The latter half of Hobby Next Phase 2022 Winter has kicked in and as promised, the reveals are all Gunpla. There weren’t any jaw-dropping surprises though the new kits they have for Mobile Suit Gundam the Witch from Mercury are quite interesting. I would assume these would appear in the next part of the series in April and these mobile suits appear to be darker than usual, like military-use dark and not for school. But that’s just me so let’s focus on the two Gundams included in the reveals.
HG 1/144 (New Gundam)
If you recall, the thing about the Witch from Mercury is that they have several mechanical designers, with each dedicated to providing the designs for a specific corporation from the multitude seen in the series. Now why am saying this? It’s because this Gundam appears to have that Gundam 00 aesthetic and looks similar to both Gundam Lfrith Ur and Gundam Lfrith Thorn. This is just my conjecture, but it appears to be designed by Kanitake Ebikawa who’s doing the Grassley Defense Systems mobile suits. So, this could possibly be a new Gundam from Grassley, but again that’s just speculation.
As for the kit itself, it has the bells and whistles of a modern HG, including good parts separation and articulation, with the latter shown here. It also comes with the usual load out of a shield, beam rifle, and a couple of beam sabers. It also comes with extra magazines that you can store in the shield and the beam rifle is also attachable to the side of the leg for storage.
At the center of each knee are what appears to be mega particle cannon nozzles? And being a Gundam, it does have a shell unit on its torso as seen with the translucent plastic piece. I’m not sure if it will use the same in-mold technology as with Gundam Aerial and Lfrith though.
HG 1/144 (New Gundam, Tentative)
June 2023 / ¥1,400
Order via HobbyLink Japan
HG 1/144 Gundam Schwarzette
Unlike the first Gundam revealed, we actually got a name for this one, the Gundam Schwarzette and going by the same designer argument I used above, this guy appears to be similar to the Dilanza and Darilbalde, meaning it’s from Ippei Gyoubu who’s designing Jeturk Heavy Machinery mobile suits.
There wasn’t that much revealed for this guy, except for that large sword that appears to transform into something else too.
HG 1/144 Gundam Schwarzette
June 2023 / ¥1,900
Order via HobbyLink Japan
The thing about these two Gundams is that while the designs are quite different, the color schemes, while not exact, are similar. As such, I’m inclined to think there’s a connection between these two either as part of their construction or their mission. But we’ll all have to wait as the next part of Gundam the Witch from Mercury doesn’t come out until April 2023.
