This year in Gundam (so far!)

Written By gundampixel

Oh, hi there! 👋 Things have been awfully quiet on the blog so far this year, whilst I figure out how to best work it into my schedule. Less so, the Gunpla Catalogue, or my Bluesky feed, which are very much updated frequently! Sit back, and let’s take a little look at some highlights of the year so far.

January 🎍 An explosive start

In good tradition, a spread of official cards from various Gundam accounts welcomed us into the New Year. And well, who couldn’t forget Bandai Namco’s now-infamous official annual message, with ‘that’ shadow!

And what a banger of a January it was! At least for Japanese fans.

Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway - The Sorcery of Nymph Circe - 機動戦士ガンダム 閃光のハサウェイ キルケーの魔女 - made its theatrical debut, to general acclaim. The leading (read, only) piece of Gundam animated media for the first half of this year, possibly the whole year. A special event in Shinjuku’s Kabukichō kicked things off, with live recitals, performance and… lots of pumpkins.

The first of four blu-ray sets for Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX, also started shipping (in total - three sets for the show, and one for the ‘Beginning’ theatrical edit). Along with a vinyl edition of its original soundtrack.

Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt manga’s finale was celebrated in a number of ways, most notably a special December Sky screening and after-talk with Yasuo Ōtagaki (creator) and Naohiro Ogata (producer of the anime adaptation, and now General Manager of the Gundam Business Division). I was lucky enough to attend, and here are a few notes! Also the official report (Japanese-language).

Bandai’s Gunpla engineers flexed their outstanding engineering skills with the Perfect Grade Unleashed 𝝂Gundam (Char’s Counterattack), plus its accompanying LED Unit, which dropped at general retail. A high point for Gunpla in all aspects, price included! Hobby Japan shared a number of deep-dive articles/interviews all about the kit and its intricate details → Part 1, Interview, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5A, Part 5B, Part 6A, Part 6B. The PGU wasn’t all though, and January saw releases for:

The Gundam Card Game celebrated its 1st Anniversary, with Bandai committing to ensuring greater availability of new and existing decks/boosters both for Japanese and international markets.

Gundam Arsenal Base WAVECHOES kicked off its first season, with its theme song being ‘5TELLA’ by Flow.

The Gundam x (Hatsune) Miku ‘Special Tribute Songs’ album dropped in both physical and digital formats (inc. streaming services), the latest in the mixed-media collaboration. It’s very fun, definitely recommend checking it out if you haven’t already.

February 🎁 The ‘more’ month

Hathaway & co. spread their wings for the movie’s follow-up month, in many forms! Including the official cafe at BOX cafe&space, Tokyo Skytree Solamachi, and an epic snow sculpture of the Xi Gundam at the Sapporo Snow Festival. The original soundtrack released on physical & digital formats, plus the LOSTandFOUND concept EP by SennaRin & Sawano. And of course, a plethora of apparel & merch!

GQuuuuuuX’s second blu-ray set also arrived toward the end of the month.

Iron-Blooded Orphans fans were treated to a special 10th Anniversary festival at Tokyo Tachikawa Stage Garden - the ‘Festival of the Iron Flower’. A special Soundtrack Collection was also released on vinyl.

Just after celebrating its own 10th Anniversary, the Gundam Fan Club announced that it’ll be closing up early next year, with no new subscriptions accepted past March 2026. Curious to see what’ll follow in that space, if anything.

Feb was a punchy month for new Gunpla releases, with nine kits making their way into builders’ hands!

Interestingly, the Barbatos had been released in some international locales prior to its Japan debut. We also received a peek at upcoming Gunpla releases, via an official Gunpla 45th special stream. Oh, and I started building my PGU Nu!

March 🎂 The one with the anniversaries!

Now things became a little more chilled, after such a packed few weeks. Hathaway’s theatrical run continued, with a wider ScreenX format offering another reason to experience the movie once more in the cinema.

Fast-following the Hathaway Cafe, the Gundam GQuuuuuuX Cafe set up shop at the BOX cafe&space, Tokyo Solamachi (Skytree). Its third blu-ray volume also released before month-end.

Onto Gundam Wing’s 30th Anniversary celebrations, the Endless Waltz 4K HDR Remaster set released on blu-ray. I shared initial impressions in this thread! The conversion is a mixed bag, and very taste-dependent (thankfully the 4:3 aspect ratio was respected, as per its limited theatrical run).

A duo of fresh TWO-MIX albums also dropped alongside the 4K Remaster - Gundam Wing TWO-MIX Digitally Remastered, and The End of the Endless Waltz. It’s been a while!

A more unusual twist for this year, was the (fashionably late) G Gundam 30th Anniversary animated short. Interestingly, a mini project for the team to explore 3D mech animation & production techniques.

And Gundam X, Gundam X! received an official 30th Anniversary logo, to kick start this year’s celebrations.

One of the more unexpected collab announcements, was Hololive x Gundam. More still to be announced on this front.

Six Gunpla releases in March, but all P-Bandai or exclusive. I continued building my PGU Nu, and also checked out the ‘Runners Gate’ Pop-up in Harajuku - a neat spin on exploring Gunpla color-ways (I didn’t make my way over till April). We saw a confirmed Autumn-2026 full release for Gundam Assemble, and Bandai Hobby received a rebrand.

April 🍔

The most notable Gundam event in April might’ve been the McDonalds collaboration? Food-wise, nothing really of note - but it did feature a memorable animated short!

The official Gundam X website was refreshed for its 30th Anniversary, to house upcoming news updates.

Separately, the primary cast for the upcoming live-action Gundam movie was revealed.

An initiative to send a Haro to the International Space Station was a fun announce - with original designer Okawara directly involved! More info here.

April brought us the BIG HG Gunpla, with two kits courtesy of the latest Hathaway movie.

May

A month about looking back, then looking forward. First up, a Gundam X stream dropped on YouTube, well, technically episode #0. No major announces, but it was a fun time.

The big one was the first of two Gundam Conferences this year (and the first since 2024’s Winter Conference pre-GQuuuuuuX). Whilst there was nothing major to see outside of the shallow-but-endearing ‘A boy with Gundam’ pre-50th Anniversary animated short, we did receive confirmation of a new ‘long’ Gundam Wing animation, and a First Gundam remaster.

I’m curious to learn more about the Gundam-Con event, starting next year, and the permanent Gundam exhibition space to be set up ‘somewhere’ in Japan! Sadly, Odaiba’s 1:1 Unicorn Gundam statue will be retired from this September after 10 years of service.

GQuuuuuuX saw its final home video release, in the 4K UHD set for the ‘Beginning’ theatrical edit. Over 1 year and four months after its debut! Nice to have the full set available though, especially since this edit is yet to hit streaming services.

The Shizuoka Hobby Show offered us a glimpse at some brand new Gunpla hitting store shelves later this year (and one for Jan 2027). Summarized in this thread - an eclectic mix! As for May’s Gunpla, it was a relatively light but intersecting mix. Notably the new HG Barbatos Adapt featuring a vastly improved Gundam frame, compatible with older HG IBO kits. And the HG Messer having entirely new runners also. Fresh stuff.

And there we go! Just a few personal highlights from this year to date. All images & videos are via official channels, or my own. Thanks for checking out this post, and catch me on Bluesky anytime!

gundampixel
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Gundam Anniversaries in 2026