SD Gundam Full Color Stage 37 - G Generation Special

We haven't done one of these in a while so today we look back on Stage 37 which was released all those years ago in November 2002. It is a set of seven (I guess technically eight) figures all pulled from and promoting the SD Gundam G Generation video game series. I know absolutely nothing about the games or which of them it is technically associated with but according to wikipedia the SD Gundam G Generation NEO released on the PS2 in November 28 and so is probably it.


As usual, here are the figures in the state they rolled out of the bags. Most figures usually require some simple assembly (at least when the pegs made of soft PVC don't bend and twist instead of sliding into their intended compartments) while others are good to go.



218 : RX-78-2 Gundam (Ver.18.0)


Bandai kept coming up with new ideas for the RX-78 here appearing in its 18th different form since the Full Color series started. What could you possibly need another Gundam figure to do? At least this one comes fully kitted with both a beam rifle and a hyper bazooka. The bazooka can either be stored on the backskirt or held in hand (the rifle does not have this ability). Be careful when swapping out weapons on your SD figures, soft PVC does not always cooperate in the same way a rigid plastic figure would, the pegs are bendy but can be broken off if you are not careful.


Rather than attempting to line up all the previous instances of the RX-78 I thought we'd just compare it to one of its look-alikes from Stage 19. Both figures come with double weapons, both can store the bazooka on the backskirt, but the older figure also has a left hand which can hold the secondary weapon.






219 : MSN-02 Zeong (Ver.2.0)


Stage 37 is all about pairing up rivals and letting them beat each other up. The Gundam of course goes up against this flying Zeon which has one of the standardized Full Color figure bases that pegs into its crotch. The idea is of course to have it hover menacingly above another figure. The figure has a really crisp colour scheme and I really like the green underside with all the thrusters.


It seems I can never manage to get all Zeong figures in one picture, there is always someone missing from the line-up. This one is pretty close though, only the little Char Aznable mini-figure is missing from the largest figure (no idea where I put the characters figures, in a little bag somewhere for sure). There are a total of three flying Zeong figures in the Full Color line, this is the basic version and it was later joined by a Zeong launching its Psycommu hands (Stage 61, released November 2005) and the rare High Mobility Form from Stage 48 (April 2004). We also see a couple of the earlier non-flying versions of the Zeong and Perfect Zeong as well as the large Full Color DX figure.






220 : MSZ-006 Z Gundam (Ver.4.0)


The next pairing comes from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and to no one's surprise the Z Gundam itself is one of the combatants. This is the fourth version of the MSZ-006 and it look positively strange with its arms wildly stretched out to the sides. Not exactly a favourite figure but at least easy to recognize...


There are plenty of different Z Gundams released in the SD Full Color family and I find that several of them look a bit goofy (and the worst of them is the very white figure from SD Full Color Custom at the back there).






221 : PMX-003 The-O (Ver.2.0)


Kamille gets to go up against the might of Paptimus in his awkwardly named The-O (I always have to be careful about not typing "the the-o"...). This figure is equipped with both the signature beam rifle and one beam sword. The sword can be held either in hand or by one of the two subarms that extend out in front of its feet (and here being a bit warped also unbalances the figure). You can remove the rather large sub-arms if you like but there will be a noticeable peg hole right in front of the machine.


Three O-figures were made. On the left we have the first version from Stage 8 (released in April 1999) and in the centre a very yellow from Stage 63 (the very last numbered sed from February 2006) which has equipment similar to the version two variant. I don't know what caused Bandai to switch up the colour scheme that hard on the last version and while it may pass inspection on its own it looks rather silly next to the two former releases.






222 + 223 : Haro x HARO-86-2 Psyco Haro


Perhaps the most interesting (and ill-fitting?) members of Stage 37 is a set of two Haro mascots. We get the OG green Haro from the original series as well as the black Psyco Haro that I know nothing about but it looks suitable menacing so I guess they are rivals in the game. Rather than flattening the bottom surface of Green Haro the figure gets to sit on a little pedestal to prevent it from rolling away from your display. Personally, I would have preferred if the base was in a different colour than Haro itself but I can see opinions might be split on this.

