rico soul: In ERA+ just dropped a crap ton of photos, hopefully gundamit updates it here soon since I can only post 3x images in the comments.

Release date slated for Late March 2023 so this is coming out pretty soon.

Comes with waterslides and foil stickers.
MSRP of 388 RMB which like I mentioned previously should be similar to the Zero_G Judge.

Hope we get a price here soon.

rico soul: Holy crap, Cangdao just announced that this is only priced at 2xx RMB. That's cheaper than model kits for a metal build figure.

Not much else was really said about this figure, just that it's a 1/100 scale metal build figure, and that the retail price is estimated to be 2XX. That means it's cheaper than the Zero_G Judge or the IN ERA+ Ruling. That's kind of crazy for a metal build figure, especially if it lives up to the usual quality standards that Cangdao is capable of.

I was already fairly excited to see a more Gundam like figure from Cangdao but now I'm really interested to see if the price translates well here.

rico soul: Man this mecha girl really has everyone super interested. The long leg proportions along with the centaur mode and the cyber bike makes this Yefuna Malkina really quite an attractive character without resorting to any lewdness. Quite a classy figure.

Now something else that was mentioned by Nuke Matrix was that she'll also be packaged with her twin sister. I don't see the pictures here on Gundamit yet so not sure if she'll end up being sold separately but I'll attach the released pictures here.

rico soul: Now we've finally gotten a proper render that's not darkened. Just this one image so far though. These guys are really trickle feeding us content and it's kind of annoying haha.

As we've already seen, the backpack will feature 8 of these funnel wings and it seems like these are going to be the main weapons. The wings can be held in the hand to serve as melee weapons at close range.

The initial run bonus will be the inclusion of two additional wing funnels, for a total of 10.

Also we've finally gotten an english name for the company. Vientiane Fusion is certainly less of a mouthful than Wanxiangjubian lol

rico soul: We have the final photo dump from IN ERA+ along with the product details. I'm not completely sold on the color but I planned on repainting mine anyways. Kind of looks like a cross between an Eclipse Gundam, a Gundam Aesculapius, and of course still with the Strike Freedom dragoons.

- Release Date in China: End of April 2023
- Price: 159RMB for original blind preorders, 174RMB for preorders,189RMB retail (For comparison Ruling was 389RMB)
- Height 19cm
- Preorder bonus: Trailblazer Poster

Like previous products, it will come with waterslides and a display base.

It also has some typical Supernova bonuses like providing runners in multiple colors to allow you to swap parts like the antenna. There is an alternate face mask to help customize the face. The four wings on the backpack server as both thrusters, cannons, dragoons, and melee daggers are slotted inside them.

As mentioned previously, the UMD product line aims to reduce the inner frame in favor of surface details. We can see that there is still a fair amount of surface articulation on the Trailblazer and a ton of molded details. However, with something like the legs, we do see that the lack of an inner frame means we're likely not going to get more connected movement like the thigh armor splitting from the Ruling

There was also a letter of appreciation from IN ERA+ to the customers along with this release that talked about the behind the scenes activities. They have been working on these designs for past three years which is why they were able to release the Genesis, Ruling, and now Trailblazer one right after the other. Future products will be announced once they are about 80% complete

rico soul: Looks like gundamit posted all of the photos except the Chinese price and release date one lol.
This is probably this models biggest selling point right now is the $159RMB price tag, Q2 2023 release.
It's a pretty crazy low price. Looks like the competition is really heating up for these I-can't-believe-it's-not-gundam model kits.

This one was just announced and these photos are still just renders so we will need to wait a bit to see more.

- It is a full plastic inner frame.
- the flame effect parts are included
- includes waterslide decals and a display base
- Nothing was said about whether there will be an premium version with a metal frame but it's probably unlikely.

I'm not a fan of the the flame effect parts on the backpack but I do really like the Titans colors. Overall, while the head is certainly Destiny Gundam, the mechanical design of this seems a bit less inspired by Gundam SEED.

While it's a different manufacturer, I do think the color and stylings makes for a nice contrast to pair up with the other recently revealed vientiane Apocalypse. I'm also going to call this Redemption since that should be what they meant to translate the name as lol

rico soul: Some more renders and a minor update from Vientiane

We can see from the previous backpack overview that it can equip up to 16x funnels total and even with the 2x extra from the preorder bonus, we'd only get 10x total. So there were some questions whether additional funnels were going to be sold separately as an expansion pack.

The manufacturer has confirmed that is  what they will plan on doing and after this model kit launches, they will offer additional expansion kits with more funnels. Personally I don't really care about the full 16x halo look but some people probably like it.

The new renders really clearly shows some more 00 influences in addition to the seed designs. It even has the classic Qan[T] floating swords pose.

rico soul: So review copies of this have already hit all the big Chinese reviewers and I have to say this is to me probably the most impressive IN ERA+ model kit so far. Really shows what they've learned from the previous products and customer feedback.

Aesthetically, the model is more cohesive although people are still divided on the color scheme and the sort of bird beak on the head. There's already third party conversion accessories and v-fins being announced for it if you don't like the design.

A few things to note:
- Not everything is undergated but this is intentional and a good thing. The prepainted silver pieces are mostly undergated where they need to be and not undergated where the nubs are hidden anyways. Some pieces do still have exposed nubs but they are facing inside so they are generally less visible. The inner frame is almost all not undergated to make the cutting and building process much faster and less tedious. The outer armor is almost all undergated. What this all means is that you can still easily paint the kit on the runner and the nubs are going to be hidden without the tedious nub cleanup from excessive undergating that most Chinese kits tend to do.
- The inner frame joints are EXTREMELY tight. This is mostly a good thing and it is intended for stability of the model and tightness of the joints, but for those with more delicate fingers, this can be a bit painful to build.
- The frame is a truly complete inner frame and extremely detailed, with pistons and linkages designed into the joints intelligently.
- Articulation on the model is mostly good, but the arms are a bit limited by the shoulder armor.
- The hands are articulated thumb with swappable fixed pose fingers, which is generally considered the best kind of hands for posability and reliability. One interesting note is that a Bandai style gun holding fingers with a tab is included, but the Thunderbolt guns don't use it. This is likely to allow the model to also be able to hold weapons from Bandai kits, which is a neat bonus.

Overall, it is clear that A LOT of thought went into the design of this kit and while it's not perfect, there is definitely design improvements over the previous models. Rumor has it that this RMD line will likely be the main product line for IN ERA+ going forward. These guys have been continuously at the top of the Chinese model kit scene this year and I can't wait to see what they pull out next.

rico soul: Well, we have some colored photos now. Not really much more details released. Just confirming again the release is Q4 this year.

They really went with a full Freedom Gundam color scheme on this one, which I guess makes sense.
The previous ZA Berserk Fury kits have both been good with a nice and solid frame so we can atleast expect the quality of the kit to be consistent.

Now whether the aesthetics are to your liking would be another question lol. Personally I find the head a bit too spiky but a Zoids Gundam crossover just ticks the right boxes for me.

rico soul: Lol so GaoGao is generally considered one of the lowest quality bootlegs, even worse than daban. It's funny how in China, this is affectionately nicknamed crap plastic. If you live somewhere where the MGSD strike freedom isn't available from retail, I guess this is still a option but really, the poor quality isn't worth the price when you can get the Bandai original for $50 before discounts