Mobile Suit Gundam MicroWars 3

Bandai's MicroWars figure line is one of the more intriguing concepts in the Gundam mini figure marketplace. Centered around their gimmick of emulating pilot and machine, the series has a strong focus on mixing up mobile suits with vehicles of all shapes and sizes as well as fully articulated pilot figurines. While the figures themselves are a bit on the dull side they simultaneously also offer a level of playability that we usually do not see in this area. I initially thought that the line was a flop and would be dead in the water come this third set but we already have three more sets lined up for the first half of 2020, volume four having already been released a few weeks ago.

MicroWars volume three was released in October last year and the figures are distributed in 10-boxes evenly spread between the various figures, something which was not the case when the series originally launched. I myself purchased a total of two boxes worth over two months time, picking them up piece by piece on average paying ¥500 per figure.
   

01 : RX-93 Nu Gundam

With MicroWars 3 the series is taking its first step outside of U.C. 0079 territory and I honestly don't know how I feel about that. At least we are still focusing on the E.F.S.F. vs. various Zeonic factions and I would hope they continue to milk this era properly before venturing elsewhere. I don't think there are a lot of vehicles in the other series that you could branch into (unless you are going full on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED which would have been awesome but we all know that isn't going to happen...).

I have to say, I'm not a big fan of putting the RX-93 in MicroWars. This is such an elaborate design and the end result we got here is pretty mediocre to say the least. There is an awful lot of white on this figure and I wasn't in the mood to try and correct it, I feel I have had more than enough of that working on the Ensemble and Universal Unit figures so this is a pretty half-hearted attempt. I mean come on, they didn't even paint the backpack.

The MicroWars figures follow the design principles from Universal Unit. Instead of prepainted detail they provide you terrible sticker sheets to wrap around curved and angular surfaces and they often do a poor job at that. The Nu Gundam gets black stickers for its feet, a white sticker to put on its chest along with some detail for hatches, logos and even a little green sticker for its chest. Of course the white on the stickers doesn't match the background colour so the logos look absolutely dreadful. There are no stickers for the Fin Funnels at all, I just did some basic black detail and couldn't be bothered to paint the yellow areas. This is not my idea of a good time with a candy toy.

The chest area of course opens up to allow for the UC 0093 era figure of Amuro Ray to climb into the cockpit. The innards of the RX-93 are very cramped and he barely fits in there. The Sazabi follows in volume four and I have a feeling I will feel a lot of the same issues with that figure once I have it in hand. In general I think MicroWars fits perfectly for simplistic figures like the Zaku II and the GM, elaborate designs like the Nu are going to come out a bit disappointing.
   

02 : RB-79 Ball

The "good guys" only get two figures in this set and the second is the classic 0079-era Ball-type mobile armor. Unlike a complex beast like the RX-93 this is as simple as it gets. It is literally a ball sized object with two limp arms that can wiggle a little in their slots. The articulation on the MicroWars figures is typically restricted to this type of ball joint and since arms and legs are often hollowed out (to ease production or save money on plastic?) the figures tend to look the best one viewed from the front anyway.

Just look at those hollowed out claws. Dreadful. The large cannon on the head has only one solid side as well which is pretty ridiculous. If you can look past these issues you at least get a nice metallic coat on the gun and the circular viewport that it has for an eye.

The Ball figure also comes with the token three mini figures for the E.F.S.F. team. Apart from the "old" orange pilot suit we've seen before we also get two new figures with nice metallic painted visors on their helmets. I assume that the figure with the yellow visor is Amuro Ray and the one with a blue visor is most likely Chan Agi (although that's not a very flattering sculpt for her...).

Since the Ball figure does not have to bother with any arms the hatch opens up easily and allows for plenty of space for the pilot inside.

Here the MicroWars Ball poses next to its more accurately proportioned cousin from Assault Kingdom and a Thunderbolt style Ball made by Banpresto for the Ichiban Kuji-lottery. I like how MicroWars figures are compatible with the action bases from Assault Kingdom. This makes it easier to overlook the fact that Bandai were too cheap to include stands for the MicroWars fliers...

One of the best things about MicroWars is building a fleet of units and throwing them into action; here against a wing of Gattles (also from the Ichiban Kuji Thunderbolt line). I am kind of surprised that MicroWars hasn't yet feature the Saberfish or the Gattle spacecraft. Imagine a set with the Guncannon and the Saberfish on one side and the Gelgoog and the Gattle on the other. I would hoard those like no tomorrow...
   

