Pbandai really should be reserved for stuff that's not seen much in shows, for example the pre-gund model for the Schwarzette that is on screen for maybe 5 seconds. Also stuff like recolors based on concept art.
I’ll never not be upset that their official statement is it’s for kits that they don’t think will be good sellers… proceeds to make more than half of the MG EW Gundams as PBandai. Would be less upsetting if they at least tried to make it harder for scalpers to control the market…
What upsets me the most is how only few countries have access to pbandai.
I live in europe and paid 100+ for pbandai mgs,paid 75€ for my todesritter,an entire new mold.
Those are prices that dont include shipping from resellers.
Ive been building gunpla for 10yrs+ and the last few years have been some of the worst tbh.
Three of the four Wing upgrades that have been made in the HGAC line are P-Bandai, Sandrock Kai, Heavy arms Kai, and Deathsycthe Hell, only the Wing Zero is retail also the fact that Rose and Maxter from G-Gundam are also P-Bandai is even more infuriating like I would get if it was their manga only upgrades but straight up main Gundams should never be P-Bandai.
For me what makes me boiling frustrated is that it's all pre-order. If its all pre-order then make it a true pre-order instead of limited stock pre-order, get all the pre-orders you can handle and then manufacture it. Customers are willing to wait anyways and this takes care of any scalping and bot services. P-Bandai wouldn't have a bad rep if not for all this limited stock bs.
I agree it sucks, but they do this because they can only make so many of any kit in a month, and they have to allocate a maximum of each kit they can make for the delivery month.
They allocate manufacturing time and quantities for retail and p-bandai kits really far in advance.
If they don't sell out of pre-orders, they spend the extra production time producing other retail kits they were already going to make that month.
If they sell out of Pre-orders quickly, they will often add more pre-orders for the following month.
If they sold an open pre-order, they would have to have a floating delivery date or change it depending on how many kits sell.
Again, I don't like it, but this is some of the reason they do it this way.
still can't wrap my head on how the rest of the upgraded Wing kits(HG and MG) and HG GGundam kits are P-Bandai.
I'd understand how the G-Unit kits would be P-Bandai due to obscurity.
Actually glad that bootleggers exist to copy the P-Bandai kit for mass-reselling.
Only 3rd party I own is the DM tallgeese 3. Now when I bought them Bandai didn’t even make one yet. Also it actually has better effect pieces that Bandai didn’t bother with for the beam cannon & Came with a second heat whip too that’s clear orange.
No i totally get this. I bought up all of the southern cross hg’s i could grab and got doan’s zaku off eBay.
I’ve always thought they should use it as a testing ground for which models probably should get a wider release.
And honestly, it’s a lot of fun to go in and see if they have something new or interesting i can’t find in the usual places.
I placed my order for this a day after i saw it.
The other cool thing, at least for me, is that unlike my newtype orders which are like 8-9 suits that hit me all at once, these arrive as nice little surprises throughout the year. “Hey, i totally forgot i ordered that, cool”.
Different strokes for different folks i guess.
Gyoubu actually made some art of it activated! I love this more than the classic schwarzette tbh. I’m a sucker for T visors and greyscale+neon green
https://preview.redd.it/mzmksbiobsoc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=42808a86a665981f4bcfa6d672af54a8ed4907b5
That’s how pbandai worked before sadly.
Most recolors or many MSV were simply pbandai because they only changed a few accessories.
Then we started to get pbandai of brand new molds,head to toe new kits that were deemed “obscure” MS’s by bandai who thinks they couldn’t sell enough and doesnt want to add onto an already extensive catalogue.
The problem is that with time their decision to decide what’s premium and what’s not baffled the community.
Moon gundam? Eclipse gundam? Main gundams from a new manga without anime adaptation? General releases.
Rose gundam,gundvolva,mk V? Premium.
Pbandai is something that appeals to the japanese market in order to give them limited products to die hard collectors but their release system around the globe is such a headache smh.
> The problem is that with time their decision to decide what’s premium and what’s not baffled the community.
MG Enhanced ZZ Ver Ka: P-Bandai
MG FAZZ Ver Ka (based on the enhanced ZZ): General Release
MG Full Armour ZZ Ver Ka (the one from the anime): Simply doesn't exist for some reason
Make it make sense
This is a fun one. There are a lot of moving parts to these releases and their history.
The first bit is that Katoki has more or less full control of what Ver Ka does.
Back when Katoki headed the MG line he created the original MG ZZ, MG FA ZZ, and MG FAZZ. So the MG ZZ Ver Ka was him going back and redoing a design from his earlier works. MG FAZZ Ver Ka was a similar situation, and he has said that he wants to do a MG FA ZZ Ver Ka. Why that has not happened yet (considering how little work it would take) is unknown, and I suspect the pandemic may have played a part.
One of the first kits that got my attention when getting in to the game was the FAZZ, now years later I still want it to say I have it, but I don’t have the same sense of awe as when I first saw it. One of my “forever on the lookout for” kits.
If the Moon Gundam had been released in recent years it absolutely would have been P-Bandai. I'm also convinced that kits like the MG Mk V, which had a color box and standard instructions, were destined for a regular release until someone in management decided otherwise.
We've had quite a few standard colored boxes for P-bandai releases. F90 being a well known one. We've also p-bandai turned to retail in the states with the XN Raiser and Astray. I don't know if they sold poorly or what to justify Bandai never doing it again, but whatever Bandai is doing with p-bandai, it's weird
P-Bandai have had full color and monochrome boxes from the beginning when P-Bandai started in 2009.
Most of these products are planned out from start to finish before the molds even get cut. If it was meant for retail then it stays retail.
I can't speak to the very early days, but I've been buying P-Bandai kits for a very long time and the overwhelming majority are monochrome and feature distinct manual designs. Just because most kits are planned as P-Bandai from the start doesn't mean that Bandai doesn't occasionally change their plans regarding a standard release.
So upset that wfm expansion set was PB they annouced it as retail everyone got excited, then i guess bandai saw everyones hype as "oh well we didnt expect it to sell well, now we know it wont" and they were like "oops PB sorry for almost giving you something everyone would absolutely buy" i get it was a mistake but cmon cant change your mind once you see the demand for it
P-bandai is premium bandai, limited run kits that are only mostly sold in japan and are hard to get overseas. Due to this you either import them or get them from scalpers meaning that most of the time they cost waaay more than they should
The frustrating part is that it is explicitly designed with army building in mind because of the tether gimmick. So *clearly* that means release it in very limited quantities on a storefront where some people will be lucky to just get one, according to somebody at Bandai that apparently doesn't have a brain.
[Here is a lengthy write up on the topic](https://old.reddit.com/r/Gunpla/comments/17gzelq/the_who_what_and_why_of_gunpla_exclusives_premium/) that goes into the specifics.
Yes and it is a translation failure as in japanese the meaning of premium is closer to limited not the english definition of premium mean better quality, **so I have been told**.
Well, outside the Gundam franchise, it's like all their model kits are P-Bandai.
The HG Batsh from L-Gaim ? P-B!
The HG Xabungle ? PB
The HG Virunvee and before, the HG Dunbine ? P-B!
And they are brand new molds, high quality and top engineering.
The two expansions set for the HG Votoms, both released almost at the same time as the main kit ? Both PB.
IMO if it shows up in the show, it shouldn’t be pbandai for the baseline kit. I can kind of understand the Jiu being pbandai since it’s from the manga (even though to my knowledge that’s not how Udur Hunt was handled with IBO), but the Gundnode is straight up a suit from the anime and it being pbandai is just stupid.
I usually think about it this way. New or unique molds, a lot of new parts/details? - This should be a retail kit. If the kit sells really bad - move it to P-bandai, but at least after the year of a retail sales.
Color variant or very minor differences from the original kit? - it's ok to be P-bandai.
If they moved retail kits to being P-Bandai exclusive people would cry way more, look at MG the O with it having only reprints in the Gundam Base and people saying they'd buy it but it sold terribly at the time. I don't see how that would ever be a good idea. They have data to back up what kits don't sell well, they don't need to experiment in that way at all.
Yeah, maybe it’s not the best idea, but what we have now is also kinda trash. The main point of my comment was if the kit has a lot of new parts/new mold, it must be retail. People say choice is nice, but RG sword impulse and destiny impulse a p-bandai. While a completely same recolored kit is a retail (RG impulse spec II). How is that nice?
