The Crossbone-era is set in a very late Universal Century timeline yet I cannot claim to know anything about it. It has a fine pedigree that started with the early designs of the Crossbone Vanguard mobile suits and also some very recognizable Gundam designs but much of it seems to be really out there. While you can still trace the classic silhouette of the archetypical Gundam in its core designs much of the stuff that surrounds them appears comical at best or sometimes even farcical.
I mean, what am I even looking at here? The design themes are all over the place and there are some pretty grating humanoid or insect like designs that really give me uncanny valley vibes. The whole thing feels very much comic-book style and I imagine it would even be difficult to represent some of the design in figure or scale model kit form even if Bandai wanted to. It is not a surprise to me how Crossbone-era content is typically introduced at the far end of a product line long after the Zakus and Unicorns have been featured.
To be frank, the character designs aren't that hot either... My man Zabine Chareaux was a pretty serious fellow in F91 but here he looks like your typical Batman villain. Like I said, I don't know anything about the setting but I am curious to learn more about it and Bandai really gave us a good opportunity with these Steel 7 anniversary releases.
Crossbone Gundam Steel 7 is a manga that was first published in 2006 and so Bandai has seen it fit to produce not one, or two, but four CORE box-sets for it which seems incredibly ambitious. Of course, it does speak volumes that Bandai sidelines these designs into premium pre-order territory only, not wanting to take a risk on any of these going to retail. The first two boxes of Steel 7 units came out in February while the Jupiter Empire forces followed in March. Each box had a price tag of ¥5995 including tax and so while expensive not really that bad when you consider that you get multiple figures in most of them.
This is a really busy looking front cover design. I find it hard to even see what is going on in the picture but then again these were not designed for retail in the first place and so I guess the entire box may as well have been all brown to begin with. I do like that you get full unit write-ups for each mobile suit on the back side however. Notice the insignias next to the text, these will have been lovingly recreated on the figures themselves but my photos do not always do them justice.
The box is really jam-packed with stuff and it was bulging outward on all sides. At the top sits a small white box which protects the large blue back-piece of the Tortuga which has delicate pointy spikes all over it. At first I thought the previous user may have been a bit careless with them but now I am inclined to think it is simply a consequence of the job it has to perform keeping all these plastic bags inside. When I first saw all these bags spilling out of the box I became a little bit intimidated, remembering the busywork with previous Crossbone figures from both Converge and Mobile Suit Ensemble. Those figures came with a multitude of equipment options but here things are actually not that bad, the number of option parts is really minimal which I actually welcome. Let's look closer at each figure!
XM-07B Vigna Ghina II (Jupiter Battle Specification)
The old silver-colour Vigna Ghina is a classic Gundam F91 design and one that I always had a soft spot for. It returns here in its Mark II form and equipped with special gear for battle in the low gravity zone of Jupiter I assume. I fail to see any trace of the original Vigna Ghina design here however, this very much looks like a typical Gundam F91 painted in a bright orange-red. The Converge figure has some nice markings in yellow and black and a pair of really intensely blue eyes. The metallic colour Shot Lancer weapon, another carry-over from the old Crossbone Vanguard seen in F91 helps the figure stand out and increases the realism.
While assembling this figure I noticed that it suffers a bit from loose or too-tight joints. I speculate that this may have to do with both the material used and the painting. Some pieces did not want to fit into their slots entirely, you can see the occasional gap here and there, while some parts are very loose, especially the black fins on the shoulders and I will consider gluing them in place.
As you can see, the parts count isn't that intimidating when you spread the components out to each individual figure. The online assembly instructions also do a great job of telling you which parts belong to which mobile suit. Notice that the four heat-dissipation fins (another F91 carry-over) come on a little sprue and the only challenge here was figuring out how in which exact configuration they were intended to be attached to the shoulders, as the angle of the illustration was a bit poor.
The Mark II is armed with Snake Hand flail-type weapon attached to the left hand. Bandai gives you an option part which has the beam emitters activated or powered down. This weapon seems more likely to cut off a limb of your own than ever getting near to an enemy but hey, it is a nice looking translucent part that adds more flair to your figure so of course I will leave it on.
The Vigna Ghina is an old figure from the first generation of Gundam Converge where it appeared as figure number 72 in volume 12, released in October 2013. Although many of the F91-era figures were released in the Sharp-format the XM-07 was left behind. The figure in the middle there is my custom repainted machine in Berah Ronah colours.
