2020 Marks The 40th Anniversary of Gundam Gunplas

Last year saw the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Mobile Suit: Gundam series take place [...]

By Evan Valentine

Last year saw the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Mobile Suit: Gundam series take place as the initial anime made its debut decades prior. This year however isn't just seeing some amazing Gundam related events take place, such as the launch of the Gundam Satellite as part of this year's Summer Olympics, as the 2020 marks the anniversary of the first release of one of the plastic models for the Gundam series dubbed "Gunpla". To celebrate this monumentous occasion, Bandai is going back to the well and planning to re-issue several of their biggest models from years past.

Twitter User GKC005 shared the news that Bandai was expected to re-release several of the famed Gunpla specifically from the recently created Iron Blooded Orphans series which has recently sustained some notoriety thanks to its arrival on the streaming service that is Netflix:

The very first Gunpla was released in 1980, being modeled after the first mech suit to appear in the debut of the anime series, Mobile Suit: Gundam in 1979. Priced for an unbelievable $3 at the time, one has to wonder if the creators of this first model knew just how popular not only the series would become, but how many of these figures would be sold following this release. As the current count of Gunplas sold is well over 500 million at this point, and Gundam showing no signs of stopping at this point, it's clear that the Mobile Suit: Gundam franchise will continue finding new ways into onto the book shelves of fans across the world.

One of the main selling points of the Gundam series, and the models created from it, is the fact that it has been able to create a number of different series such as Gundam Wing, G Gundam, and the aforementioned Iron Blooded Orphans, giving fans any number of universes and character to care about, as well as models to collect.

What is your favorite Gunpla to date? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and Gunplas!

Mobile Suit Gundam is one of the most popular franchises in the world, and that popularity is only expected to grow as Sunrise continues to release new projects for the franchise. This includes new anime based in the original Universal Century storyline, which will next see a film trilogy based on the Hathaway's Flash novels, a returning anime for its SD Gundam spin-offs, and even a live-action movie coming to the West co-produced by Legendary.

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