The Bonkurasu Brigade

I refused to think that Rei became so.. catty-eyed when I browsed the pictures in Hobbysearch. But after looking at it from Moeyo’s review, I changed my mind.

It wasn’t that bad; maybe it’s just that she’s feeling sleepy or something. I like the paintjob and the overall sculpt of the figurine though; but not the kind that I’ll dip my pool of cash into very much (unless of course, there’s some major sale going on.)

Speaking of weird looking Rei, the BMX Rei also looks wrong to me, but in a bad way.

I used to think, “MUST BUY MUST BUY EVEN THOUGH IT’S TEENY” since all that’s in my mind was that Rei + bike in cool ‘gravity-defying’ pose = instant win, and that the pictures from my Dengeki Hobby looked decent, I thought I’d be definitely getting it, until upon seeing THIS close-up picture.

Her face just looks totally wrong and un-Rei-ish. Everything else is fine. With the exception of the size. And the price. On second thought maybe that’s why they decided to produce her smaller; it’s due to the unlikeliness of the sculpt of her face.

Better news came from Moeyo, with a new version of the Shana figurine that came up. It looks tons better than the black and red haired versions.

Her Nietono no Shana that’s wrapped in the cloth can be taken out and placed on her right hand. Her hair’s translucent effect looks good on her, not to mention that her bandages have a ‘weathering’ effect. It’ll be released on April 2007, with a price tag of 8,190 Yen.

More updates coming from the gunpla side as well, with Master Grade Strike Noir from the  Stargazer OVA. Larger pictures can be found at Hobbysearch since I’m unable to link them into thumbnails.

Despite it’s price and size (1/100 GSD Gundams aren’t as big compared to their UC counterparts), the amount of detail and inclusion of a customized stand that enables it to be posed into various positions, like shooting windmill flipping, doing a straight dash with his beam sword, etc.

The Akatsuki, being given a 1/100 gold-plated treatment, comes with its dual packs, Oowashii and Shiranui. It is still not known if the 6,500 Yen kit will come with a dedicated stand for its funnels, but its definitely the most expensive 1/100 grade-less kit that Bandai has released so far.

For Zeon fanatics, they’ll be overjoyed with Zaku-II given a Version 2 treatment. Now the MG RX-78-2 Gundam won’t feel so lonely anymore. The thumbs, leg and elbow joints are given newfound posibility, with a whole new internal structure that leaves the previous MG Zaku-II in the dust in terms of details.

It has a release price of 3,500 Yen, and is slated for an April release this year.

People who have played Gundam Generation line of games and read the manga of Blue Destiny will be surprised with Bandai – it’s releasing Blue Destiny II for 1,500 Yen on this year’s April.

Kotobukiya has released their next Super Robot Wars mecha; this time it’s R-2 Powered from the SRX team. One can forsee Kotobukiya releasing R-3 Powered as well at this rate. Well, at least hopefully for SRX fans. Priced at 3,500 Yen with a March 2007 release date. I wonder if they’ll make the SRX kits transformable into SRX?