Gunpla Release Schedule 2026: How to Read Bandai's Calendar

The Gunpla release schedule 2026 lives on one official page: Bandai Hobby's monthly schedule, which lists every Gunpla and Bandai Spirits kit by Japanese release month with a yen price. This guide explains how to read it, what it showed for each month of 2026 when we counted on October 11, 2026, and what a month like "Nov. 2026" means for a buyer in the US.

TL;DR: Bandai's English schedule listed 183 items for 2026. Release months are Japanese months and yen prices are Japan prices before tax. October to December 2026 show only a month, no day. US shops get kits weeks later and estimate arrival by month or quarter, with no guarantee. Our Gunpla release calendar keeps the next three months of the official schedule in one place.

Header photo: The Gundam Base Tokyo entrance. Syced / Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Key Takeaways

• 183 items sit on Bandai's English schedule for 2026, from 8 in August to 25 in January (counted October 11, 2026).
• The date is a Japanese release month. For October, November and December 2026 the English pages show only "Oct. 2026", "Nov. 2026" and "Dec. 2026".
• Yen prices are Japan prices, tax not included, as every English item page says. The Japanese site shows tax-included prices instead.
• US shelves come later. Gundam Planet says Japan-based stores receive items at least 4 to 6 weeks before US businesses.
• Preorders are charged up front at USA Gundam Store and Gundam Planet, and neither guarantees an arrival date.

Gunpla release schedule 2026: the quick answer

The official Gunpla release schedule for 2026 is the Bandai Hobby Site's monthly schedule page. On the English site it is global.bandai-hobby.net/en-us/schedule/index.php?saledate=YYYYMM, so November 2026 is saledate=202611. Each card gives the item name, a yen price and a release date or month, and links to the item page.

That is the whole official record. There is no separate US release calendar from Bandai Hobby, which is why the US side of this guide leans on the policy pages of US shops.

Overview: two official schedules, read differently

Bandai runs an English and a Japanese Hobby Site, and their schedules do not match line for line.

Diagram: PlamoDesk. Data: Bandai Hobby Site EN and JP schedule pages, checked October 11, 2026.

The English schedule is the one most US buyers will use. Its item pages carry two notes worth reading once. The first: "The price shown is for Japan. Tax is not included." The second: "The information on this web page, including product names, specifications, release dates, and prices, is subject to change."

The Japanese schedule prints dates in a year, month and day format and shows tax-included prices, for example "2,860円(税10%込)". It also lists more items. On October 11, 2026 the Japanese January 2026 page had 31 cards against 25 on the English page, and the Japanese October 2026 page had 21 cards against 12 in English.

So if a kit you saw announced in Japan is missing from the English schedule, check the Japanese page before deciding it was cancelled.

2026 month by month: 183 items on the English schedule

We counted every card on the English schedule for each month of 2026 on October 11, 2026. The card count and the number of unique item IDs matched for every month.

Diagram: PlamoDesk. Data: global.bandai-hobby.net schedule pages, counted October 11, 2026.

Most release days through September 2026 fall on Saturdays in Japan, a few on Fridays. A handful of kits stand out on the dated months:

• January: the HG 1/144 GQuuuuuuX (Endymion Unit Awakened) (Official images) at 2,600 yen on January 10, and the PG UNLEASHED 1/60 Nu Gundam at 60,000 yen on January 31.
• February: the MGSD Destiny Gundam (Official images) at 4,500 yen and the MG Full Armor ZZ Ver.Ka (Official images) at 11,400 yen, both on February 21.
• April: the HG 1/144 Alyzeus (Official images) at 12,000 yen and the HG 1/144 Xi Gundam (Official images) at 7,000 yen, both on April 25.
• June and September: the RG 1/48 AV-98Plus (Official images) at 5,500 yen on June 6, and the HG VF-25G Messiah Valkyrie (Michael Custom) (Official images) at 4,800 yen on September 26.

Two of those are not Gundam at all. The AV-98Plus is a Patlabor kit and the VF-25G is a Macross fighter, which is a good reminder that "HG" and "RG" on Bandai's schedule are not only Gunpla.

GODEEPER: Not sure what HG, RG, MG and PG mean before you read a schedule? Gunpla grades explained →

October to December 2026: the months still ahead

The last three months of 2026 are the ones most US buyers are preordering now. Our release calendar lists each item with a link to its official page; here is the shape of each month as the English schedule showed it on October 11, 2026.

October 2026: 12 items

Four of the 12 are GUNDAM ASSEMBLE items, which Bandai files under GUNPLA on the item pages: the Starter Set 01 [ST01] (Official images) at 3,500 yen, Expansion Packs 01 and 02 at 3,000 yen each, and Paint Pack 01 at 3,900 yen. The only regular Gunpla grade kit is the HG 1/144 Gundam Virsago (Official images) from After War Gundam X at 2,900 yen, age 8 and over.

The rest is the 30 Minutes family (three 30MF items, two 30MM items and one 30MS item) plus a 1/1000 Space Battleship Yamato 3199 Deluxe Set (Official images) at 13,000 yen.

