SD Gashapon Senshi Forte 08

While the Senshi Forte figure line appears to continue its mad tightrope act in the shadow of the executioner's axe it still shows no signs of being scaled back. Volume 09 is scheduled for release in June and we've seen hints of the planned line-up for volume 10. The summer holiday season will see the Alpha Azieru out as a premium figure but beyond this time frame we don't know where the series is bound to go. According to Bandai while the series has been very popular with customers it has also been dipping into the red as far as money matters go. The SD figure designs have finally evolved beyond the point of their own good. What the future holds in store only Bandai knows at this point.

Today's review look into the retail side of the figure series, this eight set of figures were pumped out both as the boxed figures you see here and as capsule toys in Gashapon machines. The set released all the way back in January this year with suggested prices of ¥300 per figure. This low figure price is also the curse and perhaps bane of the Senshi Forte series. Bear in mind that the original SD FullColor figures started out at ¥100, the NEXT series brought them up to ¥200 and the DASH figures reached ¥300. Perhaps if Senshi Forte would have been allowed to climb into the ¥400 range it would not have looked so grim right now.

I usually pick up my Senshi Forte figures piecemeal but for this review I was also able to grab a 12-box from Mandarake. I was really curious to see what the distribution between the different figures would be. As you may recall, the Senshi Forte line started out with six figures per set. When they hit part 04 a seventh figure was added then it went back to six again. Starting at volume seven however the count was reduced to five.

I was kind of fretting that this set would follow the nasty habit of three sets of four, where the last figure would either be the A or B colour version of the GuAIZ, thus leaving these at a greater rarity. However I found that the figures were all equally distributed in twos, and then there were two extras of one of them. In this case it was the Duel Gundam, so I ended up with two of each except the Duel which got four. The distribution looked like this:

Row 1: Freedom Gundam / GuAIZ (gray)
Row 2: Freedom Gundam / GuAIZ (gray)
Row 3: Command Gundam / Duel Gundam
Row 4: Command Gundam / Duel Gundam
Row 5: GuAIZ (green) / Duel Gundam
Row 6: GuAIZ (green) / Duel Gundam

If you also purchased a box I would be interested to know if your box followed a similar pattern. Anyway, enough blabbering, on to the figures themselves:
  

F049 : ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam

The first figure in this set, which is also the poster boy for the box, is in my opinion also the least interesting. Not that it is a bad figure in anyway, it is just not up to the level of the rest of the figures in this set. The Freedom is also one of those figures we see time and again, often accompanied by the Aile Strike. It kind of rubs me the wrong way that the Aegis and the Justice are allowed to be forgotten just as often.

The Senshi Forte version of this figure comes armed with its signature beam rifle and a pair of option parts for its hip mounted railguns. The latter two can be parts swapped with the stowed guns and fit on tiny little pegs on the figure's hips. These pegs aren't very sturdy and they tend to want to bend when you attach the guns so the result may a bit wild, with the barrels pointing in wildly different directions.

The wing binder components are also articulated. Each wing binder section contains three pieces where the two outer wing components are pegged onto the center piece. I had massive trouble with moving these on my figure and again it feels like the pegs aren't super sturdy so I refrained from messing with the wings on my figure. A bit unfortunate in my opinion as the wings are supposed to open like you can see on the box cover.

It is a fine figure I guess, if you sit on a spare Duel Gundam you can also consider stealing its beam saber to give Kira a second weapon choice. I think this would have been a better choice than the railguns although it is fun when the designers try out something less common as well.
   

F050 : GAT-X102 Duel Gundam

The Duel Gundam is the third in the line of Earth Alliance prototype suits that has come to Senshi Forte, following the Buster and the Aile Strike from the previous wave. I really like this figure a lot, it just looks so menacing and the proportions are much cleaner than the rather busy Freedom figure. The Duel simply lends it quite well to the super deformed treatment.

The Duel is armed with both its unique looking beam rifle, a translucent beam saber and a delightfully well-painted shield. I really like it when the figures are allowed to get an extra accessory or two; it just opens up many possibilities for customization and weapon trading with other figures.

Somewhat surprisingly I found that that Duel Gundam is not nearly as common in super deformed format as its Assault Shroud version. While the Shroud is of course also a great design I enjoy the clean lines of the Duel as well.

After digging through my collection I found a Duel Gundam from SD FullColor Stage 36 (which for some reason was released with a red shield) and a couple of Assault Shroud versions from SD FullColor Stage 41 and SD FullColor Custom 04 respectively.
   

