The Sazabi is both a highly popular and a rather beefy mobile suit. These qualities make it a good candidate for milking it for a special release. As such we have seen EX and SP figures focusing on it in Gundam Converge and Assault Kingdom. In fact, Mobile Suit Ensemble takes a page from the Assault Kingdom history right here and presents us with a figure which comes bundled with the Back Weapon Set accessory for the Re-GZ, a mobile suit that was released in the basic Ensemble figure line.
The Ensemble EX08 pack is a Premium Bandai special which was released through their limited P-Bandai service in November 2018. The kit could be preordered at a cost of ¥4200 and I picked up mine from Mandarake in early December paying slightly above that, ¥4500, so it will probably be one of those figures that will retain its value quite well.
Just like the EX07 Gundam Double X the Sazabi and the BWS come in individual boxes numbered one and two chucked into the overall box. These boxes are typically so tightly packed that it is difficult to manage to fit everything back inside them again.
MSN-04 Sazabi
We'll begin by examining the Sazabi mobile suit. In fact this figure is large enough that not all of its parts fit in just
one box, so you will find some of its components inside box two as well. Here is however the contents of box one; missing are the standardized Ensemble connector pieces and figure stand, which are found in box two.
If you are familiar with the Ensemble figures you will find that the Sazabi build is pretty straightforward. You also don't need to look up instructions on the Bandai website since an instruction sheet is included. As always the main challenge with Ensemble figures is inserting the connector pieces in the arms and legs correctly and not upside down. The Sazabi also has a replacement sprue with its own custom torso and hip connector pieces since the suit is slightly bulkier.
The Sazabi is completed and it is looking pretty good. I can't put my finger on it but somehow it looks a bit slimmer than I had anticipated. Even as a deformed figure it looks pretty anorectic, surely it should have been a bit bulkier? Look on the box front cover and tell me is this the same figure as shipped in the box?
However I can understand why it looks the way it does. Real-life mobile suits don't just move as fluidly as their 2D-counterparts and the articulation is pretty limited even in this slimmed down configuration. You won't get a whole lot of poses out of this figure but that is the way Ensemble usually goes.
The figure comes with three weapon choices apart from its funnel rack attached to its backpack and an optional shield. The main Beam Tomahawk is composed of a nice mix of transparent and opaque plastic while the two rifle choices (the Beam Shot Rifle and the Long Beam Rifle) are simple one colour pieces with the all-too-usual ugly Ensemble connector holes punched right through them. Unlike the previous Assault Kingdom figure the Ensemble Sazabi cannot deploy the Funnels in any way.
Apart from gear choices we also get three different types of hands. This is something that is very unusual for Ensemble figures and it is very welcome. Apart from the two standard holding hands we also have expressive open hands and clenched fist choices for both left and right hand.
The figure comes with the standardized MSE stand which is as useless as ever. This is in my opinion one of the least successful features of all of Ensemble. The stand does not allow for any expressive posing, the figure is just lifted straight up from the ground so it can dangle its legs. Figures on these stands are easily toppled if they lean too much in any direction. You can build a sturdier variation of the stand by combining pieces from two figures; giving the base four legs instead of two. I wish they would have come up with a way to make Ensemble connector pieces that went on to the fantastic stands that come with the Assault Kingdom series instead.
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| The Sazabi facing off against its rival the Nu Gundam and being backed up by a pair of Geara Dogas. The other figures are standard retail Ensemble figures. |
Overall the Sazabi is a fine Ensemble figure and it fills out the
Char's Counterattack suite really nicely. In fact this is one of the better line-ups you can find from a Gundam TV-series or movie in Ensemble.
B.W.S. Re-GZ Back Support System
Included with the Sazabi is the bizarre Back Weapon System for the Earth Federation Re-GZ mobile suit. You can find the Re-GZ itself in Mobile Suit Ensemble Part 07 which was released a couple of months earlier in August 2018 as a regular ¥500 retail figure. Interestingly, at the time of this review the Re-GZ figure has gone up in price rather significantly. This is probably due to the fact that its distribution in the blind boxes appears to have been very limited since the Part 07 boxes were absolutely crammed with Geara Dogas and equipment parts for them. In our own review of Ensemble Part 07 the box we looked through contained only one Re-GZ and only one G-Defenser while there were two Gundam Mk-IIs and three Geara Dogas (plus three equipment sets for them) inside.
While the Re-GZ Back Weapon System accessory is fairly complex for what it is not all pieces in the photo are intended for it. The three (somewhat) circle-shaped sprues are in fact components used by Sazabi that could not fit in the first box.
We can build and display the Back Weapon System both as a stand-alone fighter and docked together with the Re-GZ figure. Above you can see the stand alone fighter mode, i.e. what you can expect to assemble based on the components included with the Sazabi. It is a pretty solid construction that will hold together well, which isn't always the case with this type of support craft. The BWS also comes with its own custom stand which is modular (to accommodate both display modes of the figure) and here we have a sturdy and stable base plate keeping the figure upright easily. Of course it is also completely unarticulated so the pose you see here is the pose you will get.
"Blink and you miss it" would be an apt description of the B.W.S.' appearance in Char's Counterattack. We see it getting blasted to pieces only a few moments into the movie, where Amuro Ray is duelling Gyunei Guss' mighty Jagd Doga. The way the story goes, the Re-GZ was an attempt at mass-producing the transformable MSZ-006 Z Gundam, by removing its high-speed mobile armor-mode and replacing it with this dockable support craft. The Re-GZ never reached beyond prototype stage however, since the cost involved was still too great.
To combine the Re-GZ retail figure with the BWS craft you will first do some parts-swapping on the Re-GZ figure itself. The feet are removed and replaced with a pair with toes pointing backwards, the rifle and shield accessories are completely removed and a new shield component is attached to the figure's chest by removing the little red cockpit hatch. Then the figure can easily be inserted into the hollow of the support craft and two clamps are moved up to close it in. The stand is modified somewhat and attached to the mobile suit's chest.
The engineers have done a good job putting this figure combo together, and the final construction is also solid. Still, the figure retains the boring non-customizable
flying straight forward in a line-pose which means interesting dioramas are out of the question.
There are a lot of hardpoints available on the BWS if you want to deck it out with some other custom gear. And on that topic it is hard to ignore the ugly red circles popping out through the top of the wings. Why this hole was not covered up on the topside I don't really know.
The good news are that the Re-GZ's shield is compatible with the Assault Kingdom action bases so if you also have Assault Kingdom figures in your collection you can create more interesting poses for the figure. The modular AK bases are in fact great for posing pretty much anything in Gashapon or Shokugan scale if you allow yourself to rely on basic physics rather than connectors to hold them up.
Conclusion
Although there are a few areas for improvement here and there I think that the Sazabi and Back Weapon Set is a pretty solid Ensemble figure release that is bound to please most Ensemble collectors. It doesn't appear to be completely unobtainable just yet but I have a feeling that this set will be one of those that become tricky to source in the future. Kind of like the first EX set - the Full Armor Unicorn figure which I ignored for a little too long...
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