November 2026: 18 items

November has 18 items: four 30MS, three each of 30MF, 30MM, 30MP and GUNDAM ASSEMBLE, and two kits named HG. Only four are filed under GUNPLA on their item pages, led by the HG 1/144 Gundam Ashtaron (Official images) at 3,600 yen. The GUNDAM ASSEMBLE Deluxe Set 01 [DX01] (Official images) at 9,000 yen is the most expensive item of the month, and its page notes: "Due to various reasons, we have changed the release month of the product." The month-only list with every price is in the November guide under "Monthly Release Lists" below.

December 2026: 16 items

December has the year's last Master Grade on the English schedule, the MG 1/100 Gundam Liberty Astray Red Frame (Official images) from Gundam SEED FREEDOM at 7,500 yen. GUNDAM ASSEMBLE adds a Deluxe Set 02 [DX02] (Official images) at 13,000 yen and Expansion Pack 05 at 3,000 yen.

Four December items carry the HG name, but none is filed under GUNPLA: the HG Alteisen Riese (Official images) from Super Robot Wars OG at 6,800 yen, and three HG 1/100 VF-31F Siegfried (Messer Ihlefeld Use) items from Macross Delta: the kit at 5,300 yen, a Deluxe Set at 7,800 yen and water decals at 750 yen. The other nine items are 30MM, 30MF, 30MS and 30MP.

What "Nov. 2026" means for a US buyer

A Bandai schedule month is the month the item releases in Japan. It is not a US shelf date, and no official Bandai Hobby page we read gives one.

Diagram: PlamoDesk. Sources: Bandai Hobby Site, Gundam Planet FAQ, USA Gundam Store pre-order policy, checked October 11, 2026.

US shops say this plainly in their own policy pages:

• Gundam Planet: "stores that sell direct from Japan or have a Japanese location will receive their items at least 4-6 weeks earlier than any business operating in the US." The same FAQ says "there is no way for us to guarantee when any preorders will arrive", especially in December.
• USA Gundam Store: "Estimated arrival dates are exactly that estimates and are not guaranteed." Its pre-order policy groups arrivals by quarter: Q1 is January to March, Q2 April to June, Q3 July to September and Q4 October to December.
• HLJ (a Japan-based shop that ships to the US): a "[Month] Release (Preorder)" label means the item is expected that month. Its help article adds: ""May Release" means the item is expected to be released in the month of May (we don't mean maybe!)."

You can see the gap on real listings. The 30MF Rosan Commander is a November 2026 item on Bandai's schedule. On October 11, 2026, USA Gundam Store had it as a $29.99 preorder with an estimated arrival of Q1 2027.

How US preorders work at the big shops

Preorder rules decide when you pay and when your other items ship, so they matter as much as the release month. Here is what each shop's own pages said on October 11, 2026.

Two rules catch new buyers most often. At Gundam Planet, "If you preorder an item along with any in-stock items, your entire order will NOT ship until ALL items become available." So a kit you could build this weekend waits for the preorder in the same order. Order them separately. In-stock orders there take 2 to 5 business days to leave the warehouse.

At USA Gundam Store, the 7-day window is the time to change your mind. After that, the cancellation policy keeps a 5% processing cost.

Note: Newtype, another US shop, showed a $200 free-shipping threshold on its storefront when we checked. Free-shipping lines change often; read the cart before you assume.

Tentative names and moved months

Schedule entries are not final until the kit ships. Bandai says so on every English item page, and two signs show it in practice.

The first is the word "Tentative" in a name. On the November 2026 schedule, the listing reads "HG SCOPEDOG The Grey Witch [DESERT COLOR]（Tentative）". We saw that marker on one title only, so treat it as a one-off note rather than a label system.

The second is a moved month. The GUNDAM ASSEMBLE Deluxe Set 01 page carries Bandai's note about a changed release month, quoted above. When that happens, US preorder estimates move too. Gundam Planet's FAQ says "Prices, specifications and release dates are subject to change without notice due to fluctuations in exchange rates or manufacture delays."

The practical rule: check the official item page again a week before the month starts. Our Gunpla release calendar links each kit's page and shows the date we last read the schedule.

Analysis: how to plan purchases around the schedule

Put the official months and the shop rules together and a few patterns hold.

1. Japan month plus one to three months is a fair US expectation. Gundam Planet's 4 to 6 week gap is a floor for US businesses, and USA Gundam Store's Q1 2027 estimate for a November 2026 kit shows how far out an estimate can sit.
2. The English schedule undercounts Japan. With 12 items in English against 21 in Japanese for October 2026, a kit can exist on the Japanese side first.
3. Most of each month is not Gunpla. In November 2026 only 4 of 18 items were filed under GUNPLA. If you only want Gundam kits, filter by line on our calendar.
4. Preorders tie up money early. Both big US shops charge at checkout. Spread preorders out rather than placing all of a quarter at once.
5. Yen prices are a guide, not a quote. They tell you which kits are big or small, but US dollar prices depend on the shop.

