Another new line from Bandai - MGEX
There’s been a lot of talk across the community of course over the new line kits from Bandai, the MGEX (Master Grade Extreme Expression) , with its scheduled first release around September time in the form of unsurprisingly yet another Unicorn, this time with sparkly LEDs.
Gunpla fans, collectors and modellers alike all have tastes and preferences on what they would have liked of course, but it is important to remember that Bandai is a multinational company with an extensive and likely more market-aware than fans, marketing team who are responsible for boosting sales of their product, just like any other company. For people to hate on, eyeball roll and to speculate on the marketing and product strategy is pretty much a waste of time.
If you look into the history of Bandai with regards to gunpla through the years, you’ll notice there are pretty much new ‘lines’ of kits being released with every new anime - like the 1/100 range and super basic starter grade style kits from Gundam 00, the various ranges of SD kit I pay no attention to, and so on. All of these are market tests, just like the MGEX, which, by the looks of, going it at a high price point, is having a lot of money spent on marketing - especially directly to Gunpla fans as it’s a guaranteed ROI at least.
I may very well be yet another Gundam franchisee fan speculating on the marketing strategy of Bandai, but I do make claims to the fact I do work in marketing, and know enough about large, multinational companies to know how it all works right up the ziggurat. The fact that fans (and me..) wanted to see an MG G-Self is completely irrelevant. The projections, filtered from no doubt an extensive amount of sales and marketing data, Unicorn sells. The same decision was likely made too, for the new Wing Ver.ka MG.
What I hope for, entirely subjectively here, is that the MGEX line expands out to new kits, and I also hope that Bandai reissues and makes more of their older MG and HG kits available. Availability for me here in the UK is ridiculous, and new kit prices locally are prohibitively expensive so I have taught myself not to impulse purchase unless I really like the design of the kit I’m buying - thats not to say I don’t ever get caught up in the preorder FOMO, but it’s that hype that destroys availability, especially for modellers who want to do something more than let the kit gather dust, in it’s box on a shelf and never see a pair of nippers in years.