Bandai Namco officially revealed the full product lineup for GUNDAM ASSEMBLE today. A competitive tabletop miniatures game using 5cm Gunpla figures on a hexagonal grid. 10 products at launch. 30 more planned within the first year. A dedicated tournament platform. October 2026.
This is not a test run. Bandai is making a serious play at the tabletop wargaming market with the $30 billion Gundam franchise behind it.
What It Is
GUNDAM ASSEMBLE is a tactical miniatures game. Players build squads of Gundam mobile suits (3v3 or 5v5), place them on a hex-grid map with cardboard terrain, and fight using a D10 dice system.
The core mechanic is called the Timeline. Each unit's position on a Timeline Track determines when it activates. Aggressive actions push you further down the track, delaying your next turn. Quick, defensive plays let you react sooner. It creates a push-pull tension between hitting hard now and maintaining initiative later.
The miniatures are 5cm (roughly 2 inches) Gunpla-style kits. Unpainted, single-color plastic, requiring assembly. Bandai is selling them as buildable miniatures, not pre-painted figures. If you've ever snapped together a Gunpla kit, the process is familiar.
You can mix mobile suits from different Gundam series into one squad. RX-78-2 and Barbatos on the same team. That cross-universe squad building is a big deal for a franchise that spans decades of shows and timelines.
The Product Lineup
Starter Set 01 ($35, October 2026) Six miniatures: RX-78-2 Gundam, Char's Zaku II, Wing Gundam Zero EW, Gundam Epyon, Gundam Barbatos Lupus Rex, Gundam Vidar. Plus 18 Tactics Cards, 6 Unit Cards, hex map, D10 dice set, terrain, tokens, and a handbook. Supports 3v3 gameplay.
Deluxe Set 01 ($100, October 2026) 13 miniatures from the original Mobile Suit Gundam series. Includes battleship-class units. Supports 5v5 gameplay. Themed around the Battle of A Baoa Qu with four scenarios.
Deluxe Set 02 ($170, December 2026) 14 miniatures themed around Gundam SEED. Features an asymmetric 3-on-5 battle scenario.
Expansion Packs 01-05 ($40 each, October-December 2026) Three miniatures per pack. Expansions cover Gundam Unicorn, The Witch From Mercury, Mobile Suit Gundam, and Gundam Wing.
Paint Pack 01 ($50, October 2026) Three miniatures plus paints and tools. Bandai is also launching a Mr. Color Gundam Assemble paint series.
Five products drop simultaneously in October. Monthly releases continue through 2027.
The Designer
Justin Gary. If you played TCGs in the 2000s, you know the name. He was the youngest-ever U.S. National Champion in Magic: The Gathering at age 17 in 1997. Won Pro Tour Houston in 2002. Then pivoted to game design and created Ascension through his company Stone Blade Entertainment.
He's not a Gundam nostalgia hire. He's a competitive game designer who understands what makes tactical games tick. That pedigree matters for a product that wants to build an organized play scene, not just sell kits.
The Tournament Infrastructure
Bandai launched BANDAI TABLETOP GAMES at bandai-tabletop-games.com alongside the product announcement. Event discovery, tournament registration, match tracking, and organizer tools. This is the infrastructure you build when you're planning an esports-adjacent competitive scene, not a casual hobby product.
It mirrors what Bandai has done with their card game tournaments. They ran a 12-city global tour last year for Gundam Card Game, Dragon Ball, and One Piece TCG. The tournament DNA is already there.
Why This Matters
Gunpla is one of the world's largest model kit hobbies. Billions in annual revenue. But Gunpla has always been a build-and-display hobby. There was no game attached to the kits. You build a perfect Grade RX-78-2, put it on a shelf, and admire it.
Gundam Assemble changes the equation. Now there's a reason to build, paint, and play. That's a new dimension for existing Gunpla collectors and a new entry point for tabletop wargamers who've never touched a Gundam kit.
The price point tells you who Bandai is targeting. $35 for a starter with six iconic mobile suits is accessible. Compare that to Warhammer 40K or BattleTech entry costs. Bandai wants volume first, competitive depth second.
And 30 products in year one says this isn't a one-and-done experiment. This is a full product line with multi-year ambitions.
The Gundam franchise just got a play layer. For collectors, gamers, and hobbyists, that's worth paying attention to.
