Yup, it is Mobile Armor Week, Day Six. Today's discovery is an old Premium Bandai release from five years ago. It appeared as the Gashapon Senshi NEXT figure series was nearing its end of life, releasing next to the final regular set of figures in December 2014 (that would be NEXT 24 by the way). NEXT hung in for a few months in 2015, but the only thing produced were reissues with "real-type" or metallic color variations.
NEXT Premier 04 is a set containing four different figures sold in special packaging with a little promotional leaflet included. The box is packed really tight as you can imagine. Once you take the stuff out you will struggle to get it back inside again. The set sold for ¥2980 and I think you can still find it on Mandarake from time to time for about the same price.
Just like more modern figures, Each figure comes in its own compartmentalized bag. NEXT figures of the time would usually just come in small bags where everything was stored in the same compartment, like that little Gundam for example.
RX-78-2 Gundam
And yes, speaking about the Gundam, let's get him out of the way first. This is Mobile Armor Week after all...
The RX-78-2 Gundam figure is pretty much a bog-standard Gashapon NEXT figure with some minor touch up for this premium release. Specifically it appears that the beam saber is a different sculpt and the front camera is now painted red. Oh, and we get a new weapon, the Beam Javelin. I'd like to do a side by side but I don't have the original RX-78 from this series.
You can get an idea about the articulation present in this figure by observing the parts spread above. Notice that the arms can also swivel underneath the shoulder. This is by the way usually the easiest way to tell a NEXT figure apart from a DASH figure. The latter will have a swiveling joint similar to the one connecting the shoulder with the torso.
There are a couple of RX-78s released in the NEXT line. The figure from volume one with a beam saber and shield later re-appeared in volume 11 as a realtype color version and since I happen to own that one you can see how similar the premium figure is to that one.
FF-X7[Bst] Core Booster
The remaining three figures in this set are not only proper mobile armors but they also happen to be brand new machines adding to the richness of the figure line-up. To be frank this is a little odd because the remaining three mobile armors all hail from the original U.C.0079 timeline but the Gashapon Warrior NEXT line is very thin as far as this era is concerned. It only features the Gundam and the Ball on the Federation side and then the Zaku II, Dom, Z'Gok and Magella Attack tank for Zeon.
The Core Booster attack craft is a neatly painted little figure, the cockpit especially is quite detailed. This figure seems simple enough that it could have been released as a regular figure, I have to assume that the paint job is what prevented that from happening. It is a little bit sad because I would have been happy to hoard these and build up a couple of squadrons. :)
The Core Booster also has a gimmick which allows you to convert it into the FF-X7 Core Fighter. The wings are actually folded up by default but they can easily be realigned to form up the proper silhouette of the fighter.
The Core Fighter component has a peg hole just like the white booster unit so you can put it on the standard NEXT action base. Above you can see it compared to the Core Fighters from the old SD Gundam Full Color era (left) and the rare Gundam Converge figure included with the White Base (right).
MA-04X Zakrello
The last two figures in this set are really peculiar. Specifically, they are peculiar in that they are very large; almost built to scale with the mobile suits and so are absolutely huge. There are a couple of other mobile armors released in the NEXT Premier line, but those are not much larger than the average figures which doesn't add up with the Zakrello and the Byg Zam at all. It takes a little bit of getting used to.
The Gashapon Warrior NEXT interpretation of the Zakrello is unique in the way it features joints similar to the standard mobile suit figures for its two arms. It also features a rotating join at what is presumably some sort of elbow. No other Zakrello figure that I know of can produce this much movement.
As you can see in this parts-shot the Zakrello is made up of a few really chunky and suitably heavy components. It has nice weight to it and the paintjob is really good as well. It might not be a very interesting mobile armor as such, but the figure manages to bring out the best in it.
I featured this comparison shot in a review earlier this week. Just to reiterate we see here from left to right Zakrellos from Gundam Collection (1:400), Gashapon HG EX Mobile Armor Selection, Strategy of Gundam (1:300), Gundam Converge and finally Gashapon Warrior NEXT. I find it interesting that the designers really cannot even decide on what its basic proportions should look like.
While the Zakrello does not come with any action base of its own (come on now, isn't this supposed to be a premium figure?) it has a peg hole on its belly which is compatible with the standard NEXT action bases so you can easily use any such base you have lying around. The Zakrello is quite heavy though, so if the joints on the base are old and loose it will not manage to hold it up for very long. Too bad because this thing really needs to be up there in the air.
MA-08 Byg Zam
The real star of this set is of course the Byg Zam (or Big Zam or Byg-Zam or what have you...) which is absolutely huge, or well... at least wide. It actually only stands about nine centimeters tall but the weight when you hold it in your hand make up for it. This thing feels really solid.
The sculpting on this figure is really nice but look at those terrible nub marks on the backside of its body (no, I am not going to call it saucer section, this isn't Star Trek...). It looks pretty bad on a premium figure I have to say.
The Byg Zam follows the basic engineering school of the regular Gashapon NEXT figures. You have the same T-shaped connector piece for the legs and while the Byg Zam doesn't have any arms you have similar joints in place at its knees. It is a nice touch even though you won't be doing much leg movement on this thing because it will just topple over if you try.
I am recycling this comparison shot from the Gashapon HG EX review as well; here we see the Byg Zam as it appears in the original SD Gundam Full Color series (left) and in its non-deformed full proportions as seen in Gashapon HG EX Mobile Armor Selection (right).
So what about an action base I hear you say. Well, we have the same peg hole for the regular NEXT action base present on the Byg Zam as well, but this figure will put your base under a lot of strain. Forget doing any wild poses leaning to one side or another, but if you have a base with still stiff joints you can at least propel the Byg Zam into the air.
Conclusion
Overall I think this set was very well designed and superbly painted. While the two large mobile armors perhaps aren't really compatible with the rest of the Gashapon NEXT figures they work very well with the figures from the original
Mobile Suit Gundam television series. I kind of wish they designed some functional action bases for the Zakrello and the Byg Zam but what we have is at least a start. If you collect the SD Gashapon Warrior figures I think you will enjoy having these in your line-up.
 |
| You can find the below clear action bases in the Gashapon Warrior NEXT volume 17 set, where they are used by the RB-79 Ball. |
We also got a couple of teasers of upcoming Ensemble figures. The poster child for Ensemble volume 14 looks to be the XXXG-01W Wing Gundam which is another one of those "too big for a capsule but that won't stop us" figures much like the upcoming S-Gundam in volume 13. We shall see how that plays out. The identity of the other figure eludes me. The author hints at Gundam Maxter but with all those spikes going on I don't know exactly what it is, some kind of Death Army adaptation? It performing a special move? Hopefully someone with insight will drop by in the comments field. : )
