So I came across a few new magazine scans on the ol' interwebs showing upcoming Gundam kits. Some neat stuff, from what I can see, though it would probably help if I knew Japanese. Mainly, they're coming out with a Perfect Grade Astray Red Frame according to the third image. Even though the Red Astray, Blue Astray, Green Astray, Gold Astray, Strike E, Duel Gundam, Blitz Gundam, and Buster Gundam have almost exactly the same frame as the Strike, Bandai is apparently just going to release a whole new kit for the Red Frame rather than armor to convert the PG Strike. Maybe they're gonna mold a whole new frame though. Guess we'll see. Still, definite buy from me.
*excited!!* And no, only the Astrays share a frame. Four of the original five SEED Gundams have frames vaguely based off each other. The only main MS that explicitly share the Strike frame are the Akatsuki and the Strike Noir.
I was mainly going by my PG Strike manual. They all look remarkably similar. There's little differences here and there, but overall they're the same. An armor kit and a couple new frame pieces would be much cheaper than a whole new Gundam. Though admittedly not as satisfying to build.
I think its a 'accurate to the Blue Ray Disc set' colour version. HD as in High Definition . Comes out February. Shouldnt this have been posted in the gundam thread?
Yeah, looking at that new pic, it seems the Astrays were based off of the Strike too. I think the Gundam Astrays are just mixes of the Regular Astray and the Strike. The story to Gundam SEED said that the Gundam Astrays were built along with the Strike and the others. Anyways, I don't really understand this... I know it might be a rehash of parts from the PG Strike, BUT... it's kind of a Gamble too. Is there really enough interest from Astray fans? Okay, yeah... I love the design, but I don't have the ROOM! Or the money... That's why I want an MG... why can't they retool the MG Strike and make the Astrays from that? Someone should ask to merge this with the Gundam thread.
The MG Strike frame really doesn't share anything at all with the Astray design. The PG Strike's frame, on the other hand, shares many details that could be adapted to the Astray (ala the manual artwork). As for the actual news of a new Gundam PG, not a bad choice, considering the long standing-ness of the Astray manga. Obviously more of a filler release, compared to something like, say, Exia, but I have the feeling they just want to get something new out there, while they gear up to really wow us with something new. I'll definitely see if I can fit it into my budget, though. As for the "HD" Zeta, it's likely the same deal as the recently released MKII HD kits. The parts are molded in vibrant high-gloss plastic.
I did some research and it seems the PG Astray will be out in March, and it does share parts with the PG Strike Gundam. This is not confirmed, but it seems they're getting this information from the magazine itself.
I don't know what to say about the PG Strike Manual, except that BEE-CRAFT was having fun attaching linearts to the PG Strike image. But even the PG Strike doesn't bear a strong resemblance to the Astray. Look here, and compare these with the PG lineart: Basically, if Bandai were to actually release a PG Astray based off the Strike Frame, it would be the least-accurate Astray they ever released, and fans would be in an outrage.
I highly disagree, CI. The G.Astray story dictates that they were constructed with stolen data of the 5 GAT-X series Gundams. 3 of those were built, as seen on the PG Strike manual, on the frame of the Strike. You know... if this means a possibility for PG Strike Freedom, I'll get the PG Astray... What?
Just like fans were in an outrage when the Strike got massively redesigned for its own PG? Oh, wait... The manual artwork with the PG Strike shows a pretty happy marriage of the two designs. Sure, it's not identical to the original Astray lineart, but given the context of the redesign, it's amazingly close.
I was thinking that too. Like I said, March is just what I read, so it's pretty much a rumor at this point.
