Sneak Peek : Universal Unit Volume 1

So... after much deliberation, I decided I wanted to take the plunge. I was curious to find out more about the Universal Unit figures but the prices at which these figures are being sold outside of Japan are an effective cooler. In the end I decided to pick up a full set of eight, sold by a seller in Taiwan. If I was going to test the waters I might as well do it properly.

I only just received the package yesterday, but going through the contents I had a couple of revelations that I wanted to share here. And since a full review will most likely not be appearing here anytime soon, this post will be a first impressions look to give those of you still on the fence some more input of what to expect.

This box is the standard packaging for the Universal Unit figures of wave one. Each box contains ten models, presumably all eight variations and two duplicates. The boxes are intended as store displays or insta-buys for completist collectors.

As I mentioned earlier, a regular box contains ten figures, here are my eight as pre-selected by the seller, who opened all the boxes to inspect them prior to shipping them.

The individual figures of volume one are packed in these miserably boring boxes, which in true Japanese gashapon collectable fashion are similar for all the figures in the set. The idea is of course that you are not supposed to be able to cherry pick the figures you are really after, and preferably end up paying for more goods than you really wanted just to secure them.

However, in the case of Universal Unit, Bandai decided to offer a little helping hand. The topside of the box clearly denotes which of the four mobile suit types you will find in the box, however, you will not know if you are getting the A or B version, each of which features different accessories. This is better than nothing I suppose, but a huge let down compared to shokugan figures like Converge and Assault Kingdom, where each figure had its own clearly branded box, with nice artwork to boot.

The really big surprise for me, however, was when I opened the boxes to take a look at the figures themselves. Let's walk through the four major mobile suit types and the different components that come with them:

01 : RX-78-02 Gundam (The Origin Version). In the above picture you can see three plastic bags, marked [1], [1]-A and [1]-B. You will of course only find two bags in one box, the bag marked [1] is common for both versions, and then you will get either the A or B bag depending on luck. As you can see here, the A version contains the beam rifle and a shoulder cannon, while set B features the shield, a beam saber and a bazooka. Notice also the sticker sheet in the common bag. These figures are really model kits and nothing else.

02 : MS-06S Zaku II Char's Custom) (The Origin Version). Again a combination picture showing the common bag and the two variants for the A and B version. Again we are seeing a minor difference in accessories only. Yet Bandai saw it fit for us to buy two figures just to get one extra item.

03 : ASW-G-08 Gundam Barbatos. Combination shot of the different components for the two Barbatos types. Notice here that the common bag [3] is in the bottom left corner. At least on these figures we are getting some more variations in the parts but still not enough to convince me I need two figures.

04 : RX-78NT-1 Gundam NT-1 "Alex". The last figure in the set is frankly also the only one that really interests me here. The NT-1 "Alex" appears here in both the standard variant and in its "Full Armor" Chobham layered armor variant. Still, the major difference here is the inclusion of half a dozen of bulky armor components, not even the "Alex" warrants the need for two figures.

Honestly, I was not prepared to receive model kits in these boxes, I had assumed that the Universal Unit figures would be a slightly more complex Assault Kingdom counterpart, perhaps with some more assembly but not to this level. I would imagine Gundam model kit fans would much rather be buying kits from the High Grade 1/144 scale model kit series rather than this. Between the "real" model kits as well as the easy to assemble "Mini Kit Collection" series that launched at the same time as Universal Unit, I am not sure who Bandai are targeting with this product range.

Assault Kingdom-owners wanting to expand their 1/220 collections seem like the most likely (and only?) target group, but why not try to steer them toward the HG series with literally hundreds of released kits instead? Universal Unit makes little sense to me right now.

To be continued... : )