Of course, I’m not forgetting Bandai Spirits for this very biased Shizuoka Hobby Show 2021 coverage. Technically, they are branding this as “Hobby Next Phase 2021 Spring”, but it’s basically their new stuff in time for the aforementioned hobby show. I’ll first delve into the non-Gunpla stuff since there were some interesting tidbits I’d like to note.
30 Minutes Missions is still chugging along, and quite frankly, doing much better than I initially thought. They’ve continuously released add-on kits, and have several new models on the horizon. For this year’s show, they have revealed yet another new unit for the protagonist organization, the one where the Alto and Rabiot came from. This is the 30MM Espossito which was designed by mechanical designer Takayuki Yanase. The Espossito share more or less the same aesthetics as previous two, though not much was revealed other than the sketch above. Expect more information to drop by June.
A reveal that literally caught me off guard was that for the Figure-rise Standard ULTRAMAN SUIT ZOFFY -Action-. If my sparse research of the ULTRAMAN manga story is correct, then the Zoffy Suit is currently being used by Shin Hayata, father of protagonist Shinjiro Hayata and previous host of Ultraman. I also believe it’s supposed to appear in season 2 of the Netflix anime that’s currently in production. So having this kit way ahead aims at hyping the next batch of episodes, I guess?
The suit is technically the Ultraman Suit Ver. Z, an upgrade of the Protosuit Shin Hayata used at the start of the story. As the name implies, it’s based on Zoffy’s design which is also quite similar to Shinjiro’s suit. As this is an -Action- release, the kit has better range of torso articulation, but you can also place an LED unit if you choose. Especially since the chest design features transparent parts that mimic the badges from the original design.
Figure-rise Standard 1/12 Ultraman Suit Zoffy -Action-
October 2021 / ¥3,400
