Collectible Toy: The Perfect Grade Unicorn Gundam unit 2 Banshee Norn

When I was a kid, I have so much fascination about robots. This might be due to the Japanese cartoons I have been watching on a daily basis during those times. Voltes V, Mazinger Z, Daimos just to name a few.

When I get older, I came across with Gundam, and it was amazing!

According to Wiki, Gundam is a Japanese military fiction media franchise/media mix. Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Sunrise (now Bandai Namco Filmworks), the franchise features giant robots, or mecha, with the name "Gundam". The franchise began on April 7, 1979, with Mobile Suit Gundam, a TV series that defined the "real robot" mecha anime genre by featuring giant robots called mobile suits (including the original titular mecha) in a militaristic setting. The popularity of the series and its merchandise spawned a franchise that includes 50 TV series, films and OVAs as well as manga, novels and video games, along with a whole industry of plastic model kits known as Gunpla which makes up 90 percent of the Japanese character plastic-model market.

Academics in Japan have viewed the series as inspiration; in 2008, the virtual Gundam Academy was planned as the first academic institution based on an animated TV series.

As of March 2020, the franchise is fully owned by Bandai Namco Holdings through subsidiaries Sotsu and Sunrise. The Gundam franchise had grossed over $5 billion in retail sales by 2000. By 2014, annual revenue of the Gundam franchise reached ¥80 billion (580 Million USD) per year, ¥18.4 billion (133 Million USD) of which was retail sales of toys and hobby items.

Gundam is so addictive because, as soon as you finish building your Gundam, you can display it in your home. Gundams come with a small stand that's perfect for showing your model off. That's what makes Gunpla so addicting. You start with one completed model on your shelf, and soon you'll have twenty more.

One of the most expensive Gundam ever sold is the Perfect Grade Unicorn Gundam unit 2 Banshee Norn.

The Banshee Norn is an upgraded version of the Banshee with improved performance, assigned to Londo Bell pilot Riddhe Marcenas. The unit itself remains unchanged from the upgrades, with only the Armed Armors BS and VN replaced by two new equipment, the Armed Armor DE and Armed Armor XC.

The word “Gunpla” is a combination of the phrase: Gundam plastic model. In other words, Gunpla kits are buildable and moveable plastic models inspired by the animated series, Gundam, that debuted in Japan in 1979.

The Gundam series is pretty much the original Pacific Rim, featuring humans who pilot extremely large weaponized robots called Gundams (not Jaegers).

So how many Perfect Grade Gundams are there? Only 30 units were made available worldwide. Most expensive Gunpla ever produced. Bandai Museum exclusive color variant of PG-01.

Why is Gunpla so expensive? The key here is mass production. Injection kits will far more limited runs (think Industria Mechanika) are much more expensive because they cannot afford to pump out hundreds of thousands of them. This is what I mean when the gundam kits are cheap: you can get many kits for under 30 bucks.

The final configuration of the Banshee from 7 episode OVA “Gundam UC,” receives the Perfect Grade treatment! A massive 15” tall, it is capable of transformation from Unicorn Mode to Destroy Mode. It has been engineered to also replicate its massive range of movement while still maintaining its iconic proportion and look. Other features include the use of magnets for its transforming horn, a full armament of weapons including beam magnum with revolving launcher, Armed Armor DE shield system that can also be mounted on backpack, beam sabers, Display stand included.

Perfect Grade Unicorn Gundam unit 2 Banshee Norn costs around 700 Dollars on Amazon.

Cheerio!