There is one gap we could not close. Premium Bandai USA's storefront showed preorder labels, but we did not confirm its preorder windows or shipping months, so we do not state them here.

Monthly Release Lists

• Gunpla Releasing in November 2026: all 18 items on the November schedule with line, Japan price and the US listings we found.

More Release Guides

• How to Spot Bootleg Gunpla: why buying from a known shop matters when a new kit is hard to find.
• Gunpla kit database: kits from Bandai's schedule since 2024, filterable by grade and year.

What builders and buyers say

Reddit was not readable from our side on October 11, 2026, so these come from customer reviews on Gundam Planet product pages, read in full that day. Both describe the wait this guide is about.

• On the HG Gundam FreD page, Omega K. (October 6, 2025): "After waiting months after months of waiting for it to come in the mail due to pre ordering the Gfred from the recent GQuuuuuux gundam anime." The same reviewer rated the kit 5 stars.
• On the RG Force Impulse Gundam page, David K. (June 13, 2026): "One of my most wanted kits, and now that I've built it, it was totally worth the wait for it to get back in stock."

Neither reviewer says when they ordered, so treat these as a picture of the experience, not as timing data.

A US shop sees the same uncertainty from the other side. Nick Minarik of Gundam Planet told Gunpla 101 in October 2024: "We find out when something's gonna happen the second that the public finds out it's gonna happen."

Our take

Use Bandai's schedule for what it is good at: which kits are coming, in which Japanese month, at what Japan price. Do not read it as a US delivery date. Based on the shop policies above, a November kit arriving in a US shop in December or in early 2027 is normal, not a delay. Preorder from one shop per kit, keep preorders apart from in-stock orders at Gundam Planet, and use USA Gundam Store's 7-day window if you are unsure. Then check the official item page once more before the month starts, because names, months and prices can still change.

How we checked this

On October 11, 2026 we read the English Bandai Hobby schedule for every month of 2026 and counted the item cards; the count matched the unique item IDs each time. We read the Japanese January and October 2026 schedules for comparison and the English item pages for every kit named here, copying the yen price and release date. October to December 2026 data comes from our own import of the same schedule pages that day, which also feeds the release calendar. Shop rules come from the policy and FAQ pages of USA Gundam Store, Gundam Planet, HLJ and Newtype, and from Premium Bandai USA's storefront rendered in a browser. The source table has 52 rows.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the official Gunpla release schedule? On the Bandai Hobby Site. The English schedule is at global.bandai-hobby.net/en-us/schedule and takes a month parameter such as saledate=202611. The Japanese site has its own schedule with full dates and tax-included prices. Both list Gunpla next to other Bandai Spirits kits such as 30MM and 30MS.

How many Gunpla and Bandai kits come out in 2026? The English Bandai Hobby schedule listed 183 items across the 12 months of 2026 when we counted on October 11, 2026. January had the most at 25 and August the fewest at 8. Those totals include non-Gundam lines such as 30MM, 30MF and 30MS, so the Gunpla share is smaller.

Does Nov. 2026 on Bandai's schedule mean the kit is in US stores in November? No. The month is the Japanese release month. Gundam Planet's FAQ says stores that ship from Japan get items at least 4 to 6 weeks before US businesses, and USA Gundam Store lists estimated arrival by quarter, for example Q1 2027 for kits Bandai lists in November 2026.

Why does the English schedule show only a month for late 2026? On October 11, 2026 the English schedule gave month-only dates such as Oct. 2026, Nov. 2026 and Dec. 2026, while earlier 2026 months showed exact days. The Japanese schedule shows a year, month and day format. We report what each page shows and do not guess a day.

Are Bandai's yen prices what I pay in the US? No. Each English item page says the price shown is for Japan and tax is not included. US shops set their own dollar prices. The HG Gundam Ashtaron lists at 3,600 yen in Japan; the 30MF Rosan Commander at 2,500 yen was a $29.99 preorder at USA Gundam Store on October 11, 2026.

Can a Gunpla release month change after it is announced? Yes. Bandai's item pages say names, specifications, release dates and prices are subject to change, and some pages carry the note that the release month was changed for various reasons. US shops say the same: USA Gundam Store calls its estimated arrival dates estimates that are not guaranteed.

Related Reading

• Best Beginner Gunpla Kits by Budget: in-stock starter kits and their US prices, if you would rather not wait for a preorder.
• Gunpla Tools for Beginners: the nipper and markers to have ready before a new kit arrives.
• Gunpla release calendar: the next three months of the official schedule, filterable by line, with a calendar feed.

References

• Bandai Hobby Site schedule (English), monthly pages saledate=202601 to 202612, and the item pages linked above
• Bandai Hobby Site schedule (Japanese), January and October 2026
• USA Gundam Store pre-order policy and cancellations policy
• Gundam Planet FAQ
• HLJ: "[Month] Release (Preorder)"
• Premium Bandai USA and Newtype help
• USA Gundam Store: 30MF Rosan Commander listing, checked October 11, 2026