Mobile Suit Ensemble Part 08

Today we are going back to the end of 2018 to review Mobile Suit Ensemble Part 08, which came out in the beginning of December. It has taken me quite a bit of aggressive searching to build up the critical mass I wanted for the review. While I did manage to find a full 5-piece set on Mandarake it also took me around 4 months to pick up the necessary duplicates I wanted to build enough variations without having to break figures apart time and again. While I am still short of one Heavygun I think we are now good to go. :)

Ensemble Part 08 was available both in Gashapon capsule form and random cardboard box version like the other sets. Up to this point I have only encountered and obtained one single cardboard version figure being sold so I would assume those 10-boxes were whisked up by AOZ fanatics early on. And although not visible in this review the Gashapon capsule versions come in the standard five colour codes used by previous Ensemble figures.
   

048 : F91 Gundam F91

The Mobile Suit Gundam F91 and its evolutions have received a lot of attention across several of the recent Bandai Gashapon and Shokugan figure lines. Apart from the F91 itself, this set also contains the Heavygun. Two additional EX figures were also released in parallel; one being the F90 in three different forms and another an option gear set for the F91 figure now laid out before us.

The parts shots for this wave does not include the Gashapon capsules but this F91 would appear in capsules made of transparent yellow plastic. As such the figures are prone to some deformation or bending as many components are made of soft plastic, such as the V-fin you see here.

This figure has received several paint applications for its vents and back pack to make it less "white".

The F91 figure is quite the looker. Out of the box the figure has nice paint applications on its head and torso but suffers from more sparse decorations on its extremities and the back. The figure comes with quite a lot of sculpt detail though, so customizers will have a lot of panel lines and body features to work with.

The figure comes with a beam rifle and its beam shield which is unfortunately deactivated (the deployed shield is available in the F91 Expansion Set). It also has extra parts for its two VSBRs to allow the F91 to hold them as were they regular rifles. The Variable Speed Beam Rifles can also be attached further down on the backpack to allow them to point forward much like the Freedom Gundam's two railguns. The available space is very cramped though, you will need to move the arms out of the way one way or another.

Here the bog standard F91 poses with a second figure which has received the upgraded backpack, a deployed beam shield and heat radiation fins deployed from the F91 Expansion Set. The translucent Afterimage Color Ver. figure is from the same Expansion Set.
   

049 : RGM-109 Heavygun

Veteran readers of the blog will know I have a soft spot for mass production mobile suits and the Heavygun earns extra points here, not only for being an army builder type but also for being a very rare figure. As far as I know it has only ever been featured here in Ensemble and in Gundam Converge (the latter being released almost in tandem in November 2018).

I guess you could say that the Heavygun follows the GM school of mobile suit design. It has a very pragmatic and basic look which I enjoy a lot. The mobile suit also has a very simplistic paint scheme but Bandai have at least tried to liven it up a bit with the nice shiny visor effect part as well as the black variable thrusters on its legs. Still, as you can see in these photos I have done a lot of additional paint apps on them to bring out vents and equipment.

The basic figure comes armed with its beam rifle and a nice large shield which is made of soft plastic and as such it is at high risk of being bent while stored inside its Gashapon capsule.

Luckily we have several additional gear choices for the Heavygun included in the equipment set so we will return to this figure a bit further down in this review.
   

050 : RX-124 Gundam TR-6 [Hyzenthlay II]

The third mobile suit in this set is yet another Titans Test Team design, Mobile Suit Ensemble has really been diving headfirst into this experimental mobile suit line and it deserves a lot of respect and credit for it. This is the third time an Advance of Zeta Gundam design pops up in the basic Ensemble figure line, then we have another three larger (and pricey...) figures n the Ensemble EX line as well.

I find the Advance of Zeta mobile suit program a bit intimidating to navigate, and it doesn't help that so many variations all share the RX-124 TR-6 classification. It is one of many designs to have been developed from the TR-6 Woundwort which we have also seen here in Ensemble before. The Hyzenthlay II by the way also goes by the name of Advanced Woundwort to make things a bit more complicated to remember.

I gave my Hyzenthlay-II some yellow and black detail as well as light gray in the elbow armor area.

I think the overall look and feel of the Hyzenthlay II is on the money. Although it retains the basic Ensemble articulation (except for moving feet) it still ends up looking rather static. Due to its miniscule feet (the suit was designed exclusively for space combat) I recommend making use of the Ensemble figure base which will also help give it that floating in space-feel that a suit of this calibre really needs. I have reinforced the base with two additional supports to make it more stable; the Ensemble stands are kind of a joke.

Here the Hyzenthlay II poses with two of its predecessors; the Hazel TR-1 from Ensemble Part 03 and the TR-6 Woundwort from Ensemble Part 04.

Again, this is a very obscure design and the only other figure representation that I know of is the 1:400 version in the Gundam Collection Gashapon figure series, where both a white and a blue colour version were released in 2008. Now that I think about it, it would be really cool if Bandai were to release an Ensemble Part 8.5 set containing the blue Hyzenthlay II as well as the blue F91 piloted Harrison Martin.
   

051 : FF-X29A G-Parts [Hrududu II]

The additional non-mobile suit vehicle this set is the Hrududu II which is a support craft for the Hyzenthlay II in the same fashion as the basic Hrududu was an add-on to the TR-1 Hazel. While the original Hrududu could be piloted by a human I don't really know if the Hrududu II is completely autonomous or not. The Gundam Wiki doesn't mention anything about it being pilotable but it sure looks like it has a cockpit.

