Gundam, model, Master Grade, Strike Freedom, Bandai

MG Strike Freedom Full Burst mode

Ka chow! Found this at Gunota, some awesome pics of the MG Strike Freedom special edition, apparently called the Full Burst Mode. As I said in my previous blog posting, this version includes everything from the regular version, plus the special stand, the DRAGOON effects parts, and gold chrome plated parts.







How's that for a kickin looking box picture? Not quite as low-key as MGs usually have it, but it's still really cool.

Here's a closeup of the boxart:





All the gold parts have nice Photoshop shine on them, I kinda wish I knew how to do that. I guess I have something new to teach myself.











The gold parts are supposed to be more chromey than this, but it's possible that the build threw some dullcote or something on it.











There's that shield again, still looking variated, though I'm certain this model has been painted up, so that could be airbrushed.







I really like that the mounts of the DRAGOONs are also gold, unlike all the previous model and figure releases.








Here is the special stand that this release comes with. It is my
understanding that Bandai is going to start releasing these stands
seperately, and that they doo all sorts of snazzy things like lock
together and whatnot.







This stand has an extendable part and about three joints on the end so that you can stick the Gundam on it and put it in any position your little heart desires.















This shows the snazzy little parts that make the DRAGOONs fly around. Clear blue parts for the thrust effects, and little clear sticks to mount them on.







This image shows the articulation of the wings. The DRAGOON mounts all extend a little bit, and also retract, though it's a fact that is often missed, since basically every picture of the MG Strike Freedom shows them extended.



This kit is gonna be really awesome when it comes out later this month!













Technorati Tags: Gundam, Master Grade, Strike Freedom

(I'm not sure what this does, but I'm gonna try it out)

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MG Strike Freedom!

Okay, so I found this page, I have no idea what it's called. But, it has Master Grade Strike Freedom pics, so I'm posting it, because I ganked their pics.
I don't read question mark language

The first picture is of the display case, with not one, but TWO MG Strike Freedoms inside, pleading with you, "Please! Why do they call us Strike FREEDOM if they put us in this acrylic cage??"
"Just steal us already!"


The design of Master Grade Gundams has been steadily increasing. Anyone remember the days of the MG Zaku II and the MG Gundam? Man, those kits sucked. The only removable armor was on the head, and the backpack. The posability was awful, and the sculpting was done by a drunken monkey. Nowadays, if the model doesn't rock six kinds of awesomeness, Bandai executes the designer and gets someone new.

Both of these kits show off the genius and passion of the designers.


The first picture there shows one with the beam shield and both beam sabers out, the next one has it's beam rifles locked together to go kick some trash.


I think it's getting ready to blow a hole in the case so you can take them home.

The DRAGOON equipped wings of the MG Strike Freedom are much mroe articulate than any of the models to come before. The wings are each composed of two pairs of DRAGOON mounts, and the pairs rotate seperately from each other, then they can also flex outward, like in the previous models. However, they also extend slightly as well, this makes the gold gap in the wings, up towards the base of the DRAGOON mount. BTW, for thos of you curious as to why I am capitalizing DRAGOON, it's because it stands for Disconnected Rapid Armament Group Overlook Operation Network. That doesn't really mean anything, but DRAGOON sounds cool.




The shoulder uses the now-standard off center extending multijoint, which premiered in the G Gundam 'Action Frames.'


The thigh armors have a sliding feature, and the knees have a double motion feature (the black part and the white part both move).


Here's a little bit of Gundam upskirt action. Don't let the kiddies see this!


"You're next, sucka!"

As far as I can tell, this model isn't painted, only having panel lining and decals applied. Meaning, what you see, even the little grey parts on the knees and the red vents atop the wings, are molded in color. The gold frame parts look like the same color as the HG144 and H100 models, but are NOT the same as the HG60 Strike Freedom Lighting edition.


This one seems to be missing some love. It has both of it's beam sabers together in their dual mode. Some of the previous models had a connector they fit into, or an additional part with two openings, but the MG model has the saber hilts lock together to do this.



I should also point out that the MG Strike Freedom will come in two flavors, the regular and special editions. The regular is what you see here. The special edition will come with all of this, plus one of the new stands Bandai is gonna start putting out, plus clear plastic parts to make your DRAGOONs appear to fly around on their own, plus all of the gold parts with be plated in gold chrome, making it extra shiny!




This beam shield looks a heck of a lot better than your average beam shield, though I am not sure if it comes like this. So far, all of the ones I've seen do look this way, but it could be airbrushing. However, I am fairly sure this model isn't painted, so I don't know. I guess we'll have to wait until it gets produced, which will be sometime this month!


"So long, suckers!"