Front Mission Kotobukiya Zenith Girl Gray ver

Kotobukiya continues to leverage its expertise in the mecha musume genre through its collaboration with Front Mission. This time, the company has announced a new Gray Version of the Zenith Girl, featuring a color scheme that more closely resembles the original Zenith Wanzer. Scheduled for release in November 2026, the kit will be sold for 10,000 yen.

Although this release is essentially a repaint of the previously released Zenith Girl, I find the new gray color scheme noticeably more appealing. The urban camouflage-inspired palette gives the model a more grounded military aesthetic, making it feel closer to the look and atmosphere of the Front Mission series.

In terms of equipment, the loadout remains largely identical to the original release, although this version appears to include an additional melee weapon option. While there are no major changes mechanically, the revised color scheme alone may be enough to convince collectors who skipped the first version.

Given the positive reception to Kotobukiya's Front Mission collaboration so far, I wouldn't be surprised if we see more iconic Wanzers receive the mecha musume treatment in the future. The series still has available memorable designs to choose from such as Frost, USN counterpart of Zenith..

 

End Year 2025 Loot

Wrapping up the end of 2025 with a bang! there’s really no better way to close out this year's rollercoaster ride with a proper loot post! This entry is a particularly big one, as it represents the accumulated hauls from the past three months, with equally solid from both Chinese and Japanese hobby products.

As you may have noticed, this loot photo was taken at new place, making it the first haul post after completing the move into my new apartment, an exciting milestone in its own right. It feels especially satisfying to unpack and photograph everything in a new space.

Overall, this is a very solid haul. While the May loot still  the most wallet-breaking one, this one is no less impressive in terms of both quantity and quality. The undisputed stars of the haul are the 1/7 Aniplex Arcueid and CCS Studio Alteisen. Close behind are the Apex Studio 1/7 Chen Alter, Gattai Granbird, and Yolopark Shurato Ryoma, all of which make a strong showing. On the Chinese hobby side, Soskill B-Duck is every bit as massive as expected, and JoyToy’s 1/24 Mecha stands out with particularly unusual packaging this time around. I’m curious to see whether future releases will follow this same design direction.

Lastly, I’m very glad I managed to secure the 30 Minutes Fantasy Liber Lancer and Wizard kits at a relatively affordable price, especially since preorders were unavailable for reasons still unclear. With the move now complete, I’m hoping this new transition will free up a bit more personal time—though, as usual, my work life remains as hectic as ever.

Front Mission Structure Arts Plus 1/48 Zenith 30th Anniv Edition

 
 Time goes really fast and never expected Front Mission series has reached its 30th Anniversary! While Square enix no longer make any game for this renowned Mecha Strategy RPG series apart from remaster,  they are releasing Front Mission Model Kits with the help of Kotobukiya! Released as 1/48 Scale under Structure Plus lineup, the Front Mission will start with the Posterboy of FM series, Zenith and this one will come with tons of weapons. Scheduled for July 2025 release, Structure Art Plus Zenith will be sold for 12800 Yen.

Front Mission Wander Arts Kyojun Glen Duval ver

 After more than 6 months of inactivity, i thought Square Enix had given up continuing their Front Mission Action Figure line up probably due to lack of demand. Turns out that Square Enix has not finished with this franchise yet and put up another attempt. The timing maybe unfortunate with the COVID plague still ongoing but Square Enix has announced the second wave of Front Mission Wander Arts which features 3 Wanzers which are Frost, Grille Sechs and Kyojun. All these 3 Wanzers appeared in Front Mission 3 but probably appear at the latter game as well

 Each Wanzers come with 2 different color variant and cost 8800 Yen with August 2020 release. Out of these three Wanzers, Glen Duval's Kyojun look the most appealing to me. I haven't played FM5 but from what i know, Glen Duval is one of the main character in FM5 who was the close friend of the game's main character, Walter Feng. Kyojun itself in FM3 is a Wanzer specialised in ranged combat with skills geared for Rapid Firing guns and i recall used by Ryogo, Kazuki's wingman. I think if Square Enix want to revive Front Mission Franchise, i think the rebooting the original trilogy would be a decent starter as the plots for the original Strategy Game is good enough filled with intense Geopolitics and heavy dose of Gray Morality.

