Drei Dreissens

Bought myself 3 boxes of HGUC 1/144 Dreissen (Unicorn Version) shortly after its release earlier this month, and you may or may not know that I tend to have a liking for grunts and buy multiple units of them, so this is no exception ^^;

I don't review models very often, but I thought this post will serve as a teaser for now before the real one.


If there is one thing I have dreaded over the building of the 3 Dreissens, then it would have to be the fancy carving/emblems on the sleeves of the Dreissens. I don't feel like slapping the foil stickers on the uneven surface of the nicely carved sleeves, so I thought I would colour them with Gundam markers. And since white is not the easiest colour to use for Gundam markers, I thought to myself "how about giving them gold & black like Sinanju and give them more of an elite status?".


Here's a quick result: 3 Dreissens ready for sortie. Black Tri-Stars shall rise again!


While I don't paint Gunplas normally, I think I may give these guys some decals and top coat later on. Well, we shall see once I have the time to do a proper post for these guys in June!
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Rello Zulu

Custom fan-made MG model cover art from pixiv

When 1st April comes a bunch of April Fool's jokes come here and there, and many would get forgotten easily. Among those that fly around during this year's April Fool's, one did catch my attention, and possibly some Gundam fans too. This was the Rello Zulu (レロ・ズール).


The joke has its origin has a "leak" from the official Gundam Unicorn twitter page, which posted several mecha design linearts seemingly for upcoming episode 4 of Gundam UC OVA. Most of them look rather normal, except for the top right one as seen in the picture above.


Here's the said lineart zoomed in, and you can see that it is supposedly Angelo Sauper's custom MS, known as the Rello Zulu.


A clean lineart derived from the "leaked" pictures. Image from here


For those who are not familiar with the origin of such bizzare joke design, this Rello Zulu is literally a hybrid of Angelo Sauper's Geara Zulu...
Image from MAHQ


... And the funny looking Zakrello, which only appeared in the TV series version of the original Mobile Suit Gundam.
Image from MAHQ


And somebody actually made a model for it too. XD
Image from gf-site, requires registration/log-in to access.


Despite it being a one-off April Fool's joke, it did give a good laugh to the fans. It might look silly and bizzare, but I would welcome it with a smile on my face should it make a cameo appearance in future episodes of Gundam UC OVA. And thanks to Yui (aka yui_style) for showing me this. I can't believe you actually thought this was genuine though XD And I feel sorry for you that somebody beat you to making a custom model for itbefore you can even get started XDD
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Medicom RAH Black★Rock Shooter preview

Appeared in Good Smile Company 10th Anniversary event, Medicom has a joint project with Good Smile Company and announced Black★Rock Shooter for the Real Action Heroes (RAH) clothed action figure line.



Fully equipped with Black Blade and Rock Cannon



With Black Blade only



Without coat





Action poses


Rock Cannon and Black Blade. The Rock Cannon is said to be 30cm long, which is the same height as the RAH Black★Rock Shooter figure itself.

Scheduled to be released in November 2011 with official retail price of 22,000 Yen. Pre-orders are now available on Hobby Search, AmiAmi, and HobbyLink Japan.


I must admit that I have an infatuation with this character design recently. But even though I want to like this figure, this version of B★RS looks a bit too thin for my taste -_-;


Oh well, I do have something bigger and more ambitious being planned right now.

Images via Medicom
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Takara Tomy Pentax K-r Gashapon

I got a couple of these Pentax K-r DLSR camera gashapons (aka capsule toys) out of curiosity a few weeks ago; some doll enthusiasts I know of bought a few for their dolls, and even though I don't have one I'm quite curious about them. For 200 Yen a pop, they do look quite tempting for me to get.


Open one of the capsules gives you a miniature Pentax K-r camera, a little leaflet of all sorts of colour variations available, as well as a paper slip with the warnings and such.


There are a total of 15 different kinds of colour variation you can get for this gashapon, with the olive green supposedly being the 'secret item'. The secret item is not always the most sought after though, and in this case the black and white ones are the ones that have the highest demands.


Out of curiosity I put in some coins and got two random cameras from a gashapon machine, and the result is one olive green (the secret colour) and one gold.


You can event mount them on real 1/1 DSLR cameras too. This image is from Open The Toy where he got a couple of them (a gold and a pink).


The gold looks quite bright with that pretty metallic lustre feel to it. Kinda goes well with my Robot Damashii Alvaaron I gotta say XD


As for the olive green, I thought it was a different colour at first. It was only when I bought another olive green have I realised that this is the so-called "secret colour", as I have assumed that the olive green would be the olive drab that the US and some British forces used in WWII, and comparing the olive drab WWII stuff I have with the camera the "olive green" looks almost like grey instead.