Looking at the components in this box there is just no way I could figure out what in the world I was supposed to do to assemble this figure. Thankfully the Bandai Ensemble webpage features build instructions although they aren't always super clear to follow. You'd think something as complex as this should come with instructions.

Ok, so I assembled it and I have no idea what I am looking at. This looks like some sort of creepy mantis robot from some botched Terminator concept art. The whole craft seems to be centered along its long beam rifle which the mobile suit can also borrow and wield as a regular hand held weapon. Again, according to the Gundam Wiki the Hrududu II can actually equip two of these I have no idea if that would be possible to accomplish with the components we have been provided with Ensemble.

The Hrududu II craft is of course not compatible with the lousy Ensemble figure stands so you will probably want to come up with something creative to propel it from off the ground as it is intended to be zipping around in space after all.
   

052 : Equipment Set for Wave 08

The traditional Ensemble equipment set typically contains optional gear or accessories for some or all of the mobile suits in this wave. This particular set leans very heavily towards the Heavygun but there is something for everyone in the box (just to make sure you can't stay content with cherry picking the figures you like I suppose...).

There are roughly twenty components in the box, two of which are to be used by the Hyzenthlay, half a dozen for the F91 and the rest for the Heavygun.
  

Gundam F91 equipment

Somewhat surprisingly the F91 doesn't get a whole lot out of the equipment pack. The only really dedicated accessory is its Beam Launcher weapon which for all intents and purposes looks like your typical mobile suit bazooka. The launcher can be hand wielded or attached to the figure's back skirt.

There is also a generic Ensemble beam saber included in the set which I suppose we can give to the F91 since the lion's share of this parts package is dedicated to the Heavygun. Of course, any of the regular Ensemble figures will be able to wield it with ease.

Another F91-related item is not a mobile suit accessory at all, but a single infamous Bug type mass destruction weapon. They were fielded in huge numbers by the Crossbone Vanguard and intended to be used to eradicate all life on Earth. The Ensemble version of the Bug looks like a cog wheel straight out of a Lego Technic set. It is neat that it has two halves that you can rotate independently but the whole thing just looks super drab and screams for some colour.

The Ensemble version of the Bug looks painfully bland next to the Gundam Converge variant.

Much like in the movie title One Swallow Does Not Make a Summer a single Bug isn't much of a mass destruction strategy. You can pick up five more of them in the F91 Expansion Set box which also has a nice base for them. In this shot however I have used components from that set as well as some trusty old Assault Kingdom figure bases.
   

RGM-109 Heavygun Full Equipment Type

The meatiest content in this box is reserved for the Heavygun. It receives a full suite of accessories which converts it into the Full Equipment Type, which is an F91-MSV design. Since the Heavygun's reactor isn't powerful enough to power a large range of beam weaponry it makes do with several ballistic options instead.

The fully equipped Heavgun now comes beefed up with:

• One 9-tube Missile Launcher
• Twin 4-barrel Machine Cannons
• Double Beam Gun (left arm)
• Twin Grenade Launcher (right arm)
• Quadruple Grenade Rack (waist mounted)
• Beam Launcher (the bazooka type weapon which the F91 also uses)

This loadout is nothing short of crazy and I love it. Everything is modular as well, so you can pick and choose if you only wish to make use of some of these equipment choices. Two new shoulder pieces are supplied which are needed to mount the two different shoulder mounted weapon systems.

If you manage to pick up more than one of these equipment sets you will get access to quite a lot of interesting weapons and suddenly dual wielding of bazookas or beam launchers becomes another option for your Ensemble army. And since most Ensemble figures are standardized there is nothing stopping you from putting these shoulders on any other mobile suit to create a heavy weapons type GM or something to that effect.
   

RX-124 Gundam TR-6 [Hyzenthlay II-Rah]

As much as I adore the Heavygun though, the ultimate beast to be constructed from Ensemble Part 08 is the mighty Hyzenthlay II-Rah (or Advanced Woundwort EX). This is a high performance transforming mobile suit which requires most of the components found in the boxes for both the Hyzenthlay and the G-parts pack as well as two minor components which have been snuck into the equipment pack for some evil non-consumer friendly reason (the two white parts in the component shot).

The Hyzenthlay II-Rah basically takes the four extremities of the G-parts set and attaches them to its back-mounted rack and tosses away the main body. The large beam gun can of course be wielded as a handheld weapon but there is no peg for attaching it to an Ensemble figure's hand. You will need to make do with leaning it into an open hand as best you can (the Hyzenthlay II comes with two such open hands). The "real" Hyzenthlay II-Rah is typically depicted with two of these beam rifles so you would actually need yet another G-Parts set to complete such a pose if you wanted to (I didn't bother).

While the two components from the equipment pack aren't critical to assemble the machine they are instead of the cosmetic variety. One additional armor component is placed atop the front skirt and another replaces the mouth section of the face with a more traditional Gundam looking chin.
   

Conclusion

Mobile Suit Ensemble Part 08 is a truly majestic set of figures and its focus on less common mobile suits makes it even more rewarding to track down. For this review I used two sets of Hyzenthlay IIs and Hrududus so that I could keep one Hyzenthlay II-Rah assembled, two F91s (one extra needed for the Expansion Part set) and a number of Heavyguns to play around with army building purposes. If you like Ensemble and haven't yet picked up this set go out there and try to find it... now. :)