There are a couple of Haros in the SD Full Color line to collect, below you can see Lacus' Pink Haro and the version two Haro with arms and legs, both from Stage 41 (released in May 2003). There is also an orange Haro belonging to Celestial Being in Full Color Custom Stage 18 that comes with a Karel-type maintenance robot.






224 : MSN-04 Sazabi (Ver.2.0)


Bandai is seemingly always looking for excuses to throw in the Nu Gundam and the Sazabi to trigger more sales but in 2002 they were apparently a bit more laid back in making their choices because in a total of 37 waves there have only been two releases of the Sazabi and it did not return in Full Color Custom either. Just like the Z Gundam we looked at earlier this figure also has a bit of a crazy arm pose going, just not as extreme. I expected that the head was to be turned to face the right but if you look at the booklet illustration it is rather intended to stare to the left. I'm not really understanding what they are going for and so the figure could have been more interesting I think.


Here are the two Full Color Sazabis next to each other, the figure on the left is the version 1.0 with a greenish beam saber and was released in Stage 16 in April of 2000. The 2.0 figure is larger and has large shoulders and a little bit more colour even though both do a poor job when it comes to the iconic shield which needed the yellow flair the most. I'm not a huge fan of either if I am being completely honest.






225 : RX-93 Nu Gundam (Ver.3.0)


It isn't often that you see the Nu Gundam at the trailing end of a figure set, it is used to proudly lead from the front. I guess in such an all-star set it just happened to be plonked in at the chronological end of the U.C. timeline. This figure has pretty much everything I would expect from an SD Nu Gundam figurine. Enough paint applications to make it look interesting (if I could ask for one thing it would be the black top on the beam rifle). Amuro gets his insignia both on the shoulder and on the shield, so I think Bandai are a bit cheap to skip it on the Sazabi.


Look at these three figures; they look like triplets! It is quite unusual to see such a uniform look between different versions of the same mobile suit. Normally proportions, height and width, eye shape and size or colour choices tend to vary quite a bit between figures but these look like they were just given different gear when leaving the assembly line. From left to right we have the Stage 37 figure with beam rifle, fin funnels and shield followed by a beam rifle and fin funnel equipped figure from Stage 16. On the right is another beam rifle and shield equipped figure lacking the fin funnels, released in Stage 15. Stages 15 and 16 were dedicated entirely to Char's Counterattack and were released in March and April of 2000 respectively and they were clearly designed at the same time. We've seen other tandem releases of Nu Gundams with different weapon options both in Gundam Converge and the STANDart 1/220 line.






Conclusion

As far as the Full Color series goes, I have to say this is pretty far from what I am looking for in a figure set. Sure, there are a number of new sculpts here but it is mostly a cavalcade of retakes on some of the most commonly seen faces around the Gundam fandom and you'll have to forgive me for being a bit jaded. Other than that, the figures are great and are of course popular icons. As always, the Full Color figures are starting to become rather scarce on the secondary market so it pays to keep an ear to the ground if you hope to find them in the wild.

Bandai Mobility Joint Gundam Volume PB01 : RX-93ff Nu Gundam x MSN-04FF Sazabi

It has now been over two years since the Mobility Joint brand was featured on the blog. You might be forgive for thinking that I had finally given up on the line but that isn't really the case. While I hadn't built any figures since volume 5 I still did my best to keep up with purchasing figures as they came out (which can be a really frustrating experience) but they usually end up on the pile of shame because of a couple of reasons. On the outset you never really know how many boxes you need to pick up of each kind to be able to build all the official variations, then there is the question of actually finding them for sale. Once a set is fully completed months may have passed and there is something else warranting more interest. Anyway, today we'll attempt to bring them back on a semi-regular status, let's see how it goes.


