SD Gashapon Senshi Forte EX 05 : Full Armor Knight Gundam & Monster Black Dragon

Yeah I know... our Senshi Forte reviews are all over the place at this point. Eventually we're gonna catch up to all of them but today we are going to look at a release from last November. It is a Premium Bandai release with a price tag of ¥3980. I ended up paying ¥5000 for what is basically two vending machine toys with a couple of extra gimmicks. Job well done...

Although they are not everyone's favourites, The Gasapon Senshi Forte series continues to have a soft spot for the SD Gaiden and Sengokuden and what-have-you comic book style fantasy adventures where the mobile suits take on personalities of their own and fight monsters and historical enemies alike. Even now Bandai are doing a new SD Gundam World series where the mobile suits cross paths with Chinese Warrior King history, motorbikes and corporate culture...

The box is filled up with half a dozen parts bags and a simple instruction leaflet. The figures are your basic Senshi Forte size and shape although they also come with a couple of extra accessories.

Knight Gundam parts above and Black Dragon parts below...

If you like the SD style warrior figures Senshi Forte is really one of the best places for you to collect them unless you want to go up in size and hit the various model kit lines.
 

Full Armor Knight Gundam

As far as I understand things, the Full Armor Knight Gundam is apparently the regular Knight Gundam with some extra legendary armor applied. So it would be the same character as the Knight Gundam, a character we have also seen in the Senshi Forte line, as a regular figure.

At the first sight, the components look a little daunting in their complexity but the fiddly parts come together easily through assistance of the instruction leaflet. First up we see the figure in its "Centaur Mode" in which it goes full cosplay with angelic-style wings and a Centaur-esque body.

That's right, mobile suits with horse legs because why not...  This is a feature that the Knight Gundam retains from its origin as Musha Gundam Mk-III where it was also seen. For some reason I have yet to see the regular Knight Gundam in Centaur Mode so I don't really know if this is supposed to be exclusive to the Full Armor design. I'm not so sure the designers know themselves...

The Centaur legs and horse tail are articulated to allow for some extra goofy poses although you can also retract the hind legs forward and upwards to fold them into something resembling a typical mobile suit backpack. This is quite neat and looks eons better than the four legged version I think.

If you still think the legs on the back are silly they can be easily removed. You can also remove the wing binders and place a nice red cloak at the back instead. These accessories are mutually exclusive, so you'll have to go with one or the other.

While I think the figure looks much better with its red cape it at the same time looks more similar to the basic Knight Gundam figure. For that reason it would probably make more sense to keep it in Centaur Mode but so far the red cape is winning out.

Above you can see the Full Armor Knight Gundam next to the Senshi Forte Knight Gundam (released in volume 04, September 2017) and below next to the old Gundam Converge Full Armor Knight Gundam (EX 06, released May 2015).

Notice how the Senshi Forte FA Knight Gundam is missing the large lance accessory, even though it was included with the base Knight Gundam figure. This would be my only complaint against this figure. I can understand that it would be messy to introduce a third backpack option just to let it hang somewhere but it could at least have been added as a simple hand held weapon choice.
  

Monster Black Dragon

Every time I look at the Monster Black Dragon figure my brain thinks Satan Gundam and for good reason. The lore regarding this character is quite perplexing. The way it goes is that the Knight Gundam and the Satan Gundam are both manifestations of the Musha Gundam Mk-III's good and evil traits. The Mk-III is somehow split in half and enters into an existential battle between its two sides and ultimately the Knight Gundam kills Satan Gundam. Just how that would work metaphysically is not something I am going to dwell on.

Well, someone must have figured that this design was too badass to kill off so the story does not end there. While the body of Satan Gundam falls into a volcano (ouch) its spirit instead somehow manages to merge with a baby dragon and a legendary sword in another world and reappear as Neo Black Dragon. I am going to assume that box cover name Monster Black Dragon is that very same thing.

This whole dragon-resurrection thing would explain why the Satan Gundam design now has two more horns on its head, teeth style design on its armor and even a little point dragon tail.

Above you can see the Monster Black Dragon next to the regular Senshi Forte Satan Gundam figure (released in volume 07, October 2018). Notice the subtle differences between the two designs. However, the major feature of the Monster Black Dragon figure is that now the cape has turned into major dragon wings...

This upgrade is sooooo beautiful. The new version of this figure is great, although it seems odd that its hands are now navy blue instead of gray. The same problem is apparent in its wooden staff which has also lost its brown colour application (which the retail Satan Gundam figure was lucky enough to get). As for weapon choices I don't know if the figure is supposed to have some kind of magic sword or not, he did fuse with a legendary blade after all. Still, this figure looks imposing enough that it wouldn't really be needed anyway.

The Musha Gundam Mk-III (which is a Gashapon Warrior NEXT series Premium Bandai release) was cursed and split into the Knight Gundam and Satan Gundam, both of which got evolutions in the form of Full Armor Knight Gundam and Monster Black Dragon. The two of them will later combine again into Superior Dragon, a figure not yet released in this figure line.

If you enjoy the Sengokuden saga figures that have been spamming into the various Gashapon SD figure lines this set would be a real must have for the Monster Black Dragon figure alone. Even though I am not a huge fan of these storylines I absolutely adore the many detailed figures that have been released up to this point.

However, Senshi Forte volume 09 will be the first retail wave of figures without an SD character which is a little bit disheartening. And with the entire SF figure line in danger of extinction the Command Gundam out of Senshi Forte volume 08 may well turn out to become the last entry in this charming line of figures. I keep my fingers crossed that we will see at least also a Superior Dragon in this line to complete the lore surrounding the Musha Mk-III.