Unboxing [UK]: Mobile Suit Gundam - Part 1: First Print Edition (Blu-ray)

First of, happy holidays everyone. I know I haven't gotten much out for the past few weeks but due to shipping delays I couldn't do anything so I had to wait. Nevertheless I received new items today and I'll be unboxing some of them.

The first title is from Anime Limited and is the first Mobile Suit Gundam series! This edition is special, so let's check it out.

Mobile Suit Gundam is a very popular franchise in Japan, the series has been around for over 35 years since 1979 and many sequels/spin-offs/continuations have been made throughout the decades. Originally Bandai and Beez Entertainment had the rights to distribute the series but both companies closed offices and as such the Gundam franchise went into limbo for a while, this also kept the new Gundam games (Extreme Vs, Breaker, UC etc.) Japan only.

That is until 2015 when Rightstuf have announced they will be handling the rights to the Gundam franchise on behalf of Sunrise for North America, starting with Turn A Gundam which Bandai was going to put out before they closed. This soon followed with their very first Blu-ray title - Mobile Suit Gundam. Meanwhile in the UK, Anime Limited announced they'll be doing the very same for the UK & Ireland, but instead of starting with Turn A we get the original Mobile Suit Gundam instead. Both releases have minor differences - the discs are exactly the same with just the packaging being the major difference.

What's special about the UK is that Anime Limited were allowed to release Part 1 of Mobile Suit Gundam with a Chipboard artbox to hold both parts, however this is strictly available for the first 1000 copies of the set and the distributor has already announced that they have no more stock left in the warehouse, effectively meaning the sales are pretty much a success at this point.

Part 1 of the set contains 21 episodes; Episodes 1 to 14 and 16 to 22 of the original series. You may be wondering why Episode 15 (Kukurus Doan's Island) is not included, well that's because the creator Yoshiyuki Tomino didn't like the quality of the episode and decided it should not be shown in North America (and any English release) whatsoever, whether it's for broadcast or even for the home release. It's technically a filler episode so it should not affect the progression of the story otherwise.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages: Japanese, English

Audio: Linear PCM 2.0 [Japanese], Linear PCM 2.0 [English]

Video: 1080p HD Native 16:9

Region: B

Subtitles: English [Japanese language & On-screen]

Subtitles Locked: No

Discs: 2

Plot Synopsis (via Anime Limited):

It is the year Universal Century 0079 and the space colonies have declared war on from the Earth Federation under the guidance of the Principality of Zeon. In one of these colonies, the Earth Federation is storing and testing a new piloted robot for use in the battle against the Principality of Zeon.

The experimental RX-78 Gundam mobile suit is forced into combat with a civilian pilot and an untested crew before it can be transported to the Federation's HQ on Earth. With few resources available against the Zeon's brightest and best, will they be able to escape, let alone deliver the RX-78 to Earth?

Extra Content:

Chipboard artbox (first 1000 copies only)

Clean Opening and Closing

Blu-ray and DVD Commercials.

Mobile Suit Gundam is available on Blu-ray from Anime Limited for United Kingdom as well as on Blu-ray and DVD from Rightstuf for North America.