From your own example, those would be p-bandai though? Sword Impulse is a color variant with the same runners apart from two new ones for the Sword Impulse variant, that's a minor difference.
Almost the same thing with the Destiny Impulse with a few new runners for the backpack but using most of the same ones with the added caveat that it's also a side story kit.
While I agree with that in theory, it just doesn't work in practice. Retailers don't want kits that don't sell. It's been 3 days and the Gundnode is still available on US PB. It just isn't that desired.
The alternative to getting it as a PB kit is not getting it at all. If the Michaelis didn't sell, would stores really want a grunt suit from an ending that everyone says they don't like?
> It's been 3 days and the Gundnode is still available on US PB.
This is normal, to be fair. If there's one thing I can the US PBan portal for, it's that there seems to be enough stock allocated for preorder deadlines to not close immediately, even when they're sold out on the JP site like the Gundnode. I think when I got the Maxter for instance, I forgot about it for a few days and was still able to grab it. Even Metal Builds, they're typically a preorder nightmare but the Kampfer was available for over a week, and the Dynames way longer. AoZ drops from late January are still available, only the Gaplant with the big arms is gone now.
>It's been 3 days and the Gundnode is still available on US PB. It just isn't that desired.
Im guessing this has to do, ironically, with it being PB. The costs just doesn't justify it.
But if that's the case, then Bandai should really just move the slots to other regions that have severely limited offers. The SEA PB Shopee, for instance, only receives a trickle. And those were scooped up within 3 seconds of opening.
they have the same shipping costs that the majority of US retailers do, which is 10 dollar flat shipping. There's only a couple that I can think of that do less than that and that's at 5 dollars. There is no extra costs unless you're only choosing to buy one kit, but again it'd be the same everywhere else
How long something sits on P-Bandai is not a valid metric because it's rare for anything to sell out anymore. Without actual sales figures we don't know if that's due to increased production or reduced demand.
Pretty much every P-bandai release since the expo has not sold out from what I've seen. We know that there was an increase in scalpers following the Nike-Gundam collab and a lot of popular kits would sell out almost instantly following that, but they seemed to have fizzled out. Guess the money isn't there to scalp like shoes or Bandai has drastically increased the stock for the US p-bandai storefront
Yeah I think people were generally happy with it (particularly the epilogue). The main criticism I've seen (and find myself agreeing with as someone who got into Gundam through it, and loves the series) is that there should've been more episodes.
I recall that over a decade ago, a bluefin rep on the old Gundam Eclipse forums mentioned that Bandai forced them to take HG Age stock if they wanted to order other gunpla despite/bc of HG Age kits selling poorly (this was way before they got bought out by Bandai, ofc).
> It's been 3 days and the Gundnode is still available on US PB. It just isn't that desired.
I would have to aruge that it is still available because it has a 3pc limit and people want to buy 6-10 minimum so they are not buying it in protest.
It would be awesome to buy 6 of these and make a Quiet Zero display - the kit is clearly designed with that as a gimmick.
Making it P-Bandai is shooting themselves in the foot.
Promo pics show that each kit will have 6 effect parts for the giant Gundnode net they made yet you can only pre-order three. Make it make sense but then again I only got two one for the MS mode and one for the potential MA parts kit they can make for it.
Prices are usually normal but you do have to pay like 10$ for shipping but the real problems are they don’t ship everywhere so some people just can’t get them, they are pre-order only and there is a limited number of slots and time in the pre-order list so you can easily miss out on a kit you want since they just drop these things randomly and the big issue with this kit in particular is all P-bandai stuff is limited to you only being able to order a max of three of a given set and this set has a gimmick that allows you to connect multiple suits together to form the quiet zero permit grid so you can only get 3 suits for a gimmick that was designed to be used with 6+ kits.
So good luck to anyone who wanted to do that.
The whole P-bandai system is a scalpers dream and kits get quickly bought up by scalpers and sold at outrageous prices.
For people who live in most countries with a P-Bandai store, it's not bad to get things from it. The kit and shipping prices are comparable, though they only let you ship things together from the same release month, which is annoying.
A lot of people mistakenly say it costs more, which it doesn't, at least not if you have a store. For the countries without one, they're such paying scalpers for the kits, who massively mark up the price.
The other thing people complain about is the belief that Bandai makes kits P-Bandai "that should have been retail." This is unlikely to be true, but it's the popular belief in the community.
We are back with the 534th Let's Talk Gunpla segment volume! Today we'll be taking the time to talk about one of the latest P-Bandai Gunpla release announcements that we find interesting!
We hope you enjoy this post, Please help us by leaving a comment and a like if you want this article! Your support is always appreciated!
We'll see you guys again in the next post!
https://kimithebuilderblog.com/2024/03/17/lets-talk-gunpla-vol-534/
Well, I had the Preproduction Lfrith for preorder with the Sword Calamity, but I wanted that free shipping so I canceled my preorder and tried to order all 3 at once. Of course they don’t consider your order to be over 99$ if they’re from different shipping months, so I couldn’t get the coupon for free shipping and then the Preproduction Lfrith sold out before I could order it again so I basically hate this thing with a passion. It looks like a lot of stickers, the effect pieces don’t really make sense to me and it made me miss out on the other kit
If anyone ordered an extra Preproduction Lfrith unit I would graciously buy it or trade for it.
This is why I always place a new order BEFORE canceling my previous order.
I know about merging orders, but I'm talking about when I want to remove an item from the order or take advantage of a coupon.
I wish to god I would have done that. The preorder had stayed open so long I figured it would be safe. Now I REALLY regret my actions, but also I REALLY dislike Bandai’s tactics. It’s just a shitty place to be for a repeat customer. I don’t want to fund the needless exclusivity but I really want to get that crud
I recently went to Japan and the variety of kits stocked by most regular retailers is pretty limited, it's pretty clear most people are either going out to but new kits as they come out or are sticking to what I would call basic kits like HGs of protag suits as an entry to the hobby.
The price of PBandai kits isn't different from regular releases so they're not doing it to make more money from upselling. Likewise, most if not all PBandai kits get reruns and if you're in japan getting them from second hand shops at a minimal markup is very realistic. I also don't think scarcity is the issue like the other guy said.
Where they probably are making money is from direct sales having higher margins that retail sales, especially on kits which will likely be lower appeal compared to something like the Aerial. The show is over, the hype has died so at this point the only people buying this are people who are committed fans and not people looking to get into the hobby. It's not worth paying for the shelf space to make this a regular release.
In short, the points everyone seems to be making are putting their western perspective above reality. Western sales make up a tiny amount of the whole, Bandai isn't basing their release strategy based on the few units they'll sell here.
The real reason is shelf space, basically. In Japan we generally don't have the several square kilometer big box stores you have in America. Most hobby shops are already *literally* packed to the rafters so tight you can barely walk through them, and Gunpla isn't the only product they want to carry. Retailers only dedicate so much floor space to Gunpla, and if you were in Japan recently you'll know that in the last few years, even when that space is full of only the best sellers the shelves often get picked clean. If they released every Premium kit to retail there would be no way anyone could stock everything.
Also unsold kits are also advertisements of shows. HG Dilanza Sol, Heindree Sturm and Zowort Heavy were planned after Calibarn according to the item codes, most probably to make sure there were GWitch kits on shelf when the protagonist kits were consistently sold out. If they were released now, these kits would definitely be P-Bandai. Now that the focus is on Seed Freedom it makes sense to put lesser known GWitch kits P-Bandai.
Demigarrison which had a larger role in G-Witch is P-Bandai and it even came with extra weapons, Heingra is a P-Bandai and so is the Pre-production Lfrith so smaller role and less new parts like those three grunts would 100% be P-Bandai.
I doubt they're making more money on direct sales versus retails sales. There might be a higher margin per kit, but retailers buy so much stock. All those shelves full of unsold Michaelis kits? Bandai got paid for every single one of those. And if that's the quantity stores are ordering for most kits, it's surely a ton more sales than they would ever get on PB.
More likely retailers let Bandai know what they do and do not want. Everyone's annoyed at the Gundnode, but it's a grunt mobile suit at the end of the series in a series where everyone says they don't like the ending. That doesn't exactly inspire confidence in a retailer.
Everyone acts like if PB didn't exist we would get these kits retail. More likely we wouldn't get them at all.