Today's object of interest is the first Premium Bandai exclusive to graze the Mobility Joint line. PB01 was delivered to preorders in November 2023 back when the Side-F was all the rage. Contained within are the two ff-style suits from Char's Counterattack as they were redesigned for the Gundam Side-F brand store at Fukuoka Airport. The almost 25-meter tall Nu Gundam on display outside the shopping centre couldn't feature it's classic Fin Funnel design due to wind-related safety concerns and so a new dreamed up RX-93ff was constructed instead. Naturally, a FF-version of the Sazabi was also designed because these two suits are enormous cash cows and everyone needs to buy them again. Unfortunately, no-one has seen the need of a life-size statue of it just yet.


The box retains the usual dull colourless P-Bandai style but at least does an adequate job of featuring its contents. This review reminds me of the corresponding Mobile Suit Ensemble release from April last year. The two ff-suits were sold in pieces in five different blind boxes; one for each suit and then their various weapons spread out over another three boxes. To this day I have only managed to pick up one single box - the few times they appear for sale they are usually swiped up immediately.


The bags are your typical Mobility Joint stuff, it is not like you haven't seen the RX-93 or the Sazabi in MJ before so veterans will be very familiar with the contents inside. there are of course several new components but you are basically getting the old figures all over again. To aid in assembly (trust me, you'll need it) you have to go online to find the 15-page instruction manual, currently published by Bandai here: LINKY.


Here the parts are spread out for the respective mobile suit. There are some interesting new pieces in here and the suits themselves have been coloured in new nuances of white and red, which we will return to later in the review.


Beside my aversion for assembling figures the stickers are the things that really put me off MJ. Mobility Joint is kind of notorious for its complicated wrap-around stickers that are often thin and have to be folded around edges, something that I will often screw up. The surfaces are often small or hollow which give the adhesive little staying power and I'm pretty sure many of these will come off given time. If you enjoy painting figures this is definitely the way to go as the sculpts are detailed and stickers are often a clumsy way of covering a 3D-surface up with a flat 2D-design. But then again, if you enjoy building and painting figures - why would you select the Mobility Joint brand? Anyway, enough rambling, let's take a look at the two figures.



RX-93ff Nu Gundam


We'll begin by checking out the classic Nu Gundam design. The colour scheme is changed to reflect the ff-design but you can still put together the regular Nu with a single Fin Funnel and a weapons kit of four different hand held weapons as seen on display here. There are a couple of stickers that give it a new look (don't mind me forgetting to attach the head camera sticker there, it pops up later in the review...) but beyond that it is your bog standard MJ-Nu. The seam lines on the lower legs stand out a fair bit, I should probably glue the pieces in place. I don't know why but this particular figure is giving me a lot of grief when it comes to attaching the legs to the torso. The ball joints just don-t want to go all the way into their sockets like on previous MJ Nu Gundam figures and so the legs will come off frustratingly often.

You can see that I avoided using the wrap around blue stickers intended for the feet and used paint and pen instead, hence why the colour is a bit off. I also applied a little bit of yellow and black colour here and there to make the figure a bit more fun to look at. The actual RX-93ff is a very colourful design - much more so than a cheap Shokugan kit could do justice (which is why I think Bandai should feature simpler designs in MJ - like the GM for example).


Equipping the signature Long Range Fin Funnel weapon is simple enough, it replaces the traditional Fin Funnel kit and one shared peg is used to hold each in place. I don't particularly like how far from the body the weapon ends due to the connecting pieces taking up space. If you were really zealous about it you could make your own connector here to stick the weapon closer to the figure's back. Again, there are a couple of stickers not applied here. I had missed out on two of the yellow ones that will show up at the end of the review but I decided not to bother with stickers 29-32 which are all awkwardly thin and don't matter that much anyway. Interestingly, the manual also referred to stickers 42 and 43, of which there are none on the decal sheet. Bit of an oopsie there, Bandai.


Now this much looks much better! You can deploy the funnel weapon across the left shoulder but it will require some disassembly and parts swapping to get there. The weapon ends up sitting on a ball joint which allows for some wiggling around but as always with MJ-figures the wiggling space is rather limited because there is always something else in the way. One major issue with this weapon is that it makes the figure rather back heavy. When the weapon is stowed it reaches the floor and so acts as a support but in this mode you will have to fiddle with the angles of the legs and hips to prevent it from falling over. I have extended the weapon and shield forward to help balance the figure.