Arana Abijo
Ok, with the Vigna Ghina out of the way we can now start looking into the really eclectic design choices from Steel 7. The Arana Abijo (no designation number) is a unique mobile suit which merges the insect-like head of the EMS-VSX2 Abijo onto the gnome-like body of a EMS-12 Arana. Both of these designs hail from the Jupiter Empire, I have to say I liked the Jupiter fashion better when Paptimus Scirocco was doing the drawings. Still, I have to say this figure is really wild and cool in its own way, and I love the bright colour on it. the two large beam cannons attach to pegs on the hips and then slot into the underside of each hand while the top of each handle is already part of the figure's hand itself. When you consider the multitude of shoulder-based cannons in the U.C. timeline it seems a bit wasteful to require the mobile suit to pre-occupy its hands to fire them. Comic book rule-of-cool logic I suppose.
Again, the parts count is really kept to a minimum here. The little antennae that slots into the front of the head are prone to falling off while the four strange whatever thingies on the sides of the head sit firmly in place. Those components are two different sculpts by the way, and I had a really hard time to tell which was supposed to go where but the individual peg holes assisted me so just take it gently when you assemble this figure to avoid and damage to the pegs.
The AA also comes with a generic support craft known as the Nozzle or Noselle, which mostly looks like an upscaled Jet Ski. It follows the same ridiculous design school as the Mega Rider and supposedly works just as well in space, air and on water. What a marvel of design. The craft is very nicely painted however and its colour scheme reminds me of various Gundam-carrying spaceships like the White Base, Argama or Albion. The figure rests atop the base that props it up with no pegs to keep it in place and so it will gently slide off the stand if you are not careful.
This top-down view reveals the two small pegs that are intended for the feet of the Arana Abijo figure. While you can still pose other figures atop this craft those small pegs will could potentially interfere with whatever you had in mind.
According to some lore I glanced through the Arana Abijo uses the Noselle to correct some of its poor performance. Good thing that the craft has a pair of handles to hold on to - too bad that the AA's hands are already committed to holding onto the weapons. Still, I am happy to report that the figure performed well getting itself attached to this craft and also rests well atop the stand. I would still feel a bit reluctant about displaying it like this as vibration over time might cause the figure to slide backwards and off the stand. Those large beam cannons could then whip some other precious figure you have next to it off the shelf if you are unlucky. As long as you take adequate precaution however you should be able to avoid this concern.
Bala Tortuga
Our last Steel 7 team member is the Bala Tortuga, a very rotund blue turtle in space. It was impossible for me not to think about Pokemon-designs like the Tortuga or the Carracosta and I imagine it would look pretty cool posing next to either of them. There is also something about this figure that reminds me of the Kämpfer, a very out-of-shape Kämpfer perhaps. All jokes aside I really, really like this figure - the design is really unique. When was the last time you saw a mobile suit armed with two revolver-style beam cannons? The rest of the Tortuga's design is just crazy bordering on farce. The spikes on its back are actually beam guns and they can also generate an impenetrable beam shield which unfortunately only covers the backside. Yeah, yeah... whatever you say.
From a crafting point of view, my figure suffered a bit from some whitish residue on the lower part of its front torso. I was able to rub it off using my finger but left some of it in place here to give you an idea. This was thankfully the only painting imperfection I noticed with this set. Sadly, I have a pretty mixed experience with the quality control on some of the P-Bandai releases in particular.
Even though these figures are P-Bandai products they have very few optional components and I am really happy about this. I really like not having a lot of surplus components that I will never get to use. The two revolving cylinders are really loose however and it is easy to accidentally make them fall out. These slot into the arms using rectangular pegs and so they do not rotate at all. That might have been a fun gimmick (I mean, I suppose these are revolvers?) but it would require a much more complex and expensive component design and so this static display works well.
There is one hidden gimmick with the Tortuga however. Its legs bend at the hip joint. The idea is that you should lift up the legs like you see here and then balance the figure on this extra piece of clear plastic support. The support piece has no peg to attach it to the rest of the stand which I find odd, I wouldn't recommend balancing a figure like this which features pointy and bendable spikes and an antenna. I suppose there is a lore-related reason to explain this gimmick, perhaps the suit folds its legs when it emits then beam shield to cower behind it?
Conclusion
So, there you have it folks. The first of the four Steel 7-themed CORE figure sets. I have to say, while I was mildly enthused about these when they were first announced I had a really good time with these figures and look forward to see how they will integrate with the remaining sets. Steel 7 is definitely an acquired taste however and I can see many Universal Century fans still opting to skip them over.