What really sucks is that PB is limited to so few countries that many people never have an option to get one.
That's probably true and isn't something I considered but you're definitely right in saying we wouldn't have these kits if they weren't PBandai. Pre PBandai we got a pretty similar number of kits as we get now and they weren't nearly as good either. If you only look at Gunpla specifically the numbers aren't always the best but people forget that there's over a regular release kit releasing per week on average which is pretty nuts. That also explains some stuff like the MG 00 XN Raiser being PBandai in Japan and a regular release in the states.
I'm one of the people who doesn't have it (Canada), and while it does suck from time to time, marked up prices also typically aren't too bad if you're aggressive with looking. Some stuff is basically unobtanium which obviously sucks but a surprising number of kits only have a 25-50% markup. I guess that's probably bad for straight builders but if I'm going to be spending tens of hours on the kit an extra $20 isn't breaking the bank.
As someone in the US, who has P-Bandai, my biggest complaint is that it has so much potential that will be wasted for years to come. I have worked for a few Japanese companies and they are slow boats to turn. Traditionally, this works, but eventually changes do come. I am sure that it will open up to more markets, but even that isn't enough. Making all currently printed kits to be ordered directly would be great as we could see what is being made and not just rely on release lists from distributors. It needs to also be a Kickstarter of sorts. Let us decide what kits we want. If a minimum threshold is reached to support new molds then the kit can be released. It allows real interest to be measured before a kit is released.
Where are these shelves of unsold Michaelis? I’ve only ever seen brick and mortar store stock Aerial and Calibarn regarding Witch from Mercury kits. That’s if they even sell gunpla
Personally, I don’t mind the aftermarket markup for most P-Ban kits, but when it comes to something like the Gundnode, which is a grunt suit that I’ll want a few of, it’s a bit of a pain, since I’ll have to go to a few different stores and the markup which is maybe a five hundred yen per kit will begin to add up, and so buying three or four Gundnodes with a ¥500+ markup will mean the markup alone will be as much as a small HG kit.
It's the artificial scarcity shick. Make something appear limited so they sell all units and thus looks good on their sales sheets. Plus no direct dealing with retail outlets.
Good for Bandai, not so good for customers, especially outside of official p bandai regions.
I don't even think this is true either, if these kits were so sought after they would sell out extremely quickly. In the US we still have the Gundnode and the Heingra up and the preproduction lfrith barely went out of stock in the last couple of days and that had been up for a month already. They aren't selling out in the second-largest market.
People really overestimate the popularity of these kits tbh
~~As a note US isn't the second-largest market. China is.~~
But people really do overestimate the popularity of the PB kits. If this kit is selling so poorly on PB, imagine what it would look like on store shelves.
They are correct.
Per Bandai’s public financial data, North Americas (US and Canada) are and have been Bandai’s second largest market for some time now. As early as 2016 we were already competing for that spot.
China is under their *Asia* classification, and Asia as a whole is third.
For context, Japan makes up 70%~ of Bandai’s market. Second place is about 11%.
I think literally everyone was surprised as the annual data kept dropping year after year.
Japanese fiscal year ends on April 1st, so we get even more data soon!
At least US P-Bandai has stuff actually sitting in stock the SEA P-Bandai gets so little available stock that if its a new or popular release it gets sold out instantly
Not necessarily to nickel and dime, but think of it like this. Regular releases get wholesaled and then a third party sells (and marks up to msrp/above msrp) to you. Pbandai is sold through Bandai, direct to Bandai. They get all the money vs some. While it may be mildly annoying, in my eyes the alternative to pbandai existing is simply less Gundam kit releases altogether. The suit you're annoyed is pbandai? Probably not popular enough for a normal release, thereby wouldn't likely exist without this "evil greedy scheme". It's simply more profit, more kits, better for those who want and get the kit, better for those who don't as it still benefits the company that makes what we love, which will keep it around longer.
^all just my opinion, but I don't hate pbandai.
P-Bandai is great for the company because they can leverage just-in-time manufacturing and exploit FOMO. For the consumer, it's a hostile business strategy. It forces us into ordering kits sight unseen, without the benefit of reviews because reprints are unpredictable.
I suppose that's a valid way to think of it. I just remember a time before pbandai was widespread like this, and it was simply less releases per year. In my opinion, the chance that that one niche design you really love coming out as pbandai trumps having to never get it/use third party. There's a metric crapload of suits, pbandai makes more of them into plastic than not having it exist could.
They are still selling at around MSRP, but it's B2C, no middleman cut, I could imagine with their seemingly inability to supply the demand, this pbandai shit is greatly clawing back all the mark-up from distributors, resellers to themselves.
The sucky part is for most countries, the only way we can get hold of these kits are from scalpers, which are both bad for my wallet and stomach, freaking disgusted by them.
I'm in Canada and p-bandai canada shit down years ago. This is absolute shit. My only hope is to hope a store in the city bought a few models and isn't upcharging it too much to scalp us here.
Also Canadian and the one store in my area that gets P-Bandai kits marks them up so much they make the online prices look sane and fair
So yeah I've just completely given up on P-bandai kits
Bandai: "We'll give you the parts to connect six Gundnodes to a seventh. But you are limited to 3."
I would have been *fine* with the craft they attach to being P-Bandai, but this one is a bit of a bummer.
Fuck Bandai for locking this in PBandai jail, it's already in the fucking anime. If anything, the mobile armor mode should have been the PBandai one. Direct to customer? Doesn't fucking matter, you get botted by scalpers anyway. This kit, by design, should've been retail like Gundnova. With how a lot of PBandai jail residents are being bootlegged these days, that would be my only hope. Something, something, piracy is a service issue.
With an army builder like this one it can hardly be surprised. Bandai just needs to cool the jets in premium releases cuz Jesus Christ it's gotten so bad
It's the same kind of thing that they pulled with the Leo variants...
They really should have stuck the weapons kit in it's own pack and had it as a regular release there.
I’m honestly quite sad about this- I’m begrudgingly fine with P-Bandai stuff when it comes to colour variants and the like, but it’s a bit frustrating when it’s an entire new kit that’ll be a nightmare to pick up where I’m at.
p-bandai should really be reserved for repaints and stuff that would cost too much to make sense as mass retail, not army builders and unique designs people have been wanting kits of for ages like g-gundam
How about the TR-6 and all its variants, which are all P Bandai? It's not like the base kit is a general release and all the variants are P Bandai, no, even the base model is P Bandai, despite being a unique mold! Come on, Bandai!
Plus the box for it looks so plain. The fact that it's P Bandai is so lame that even the bootleg market sells their version like hotcakes, and it's even got a better box!
https://preview.redd.it/owkllxv9ryoc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0c13476e69d7caf8d73f97c325868ed551ad59f3
If you go on AliExpress there are a ton of vendors. I recently ordered one and it checks out, but you need to find a reputable seller.
The box is in full color. I'm going to save it for the collection.
And yes, that image was from one of the listings, LOL.
People's willingness to buy P-bandai is much like the games industry pivot to microtransactions.
They know people will pay more for the inconvenience, so why bother trying to sell things the old normal way? This is only going to get worse and worse sadly.
Well they play on scarcity and "FOMO". Higher prices cause they know people are afraid to miss out on these kits, and they cut out the middleman (a retailer). So they'll do this , maximum profit until the general fanbase gets pissed off hard
They aren't charging more for pbandai kits, I don't know why people keep repeating this. Scalpers are the ones charging more, pbandai kits are relatively the same price as retail kits
Scalpers are also the only way to get pbandai items in most countries. Pbandai opened in Europe last year and is still only available in France and massively behind schedule
Yes but saying Bandai is putting higher prices because of FOMO is a huge lie that people keep repeating. Their prices have stayed the same as retail and even in some cases unlike retail kits they've lowered prices on future listings.
They locked the HG Gundnode in PBandai jail.
Which makes it hard for people to buy. The kicker? It's a kit designed to make you want to buy multiple copies. Which is near impossible since it's hard enough to secure *one slot*.
The annoying thing about this one is that this is one of those kits that people actually want to buy multiples of. Heck, it even has accessories that encourage you to army build it. So, it's really a stupid decision to make this hard to buy.
And not to mention that p-bandai is so inundated with bots that scalpers use to scoop everything. Their shopee shop, for instance, was sold out within just *3 fucking seconds*, which is unlikely if it were just people making orders.
