About Bandai's new upcoming Star Wars kits

For some reason, I found out that not many scale modelers out there are enthusiastic about the new Bandai Star Wars kits as I am. For one thing, it has been argued that Bandai's kits are engineered in such a way that convenience take precedence over accuracy as they want to give everyone an easier experience to encourage more people to go into the scale modeling hobby. This could probably explain why all their products literally comes with molded colour parts and stickers for decals.

Be it as it may, I have found that Bandai has indeed come a long way with their recent releases. Their kits are actually quite well engineered and some may even argue that the details on them are more accurate than Fine Mold's (gasp).

For their Star Wars range, they had already released the 1/72 X-Wing fighter and TIE Advance (Darth Vader's ship) as well as the 1/12 Darth Vader and Storm Trooper figures. And all of these were quickly swooped away from shops the moment they were placed on the display shelves. As for me, I was glad they gave both decals and sticker option. Stickers would make the kit look ... toyish. Sorry if that sounded insulting but it does look toyish with stickers on.

Whatever the case may be, I have always maintained that the primary goal for this hobby is that you enjoy building your kits and be happy with the outcome. For the more serious modeler, here is your chance to stand out. Bandai has arranged for quite a few new releases scheduled for 2015. Keep a lookout for these if you are a Star Wars fan like me.

February - 1/72 TIE Fighter, AT ST Walker
March - 1/12 R2D2 & R5D4
Slated for 2015 but with no release dates yet - 1/12 C-3PO, Sand Trooper, Scout Trooper with Speeder Bike, 1/48 X-Wing, Snow Speeder and perhaps a Death Star base accessory for your 1/72 Star fighters.