SCM Again
Just what the world needs! MORE GUNDAM TOYS! That’s right! They aren’t all that special or creative, and being fully assembled they aren’t really models, but no fear: Bandai’s SCM (“Special Creative Model”) series is back!
Now, in addition to the mobile suit designs already released (for the scoop on the first three, check out the Rumble on the topic from late late last year), Bandai’s releasing the inevitable third color variation of the RX-78 (“Char’s Gundam”), a Mk. II Gundam in normal and “Titans” colors, and a non-transforming Zeta Gundam. They’re being sold through crane-game machines as prizes or (for those of us with slothful, alcohol-dulled reflexes) in sets of two for 3,000 yen a pop. Release date is slated for March 2005, all the better to serve as merch for the upcoming Zeta Gundam movie.
Given the existence of the HCM-Pro toys, G.F.F. “FIX” figures, and innumerable PVC renditions of the exact same damn Gundam characters, it’s a bit of a mystery as to why I feel even the remotest sense of interest here. Maybe it’s because the previous SCMs were great cheap ‘n sleazy fun?
At any rate, here’s to hoping big B fixed the biggest problem with the first run: the incredible stench of the low-grade plastic they used to make them. No joke; even now, close to a year later, the handful of SCM on my shelf still smell like minature chemical factories. (Waitasec. Could that strangely alluring aroma promote a dangerously pathetic addiction to Gundam merchandise? DAMN YOU, BANDAI! Too… late… to… resist…)
