Unifive Stardust Memory Collection : 08. RGC-83 GM Cannon II

In today's entry we are going to examine something new for the blog. I stumbled across a new (well, a rather old...) figure produced by Unifive in 1999, and immediately saw its potential interest to 1/220-scale collectors. The Unifive Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 Stardust Memory 1/220 Scale Full Color Mobile Suit Collection (or Stardust Memory Collection as we will refer to it here) appears to be a short-lived prepainted figure collection released in time for the 20th Gundam franchise anniversary. Compared to other figures reviewed on the blog these are mostly similar to the FW Ultimate Operation series which appeared a couple years later in 2003.

Similar to FWUO figures, the Stardust Memory Collection figures come carded like traditional action figures. Each figure has a collector's number and the back of the card shows all figures (well... more on that later) released in its wave. To my knowledge, there has been two different waves and possibly some reissues since I've seen some cardback differences between similar figures.

As you can see, the figure I got my hands on is the RGM-83C GM Cannon II, which makes its debut in the Stardust Memory anime like most of the figures contained in this collection. Although we have seen a few Stardust Memory figures in other related figure lines, none of them come even close to the variety encountered here, which makes this a very interesting figure series if you are looking to complete your 1/220 figure line.

So what about the actual figure? Well, the cardback claim that this is a "Super detailed" figure might be a bit overenthusiastic, as all Stardust Memory figures I've seen are a bit blocky and bulky looking. In the case of the GM Cannon II though, it happens to suit this particular mobile suit very well. The material appears to be some soft ABC plastic, quite similar to the FW Ultimate Operation figure series. The articulation though, is completely different. The GM Cannon II has what could best be described as dangling arms and legs. When you lift it by the torso the extremities will swing around in their sockets. The range of movement is not overly impressive though, but it offers a few minor variations compared to the more rigid figure we normally see in this scale. The arms do a full 360 at the shoulder as well as a gentle wiggle forward and back, and the legs have a little bit of forward, backward and sideways movement, as well as rotating in their sockets.

Notice that both hands are designed to hold a weapon or other accessory. On the left wrist we can also see a rather oversized peg for attaching a shield. If you paid attention to the previous photos though you will see that no such gear is present; the figure comes with two shoulder cannons that attach to the back and that's it. I suppose the idea was to let the Stardust Memory figures be able to swap gear with each other, but this still feels a bit cheap and unimpressive. The 1/400 scale RGC-80 from Gundam Collection, for example, came with both a shield and different weapons to equip, a poor effort from Unifive. Other figures in this range appear to suffer from similar problems. The GP02 Gundam Physalis for example, comes with a beefy shield but has neither a bazooka nor a beam saber... kind of a weak effort.

The Stardust Memory figures are advertised as 1/220 scale, which places them at the same approximate size as figures in the STANDart, Ultimate Operation and Assault Kingdom ranges, offering a nice expansion of available mobile suits. The RGC-83 is flanked here by a RGM-79SC GM Sniper Custom (STANDart volume 5) and a RGM-79C GM Type C (Desert Colors) from FW Ultimate Operation vol. 1.

As far as I know, a total of twelve basic mobile suits were produced, with a number of additional variations on top. The figures appear in two waves of eight figures each, yet individual figure numbering seems to suggest there are actually a few more variations available. According to the cardbacks though, each wave is comprised of six different mobile suits plus two alternative configurations. Below is a list of all known mobile suits from the Unifive Stardust Memory set:

Wave 1 (1999)
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RX-78GP01 Gundam "Zephyrantes"
RGM-79 Powered GM
MS-06F-2 Zaku II (two different variations)
RX-78GP02 Gundam "Physalis"
RGM-79N GM Custom (possibly two different variations)
RGM-79C GM Type C (two or three variations)


Wave 2 (1999)
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RX-78GP01Fb Gundam "Zephyrantes Fullburnern"
RGC-83 GM Cannon II
MF-14F Gelgoog Marine
MF-14Fs Gelgoog Marine (Cima Custom)
RX-78GP03S Gundam "Dendrobium Stamen" (a clear version also exists)
AGX-04 Gerbera-Tetra
MS-09F/TROP Dom Tropen (two different variations)

If you have Unifive Stardust Memory figures and are interested in trading them you can check the For Trade page here on the blog.