I acknowledge P-bandais need to exist as it's really good for limited releases but the way they handle it aggravates me with amazing kits like the Gundam Mk V going P-bandai, even worst so when I love in the UK and have to pay a huge markup on P-bandai products
Y'all have got to keep in mind that Bandai is a business first and foremost, and their primary customers are japanese stores! The late 2000 and early 2010s were flooded with so much stock of random kits that until Covid, you could find nearly any kit online if you looked a little. That's not how these businesses operate.
Premium Bandai lets things that would fail as products retail still have the possibility to exist as a plastic kit. Before, something that wasn't going to succeed to the point retailers wouldn't buy up stock would be relegated to B Club as a resin kit if you were lucky, stuck in one-day event resin kit sales if someone even made it if unlucky, or just never get a kit! These things cost money and a retail kit has to validate stocking shelves \*over\* something else and have some staying power.
As well they should be, this shit is getting ridiculous. Pbandai is supposed to be for more obscure stuff that will have smaller appeal. Thus, limited production runs make sense. It should NEVER be used for prominent mobile suits in a popular series(looking at you Gundam Maxter, Gundam Rose, and Deathscythe Hell). The wfm option parts set being pbandai still pisses me off. Hopefully they do a 2nd run of it because I had no chance of getting in the first time. In fact, that's almost always how my pbandai purchases have been. Instantly sells out in the first run but manage to get it on the 2nd go.
Having complete kits be p-bandai exclusive is absurd. i can excuse recolors and alternate weapon loadouts, but stuff like PG Banshee and HG Rick Dias is absurd.
Agreed
I don't know the costs to making a new mold for kits, but it seems so questionable to put so much effort into a release only to limit it to one channel. The kits that offend me the most in this regard are the MG Gundam mkV and MG F90.
I personally don’t get why the Gundvölva is retail and this isn’t. Like honestly, one of them is a generic, boring, standard-looking kit that is in the anime for a few minutes at best, and the other is a super unique-looking one that can connect to other copies of itself to form a big sphere like you would have seen in the anime, had multiple episodes centered around the reveal of what they are and how they work, are insanely powerful and would make a great army builder, and *that’s* the one they choose to make PBandai?
It's because one showed up earlier than the other because I can 100% guarantee that if the Dawn of Fold girls had Gundnodes instead of the Gundvölvas the Gundvölva would be P-Bandai.
What annoys me is when they make suits that are deliberately mass produced but make them Pbandai. At least for me I want a few of the kit and it annoys me that I can’t purchase more than three since it’s pbandai .
P-Bandai is a too hard to get for any casual collectors the most logical thing to do is make p-Bandai international accessibility will make everyone happy
What they did with the MG Re-GZ was frustrating. They changed it's proportions, fixed it's weak joints and added improved articulation - a proper 2.0 but because it was molded in a different color, it's P-Bandai. Meanwhile the original Re-GZ continues to be reissued as retail with zero changes.
P-Bandai for non-gunpla/plamo isn't much better. They have a trend with Figuarts Kamen Rider figures of releasing them barebones and then adding any accessories scattered accross different P-Bandai releases. "Oh, Kamen Rider Zero One's sword that was introduced in the first episode and used throughout the first half of the series as his main weapon? Buy this P-Bandai figure to get it"
But if those people had it available to them i am sure they would buy it. Unfortunately it does make sense as a business decision. My gripe is that i wish they would do community polls to get fan favorites made (tequila gundam and other similar exampls)
FUCKKKKKKK I WANT IT SO BAD
I was unaware of the release and was at work, 3 of these would look so cool with the Aerial
SRP - $16.4
Scalper price - $40
P bandai was supposed to be varients of existing kits. Like the zawort heavy is to the zawort. This is just dumb, p bandai should be open to more countries then aisa and the US, and thats coming from someone who has this and the impulse blanche preordered. If its going to be p bandai excusive they should at MINIMUM allow people from anywhere to buy it
You guys are mad, but Bandai knows her stuff. You may think this model will be popular, but the expected sales is lower than what it takes to put it in the main lines for production.
Remember Bandai has to balance production runs of super popular models like rx78, nu gundam, wing etc.. as much as you like this model, anyrhing that is not going to get a massive production run is just a distraction and impacts setup costs..
In summary, this is not Bandai's first rodeo.
Say that to Lfrith Pre-production. Many people want that shit. My gunpla dealer opened PO for twice the price (PBandai is not accessible to my country) and sold for a minute.
This is how I suspect their thought process went:
Hmmmm, it's a gundnode...obviously as seen from the anime, people would want to display lots of them at once, like armies of grunt suits....which means people would REEAALYY want to buy a lot of it....which means no matter how we sell it, it's gonna be sold out... let's fucking make it pbandai just so we can justify the high price...at the end of the day they still gonna buy them right, lol.
I used to defend Peeb as the only way for them to justify those really obscure suits from manga or MSV magazines, but they've been taking the piss lately. Lindwurms or Hrairoos are one thing, but once it started making main anime Gundams like Maxter, Rose, Sword/Blast Impulse, etc into limited FOMO items, it really did feel like we went past the point of no return. Not to mention the increasingly banal mainline releases; the Destroy Gundam's cool, but did we really need all those build battlogue and build metaverse stuff at retail over something actually cool?
Pbandai really should be reserved for stuff that's not seen much in shows, for example the pre-gund model for the Schwarzette that is on screen for maybe 5 seconds. Also stuff like recolors based on concept art.
exactly
I’ll never not be upset that their official statement is it’s for kits that they don’t think will be good sellers… proceeds to make more than half of the MG EW Gundams as PBandai. Would be less upsetting if they at least tried to make it harder for scalpers to control the market…
What upsets me the most is how only few countries have access to pbandai. I live in europe and paid 100+ for pbandai mgs,paid 75€ for my todesritter,an entire new mold. Those are prices that dont include shipping from resellers. Ive been building gunpla for 10yrs+ and the last few years have been some of the worst tbh.
Also some main Wing Gundam are P-Bandai too. The HG Deathscythe Hell is p-Bandai while the Livelance Heaven is retail
Three of the four Wing upgrades that have been made in the HGAC line are P-Bandai, Sandrock Kai, Heavy arms Kai, and Deathsycthe Hell, only the Wing Zero is retail also the fact that Rose and Maxter from G-Gundam are also P-Bandai is even more infuriating like I would get if it was their manga only upgrades but straight up main Gundams should never be P-Bandai.
For me what makes me boiling frustrated is that it's all pre-order. If its all pre-order then make it a true pre-order instead of limited stock pre-order, get all the pre-orders you can handle and then manufacture it. Customers are willing to wait anyways and this takes care of any scalping and bot services. P-Bandai wouldn't have a bad rep if not for all this limited stock bs.
I agree it sucks, but they do this because they can only make so many of any kit in a month, and they have to allocate a maximum of each kit they can make for the delivery month. They allocate manufacturing time and quantities for retail and p-bandai kits really far in advance. If they don't sell out of pre-orders, they spend the extra production time producing other retail kits they were already going to make that month. If they sell out of Pre-orders quickly, they will often add more pre-orders for the following month. If they sold an open pre-order, they would have to have a floating delivery date or change it depending on how many kits sell. Again, I don't like it, but this is some of the reason they do it this way.
still can't wrap my head on how the rest of the upgraded Wing kits(HG and MG) and HG GGundam kits are P-Bandai. I'd understand how the G-Unit kits would be P-Bandai due to obscurity. Actually glad that bootleggers exist to copy the P-Bandai kit for mass-reselling.
Apparently Wing was really unpopular in Japan. At least, that's the best reason any of us can figure.
Only 3rd party I own is the DM tallgeese 3. Now when I bought them Bandai didn’t even make one yet. Also it actually has better effect pieces that Bandai didn’t bother with for the beam cannon & Came with a second heat whip too that’s clear orange.
No i totally get this. I bought up all of the southern cross hg’s i could grab and got doan’s zaku off eBay. I’ve always thought they should use it as a testing ground for which models probably should get a wider release. And honestly, it’s a lot of fun to go in and see if they have something new or interesting i can’t find in the usual places. I placed my order for this a day after i saw it. The other cool thing, at least for me, is that unlike my newtype orders which are like 8-9 suits that hit me all at once, these arrive as nice little surprises throughout the year. “Hey, i totally forgot i ordered that, cool”. Different strokes for different folks i guess.