Maybe it's more like camouflage green? :o
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Robot Damashii Doraemon & SH Figuarts Nobita announced

Robot Damashii Doraemon & SH Figuarts Nobi Nobita from well known franchise, long-running manga and anime of the same name Doraemon has been announced and are now available for pre-order.


Doraemon will come with 3 extra pairs of eyes, 2 extra expressions, optional cat ears, and several accessories: A half-appearing Dokodemo Door (or Anywhere Door), a half-eaten dorayaki, bamboo-copter, air cannon, and a "shrinking torch" (a torch used to shrink objects, or even enlarge them). A mouse is also mentioned as one of the accessories as well, but it is not seen in the picture


A shocked looking Doraemon. Perhaps he has encountered a mouse? ^^


Draemon pulling out the Dokodemo door, or Anywhere Door, from his 4th Dimensional pocket, which holds all sorts of gadgets he has in this handy pocket.


Next is the SH Figuarts Nobi Nobita. He does not belong to the Robot Damashii line because he's not a robot XD


Accessories are Bamboo-copter, Air Cannon, Michibiki Angel, Korobayashi, Michibiki Angel, Esper Hat, Cushion, Manga (some of them are not shown in photo).

He is also said to come with 4 expressions as well.



Nobita shows off what he does best - afternoon napping XD


Retail prices for Doraemon and Nobita will be at 3500 and 3300 Yen respectively. Both are set to be released in September.

Pre-orders are now available on online shops such as Hobby Search (Doraemon, Nobita) and AmiAmi (Doraemon, Nobita).


Bandai's Tamashii Nation line has been releasing some nostalgic stuff recently. Earlier their D-Arts line has some from the Digimon series as well as X from Mega Man X (aka Rockman X). I am not sure whether I will get Doraemon or not, but I know lots of people who miss the old school stuff will be happy to see it ^^

Pictures are from AmiAmi
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New Gunpla in 50th Shizuoka Hobby Show

1/1 Zaku II head on display in 50th Shizuoka Hobby Show, picture from amiblo's twitpic

New Gunpla and other upcoming Gunpla kits anounced earlier have been revealed in Bandai's booth from the 50th Shizuoka Hobby Show (started today)!




MG 1/100 Delta Plus, 4725 Yen, August release





MG 1/100 Gundam Epyon, 5040 Yen, June release
Close up shot from HobbyLink Japan's twitpic
Box art picture from GA Graphic


MG 1/100 Gundam Sandrock, price tba, 2011 release


MG 1/100 Gundam Heavyarms, price & release date tba


HGUC 1/144 Dreissen Gundam ZZ Version sample work



HGUC 1/144 GM III, 1575 Yen, July release



HGUC 1/144 GM Cannon II, 1470 Yen, June release
Box art picture from GA Graphic



HGFC 1/144 Master Gundam + Fuunsaiki, 2730 Yen, August release


HGFC 1/144 Shining Gundam, 1575 Yen, August release



RG 1/144 Zaku II Mass Production Version, 2625 Yen, July release


RG 1/144 Launcher & Sword Strike Gundam, Dengeki Hobby sample work


BB Senshi Kshatriya, 1050 Yen, August release
BB Loto, info unknown




1/35 UC Hardgraph Lakota + 1/1 Lakota & Sauropelta photobook, 4980 Yen, late July release


Without a doubt MG Delta Plus takes the spotlight here among the new Gunpla announced in this event. Delta Plus actually came first in a survey poll by Gundam dot Info for the next wished MG to be released after MG Sinanju (see more from Ngee Khiong), which was taken way back in November 2008 ^^; Well, at least those who have been waiting for it have their wishes come true finally~

It's also interesting to see more G Gundam Gunpla rolling in for the HGFC 1/144 line. Even though I have not been so big into G Gundam, I'm looking forward to see more Gundams from alternate universe to come to this line ^^

As for other upcoming Gunplas which got announced earlier, I am having my eyes on the 1/144 Dreissen and GM III (which has a lot of optional parts). The GM Cannon II's armour parts look a tad green to me, but we'll see. As for the MG Epyon, it seems to look slightly better than when first coloured images were out last month or so (the main complaints I heard was that it looked a bit too fat).

Overall, the Bandai booth this year doesn't seem as big as the one last year; at least I don't get to see as many new HG 1/144 kits announced this time. This is probably due to that there are no new Gundam anime or movies going on at the moment other than the Gundam UC OVA which releases one episode every half a year or so, compared to last year which we have Gundam 00 Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer and Gunpla Builders Beginning G. Nonetheless, I'm sure more will be announced later this year, so those who have not found what they want at the moment, just keep waiting!

All images (unless stated otherwise) are from Hobby Stock blog
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