For those who have been collecting Gunpla for a while, you may remember that bandai had an extra line of models above the master grade. Called the Perfect grade, this small number of kits were the cream of the crop in terms of gunpla. 1/60 scale and with a level of detail and poseability which was, until recently, unmatched by the other grades.
Time passed and the High Grade 1/100 kits became more and more like the master grade kits of old in terms of details and posability while the Master Grades took ideas from the Perfect grade line, although never reaching the heights seen before. But that left the PG line pretty much stagnant. The last new Kit in the perfect grade line was the Strike gundam which was released way back in November 2004. They followed it up with the strike rouge (a repaint with skygrasper and aile pack) a year later and then nothing…
Fans like myself have probably been questioning if bandai had abandoned the PG line in favour of the MG. Afterall, the latest MG kits do have ridiculous pose options and provide a fair amount of inner detail. The inner frame design seen in all MG kits since the god gundam came from the PG line afterall…
But after 3 years of silence, we finally have an answer to the question, and that answer is a resounding NO!!!
It was announced a while back but now bandai have updated their site and made it 100% official. We’re getting a NEW PERFECT GRADE KIT!!
And it’s RED FRAME!!!
Thanks to Subaruhess over at DC.com for the heads up.
Personally, I’m really happy about the news since this is the first PG kit in 3 years!! Think of how many MG kits have been released in that time! heck, we’ve had 2 full gundam series aired since the last PG with another still going!
The cynic in me is a little disappointed in the choice of mobile suit, since the PG instructions for the strike gundam showed that it shared a lot of parts with the other original seed gundams (except Aegis) and the Astray frames, so don’t be surprised if Red frame shares a large number of parts with the PG strike gundam.
But in any case, I’ll be buying one of these, and a PG strike rouge and, of course, the studio halfeye Dangaioh!!!
Economic uncertainty and my bank balance be damned!!!
Red Frame is slated for a march 09 release.
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January 16, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Subaruhess
Heh glad to be of service, but I agree with you they could have gone with something better like strike noir, since its pretty close to the original minus the wings.
January 16, 2009 at 10:14 pm
gundamjehutykai
well, I was never a big fan of strike noir (I got the 1/144 when I last went to Hong Kong cos I went to this small model shop and the old man who ran it literally put it on my pile as I carried my stuff to the till saying that I should get it. It was a very big pile & I was too weak willed to say no)
But I would have preferred to have seen something completely out of left field instead of something which fit a 4 year old template. Gundam 00 hasn’t proven to be popular enough to have one yet. Perfaps a PG freedom gundam, done in an evolve style?
January 17, 2009 at 2:31 am
Jacques
Bandai has stagnated on the PG line. 5 years later from 2004, they’re still delivering PG Gundam from the Seed line.
There should be more variety from other series, but I must admit that cost would be the majority factor that’s hampering the PG line. I mean how many people can actually burn their wallets just to grab a PG? A PG Wing 0 Custom that I came across cost a whopping around 335US Dollars, though the PG Red Frame is lesser compared to the 0 Custom at around 200USD after rounding off.
MG would no doubt be a more viable & profitable line to make money from.
January 17, 2009 at 4:09 am
gundamjehutykai
well, it is true that MG would be the main money earner since it appeals to both the advanced and beginner groups of gunpla makers, while PG kits are pretty much exclusive to the advanced group.
They were moving in a really good direction when they released the original strike as the kit was obviously what it was meant to be, yet looked completely different from any iteration seen thus far. but I agree on the stagnating part. It’s not so much delivering SEED kits but, as I said in my post, more about reusing the same parts to cut costs. And when you think about it, if they’re reusing parts (which I’m sure they will be) then why did it take so long to show off the Astray red frame?
If they did a completely new design, even from the seed universe, I would be much happier but for now, I’m just glad that bandai are showing that they havent abandoned the PG line yet…
January 19, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Subaruhess
They made a master grade strike noir so it cant be difficult to retool the factory if your talking about cost cutting.
January 19, 2009 at 7:47 pm
gundamjehutykai
the cost cutting comes primarily from designing the parts molds and the sprues. it’s much cheaper to use existing ones, like how they have done far too many times with the MG strike mold than it is to design and make something from the ground up.
And their choice of astray was probably to try and dodge the point of “god, not another strike” from the fanbase. fewer people realize that the astray will share strike parts. Only those who have built the PG strike and remember the instruction manual will have picked it up.
Afterall, the 1/100 strike and astray were totally different