Front Mission Wander Arts Zenith

  Front Mission is one of those series that seriously lacks merchandise like some other Gritty Real Robot Series. Square Enix did make an official release announcement for a Front Mission action figure dubbed Wander Arts lineup. The first one to make it into this lineup is no other than the workhorse Wanzer of OCU faction, Zenith. Bring Arts Zenith comes with two variants, Urban and Desert Camo and design wise it is based on the first game. Scheduled for September Release, Wander Arts Zenith comes with the price tag of 9000 Yen. This would have been still acceptable if the size is comparable with Robot Damashii or SRC but it is a 12 Cm toy for almost 100 USD price tag. The sculpt looks great but this is one of those products that the manufacturer shoot itself in the foot due to the absurd price tag. I suppose either Square Enix lack of expertise in sculpting mecha action figure or it just want to spite the original creator of Front Mission series. Almost a decade ago Square Enix did make another Front Mission toy with 15 Cm Size and it was only half of this Bring Arts Price tag. While i was eager to get a Front Mission based toy, this is a skip for me and i will just wait more reasonable version of the toy even if it is model kit.

Front Mission Evolved

 Tried this Black Sheep of Front Mission series to figure out why it is badly panned and it turns out as expected. To put it simply, Front Mission Evolved only nailed down the gameplay while leaving everything else a lot to be desired. The Original SRPG Front Mission had good gameplay, but it is most known for its Gritty Sci-Fi yet Realistic Geopolitics and Evolve is nowhere close to its Predecessor. I do like the gameplay even if it is short since it had the potential but a Front Mission action game should have more tactical element on it instead of being a run and gun Mecha Game. My main gripe with the series are the customization system and mandatory loadout levels which are easily the worst aspect of Front Mission Evolved. I dont actually mind the FPS sequence but it not anything solid either. I suppose with the departure of the original Devs, it is hard for Evolve to deserve a place among its predecessors as it lacks the Soul and Vision that the previous games had. To be honest if Square Enix put more effort to polish this game, Front Mission Evolved could have been something though i doubt this will be the end of the series. I still had 4-5 more titles to go with this series and definitely looked forward to it and I am still waiting Square Enix to release the Play Arts Kai for Front Mission which they had shown the prototype a while ago.

Front Mission - Dog Life & Dog Style

 One of the manga adaptation of Front Mission series and like the series, it has everything that makes Front Mission such a charming mecha series. Dog life & Dog style roughly covers the First Huffman war which was the first major conflict between OCU and USN in Front Mission mainly through the perspective of a freelance war journalist. In the manga you will see how people from walked from different paths of life affected by war for better or worse and the manga shows plenty of gory bits just to show how horrific war could be. My favorite chapter in the manga is Fruit of Eden which the OCU officer is just a badass guy for the feats he pulled off to survive the odds. Dog Life & Dog Style had finished its original run back in Japan but unfortunately the manga translation had been inactive for years as it stopped at the "Sheep Herder" arc which happen to be the  last arc of the series and the longest one as well. While the artstyle might put off some people, if you like gritty mecha series or Front Mission fanboy, Dog Life & Dog Style is certainly not to be missed!

Front Mission 1st

 Sometimes a great series starts with a humble beginning and Front Mission happens to be one of them. While the series is not a mainstream one and not all of the titles managed to reach the western shore, it is one of the best Original mecha game series that graced upon gaming world aside Armored Core and others. The Main Appeal of Front Mission is always about their delivery of complex storyline with the icing of solid gameplay. Years ago i used to play the first game on NDS but never actually finished the game and then recently picked up Front Mission 3 again on my vita and halfway decided might as well finish the first game.

 As expected from 16 Bit era gaming, Front Mission 1 is rather brutal as enemies easily wreck your units with one wrong move which can put off people sometimes. In this game your stats matters alot as you won't do any significant damage on opponent's wanzer if your weapon stats too low but once your stats maxed up you will start murdering things here and there. In Front Mission 1 Melee is not really viable at all as you get murdered by those missiles and guns before you are able to land a punch, on the other hand Missiles reigns supreme in this game as it is the safest and powerful method of choice of attack. In terms of mecha design, Front Mission 1 aesthetics still feels like something from generic mecha series but i guess by the time of the Front Mission 2 and 3, the Wanzers finally have their own distinct features. Surprisingly for a series that is famed for its complex stories, Front Mission 1 begins rather minimalistic and self contained but nevertheless lays the important foundation that its sequel follows. I wished i had followed the series when it was still alive but at least i still can appreciate the legacy that this great series left behind. But definitely i will see this series until its end which officially conclude by Front Mission V: Scars of Wars.

From this point on i would like to briefly discuss what sets Front Mission series apart from other mecha series in particular from the point of storytelling which will be spoilerific in nature so tread on your own risk.