STANDart: GNR-010 0 Raiser (Dengeki Hobby Magazine special)

This time we're going to take a closer look at a curiosity in the STANDart figure line. Appearing bundled with the October 2010 issue of the Dengeki Hobby magazine is this 0 Raiser accessory pack. It is a peculiar way to release a kit, it won't be of any use to you unless you also happen to already own the GN-0000 double oh Gundam figure. The parent figure itself appeared in the regular STANDart volume 7 (as number 025), and was released in August of the same year. Technically you could also apply this kit to the companion figure 026 of the same line, which features the same GN-0000 Gundam in its glowing purple mode, but the colours of the accessories would be way off.

Alright, so we've established that the 0 Raiser pack is only an accessory kit. What then, does it contain? Well, as the picture above illustrates, you get some parts which can be used to re-equip the GN-0000 Gundam with the mighty GN Sword III weapon, and the companion 0 Raiser support fighter. The primary idea behind this fighter is for it to be mounted to the Gundam figure's back, and a small support is included for the fighter to rest upon when being suspended from the figure's back.

Let's begin by examining the GN Sword III, since this is the most obvious feature. As you can see from the sequence of photographs above the blade of the sword can be stowed or extended. The accessory has the same right hand as the original beam weapon and is freely interchangeable. An interesting detail is that if you compare it to the Gundam Converge figure set, the GN Sword (in its folded position) was used as an accessory of the 0 Raiser fighter jet. For the STANDart release there is however no method to combine the sword with the fighter (which would indeed have been odd considering there is a hand molded onto the part) which is disappointing.

Once you've put the sword in place you can also choose to stow the 0 Raiser. This is done by (cumbersomely) figuring out how to dismantle the Gundam's existing shoulder pads and replacing these with the wings of the fighter craft. There are no instructions whatsoever included with the kit (perhaps some were printed in the magazine itself) and it took me some head scratching to figure out how to go about this. The fact that the only clue is the vague silhouette on the box cover also did not help.

Above you can see the two GN-0000 Gundams of STANDart 7. The blue version has been pimped with the GN Sword III and the stowed pieces of the 0 Raiser fighter, i.e. the wings replace the standard shoulder pads, and the fighter's fuselage is mounted to its back.

Turning the attention to the 0 Raiser fighter jet, it consists of a couple of pieces which can either be assembled to display the fighter, or they can be placed onto the Gundam's body as we saw earlier. While it is easy to snap together the three pieces that make up the fighter, I struggled with all the leftover pieces. I couldn't figure out how to place it on the stand, or how to attach the sword to it. And most mysterious of all, how to attach its fuselage to the Gundam figure. The answers to those questions were all disappointing. Consider the following:

a) There is no stand. Really, what were they thinking? Who in their right mind will display the fighter jet belly down on the ground? There are no holes or pegs for you to attach it to a custom stand or action base, but if you have something useful that you can balance it on, you can try. On the right hand photo I borrowed the stand for the Gundam Converge 0 Raiser craft. Although it looks silly it still beats not having any stand at all.

The picture above shows the Dengeki STANDart 0 Raiser together with its little cousin from the Gundam Converge line (figure no. 52, released December 2012). As you can see, its little brother features both a nice clear stand and a GN Sword III which attaches to its belly. Which brings us to...

b) You can't attach the GN Sword III to the 0 Raiser. This is another serious blow to the fighter. Sadly you're clearly not supposed to display it as a stand alone model. Look at the two images above. The one to the left is again a make-shift act of balancing the sleek fighter on a stand which was not designed for it, in its sword-less condition. The second photo displays what I feel the 0 Raiser should have been allowed to look like. Obviously you can see I have fiddled to great extent to create this appearance, and the only thing I do is mimicking the Gundam Converge 0 Raiser which can do all this out of the box. And, for the final nail in the coffin...

c) yes, you can attach the fighter to the Gundam figure but it looks absolutely ridiculous. Once you figure out how to do it (by removing the engine section from the fuselage and replacing it with a pegged counterpart you can snap it into a hole in the Gundam's back) you will end up with the 0 Raiser sticking out from the back like in the image above. Since you can't see it from the front, the only good it does is occupying more of your precious shelf space...

I think you can begin to see my disappointment here. The STANDart 0 Raiser should have been a beautiful display item, but instead has been relegated to being a stupid backpack. The GN Sword III is a nice touch, and I suppose you can upgrade to the bigger shoulder pads if you want your blue GN-0000 Gundam stand out a bit more from the purple version, but overall this kit is such a tremendous disappointment that I stuffed the 0 Raiser back into its box and equipped the blue GN-0000 Gundam with the sword only.