Bandai Spirits Hobby Division was on a roll this week, having multiple rounds of announcements for upcoming products for Q3 2025 and then some. First among these was their New Hobby Item Info announcements a couple of days ago, which featured kits to be released from July to September of this year. While the highlight is of course kits coming from GQuuuuuuX, there are some unexpected announcements along the mix.
This is mostly me doing catch up and I’ll just cover those I might get, and then some.
HG 1/144 Red Gundam
The HG Red Gundam is a kit no one is surprised at this point, thanks to its initial tease a week or so ago. And this kit is yet another proof to never trust the line art as it made the design less polarizing, though it still an acquired taste kind of design.
I have yet to build my HG GQuuuuuuX so I can’t comment on the articulation of these kits, but the slender proportions should provide the least restrictions. I actually prefer the White Gundam over this guy, but I’m still keeping my pre-order of this kit. At least until one of those placeholder announcements ultimately turns out to be the HG White Gundam.
Besides the colors, the main difference between the White and Red Gundams is the accessories they come with. Most notable for the Red Gundam are the two large bits, which is four less than the number we knew it has from the various trailers and leaks. Not to mention that it appears to have six joint connectors. Therefore, Bandai wants you to get three copies just to have six bits, very sneaky.
HG 1/144 Red Gundam
May 2025 / ¥2,500
Order from HobbyLink Japan
HG Light-Type Guncannon
I don’t have any plans on getting the HG Light-Type Guncannon (or “Light-Cannon”) but the design is interesting. If you recall, GQuuuuuuX takes place in an alternate history Universal Century where Zeon steals the Gundam, and the Federation has to make do with the Guncannon for its mass production mobile suit model, which ultimately became the Light-Type Guncannon. GM fans, this is the closest you’ll get for this series.
I have yet to watch GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-, but I am aware that the regular Guncannon very much exists in that alternate history, though Bandai Spirits decided to make a kit of the Light-Type Guncannon first. I guess this thing appears more frequent, epecially during one of the climactic battles where we see a custom version in the Gundam tri-colors.
Being the mass production mobile suit, the Light-Type Guncannon comes with the most basic of accessories. Though unlike the GM, it does away with the standard issue shield with one shoulder cannon, making this mobile suit a bit more offensive.
HG 1/144 Light-Type Guncannon
July 2025 / ¥2,000
Order from HobbyLink Japan
RG 1/144 Wing Gundam Zero
Shifting away from the six U’s, it’s Gundam Wing‘s turn to celebrate it’s 30th anniversary after G Gundam in 2024. We’re not sure what they have in store for this milestone, but they have announced the next Real Grade following the Shining Gundam, the RG Wing Gundam Zero, just the vanilla one from the TV series.
I remember building the old 1/144 scale way back when as my second Gunpla ever, so it’s really nice to see how this guy is now represented in the best way possible within the same scale. Personally, I’m not getting one ever since I decided not to do a repeat of my High Grade lead Gundam collection with the Real Grade line. Though I do have the RG Epyon and this guy would looke great along with it.
The RG Wing Zero, of course, transforms into its Neo Bird mode and it looks great as well. Now, this brings me back several years ago when the RG Wing Gundam was announced and Bandai Spirits decided to include a Real Grade-exclusive gimmick and added a more bird-like transformation. Honestly, it looked dumb and it appears that Bandai Spirits themselves realized that too, so the Wing Zero will not have any of that nonsense.
That said, the kit still has a gimmick, albeit a more subtle one. When you open the rear wing binders and reveal the thruster pods inside, you can actually flare the thrusters out by rotating them. They do look proportionally larger than the standard version so let’s hope this won’t introduce balance issues.
Like I mentioned, I’m not planning to get one but it looks really good. People are also speculating on whether we’ll see a Real Grade from Gundam X since next year would be the 30th anniversary of that series.
RG 1/144 Wing Gundam Zero
September 2025 / ¥4,200
Order from HobbyLink Japan
HG 1/100 VF-31J Siegfried [Hayate Immelman Use]
Still on transforming robots, we got the next entry in the HG 1/100 Macross lineup, though they already revealed this last week as the HG 1/100 VF-31J Siegfried [Hayate Immelman Use] as seen in Macross Delta. I’ve yet to see the series and I did hear varying opinions on it. Regardless, this kit should be an interesting build for a couple of reasons.
To those not familiar, the kits are able to balance the proportions, transformation, articulation, and stability though the “Shortcut Change” feature which utilizes replacement parts for conversion between modes. And no, they’re not doing it like any of the Zeta Gundam-esque High Grades where you basically strip down the kit.
Besides the Shortcut Change feature, a new gimmick Bandai Spirits is introducing to the Macross kits is what they refer to as “insert molding.” If this looks familiar, then it should since this is basically, or what I assume would be, a refined version of the System Injection molding they were branding the original 1990s High Grades, and kits from Gundam F90. More recently, this technique is being used in Figure-rise Standard kits for the intricate eye details seen in anime characters. This makes the kit less reliant on water slide decals, but they still are selling one to go with the Siegfried.
In additon, they’re also selling a deluxe version that comes with Freyja Wion character acrylic stand and water slide decal.
HG 1/100 VF-31J Siegfried [Hayate Immelman Use]
July 2025 / ¥5,000
Order from HobbyLink Japan
30MM 1/144 Iglight 01
And then there’s the 30 Minutes Label reveals, which they did a day earlier via a live stream where they showed the items from their multitude of brands, including the Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon offerings, and most notably those from 30 Minute Fantasy. That said, there is one kit that got me quite curious, and this dates back to the original poster machine of the line, the Alto.
This is the 30MM Iglight 01 and it’s slated to replace the Alto as the standard unit of the 30MM line. Compared to the Alto strikes semblance to a GM, the Iglight 01 does have some design elements from the GM Command, and appears to be a logical next step in the lineage. I don’t think they will stop selling Alto kits anytime soon, especially with the recent release of the Full Armor Alto, but I believe that kit is also the culmination of this design and in-universe, they are moving to the next.
Construction wise, the Iglight is intended to be easier to build through a combination of ball joints and c-clips. The kit will also come with two Roy-Roy support units, and both are able to transform and become weapons for the Iglight. They also mention this new movable 3mm joints that rotates 180 degrees and allows accessories to be attached at various angles.
Two versions of the Iglight are being released, the more standard colors as Iglight 01 and what seems to be a stealth variant as Iglight 02, with the latter featuring a slightly different set of armor. While I’ve yet to build any 30MM kit, including those from Fires of Rubicon, I remain curious with the more basic units like the Alto, Rabiot, and now the Iglight.
30MM 1/144 Iglight 01
August 2025 / ¥1,200
Order from HobbyLink Japan
As far as Gunpla goes, the reveals were as expected. But just yesterday, with Gundam Next Future -Final- kicking off the 45 anniversary of Gunpla, more upcoming kits were shown and some were legitimate surprises.
