Chinese Authorities Go Viral After Busting Illegal Gundam Ring

Gundam models have become an extremely hot ticket item. With the figurines selling hundreds of millions of copies during the forty year history of the franchise, it seems like fans old and new are looking to get their hands on replicas of some of their favorite mech suits. Unfortunately, a band of fraudulent creators were selling black market Gundam models on the streets, gaining the ire of the Shanghai Police, which when captured, propelled the Chinese authorities into the limelight.

Twitter User ZhugeEX shared the details of the recent busts which caused the police officers to go viral after capturing the fraudulent Gundam creators, which netted them their very own gold version of Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn in the process:

Shanghai Police uncovered a group illegally selling fake gundam figures.

More than 1m items were seized with a value of RMB 300 million.

Bandai Namco presented the police with a unicorn gundam figure to thank them, which they presented during a news segment today. lol pic.twitter.com/tnzv7gG3mB

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) October 30, 2019

Golden Gundams aren't necessarily a new item in the world of these plastic mech suit models, but they are still quite difficult to get your hands on!

What do you think of this story that brings Mobile Suit: Gundam into the spotlight once again? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and Gundam!

The Official Description for Mobile Suit Gundam UC, which features the Unicorn Gundam, reads as such:

"In the year Universal Century 0096, three years after Char Aznable's failed attempt to force human migration into space, life continues in the colonies orbiting Earth. One such colony, at Side 4, is home to Banagher Links, a 16-year-old who lives a quiet life among his classmates. Audrey Burne, the last descendant of a great tyrannical family, takes it upon herself to steal the key to a mysterious device known as "Laplace's Box." It is said that the Box has the power to shape the course of the universe, and Audrey travels to Side 4 in an attempt to take it from its current holder and keep it from the Sleeves, the surviving remnant of Char Aznable's Neo-Zeon. In her search, she stumbles across Banagher and changes his life forever. When Side 4 comes under the attack of the Sleeves and its prolific fighters Marida Cruz and Full Frontal, Banagher takes control of the newly built Gundam Unicorn to defend his friends and protect the fate of humankind."

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 brand new live-action movie coming to the West co-produced by Legendary, a studio who is currently in the midst of bringing a new take on Toho's Godzilla franchise to the screen.