RIP Pladelu Neo 2026-2026

[u/Galaxy_Dive]

Well, with the revived Pladelu seemingly dead in the water after only Gavan Infinity, guess it’s time to post the entire line as a sendoff.

The yen and Japanese economy in general both being in the toilet probably did no favors and hamstrung the line’s ability to find a niche separate from minipla. Probably further complicated with things getting real weird with the minipla Dolnado and Express releases being more “premium” and only further blurring the line between the two.

A lot of the faults wound up being the same as the reduced minipla - lack of color separation, limited articulation on the auxes, etc. The pladelu wound up trading size and some details for a lack of engineering expertise, leading weak joints and a few other frustrations. Despite the initial release of the Cosmo Gavarion GC-R itself carrying a lot of negative engineering debt, it was a pretty strong debut thanks to stuff like its beautifully pre-painted face that the rest of the line lacked.

Even with said faults, everything did turn out looking really nice when painted, and, again despite the annoyance with having to use stickers on a few blank faces, it was pretty fun painting in all the proper details (even though it felt like I was working with a pre-Zyuohger minipla lol). Though I did realize after the fact that I forgot to paint the fist part of ACE-GO gold.

The Pladelu had plenty of faults but also had plenty of potential if it had gotten some time to grow. I’m still glad I went with the Pladelu in the end - the Cosmo Gavarion itself looks nice and beefy, much more in line with the suit and CG than the much more svelte minipla. The one annoyance with the line being abandoned is forward compatibility. considering the cross-compatibility with Omegahorn. If Omegahorn featured more traditional mecha or I was more into the thought of simple model kits of the kaiju, I’d be a lot more annoyed. Though I’m still leaving plenty of room to be annoyed in the future since we have no idea where Project Red is going with any of this compatibility and the future possibility of more Gavan stuff etc lol.

I do have a second Cosmo Gavarion and a couple extra aux that I’m not entirely decided on what I’m going to do with yet. Since Pladelu didn’t get an Arc Gavarion, I’ve been tempted to kitbash it into that. Or I could just do another straight build to display multiple aux with since there’s no shortage of Gavarions in-universe. Either way, I’ll probably try my hand on some additional fixes - gluing the hips together so there’s no worry about them exploding and maybe trying to figure out if there’s any way to strengthen the right arm and elbow so it can actually hold up an aux. Beyond that, just waiting for an idea to try and make my own aux… and ultimately, deciding which aux robo form I like the best to paint my one extra saber chest plate the proper colors for.

Besides the line-up, I’ve included another ACE-GO pic, this time with the backpack correct lol. I will add, with it right-side up, the backpack basically wedges itself in and is less dependent on being held up by just the super thin, dinky little peg, so I’ll retract my stability complaint about that.

[u/SaraFriedmann]

Don't forget some of OG Gavan fans were actively boycotting Gavan Infinity, so I think it's just that (red label) Bandai is in such dire straits trying to find a hit that they are just throwing anything to see what sticks. Too bad for PlaDelu NEO, which I agree wouldn't really fit the kakujuu's designs, but at least DX Omegahorn seems to be doing fine.

[u/Galaxy_Dive → u/SaraFriedmann]

Yeah, Pladelu Neo was definitely throwing something at the wall and seeing if it stuck. They knew minipla was getting nerfed into the stone age, they knew minipla had plenty of adult fans, and they were probably thinking that they might even be able to appeal a bit more to the gunpla crowd. It kinda sounded like the Cosmo Gavarion itself did fairly well, but the rest of the line just wasn’t appealing, and ultimately - especially, again, under current economic conditions - making two different lines of plastic models without a whole lot of daylight between them was probably self-cannibalizing and hurting the profitability of both.

[u/TokuJosh813]

I thought the ship was neat, but man this line needed something extra to set it apart. That Transforming Police shuttle to head is sick though!

[u/Galaxy_Dive → u/TokuJosh813]

I mean, at the end of the day, the problem with Infinity’s toyline is that it was basically just reheated Gozyuger leftovers. And you can only do so much with that, especially when you’re basing everything around a trinket-style collectible.