Thursday 13 October 2016

Gundam Converge : Beargguy F Special Set

As far as reviews go, this will be a rather short one. Today we are looking at the Bandai Asia "Overseas Only" limited Beargguy F set. Released at the end of July 2016 just in time for the Animation-Comic-Game Hong Kong fair where it was also originally sold as far as I understand it.


As far as novelty items go the Bandai Asia special figures, which are typically glossy or otherwise eyecatching repaints of existing figures, are not that expensive to get hold of when they first appear. I don't know if it popped up in any other official channels or what the asking price for the item was locally in Hong Kong at the time, but I forked out $21.00 for it (which incidentially is pretty much $21.00 more than I would have liked to).

The Beargguy set follows the repaint tradition although here we're going into really custom territory, with traditional Chinese-style patterns and red colours painted all over them. You quickly realize that the two figures are each other's counterparts; the colour schemes are pretty much reversed although they are not exactly the same.

As you can see from the parts image the little Petitgguy (seriously, who names these things?) figures have separate leg pieces (arms too) enabling them to both stand or sit. I didn't go through any efforts to display them this way however, since the legs were already loose in the bag. The reason for this is that they are notoriously easy to fall out. This was bad enough on the original Beargguy F figure (Converge 20) but as with all the flamboyantly metallic-painted Converge figures the pieces come apart even more easily. These things drove me absolutely bonkers.

The Converge Beargguy figures are truly unique in that they are the only Converge figures with bendable legs. Adding this to the standard articulation of the arms and heads this makes them fairly customizable, although you will have plenty of issues of making them stand upright thanks to their heavy heads and tiny feet (it doesn't help that the toes point inwards in that horrible "I want to pee"-pose). The Petitgguy figures can also stand and sit provided that the arms and legs don't fall out of their sockets while you try to pose them (I'd consider glue here as these pieces are easily lost).

Each Beargguy F figure also comes with a detachable seat which can be attached as a backpack and offer the Petitgguys to catch a ride. You can mix and match these together with the original figure for some posing fun which in fairness is more than you would expect from a basic Converge figure.

Overall this is a Beargguy-Fan set only. I will be sending my figures back into the box again where they are likely to remain (they'll probably pop up in the Converge #04 review again though, if I can be bothered to set them up). I know many people enjoy the Beargguy figures but personally I am not feeling them. Give me Gotochi Kitty any day instead.

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