F051 : SDV-04 Command Gundam

Now, here is where things are starting to get really interesting. One of the aspects of the Senshi Forte retail sets is that we have always got a SD Gundam anime or manga character figure trailing at the end of the set. Up until this point it has been mainly Musha Gundam variations, but here is a brand new face armed with a plethora of modern era weaponry. Together with the Knight Gundam and the Musha Gundam, the Command Gundam is one of the mainstays of the SD Command Senki series and the figure itself is a mix between the Full Armor Gundam and a wild parody on American Gung-Hoism.

The rockets in the launcher box have been painted with acrylic orange, the rest of the figure is shown as-is out of the box.

Now here is a figure where Bandai spared no expense. Just look at all the wild accessories for this figure. Three different weapon choices, an over the shoulder slung rocket launcher and elaborate helmet add-ons for targeting.

As you can expect, the huge rocket launcher has a tendency to want to list, and in fact drag the figure with it when placed on the stand. This can be mitigated by rotating the base to better support the figure's center of mass. Notice also the two right feet in the parts shot above. I didn't notice at the time and subsequently had to break out one of my duplicates to get a proper left foot. Parts packaging mistakes such as these are very rare for Gashapon and Shokugan figures although it has happened to me once or twice before.

It is possible that the Command Gundam will be the final SD character release of the entire Senshi Forte line. Hopefully the line can continue to grow even in the event that the series is replaced by a new figure series.
   

F052 : ZGMF-600 GuAIZ

Alright, here is where things are starting to get really interesting for me. I was really disappointed that I wasn't able to build up a nice unit of GINNs from Senshi Forte part 07 but I had better luck with volume 08. However, I did end up having to purchase a couple of full sets just to get to the precious GuAIZ figures although the other duplicates weren't completely useless as we shall see.

I love mobile suits with base colours other than white, and the grunt-style GuAIZ comes in a sexy olive green with some paints in various bright colours and rounding the design off with a sexy monoeye. I like dual eyes and V-fins as much as the next guy but the monoeye designs always tend to grab and hold my interest.

The GuAIZ or "Gates" as it would typically be pronounced has an interesting background. It was originally submitted as an entry into the Gundam SEED Mecha Contest 2002 and went on to relieve the GINNs and DINNs in the niche of getting constantly beaten up by Raider, Forbidden and Calamity as Gundam SEED drew towards its close. It has a lot in common also with the CGUE and seems to borrow a lot of design elements from it.

For army builder suits to really shine you typically want some gear options and the Senshi Forte GuAIZ figure is woefully weak in this regard. In fact it only comes with a single beam rifle and its composite shield which is supposed to feature two beam saber-like claws which are sadly not present here. You can however replace the left and right arms if you want to fiddle around with making the gunner left-handed or maybe ditching the shields completely if you have more than one figure.

The GuAIZ is also a rather uncommon bird in the Super Deformed format. I have a couple from SD FullColor Stage 45 as seen above. There are also three variants in the FullColor Custom line, one green with its beam claw extended, one in the gray commander colours and one GuAIZ-R.
   

F053 : ZGMF-600 GuAIZ (Commander Colours)

The last figure is of course the colour-swap version of the GuAIZ in what is normally referred to as commander colours. I don't really know if any commanders other than Rau le Creuset have been seen sporting this livery (which is for all intents and purposes basically the same style as the colours of his CGUE).

There are no parts or gear changes between the two GuAIZ figures, it would have livened it up if one figure would have come with a beam rifle and the other a beam shield.

Being a monoeye design the Senshi Forte GuAIZ figure retains the commonly seen rotating eye gimmick. The eye sits on a black painted disc which can be repositioned within the head to emulate the eye looking to the left and right. As usual I think that gazing to the side looks a bit goofy, you'd probably just want to rotate the head instead for a better pose.

Due to the figure's massive arms the rifle will not slide all the way down into the figure's hand. It looks a little bit clumsy but it is what it is. So, what did I do with all the extra Duel Gundam figures I got in my 12-box? Well, you guessed it. I ransacked the lot and converted the sabers into beam claws for the GuAIZ's composite shield. It is not a perfect fit since the claw is supposed to be a bit curved but the colour is very close to the real thing and I think this looks really cool. Yzak Joule will not be happy when I tell him...

I am really happy that Senshi Forte allowed us such a fine line of army builder figures from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. Of course you can always hope for more but this is such a great feature for me, one of my personal highlights out of the entire Senshi Forte series.

I doubt we will see any more Mobile Suit Gundam SEED figures in this format for some time now, but the Senshi Forte line has done a really good job thus far.

So, in conclusion I think that Senshi Forte part 08 is an excellent figure series and as such pretty much par for the course as far as Senshi Forte is concerned. If you enjoy super-deformed Gundam figures I dare say that Senshi Forte is currently the best out there on the market, giving also larger figures such as Mobile Suit Ensemble and Converge a bit of a run for their money. Heartily recommended!