Being a 20-something (sorry, Count) geek, it should be no suprise that I collect toys/models. My poison of choice is Gunpla, Japan’s lucrative market of model kits based on Mobile Suit Gundam. My particular focus tends to be SD Gundam, the squat proportioned spin off which usually recasts the giant mecha as samurai…yeah, don’t think too hard on that one.
To celebrate the recent 20th anniversary of the line, Bandai announced SD Gundam Sangokuden, a multi-year epic based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms literature. Whilst probably as silly as you’d expect robots acting out Chinese feudal history to be, it’s actually been a pretty decent series. Given that it’s celebrating a model kit line, the focal point has been on a line of model kits depicting the prominent cast members. Although not flawless, the kits show high production and design values with a body type that keeps the general super deformed aesthetic but with slightly better proportions.
These kits have been much celebrated, especially for offering the first ever SD incarnations of certain designs (Serpent Custom? Yes please!) and with the line having lasted roughly 3 years now fans have been able to build up an attractive collection.
However, a wrench has now been thrown into the works.
Toys and models are obviously a luxury item and thus penny pinching in various forms is common. Especially in the current market, with questionable oil prices and losses all round. In the worst case scenario announced items get cancelled. In a better but still awkward scenario, large changes are made to keep the product alive. Sangokuden has hit the latter.
Announced for the second half of 2009 is Sangokuden Sidestory, a new chapter focusing on the effective ‘next generation’ of the cast. This terminology seems somewhat ironic due to the recently revealed images of the first two kits to be released:
Both of these kits are retools of much older kits. One (our friend on the left) heralds from the mid 90s whilst the other is from 2003. Let’s compare how they stack up against the most recent Sangokuden release, Souhi Gundam:
As you can see, there’s a distinct difference in both scale and articulation. The design obviously doesn’t fit with the previously established style. The idea of reusing an existing mold isn’t bad and can work- the popular Transformers live action movie toylines have reused toys initially created for the more recent cartoon series in order to increase the amount of available product. The equally popular Marvel Legends line (itself having recently downsized its scale) is also no stranger to reusing standardised body parts to create new characters for less cost. So with good business and design sense, the idea can work pretty well. However, Sangokuden Sidestory isn’t an example of this. It’s the equivalent of if Hasbro were instead padding out their movie line with Transformers from the original 1984 product line. They obviously wouldn’t fit in with the current lines established aesthetic and their manufacturing standard would also be far lower.
The question this leaves for fans is which is better- continuing the line in a much altered form or cancelling the line with the benefit of having kept a clear aesthetic? Certainly we have to at least respect that we are getting anything, especially in the face of fans of cancelled lines but this does serve as a blunt reminder about the driving force behind this concept and any toyline promoted through a wider fiction. Writers and artists brought on to a project might make us care about the story and characters they’ve been contracted to write and we may enjoy a specific aspect of the merchandise. But cost is the overriding factor and if a line isn’t selling or is too expensive to continue in its current form, cuts will be made. For this line it’s especially a shame due to all the firsts it brought in- non Gundam mecha getting kits, along with female characters and even grunt troops and cavalry. All previously unexplored elements which further prompted fans to wonder what fun, new ideas we might see next. Sadly, it seems those ideas will never be realised.
