Hot on the heels of Quattro Bajeena's Hyaku-Shiki mobile suit, the Assault Kingdom line continues to storm through the Zeta line-up with another remarkable design, the Axis Zeon Qubeley. Supposedly designed by Haman Karn herself (what was she smoking?) it is Axis' next-gen Newtype mobile suit, incorporating a deadly Funnel type weapon system evolved from the bit-weapon technology on earlier Zeonic test beds such as the Elmeth.
Given its sheer size it comes as no surprise that the Qubeley is featured as an EX figure. It comes in the same large box type we have seen used for the Hyaku-Shiki and the Full Armor Unicorn. At first glance I thought the figure seemed a bit barren in comparison to previous EX releases. There are after all not a whole lot of accessories for the Qubeley.
Opening this sucker up I realized what was eating up all that space; it is all those clear parts and pieces. It almost looks as if the Qubeley itself could be persuaded to be stuffed into a regular Assault Kingdom box. And since this is a Japanese product we do of course find the classic shokugan chewing gum inside the box.
The Assault Kingdom Qubeley released in Japan in February 2016 with a suggested price tag of ¥2000. My particular figure comes from a Japanese shop where it sold for ¥1500 though, so I am not quite sure just how Bandai are going about with their pricing system.
So what are my impressions of the actual figure itself? Well, after some initial fiddling with assembly -the wing binders proved a bit frustrating to attach to their swiveling supports- I was quite impressed to see it in action. The articulation on this monster is much better than I had expected and although this figure is primarily a space type suit it stands firmly when on the ground as well.
The poseability of this figure is very impressive and easily outperforms the Hyaku-Shiki here, which seems odd considering how the latter has a very slim and traditional build. The large transparent action base included with the Qubeley is also of the very steady type (comparable to that of the Kshatriya) and is an extremely useful accessory for any Assault Kingdom figure to benefit from. The EX figures are almost worth getting for these items alone.
As great as the Qubeley is, it comes off a bit lacking in the accessory department. This is purely in line with the design of course, when you pack ten funnel weapons under your pants that tends to be enough, but at least we can also enjoy two very long and translucent beam sabers (again highly usable for any Assault Kingdom figure).
Just like with the Kshatriya (and to an extent the Sazabi) the Assault Kingdom Qubeley has been armed with ten optional funnel weapons, attached to equally many curved transparent sticks. The latter are intended to clip on to a ring assembly which attaches to the Qubeley's back skirt (or optionally into slots on the action base itself). You can use these add-ons to simulate the launching of the funnel type weapons. I am not a huge fan of these Assault Kingdom funnels as I think they clutter and busy the whole look of the figure, but it is nevertheless a pretty cool feature if you avoid going completely overboard.
Conclusion
Overall I was pleasantly surprised by the Qubeley although its lack of awesome accessories makes it a little less impressive than the previous EX figures and the fact that Bandai plan to recycle it as the AMX-004-2 and AMX-004-3 irks me a bit but I guess that was to be expected. It is a great figure though, and a lot of value is added by the superb action base, so I can still easily recommend it to Assault Kingdom freaks out there.
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| "What do you mean shoulder pads are a thing of the eighties?" |
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| The rather impressive Assault Kingdom Zeta Line-up at this point. Still, I will remain fantasizing about a Nemo, a Gabthley and a Marasai too... |
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