Apparently, every year for the last few years, legendary mecha designer Kunio Okawara creates a new Gundam design based on the current animal of the Chinese calendar. According to my research, Okawara’s done either six or seven animal designs so far, including this year’s design for the Year of the Snake:
If you take all of those designs, and then toss in a few gold/clear/color variants for good measure, then you’d have enough to do a blind bag series of toys. And that’s exactly what Bandai’s started to do with them:
The official name of this thing is the “Gundam QMSV Chinese Zodiac 2025 mini blind box”. Let’s see what’s inside.
About QMSV
QMSV stands for “Cute (qute?) Mobile Suit Variation”. It’s basically just a blind box product where they create different series of SD Gundam-esque figurines (usually based on a theme), and then dare you to collect them all. For example, here’s a series featuring all of Char Aznable’s famous mobile suits:
And of course there is a series featuring the Grandaddy Gundam in some of his own famous color variations (including the RX78-1 colors, and the Real Type colors):
And now that there are enough Chinese Zodiac Gundams design, they can make a QMSV series for them too. As far as I can tell, the first year they did this was 2024, the Year of the Dragon, and they’ve continued it in 2025 for the Year of the Snake.
Looking at the side of the box, we can see what’s new for 2025:
We’ve got the new Snake Gundam in regular, metallic, and gold variants, as well as the older, existing designs for Dragon, Pig, Rabbit, Rat, Tiger, and Ox, albeit this time most of them are in different colors than they were last year.
That’s a good idea; if they recycled the same designs in the exact same color schemes, you’d be almost guaranteed to get duplicates if you were to keep trying to collect each new series. At least now you’re guaranteed a new paint job on your dupes.
Moving on, there are also two secret Rares. I’ve discovered that one of them is a clear variant of the Snake Gundam, but I’m not sure about the final one.
Looking Forward
I’m curious as to how this is going to work moving forward with future series. Are they going to keep all the old animal designs in the mix, or are they going to phase some of them out over time so that they don’t get too large? Will they keep including color variants of the new design, or will they not have room for that?Which One did I Get?
Alright, no more beating around the bush. Let’s see which one I got. I’m really hoping for the new Snake design, but since I have none of these so far, I’ll be happy with any of them.
I got the Rabbit! This is the design Okawara came up with in 2023
White Jade Rabbit Gundam
Now, you may notice that it’s white, just like the 2024 version. However, I don’t actually think they’re the same. The 2024 version looks like a regular, translucent white, whereas the card included in this blind box says that this figurine is made to look like it’s made out of white jade.
If you’re like me, then you probably think of jade as being green. But there’s also white version, AKA Nephrite Jade.
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Apparently white jade is even more prized by the Chinese, and has been used to make beautiful carvings and sculptures since ancient times.
Including carvings of - you guessed it - rabbits:
Making the Rabbit Gundam look like white jade is a perfect pairing, and I have to say - despite this thing being made of plastic, they really nailed the lustrous, semi-transparent look of real jade:
They even managed to get the coloring correct. According to my research, the most prized kind of white jade is called “mutton fat”, on account of the fact that it has a creamy, yellowish texture. And lo, if we look around the back, we’ll see some of that coloring:
It really is quite something.
Accessories and Articulation
In terms of gimmicks and accessories, it comes with its specially designed rifle and shield. and it’s got just a tiny bit of articulation. The arms move up and down, the wrists rotate, the head moves a bit left and right, and for some reason the hip joint can pivot inward and outward. It’s not enough articulation to do much in the way of action poses, but it’s just enough to give it a bit of personality.
(There’s actually one more bit of articulation. It has a unique little thruster on its rear skirt that looks a bit like a bunny tail, and it can move side to side. Cute!)
In terms of detailing, there’s a lot going on here. There are so many little details on this thing. It’s chest is shaped like a bunny head, it’s got bunny ears on its shoulders, the bunny tail around back, bunny paws for feet, and even hidden paws in the front skirts. And that’s to say nothing of the ornamental colors and flourishes:
It’s such a cool little thing. It really feels … special, moreso than I would have expected from a blind bag toy.
Price
Seems like American retailers are selling these figures for $18 - $20 apiece. I tried looking up how that compares to the price in Japan, and it seems like it’s about the same, or at least close enough.
That might seem like a lot for a blind bag toy with no playability, but I feel like I got my money’s worth. I’ve never seen a piece of Gundam merch that looks quite like this.
A Few More Observations
- This particular QMSV series is produced by C-Bandai, which is a Chinese arm of the company. I’m pretty sure that the non-Chinese QMSV series are produced instead in Japan, but don’t quote me on that.
- I actually had a white rabbit like this as a pet when I was growing up, and I’d be lying if I said this figurine didn’t bring back fond memories of her.
- At $18, I think this was definitely worth a purchase, but at the same time, I’m not sure how many more I would try and purchase. That’s a lot of money to gamble on a potential duplicate.