Kusakusa Gunpla

Shizuoka Hobby Show 2012 (Part 1)

I guess I should write about this while things are still fresh in my mind. Anyway, last weekend I went for my annual trip to the Shizuoka Hobby Show. As I did last year, I’ll just write a brief summary of what’s interesting in the Bandai booth and let you guys see the pics for yourselves. So here goes:

Master Grade: From the SEED series there’s the upcoming MG Blitz Gundam. From what I saw, it’s looks very similar to its 1/100 version, so I’ll pass. But what I won’t pass is the MG Buster Gundam, which is next on the line and displayed as a grey prototype at the show. For UC fans, there’s the MG Marasai which you can attach a green LED monoeye & ballute system (both sold separately). For AGE, I guess there’s MG AGE-2  (or was it 3?) coming up, but I didn’t pay much attention to it.

Real Grade: On display were the current Mk-II models, as well as the upcoming RG Justice Gundam. Not my cup of tea, but if you have the RG Freedom, I guess you might need its ‘partner’. Typical of Bandai, they’ll be releasing the greyed-out Phase Shift Down version on the Bandai Hobby Site. Anyone wanna guess what’s the next RG kit?

High grade: From the Unicorn OVA there’s the HGUC Ankusha. It looks kind of nice in MS mode, but I have soft spot for the Asshimar. Then there’s the HGUC Zaku Marine and the ReZEL Type-C Defenser b-unit. I kinda like the orange-grey color scheme of the ReZEL but one ReZEL is enough for me. There’s also the Base Jabber which is a UFO-like mobile suit carrier featured in the Unicorn OVA. Of course there’s also HG kits from the AGE series but nothing interest me.

Bandai Hobby Site items: On display were the stuff that you can only get from Bandai’s Hobby Site, such as clear plastic versions of HGUC Jesta & Delta Plus and the G-Defensor & Flying Armor for the RG Mk-II. There’s also recolored versions of existing kits like an orange-grey version of the plain ol’ HGUC ReZEL, Char-color schemed HGUC Geara Doga & the Phase Shift Down RG Justice.

Option parts: Interestingly, Bandai will release some option parts in 1/100 and 1/144 scale. These include various shaped pink beams for more interesting beam rifle shot effects; spikes for Zaku shoulders, verniers and some hands. Some of these are already available by Kotobukiya et al. but it’s nice to have some options. As a follow-up to the 1/144 scale System Weapons, the third edition will feature beam rifle for 0083 Stardust Memory Gundams and shields for the MS 08th Team era mobile suits.

Other than Bandai stuff, I also took photos from other sections but I won’t be elaborating on them too much. What I’ll say is that for AGE gundam fans, Hobby Japan & Dengeki Hobby Magazines will release some add-on parts for modification into AGE-2 Artemis & AGE-1 Razor.

With that, I wrap up my report for this years Shizuoka Hobby Show. Don’t miss the next part of my report which will feature various works by Japanese modelling circles.