Lastly, the LR Funnel can also be used as a handheld weapon. This looks pretty cool and if you wanted to go all out you could attach the Nu Gundam's bazooka and Fin Funnels on the back to really flesh it out but all things considered I prefer the over-the-shoulder-mode the best.


The original Nu figure dates back all the way to Mobility Joint Volume 2 released in August of 2022. The figure came with two EX-parts sets to transform it into the FA-93HWS Heavy Weapons Type (there were actually two EX Parts sets in the wave, of which one is shared with the Sazabi figure of that wave). As you can see the original figures have an attractive greyish off-white colour while the P-Bandai figure looks much more like the Alex with its bright white and blue livery. There is also an third version of the Nu Gundam in Mobility Joint, basically a reissue of the figures from wave two but in a bright white colour more close to the RX-93ff. I haven't assembled those figures yet but I'll post a comparison photo once I do.




MSN-04FF Sazabi


Over the Sazabi, then. Again, this figure also has all the necessary parts to assemble a bog standard MSN-04, seen here with all its four main weapon options. The only thing missing in these photos are the six remote funnel weapons that normally go into the launchers on the back. The parts are still included (and also require a different set of launch containers that are slightly smaller than the ones needed for the new weaponry) but the components involved are really tight and so I didn't want to go through the hassle of assembling and disassembling these. It would have been nice if Bandai had included a second pair of bottom components of the two launchers, then you could simply have changed the entire assemblies since they are attached by a simple peg.

The sticker set is of course also different, you will not get the classic Char Aznable "G-clef" but a couple of different insignia instead. Just like with the Nu Gundam I have forgone using a number of the yellow stickers included with the kit. Instead I applied some acrylic yellow and black marker pen around those areas, mainly the various exhausts on the shoulders and front skirt, as well as some detail on the sides and back of the figure.


Just like with the Nu Gundam the Sazabi was originally included in the second wave of Mobility Joint figures. The OG figure has a nice dark red finish which is perhaps a bit more exotic than it needed to be but I quite like it. Again, there is a third version of the Sazabi also in bright red for those who prefer its more typical colour scheme. Notice the different funnel assemblies on the two figures backs - the P-Bandai figure's launchers are opened up to the sides a bit and nobody is home. Again, the standard launchers as seen on the dark red figure are also included with this kit.


The FF-Sazabi's signature weapons are the two enormous Double Horn Funnels that replace the usual six-piece funnel kit. When not in use they are plugged into the funnel assembly for recharging and can also swing forward over the shoulders similar to the LR Funnel on the Nu-Gundam. I didn't plug the funnels all the way into the launcher because it is a bit of a pain to get them out of there again, I recommend selecting one pose and then sticking with it because as soon as you start handling Mobility Joint figures they tend to have parts come off them left and right.


Each funnel also has a handlebar that allows them to be handled like large beam cannons. You have to do a bit of parts swapping to transform the funnels into activated mode. First you remove several components at the back to open up the rear compartment and then you have to remove the handles and attach them in a different position. I don't really appreciate fiddly parts conversion such as this and much prefer a pre-sculpted figure in a pre-selected pose. The latter also removes the need for delicate joints and ugly connector pieces but hey, this is what Mobility Joint is all about.


There are a total of three different Sazabi figures in the line, I'll come back and update this family photo once I cover the review of the Mobility Joint Gundam SP set which is basically a re-colour set of various figures that were previously released.




Conclusion

So, should you seek out the Side-F figures to add to your own Mobility Joint collection? If you are only interested in canon-type mobile suits there is no need to look into this box, the weapons are cool but kind of outlandish and you likely already have these two mobile suits since before anyway. If you are thinking that hey, I like these colours better than those used on the figures from volume two, you are better off seeking out the SP-figure set. This P-Bandai set is one of the easier to find on the Mobility Joint after market but the price remains around the ¥6000-mark so if you have no particular interest in Side-F you can safely skip this set.