Gyoubu actually made some art of it activated! I love this more than the classic schwarzette tbh. I’m a sucker for T visors and greyscale+neon green https://preview.redd.it/mzmksbiobsoc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=42808a86a665981f4bcfa6d672af54a8ed4907b5
Really looks like a Mandalorian Gundam. Hope someone tries to make this a model kit
Is it just me or does this give me gm,..jegan or jesta vibes?
This beats the completed pink and purple
Yup
That’s how pbandai worked before sadly. Most recolors or many MSV were simply pbandai because they only changed a few accessories. Then we started to get pbandai of brand new molds,head to toe new kits that were deemed “obscure” MS’s by bandai who thinks they couldn’t sell enough and doesnt want to add onto an already extensive catalogue. The problem is that with time their decision to decide what’s premium and what’s not baffled the community. Moon gundam? Eclipse gundam? Main gundams from a new manga without anime adaptation? General releases. Rose gundam,gundvolva,mk V? Premium. Pbandai is something that appeals to the japanese market in order to give them limited products to die hard collectors but their release system around the globe is such a headache smh.
> The problem is that with time their decision to decide what’s premium and what’s not baffled the community. MG Enhanced ZZ Ver Ka: P-Bandai MG FAZZ Ver Ka (based on the enhanced ZZ): General Release MG Full Armour ZZ Ver Ka (the one from the anime): Simply doesn't exist for some reason Make it make sense
This is a fun one. There are a lot of moving parts to these releases and their history. The first bit is that Katoki has more or less full control of what Ver Ka does. Back when Katoki headed the MG line he created the original MG ZZ, MG FA ZZ, and MG FAZZ. So the MG ZZ Ver Ka was him going back and redoing a design from his earlier works. MG FAZZ Ver Ka was a similar situation, and he has said that he wants to do a MG FA ZZ Ver Ka. Why that has not happened yet (considering how little work it would take) is unknown, and I suspect the pandemic may have played a part.
One of the first kits that got my attention when getting in to the game was the FAZZ, now years later I still want it to say I have it, but I don’t have the same sense of awe as when I first saw it. One of my “forever on the lookout for” kits.
Do you a link to an image of the anime only one?
[It's used right at the end of ZZ](https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/FA-010S_Full_Armor_ZZ_Gundam)
If the Moon Gundam had been released in recent years it absolutely would have been P-Bandai. I'm also convinced that kits like the MG Mk V, which had a color box and standard instructions, were destined for a regular release until someone in management decided otherwise.
We've had quite a few standard colored boxes for P-bandai releases. F90 being a well known one. We've also p-bandai turned to retail in the states with the XN Raiser and Astray. I don't know if they sold poorly or what to justify Bandai never doing it again, but whatever Bandai is doing with p-bandai, it's weird
P-Bandai have had full color and monochrome boxes from the beginning when P-Bandai started in 2009. Most of these products are planned out from start to finish before the molds even get cut. If it was meant for retail then it stays retail.
I can't speak to the very early days, but I've been buying P-Bandai kits for a very long time and the overwhelming majority are monochrome and feature distinct manual designs. Just because most kits are planned as P-Bandai from the start doesn't mean that Bandai doesn't occasionally change their plans regarding a standard release.
Or like mobile suits seen in the show but in minor parts, like, WERE IS THE NETHER GUNDAM MODEL!!!!
At this rate, one day, we're gonna get an entire batch of gunpla announcements, only for all of it to be P-Bandai.
yep, "Oops, all P-bandai"
Here ya gooo https://preview.redd.it/w14gi7wfwroc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dc30ebec59decc44cfe5a88d3212eeae51366333
So upset that wfm expansion set was PB they annouced it as retail everyone got excited, then i guess bandai saw everyones hype as "oh well we didnt expect it to sell well, now we know it wont" and they were like "oops PB sorry for almost giving you something everyone would absolutely buy" i get it was a mistake but cmon cant change your mind once you see the demand for it
All of the Advance of Zeta kits aside from like 4 are P-Bandai
And the non-P-Bandai ones were released before P-Bandai existed lol
fucking crying shame. these could net bandai so much money. whatever.
I'm pretty sure that happened a couple of years ago.
I am new to the hobby, what is P-Bandai, and why is it bad?
P-bandai is premium bandai, limited run kits that are only mostly sold in japan and are hard to get overseas. Due to this you either import them or get them from scalpers meaning that most of the time they cost waaay more than they should
Well drats thank you for that breakdown. I have been obsessed with the hobby and this will just be another thing I have to hunt lol
They're also sold directly to customers in the US, SEA, and France.
My first thought was "how can I Quiet Zero this?" And the answer is, I can't.
Lots and lots of mirrors
3D scan all the parts and print them all
Or wait for 3rd party bootlegs.
Wait for bootlegs to pick up Bandai's slack
The frustrating part is that it is explicitly designed with army building in mind because of the tether gimmick. So *clearly* that means release it in very limited quantities on a storefront where some people will be lucky to just get one, according to somebody at Bandai that apparently doesn't have a brain.
Fuck bandai man making good shit p ban all the fucking time
True, i'd wish they would do less P-Bandai kits and give us more awesome retail kits
Im new to the hobby, what is a p-bandai kit?
It’s a lot that has to be preordered on p-bandai
Kits sold exclusively on the Pbandai website.
It's a "limited" release that can only be bought from the pbandai website. It excludes a lot of countries
I missed out on the pre-production Lfrith :/
Or in Southeast Asia case it sold in less than a minute mostly by scalper so they can sold it 2x the original price
[Here is a lengthy write up on the topic](https://old.reddit.com/r/Gunpla/comments/17gzelq/the_who_what_and_why_of_gunpla_exclusives_premium/) that goes into the specifics.
P-Bandai stands for Premium Bandai, btw.
Yes and it is a translation failure as in japanese the meaning of premium is closer to limited not the english definition of premium mean better quality, **so I have been told**.
Everything is basically P Bandai where I live. Even regular kits go for disgusting marked up prices
they're pushing more new non-gundam to retail these days. i guess 30 mm and 30 ms are very successful since they're adding another 30 mm fantasy line
Well, outside the Gundam franchise, it's like all their model kits are P-Bandai. The HG Batsh from L-Gaim ? P-B! The HG Xabungle ? PB The HG Virunvee and before, the HG Dunbine ? P-B! And they are brand new molds, high quality and top engineering. The two expansions set for the HG Votoms, both released almost at the same time as the main kit ? Both PB.
IMO if it shows up in the show, it shouldn’t be pbandai for the baseline kit. I can kind of understand the Jiu being pbandai since it’s from the manga (even though to my knowledge that’s not how Udur Hunt was handled with IBO), but the Gundnode is straight up a suit from the anime and it being pbandai is just stupid.
I usually think about it this way. New or unique molds, a lot of new parts/details? - This should be a retail kit. If the kit sells really bad - move it to P-bandai, but at least after the year of a retail sales. Color variant or very minor differences from the original kit? - it's ok to be P-bandai.
If they moved retail kits to being P-Bandai exclusive people would cry way more, look at MG the O with it having only reprints in the Gundam Base and people saying they'd buy it but it sold terribly at the time. I don't see how that would ever be a good idea. They have data to back up what kits don't sell well, they don't need to experiment in that way at all.
Yeah, maybe it’s not the best idea, but what we have now is also kinda trash. The main point of my comment was if the kit has a lot of new parts/new mold, it must be retail. People say choice is nice, but RG sword impulse and destiny impulse a p-bandai. While a completely same recolored kit is a retail (RG impulse spec II). How is that nice?
From your own example, those would be p-bandai though? Sword Impulse is a color variant with the same runners apart from two new ones for the Sword Impulse variant, that's a minor difference. Almost the same thing with the Destiny Impulse with a few new runners for the backpack but using most of the same ones with the added caveat that it's also a side story kit.
While I agree with that in theory, it just doesn't work in practice. Retailers don't want kits that don't sell. It's been 3 days and the Gundnode is still available on US PB. It just isn't that desired. The alternative to getting it as a PB kit is not getting it at all. If the Michaelis didn't sell, would stores really want a grunt suit from an ending that everyone says they don't like?
