Hey, remember when I said I only had two more Planet Armors to collect? Yeah, that was a mistake.
Remember Gundam Build Metaverse? That short, useless waste of time from last year? It featured cameos from all the protagonists of all the old Gundam Build shows, which of course includes Hiroto.
And since everyone in the show got a new mobile suit, that meant they had to come up with a new Planet Armor. Thus Bandai had no choice but to temporarily reinstate Pluto as a planet so that they could create the Plutine Gundam:
Somehow I completely, utterly forgot that this thing existed until I saw it in the store one day. I don’t really have a good excuse either - I even wrote about the thing earlier this year. I offer my most humble apologies.
About the Plutine Gundam
Most of the new mobile suits in Metaverse each exist to promote a specific product line. So for example, the Exceed Galaxy is meant to promote how awesome Entry Grade kits can be. The F-Kunoichi Kai promotes SD Cross Silhouette kits (and more specifically the potential of the Cross Silhouette inner frame).
And then we get to the Plutine, which promotes Ecopla.
Of course, this is purely a marketing thing, but the folks at Bandai did come up with an in-universe explanation, which you can find in the instruction manual:
When he learned about Ecopla, a project which utilizes recycled materials, Hiroto saw a connection between it and Pluto, the planet of destruction and regeneration. This inspired him to begin work on a ninth armor part. The exterior of the unit utilized the specially coated EP Armor. It can reconvert surplus kinectic energy released by the unit into supplementary energy, allowing for significant improvement in combat sustainability.EP Armor can also acquire kinetic energy from nearby opponents, which, along with the equipment specialized for hand-to-hand-combat, makes the unit suited to repeating destruction and regeneration at a close-range throughput battle.
That’s quite a lot to say about a mobile suit that doesn’t show up for more than a few minutes, but there you have it.
Weapons and Stuff
Plutine is loaded up with only melee weapons. This includes the “Infortune Scythe”, which can also fold in to become a spear:
As well as two “Breakflow Feathers”. These are basically giant claws that attach to the shoulders, but can also be deployed as remote controlled spinning blades.
Appearance in the Show
Plutine shows up in Episode 2 of Metaverse, when the protagonist engages in a VR battle themed on enemies from Build Divers Re:Rise. Naturally Hiroto shows up to help, and it kicks so much ass that I’m confident it could have one-shotted the entire mission if it needed to.
It then shows up briefly in the final battle of Episode 3, but gets distracted and leaves after being challenged to a fight by Sekai in his Shin Burning Gundam.
About the Model Kit
One of the defining traits of Ecopla kits are their color schemes. They’re almost ways made out of dark black plastic, coupled with at least one bright, usually neon color (including, blue, pink, and green). I’m not sure if this is some side effect of the recycling process, or if it’s a deliberate way to clearly identify them as Ecopla.
Regardless, Plutine doesn’t quite follow this coloring scheme. It’s got plenty of black parts, but it’s also got lots of white, green, purple, and blue too. That’s quite a bit more colorful than other Ecopla, though to be fair, according to my research, only the black sections of the Pluto armor are made out of recycled plastic. Everything else is “normal” parts, which probably explains why there are so many colors.
About the Build
At this point I’ve built so many Core Gundams and Planet Armors that I expect this to be a quick one.
Other Thoughts
Back when I built the F-Kunoichi Kai, I said it was the only interesting Gunpla to come out of Build Metaverse. That’s because, once again, I completely forgot about Plutine when I wrote that. You’d think I hate this thing based on how often I forget about it, but I like it, I swear!