2012 is the 10th anniversary of Gundam Seed. To celebrate this happening Bandai announced a whole bunch of releases in addition to their HD Remastering of the series. February of this year saw the release of the MG 1/100 GAT-X102 Duel Gundam Assault Shroud. At the end of 2011 I was a bit suprised because there wasn't any news from the Seed line for a while.
But the announcement was a welcome, especially for the Duel because over the years I started to appreciate this model by it's simple design and in the series the Duel has been pushed to the limit by it's pilot Yzak Joule. Next month (June 2012) will be the release of the GAT-X207 Blitz Gundam which I'm also looking forward to it. Simply because the design and possibilities are way better than it's NG 1/100 counterpart. September will see the release of the GAT-X103 Buster Gundam and the GAT-X303 Aegis Gundam will probably following in November or December this year.
At this moment the prototype of the Buster is ready and shown at the Shizuoka Hobby Show in Japan.
Hopefully Bandai will continue MG 1/100 releases of the Seed series. Some of the wishes are the Justice, Providence and the 2nd generation G-units: Raider, Calamity and Forbidden, whereas the latter one would be really awesome.
Although the first MG Seed models, GAT-X105 Strike (+ all Striker variants and sister unit Strike Rouge) and the ZGMF-X10A Freedom marked the 2.0 frames era way back in November 2003, the frames of those are a little outdated in comparison with, for example the GAT-X102 Duel.
The community including myself demands a 2.0 version of both the Strike/Rouge and the Freedom.
Hereafter are some pics of the Shizuoka Hobby Show.
Are you looking forward to the Gundam Seed MG 1/100 releases?
As promised, here are the pictures taken from the VF-25G Messiah Valkyrie Michel Blanc Custom. The kit is supposed to be at a MG level, but there are some downfalls to mention.
Overall design is excellent, colorschemes are good and...amongst the three modes, the fighter mode is by far the best pose.
There are 3 modes for the macross frontier kits. The first is the Fighter mode. In contradiction to the Gundam Franchise, the Fighter/ jet mode is the primary mode for these models. It declares why the Battroid Mode is less attractive in comparison to the Gundam-designs.
Of course there is 
a 'robot'mode called Battroid mode. This is for battle-scenes which do not require to much velocity and becomes handy is space-scenes.
At last, there is a gerwalk mode. This is n intermediate form between Battroid and Fighter mode.
As if a Fighter has a pair of legs an
d arms. in the series it became useful in narrow spaces were no velocity could be generated.
Back to the building proces. the internal parts of the inner skeleton are tiny and delicate. But a pain in the ass to built. As the skeleton became ready, it was a little bit loose as a whole. Transforming to Battroid mode 
or Gerwalk mode is a mission apart.
Because all the parts have not much of a margin left, the whole kit is a little unstable if the parts do not fit correctly. During transformation it will give loads of frustration. I've been messing for two hours to get this photoshoot done! Thats why it took so long for a review. I wasn't looking forward for an afternoon like this.
The additional action base 01 S.M.S. version is very good and a nessecity to pose the Valkyrie properly.
As I'm a huge fan of ther series and MF models, the kits are somewhat dissapointing. That means: The thought was very good and the meaning also, but the execution did not met the idea. The majors flaws in my opinion:
- Knee-cover are loose.
- Decals, tons of it to cover 
wrong colors!
- Some parts which are supposed to be white, were blue!
- Parts fit too tight!
- Transforming means frustraton.
- Sniper Rifle is a bit loose. By all this, the kit will be showed as a fighter, not because it's th
e best pose, but also most stable form. The limbs are not as posebale like a MG Gundam model, so in Battroid form it looks a little stiff, like the Valkyrie is stored in a hangar.
Here are the rest of the pics.
In conclusion: I still have Ozma's and Alto's Super and Armored Messiah's and I will build them in the distant future, but the original idea to collect them all is not anymore. It's quite hard to built them and show properly like I have in mind.
But the awesome design makes the hesitation thumbling toward building them.
Are you planning to built more MF kits?
All pictures are taken with: Sony DSC-P8, Digital Compact.