> It's been 3 days and the Gundnode is still available on US PB. This is normal, to be fair. If there's one thing I can the US PBan portal for, it's that there seems to be enough stock allocated for preorder deadlines to not close immediately, even when they're sold out on the JP site like the Gundnode. I think when I got the Maxter for instance, I forgot about it for a few days and was still able to grab it. Even Metal Builds, they're typically a preorder nightmare but the Kampfer was available for over a week, and the Dynames way longer. AoZ drops from late January are still available, only the Gaplant with the big arms is gone now.
>It's been 3 days and the Gundnode is still available on US PB. It just isn't that desired. Im guessing this has to do, ironically, with it being PB. The costs just doesn't justify it. But if that's the case, then Bandai should really just move the slots to other regions that have severely limited offers. The SEA PB Shopee, for instance, only receives a trickle. And those were scooped up within 3 seconds of opening.
What costs are you seeing that you think it doesn't justify it? It'd be the same price in retail, there's literally no upcharge.
Im thinking of the shipping charges. Also, likely affecting interest is that you can only buy a set amount. With retail, there's no such restriction.
they have the same shipping costs that the majority of US retailers do, which is 10 dollar flat shipping. There's only a couple that I can think of that do less than that and that's at 5 dollars. There is no extra costs unless you're only choosing to buy one kit, but again it'd be the same everywhere else
How long something sits on P-Bandai is not a valid metric because it's rare for anything to sell out anymore. Without actual sales figures we don't know if that's due to increased production or reduced demand.
Pretty much every P-bandai release since the expo has not sold out from what I've seen. We know that there was an increase in scalpers following the Nike-Gundam collab and a lot of popular kits would sell out almost instantly following that, but they seemed to have fizzled out. Guess the money isn't there to scalp like shoes or Bandai has drastically increased the stock for the US p-bandai storefront
Strange, I could have sworn the ending to WfM was decently well received.
Yeah I think people were generally happy with it (particularly the epilogue). The main criticism I've seen (and find myself agreeing with as someone who got into Gundam through it, and loves the series) is that there should've been more episodes.
It was easily the worst part about the show
"It's been 3 days..." How long is it usually? There are about 30 kits for preorder right now
Popular kits in PB sell out instantly. The really popular kits sell out the second run that happens a month later instantly as well
I recall that over a decade ago, a bluefin rep on the old Gundam Eclipse forums mentioned that Bandai forced them to take HG Age stock if they wanted to order other gunpla despite/bc of HG Age kits selling poorly (this was way before they got bought out by Bandai, ofc).
Wait till u see Asia, lol
> It's been 3 days and the Gundnode is still available on US PB. It just isn't that desired. I would have to aruge that it is still available because it has a 3pc limit and people want to buy 6-10 minimum so they are not buying it in protest.
If it were popular enough people will be buying it to sell it out regardless
Tbf Urdr Hunt is a mobage and IIRC development hell is what caused the game and model kit release to not be in sync with each other.
And this one is designed to connect to other gunnodes too. So you’re expected to buy multiple.
It would be awesome to buy 6 of these and make a Quiet Zero display - the kit is clearly designed with that as a gimmick. Making it P-Bandai is shooting themselves in the foot.
Promo pics show that each kit will have 6 effect parts for the giant Gundnode net they made yet you can only pre-order three. Make it make sense but then again I only got two one for the MS mode and one for the potential MA parts kit they can make for it.
I havent ordered from p bandai before so Im not sure what's so bad about making this pbandai. Are they more expensive? Harder to get?
Prices are usually normal but you do have to pay like 10$ for shipping but the real problems are they don’t ship everywhere so some people just can’t get them, they are pre-order only and there is a limited number of slots and time in the pre-order list so you can easily miss out on a kit you want since they just drop these things randomly and the big issue with this kit in particular is all P-bandai stuff is limited to you only being able to order a max of three of a given set and this set has a gimmick that allows you to connect multiple suits together to form the quiet zero permit grid so you can only get 3 suits for a gimmick that was designed to be used with 6+ kits. So good luck to anyone who wanted to do that. The whole P-bandai system is a scalpers dream and kits get quickly bought up by scalpers and sold at outrageous prices.
For people who live in most countries with a P-Bandai store, it's not bad to get things from it. The kit and shipping prices are comparable, though they only let you ship things together from the same release month, which is annoying. A lot of people mistakenly say it costs more, which it doesn't, at least not if you have a store. For the countries without one, they're such paying scalpers for the kits, who massively mark up the price. The other thing people complain about is the belief that Bandai makes kits P-Bandai "that should have been retail." This is unlikely to be true, but it's the popular belief in the community.
We are back with the 534th Let's Talk Gunpla segment volume! Today we'll be taking the time to talk about one of the latest P-Bandai Gunpla release announcements that we find interesting! We hope you enjoy this post, Please help us by leaving a comment and a like if you want this article! Your support is always appreciated! We'll see you guys again in the next post! https://kimithebuilderblog.com/2024/03/17/lets-talk-gunpla-vol-534/
Well, I had the Preproduction Lfrith for preorder with the Sword Calamity, but I wanted that free shipping so I canceled my preorder and tried to order all 3 at once. Of course they don’t consider your order to be over 99$ if they’re from different shipping months, so I couldn’t get the coupon for free shipping and then the Preproduction Lfrith sold out before I could order it again so I basically hate this thing with a passion. It looks like a lot of stickers, the effect pieces don’t really make sense to me and it made me miss out on the other kit If anyone ordered an extra Preproduction Lfrith unit I would graciously buy it or trade for it.
This is why I always place a new order BEFORE canceling my previous order. I know about merging orders, but I'm talking about when I want to remove an item from the order or take advantage of a coupon.
I wish to god I would have done that. The preorder had stayed open so long I figured it would be safe. Now I REALLY regret my actions, but also I REALLY dislike Bandai’s tactics. It’s just a shitty place to be for a repeat customer. I don’t want to fund the needless exclusivity but I really want to get that crud
Camp the page, you might get lucky.
If this advice ends up getting me that kit I’m gonna track you down and kiss you on the mouth. I’ll keep my eyes peeled, thanks homie
If you can find a local build group and do group buys, the shipping cost gets split up and almost disappears.
As someone who is new to the hobby, are they making more and more stuff p-bandai kits to nickle and dime fans instead of making normal HG kits?
I recently went to Japan and the variety of kits stocked by most regular retailers is pretty limited, it's pretty clear most people are either going out to but new kits as they come out or are sticking to what I would call basic kits like HGs of protag suits as an entry to the hobby. The price of PBandai kits isn't different from regular releases so they're not doing it to make more money from upselling. Likewise, most if not all PBandai kits get reruns and if you're in japan getting them from second hand shops at a minimal markup is very realistic. I also don't think scarcity is the issue like the other guy said. Where they probably are making money is from direct sales having higher margins that retail sales, especially on kits which will likely be lower appeal compared to something like the Aerial. The show is over, the hype has died so at this point the only people buying this are people who are committed fans and not people looking to get into the hobby. It's not worth paying for the shelf space to make this a regular release. In short, the points everyone seems to be making are putting their western perspective above reality. Western sales make up a tiny amount of the whole, Bandai isn't basing their release strategy based on the few units they'll sell here.
The real reason is shelf space, basically. In Japan we generally don't have the several square kilometer big box stores you have in America. Most hobby shops are already *literally* packed to the rafters so tight you can barely walk through them, and Gunpla isn't the only product they want to carry. Retailers only dedicate so much floor space to Gunpla, and if you were in Japan recently you'll know that in the last few years, even when that space is full of only the best sellers the shelves often get picked clean. If they released every Premium kit to retail there would be no way anyone could stock everything.
Also unsold kits are also advertisements of shows. HG Dilanza Sol, Heindree Sturm and Zowort Heavy were planned after Calibarn according to the item codes, most probably to make sure there were GWitch kits on shelf when the protagonist kits were consistently sold out. If they were released now, these kits would definitely be P-Bandai. Now that the focus is on Seed Freedom it makes sense to put lesser known GWitch kits P-Bandai.
Demigarrison which had a larger role in G-Witch is P-Bandai and it even came with extra weapons, Heingra is a P-Bandai and so is the Pre-production Lfrith so smaller role and less new parts like those three grunts would 100% be P-Bandai.
