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Sip your tea like an anime villain with high-class Gundam porcelain cups and vases

Casey Baseel Aug 26, 2014
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In the past, we’ve seen multiple cars decked out with special paint jobs and accessories honoring Mobile Suit Gundam. But what if you want to show your love for anime’s longest-running mecha series, in a slightly more elegant kind of way? Is there any way for you to drop a large sum of cash on Gundam merchandise not to park in your garage, but to place on your living room mantle or dining room table?

There is now, with high-quality Gundam porcelain.

For its latest bit of Gundam marketing, merchandiser extraordinaire Bandai has teamed up with Noritake, a Japanese manufacturer of fine china. The companies are offering two different types of anime ceramics, with the more practical being these teacups inspired by villainous Gundam siblings Gihren and Garma Zabi.

Given the ambitious nature of the franchise’s first family of military aggression, the two cups (black for Ghiren and green for Garma) are sold separately. Although neither cup appears in the animation itself, the Bandai and Noritake collaborated in coming up with what they imagined the Zabi household’s personal-use china would look like, with the family crest in gold and the characters’ names written inside. Each cup comes with a matching saucer bearing the insignia of the Principality of Zeon, the political entity formed by Gihren and Garma’s revolutionary father, Degwin.

▼ If your own name is Degwin, we guess you just pass right by choices like “Jack” and “Sam” when naming your kids.

The Zabi family aren’t the only Gundam antagonists with a taste for the finer things in life, though. Their subordinate, Colonel M’qube, has a taste for antiquities such as the Song Dynasty vase he’s seen with in the anime.

If you’d like to fondle the very same piece of porcelain, Noritake and Bandai have you covered with this 180-milimeter (7.1-inch) recreation.

Of particular note is the dragon head-shaped spout, from which you can pour yourself a drink to celebrate crushing your enemies or any other diabolical schemes that have come to fruition. Of course, if you really feel like steeping yourself in Gundam lore, you’ll want to pour your victory beverage into one of the Zabi cups shown above.

Both items can be preordered through the Premium Bandai website (here and here), with shipping scheduled for December. As a respected porcelain maker, though, Noritake’s wares don’t come cheap. A single Zabi cup and saucer will set you back 7,776 yen (US$77), while M’qube’s prized vase costs 41,040 yen.

Of course, you could try to raise the necessary funds by following in Gihren, Garma, and M’qube’s footsteps by building an army and conquering resource-rich territories, but given the notoriously high mortality rates of Gundam villains, we wouldn’t recommend it.

Source: Narinari
Top image: Premium Bandai
Insert images: Premium Bandai, Wikia (1, 2), Premium Bandai (2)