Today I have a really unusual artefact to present, an item I recently stumbled on simply by chance. It is the Fusion Works Gundam Ultimate File publication, which is a glossy book (more like a product catalogue than anything else) published by Dengeki Hobby Books whose logo also appears in the top corner on the front cover. According to the production notes on the last page the book was formally releases on March 20th 2008. The price listed on the back cover is 2500 yen.
At this point in FWUO history the series had already folded, with the last figures of Operation Maelstrom appearing already a year ago in March 2007. And to this end the book is not dedicated solely to the Ultimate Operation series, but also contains material on the first two volumes of the recently initiated STANDart figures series, also manufactured by Fusion Works. As such, the book is not an exclusive FWUO tome, although for the Ultimate Operation collector it is a complete reference guide and as such quite seminal.
The book itself is in landscape format and sits inside a portrait-oriented cardboard cover, to match the size of your typical Dengeki Hobby Magazine. It is roughly 100 pages but wastes no time on unnecessary words. The first page is an index, and from then it starts presenting full artwork spreads of the FW UO figures in the order they appear. You will recognize the style of the artwork from the miniature images on the Ultimate Operation packaging back covers, where the actual figures are presented against computer generated backdrops, often with augmentations such as glowing eyes or motion blur effects. Sadly there is no text or other facts presented but just the pictures themselves.
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| The YMS-15 Gyan from FWUO vol. 9 shares page with the two RGM-79SP GM Sniper II figures from FWUO vol. 10. |
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| The two MSM-03C Hy-Gogg figures from FWUO volume 10 in some dramatically enhanced portrait shots. |
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| Char's MS-14S Gelgoog and a litter of MS-09 Doms (this time around without the Black Tri-Star numbers on them), all from the reissue figures from the UC0079 series. |
Interspersed between the action shots we find the real meat of the book however, the figure series data. Here each figure wave is quickly summarized and the book also points out some basic details about each figure, such as if there are marking variations or special gimmicks or transformations. You will find most of this information on the individual figure cards as well, but not as nicely displayed and detailed as here.
The below spread is of particular interest, displaying all the limited figures (which of course are not mentioned on the regular figure card backs) as well as the two FW EX figures released in 2005. I myself didn't even know about the Burstliner model until now, a model which I will now have to begin searching for (rather fruitlessly I fear).
Nearing the end of the book we also get a short summary of the first two STANDart waves of figure, although there is no additional artwork associated with these figures (dear FW can we also have a meaty STANDart reference as the series epitaph now that the series has been killed off?). The very last page before the end titles is titled "Special Comments" and contains three articles that I would have loved to read, except everything except the heading is in Japanese only (you knew it).
Overall, I find this book highly relevant as a reference guide for any serious Ultimate Operation collector. I don't know how rare it is, since I normally do not bother with the Dengeki Gundam products, but my guess is it is probably tricky to find though probably not very expensive.
Before we go, let's just zoom in on a couple of these awesome suits:
Hello, thank you very much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if you might have more information about the Burstliner.
I only find a piece of information here
http://www.zincpanic.com/view_toy_line.phtml?toys=24979
Hello, thank you for asking. I went back to the book and studied it a bit closer. On that page, only the Z Gundam figure has a price and release date assigned to it. I ran the text for the Burstliner (which is hilariously spelled "Bustliner" in the text and even on the photos) through the Google Translate app and got the following:
Delete"Full Armor Gundam CG for package that appeared in U010. A praiseworthy dish made just for you. Its volume and existence. Even if you're not a fan of Full Armor Gundam, be sure to get it! It's a workmanship that you would think E. Many people expected it to be commercialized."
The text refers back to the Full Armor Gundam figure released in volume 10 so it was apparently going to be an accessory. At this point I am pretty sure it never made it into production. I certainly have not seen any further proof that it exists beyond this very book and the text seems to indicate it is not confirmed for release. This book also came out during the era when STANDart began replacing Ultimate Operation and so the Burstliner is probably a casualty that never got to happen. I get bad flashbacks to the majestic Vajra warrior from Macross 7 that was supposed to go into Bandai's S.H. Monsterarts line. :/
hello, thank you very much for the information.
ReplyDeleteI have some information concerning 1/220 gundam that you might be interested in.
One is the toybook line (two series, Jaburo and A-baoa-qu). It is also sold as GUNDAM DIORAMA COLLECTION in the mainland of china。
Banpresto has a series named weathring and lighting diorama. There are two sets in 1/220. One is rx-78-2 plus char's zaku and zaku2, the other is gp01, gp02 plus dom. GP02 is much better than the unfive one.
Also, banpresto has a series named 機動戦士Zガンダム 可変モビルスーツ. IT contains zeta gundam and NRX-055 (YELLOW VERSION AND RED VERISION). I think for a 1/220 collector, the nrx-055 is super nice.
For the DX series you mentioned in one of your post, the first line is just two zeta gundam in around 1/144.
Cheers. I am familiar with the sets you mentioned but haven't yet expanded into those series. The Toybook and Transformable Zeta Gundam figures aren't that expensive but the packaging is rather bulky and so their effect on shipping costs usually sees them bumped off my orders. :)
DeleteI was wondering if you might know this figures.
ReplyDeletehttp://acg.78dm.net/ct/13898.html
http://acg.78dm.net/ct/13899.html
http://acg.78dm.net/ct/13900.html
http://acg.78dm.net/ct/13901.html
http://acg.78dm.net/ct/13902.html
http://acg.78dm.net/ct/13903.html
Sorry that there are chinese websites. But from the picutures you can see that they are a special variant of FWUO. I seach over the internet but does not have more information about them. They seems really cool.
Really nice figures. These are definitely someone's creative customizations. Apart from repaints and decals the Gyan looks like it has borrowed the cannons from a UO Guncannon. You can see that the boxed figures still sit in their original Bandai boxes (the Sazabi is from Ultimate Operation Plus 4, the Z'Gok from volume 8 and the Gyan from volume 9). The stickers on the blister pack have even been covered with custom stickers which is a nice touch. The large Zock figure next to the Hy-Gogg looks like the enormous 1/300 figure from Strategy of Gundam EX II.
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