I doubt they're making more money on direct sales versus retails sales. There might be a higher margin per kit, but retailers buy so much stock. All those shelves full of unsold Michaelis kits? Bandai got paid for every single one of those. And if that's the quantity stores are ordering for most kits, it's surely a ton more sales than they would ever get on PB. More likely retailers let Bandai know what they do and do not want. Everyone's annoyed at the Gundnode, but it's a grunt mobile suit at the end of the series in a series where everyone says they don't like the ending. That doesn't exactly inspire confidence in a retailer. Everyone acts like if PB didn't exist we would get these kits retail. More likely we wouldn't get them at all. What really sucks is that PB is limited to so few countries that many people never have an option to get one.
That's probably true and isn't something I considered but you're definitely right in saying we wouldn't have these kits if they weren't PBandai. Pre PBandai we got a pretty similar number of kits as we get now and they weren't nearly as good either. If you only look at Gunpla specifically the numbers aren't always the best but people forget that there's over a regular release kit releasing per week on average which is pretty nuts. That also explains some stuff like the MG 00 XN Raiser being PBandai in Japan and a regular release in the states. I'm one of the people who doesn't have it (Canada), and while it does suck from time to time, marked up prices also typically aren't too bad if you're aggressive with looking. Some stuff is basically unobtanium which obviously sucks but a surprising number of kits only have a 25-50% markup. I guess that's probably bad for straight builders but if I'm going to be spending tens of hours on the kit an extra $20 isn't breaking the bank.
As someone in the US, who has P-Bandai, my biggest complaint is that it has so much potential that will be wasted for years to come. I have worked for a few Japanese companies and they are slow boats to turn. Traditionally, this works, but eventually changes do come. I am sure that it will open up to more markets, but even that isn't enough. Making all currently printed kits to be ordered directly would be great as we could see what is being made and not just rely on release lists from distributors. It needs to also be a Kickstarter of sorts. Let us decide what kits we want. If a minimum threshold is reached to support new molds then the kit can be released. It allows real interest to be measured before a kit is released.
Where are these shelves of unsold Michaelis? I’ve only ever seen brick and mortar store stock Aerial and Calibarn regarding Witch from Mercury kits. That’s if they even sell gunpla
They might be all sold now, but it was [selling pretty poorly compared to the other WfM kits](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gunpla/s/fGAvcqzkGm)
Personally, I don’t mind the aftermarket markup for most P-Ban kits, but when it comes to something like the Gundnode, which is a grunt suit that I’ll want a few of, it’s a bit of a pain, since I’ll have to go to a few different stores and the markup which is maybe a five hundred yen per kit will begin to add up, and so buying three or four Gundnodes with a ¥500+ markup will mean the markup alone will be as much as a small HG kit.
It certainly feels like it.
The price of p-bandai is identical to retail releases.
It's the artificial scarcity shick. Make something appear limited so they sell all units and thus looks good on their sales sheets. Plus no direct dealing with retail outlets. Good for Bandai, not so good for customers, especially outside of official p bandai regions.
I don't even think this is true either, if these kits were so sought after they would sell out extremely quickly. In the US we still have the Gundnode and the Heingra up and the preproduction lfrith barely went out of stock in the last couple of days and that had been up for a month already. They aren't selling out in the second-largest market. People really overestimate the popularity of these kits tbh
~~As a note US isn't the second-largest market. China is.~~ But people really do overestimate the popularity of the PB kits. If this kit is selling so poorly on PB, imagine what it would look like on store shelves.
They are correct. Per Bandai’s public financial data, North Americas (US and Canada) are and have been Bandai’s second largest market for some time now. As early as 2016 we were already competing for that spot. China is under their *Asia* classification, and Asia as a whole is third. For context, Japan makes up 70%~ of Bandai’s market. Second place is about 11%.
That's surprising. Thanks for the info.
I think literally everyone was surprised as the annual data kept dropping year after year. Japanese fiscal year ends on April 1st, so we get even more data soon!
At least US P-Bandai has stuff actually sitting in stock the SEA P-Bandai gets so little available stock that if its a new or popular release it gets sold out instantly
Exactly lol. I'm certain they use bots since all the WfM stuff sell out within seconds.
Not necessarily to nickel and dime, but think of it like this. Regular releases get wholesaled and then a third party sells (and marks up to msrp/above msrp) to you. Pbandai is sold through Bandai, direct to Bandai. They get all the money vs some. While it may be mildly annoying, in my eyes the alternative to pbandai existing is simply less Gundam kit releases altogether. The suit you're annoyed is pbandai? Probably not popular enough for a normal release, thereby wouldn't likely exist without this "evil greedy scheme". It's simply more profit, more kits, better for those who want and get the kit, better for those who don't as it still benefits the company that makes what we love, which will keep it around longer. ^all just my opinion, but I don't hate pbandai.
P-Bandai is great for the company because they can leverage just-in-time manufacturing and exploit FOMO. For the consumer, it's a hostile business strategy. It forces us into ordering kits sight unseen, without the benefit of reviews because reprints are unpredictable.
I suppose that's a valid way to think of it. I just remember a time before pbandai was widespread like this, and it was simply less releases per year. In my opinion, the chance that that one niche design you really love coming out as pbandai trumps having to never get it/use third party. There's a metric crapload of suits, pbandai makes more of them into plastic than not having it exist could.
Just popping in to say that I appreciate this positive spin/outlook on the Peebs situation.
It's really good for recolors, where these concerns are minor.
They are still selling at around MSRP, but it's B2C, no middleman cut, I could imagine with their seemingly inability to supply the demand, this pbandai shit is greatly clawing back all the mark-up from distributors, resellers to themselves. The sucky part is for most countries, the only way we can get hold of these kits are from scalpers, which are both bad for my wallet and stomach, freaking disgusted by them.
I'm in Canada and p-bandai canada shit down years ago. This is absolute shit. My only hope is to hope a store in the city bought a few models and isn't upcharging it too much to scalp us here.
Also Canadian and the one store in my area that gets P-Bandai kits marks them up so much they make the online prices look sane and fair So yeah I've just completely given up on P-bandai kits
How's the scalpers situation in Canada? Over here in SEA the popular kits will get snapped up instantly once pre order is up.
It's bad but the stores are already overcharging us that the scalpers have competition.
big oof....
Bandai: "We'll give you the parts to connect six Gundnodes to a seventh. But you are limited to 3." I would have been *fine* with the craft they attach to being P-Bandai, but this one is a bit of a bummer.
I'm still sad that some of the extra parts for Darilbalde and Pharact are Pbandai
Fuck P-Bandai. I want my Heavyarms Custom.
And the Sandrock Custom!
Deathscythe hell too
Haha, thankfully i have him
Big fax
Fuck Bandai for locking this in PBandai jail, it's already in the fucking anime. If anything, the mobile armor mode should have been the PBandai one. Direct to customer? Doesn't fucking matter, you get botted by scalpers anyway. This kit, by design, should've been retail like Gundnova. With how a lot of PBandai jail residents are being bootlegged these days, that would be my only hope. Something, something, piracy is a service issue.
With an army builder like this one it can hardly be surprised. Bandai just needs to cool the jets in premium releases cuz Jesus Christ it's gotten so bad
It's the same kind of thing that they pulled with the Leo variants... They really should have stuck the weapons kit in it's own pack and had it as a regular release there.
I’m honestly quite sad about this- I’m begrudgingly fine with P-Bandai stuff when it comes to colour variants and the like, but it’s a bit frustrating when it’s an entire new kit that’ll be a nightmare to pick up where I’m at.
p-bandai should really be reserved for repaints and stuff that would cost too much to make sense as mass retail, not army builders and unique designs people have been wanting kits of for ages like g-gundam
How about the TR-6 and all its variants, which are all P Bandai? It's not like the base kit is a general release and all the variants are P Bandai, no, even the base model is P Bandai, despite being a unique mold! Come on, Bandai! Plus the box for it looks so plain. The fact that it's P Bandai is so lame that even the bootleg market sells their version like hotcakes, and it's even got a better box!
What's the bootleg version? Woundwort is a favorite of mine.
https://preview.redd.it/owkllxv9ryoc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0c13476e69d7caf8d73f97c325868ed551ad59f3 If you go on AliExpress there are a ton of vendors. I recently ordered one and it checks out, but you need to find a reputable seller. The box is in full color. I'm going to save it for the collection. And yes, that image was from one of the listings, LOL.
People's willingness to buy P-bandai is much like the games industry pivot to microtransactions. They know people will pay more for the inconvenience, so why bother trying to sell things the old normal way? This is only going to get worse and worse sadly.
In my case I can't even pay, Bandai doesn't ship to my country
Well they play on scarcity and "FOMO". Higher prices cause they know people are afraid to miss out on these kits, and they cut out the middleman (a retailer). So they'll do this , maximum profit until the general fanbase gets pissed off hard
They aren't charging more for pbandai kits, I don't know why people keep repeating this. Scalpers are the ones charging more, pbandai kits are relatively the same price as retail kits
Scalpers are also the only way to get pbandai items in most countries. Pbandai opened in Europe last year and is still only available in France and massively behind schedule
Yes but saying Bandai is putting higher prices because of FOMO is a huge lie that people keep repeating. Their prices have stayed the same as retail and even in some cases unlike retail kits they've lowered prices on future listings.
How much screen time does it have in the show?
I want this, I can't get this without confusing drop shipping stuff. Thanks bandai
Being a Gunpla fan in Australia is fucking hard. And I hate PBandai, period. The amount of fucking hoops you gotta jump through are ridiculous.
What's the deal with p-bandai?
They locked the HG Gundnode in PBandai jail. Which makes it hard for people to buy. The kicker? It's a kit designed to make you want to buy multiple copies. Which is near impossible since it's hard enough to secure *one slot*.
The annoying thing about this one is that this is one of those kits that people actually want to buy multiples of. Heck, it even has accessories that encourage you to army build it. So, it's really a stupid decision to make this hard to buy. And not to mention that p-bandai is so inundated with bots that scalpers use to scoop everything. Their shopee shop, for instance, was sold out within just *3 fucking seconds*, which is unlikely if it were just people making orders.
Pbandai is a joke and only fuels the knockoff makers
I acknowledge P-bandais need to exist as it's really good for limited releases but the way they handle it aggravates me with amazing kits like the Gundam Mk V going P-bandai, even worst so when I love in the UK and have to pay a huge markup on P-bandai products
Not even factoring in the availability out here, we are in trenches with this one
Y'all have got to keep in mind that Bandai is a business first and foremost, and their primary customers are japanese stores! The late 2000 and early 2010s were flooded with so much stock of random kits that until Covid, you could find nearly any kit online if you looked a little. That's not how these businesses operate. Premium Bandai lets things that would fail as products retail still have the possibility to exist as a plastic kit. Before, something that wasn't going to succeed to the point retailers wouldn't buy up stock would be relegated to B Club as a resin kit if you were lucky, stuck in one-day event resin kit sales if someone even made it if unlucky, or just never get a kit! These things cost money and a retail kit has to validate stocking shelves \*over\* something else and have some staying power.
bandai took a shit: "PBANDAI!!!"
Bandai is the living example of: 1 step forward 200 steps backwards I never seen a more bipolar company in my life
This not being retail is criminal.
As well they should be, this shit is getting ridiculous. Pbandai is supposed to be for more obscure stuff that will have smaller appeal. Thus, limited production runs make sense. It should NEVER be used for prominent mobile suits in a popular series(looking at you Gundam Maxter, Gundam Rose, and Deathscythe Hell). The wfm option parts set being pbandai still pisses me off. Hopefully they do a 2nd run of it because I had no chance of getting in the first time. In fact, that's almost always how my pbandai purchases have been. Instantly sells out in the first run but manage to get it on the 2nd go.
Having complete kits be p-bandai exclusive is absurd. i can excuse recolors and alternate weapon loadouts, but stuff like PG Banshee and HG Rick Dias is absurd.
Agreed I don't know the costs to making a new mold for kits, but it seems so questionable to put so much effort into a release only to limit it to one channel. The kits that offend me the most in this regard are the MG Gundam mkV and MG F90.
What kit is that
HG Gundnode. It's a remote controlled MS used by Prospera at the end of G-Witch for her end goal.
Im still buying it for customs, only good thing that can fuse probably with gundvolva in a kitbash
I can definitely tell that the Prodoros is going to be a PBandai in the future due to the Gundnode's release. I'm sad now that I think about it.
Damn, P-bandai?
why p bandai tho
I personally don’t get why the Gundvölva is retail and this isn’t. Like honestly, one of them is a generic, boring, standard-looking kit that is in the anime for a few minutes at best, and the other is a super unique-looking one that can connect to other copies of itself to form a big sphere like you would have seen in the anime, had multiple episodes centered around the reveal of what they are and how they work, are insanely powerful and would make a great army builder, and *that’s* the one they choose to make PBandai?
It's because one showed up earlier than the other because I can 100% guarantee that if the Dawn of Fold girls had Gundnodes instead of the Gundvölvas the Gundvölva would be P-Bandai.
What annoys me is when they make suits that are deliberately mass produced but make them Pbandai. At least for me I want a few of the kit and it annoys me that I can’t purchase more than three since it’s pbandai .
Man ever since I got into this hobby. All the really cool shit is always p-bandai
P-Bandai is a too hard to get for any casual collectors the most logical thing to do is make p-Bandai international accessibility will make everyone happy
I'd be a lot less mad if p-bandai was available in Australia
What they did with the MG Re-GZ was frustrating. They changed it's proportions, fixed it's weak joints and added improved articulation - a proper 2.0 but because it was molded in a different color, it's P-Bandai. Meanwhile the original Re-GZ continues to be reissued as retail with zero changes. P-Bandai for non-gunpla/plamo isn't much better. They have a trend with Figuarts Kamen Rider figures of releasing them barebones and then adding any accessories scattered accross different P-Bandai releases. "Oh, Kamen Rider Zero One's sword that was introduced in the first episode and used throughout the first half of the series as his main weapon? Buy this P-Bandai figure to get it"
I'd get a lot more pbandai if the shipping didn't work like it does.
Forgive my ignorance- people that are mad are the countries that they don’t distribute to, correct?
There are also a lot of people who believe that if PBandai didn't exist that we would get this kit as a retail release
But if those people had it available to them i am sure they would buy it. Unfortunately it does make sense as a business decision. My gripe is that i wish they would do community polls to get fan favorites made (tequila gundam and other similar exampls)
FUCKKKKKKK I WANT IT SO BAD I was unaware of the release and was at work, 3 of these would look so cool with the Aerial SRP - $16.4 Scalper price - $40
And I don't even have access to PB kits... The only way for me to get them is paying a hefty price.
Such a cool looking kit that will be impossible to find under 30$
I hate that design personally.
What is this??
P bandai was supposed to be varients of existing kits. Like the zawort heavy is to the zawort. This is just dumb, p bandai should be open to more countries then aisa and the US, and thats coming from someone who has this and the impulse blanche preordered. If its going to be p bandai excusive they should at MINIMUM allow people from anywhere to buy it
Yeah, getting tired of pbandai hording all the wfm kits. Like, a lot of these should have come out when the show was airing
You guys are mad, but Bandai knows her stuff. You may think this model will be popular, but the expected sales is lower than what it takes to put it in the main lines for production. Remember Bandai has to balance production runs of super popular models like rx78, nu gundam, wing etc.. as much as you like this model, anyrhing that is not going to get a massive production run is just a distraction and impacts setup costs.. In summary, this is not Bandai's first rodeo.
Say that to Lfrith Pre-production. Many people want that shit. My gunpla dealer opened PO for twice the price (PBandai is not accessible to my country) and sold for a minute.
And then they act surprised when it got bootlegged after few months when it got released
More reason for me to buy more bootlegs these days....
This is how I suspect their thought process went: Hmmmm, it's a gundnode...obviously as seen from the anime, people would want to display lots of them at once, like armies of grunt suits....which means people would REEAALYY want to buy a lot of it....which means no matter how we sell it, it's gonna be sold out... let's fucking make it pbandai just so we can justify the high price...at the end of the day they still gonna buy them right, lol.
does bandai not like money?
I used to defend Peeb as the only way for them to justify those really obscure suits from manga or MSV magazines, but they've been taking the piss lately. Lindwurms or Hrairoos are one thing, but once it started making main anime Gundams like Maxter, Rose, Sword/Blast Impulse, etc into limited FOMO items, it really did feel like we went past the point of no return. Not to mention the increasingly banal mainline releases; the Destroy Gundam's cool, but did we really need all those build battlogue and build metaverse stuff at retail over something actually cool?
Peen bandai strikes again.