03 : AMS-119 Geara Doga

The last three figures of the set are dedicated to various Zeonic factions. First out is another design from Char's Counterattack; the mass production Geara Doga. I like how we will get some balance once set four comes out. Neo Zeon will get the Sazabi leader suit and Londo Bell will get the Jegan as its own mass-production option. For now though, the fight will be a bit uneven.

Someone clearly spent a lot of effort on designing the Geara Doga. This thing is huge and bulky and makes you wonder how Bandai even managed to stuff it inside the box. It has decent colour applications but just like its Mobile Suit Ensemble cousin I felt the need to put some paint on its exposed arm and leg joints. This is also why the review has been dragging for so long, I didn't want to start painting until I had assembled the complete squad.

Here we have more of those annoying wrap around the foot stickers. I just ignored them as I always do and painted the figure instead. I do wish they would have included a yellow Neo Zeon insignia for the shield though. Even if it wouldn't match the shield colour accurately it would definitely have looked better than if I attempted to paint it myself, so I just left the emblem unpainted. There are no optional Sturmfaust rocket accessories for this figure. Instead some diminutive and hollow versions of these are sculpted directly onto the shield. They look so horrible that not even painting them could have saved them.

The Geara Doga's cockpit is also pretty cramped but not as fiddly as on the RX-93. I had no problem placing the pilots inside them. Notice also the removable "helmet" which allows you to manipulate the facing of the monoeye, which sits on a typical for Shokugan figures rotating black disc.

For me the MicroWars Geara Doga brings back a lot of memories from the recent Mobile Suit Ensemble figures. When placing them next to each other I noticed how the Ensemble figures feel solid and heavy in comparison. they also have a much more impressive weapon range of course.

I Bandai would have made at least a commander style helmet option part for the Geara Doga just like they did for the Zaku II. However, I can also see the limitations here as far as costs and just managing to cram everything into a box are concerned. Perhaps we can get an alternate SP version of this figure in the future. I may just end up buying a couple extras and have them repainted in blue and red anyway.
   

04 : MSM-07S Z'Gok (Char's Custom)

Up until now there have always been three different mobile suits in each MicroWars set, something that will change a bit going forward. This time it is Zeon side that gets the upper hand with another classic U.C. 0079 design, Char's own amphibious Z'Gok. This is one of those simplistic designs that lend themselves well to MicroWars, without too many complicated bells and whistles.

While the mobile suit looks ok from the front I have my reservations when viewing it from the back. Just look at all those hollow arms and legs, and even the backpack. At least the claws feel sturdy and are painted to a reasonable standard. It would have been terrible having to use white stickers for the claws.

Ah yes, speaking of stickers. I'm sure the Bandai design team was thankful that the Z'Gok doesn't have any black trimmings on its feet so they directed their cost cutting measures elsewhere. Instead you are given black stickers for four of the six "windows" on the head as well as a couple of other parts that are left unpainted. While you can easily paint up the missing black spots (also paint the torpedo launchers on the head while you are at it) the white area on the chest will give you more grief. The sticker included for this area must be bent over the middle and so does not want to stay on well. Oh dear, it is the Universal Unit Hygogg stickers all over again...

Plenty of space for Char inside the Z'Gok. Notice that white sticker I was talking about, already trying to peel off. Still I like the figure and I'm looking forward to build a squad of aquatic suits to go with it. The blue mass production type will be released as an SP figure in March (and will probably be very expensive to try to army build) but at least you can pick up some Acguys once MicroWars volume five hits the shelves in May.
   

05 : DFA-03 Dopp

I really have to give the Bandai designers credit for keeping the vehicle releases running in MicroWars. The Zeonic vehicle this time around is the strange looking Dopp snubfighter which defies all laws of good design.

The Dopp is a very basic figure but it has been given a very stylish multi-panel cockpit in shiny finish. If you wonder why there is a weird hole in the lower window it is probably due to some cost-cutting manufacturing technique to create the attachment for the pilot's instrument panel.

The Dopp fighter comes with three Zeonic pilots. One is of course Char and he looks just like he did in volume one when he crewed a Zaku II. Then we have a Zeonic airforce/mobile suit pilot for the Dopp Fighter and a Neo Zeon pilot for the Geara Doga.

The Dopp looks really bizarre when the cockpit opens up. I wish the figure had at least a simple optional landing gear, it would have improved the look of a parked Dopp a great deal.

Once again, Assault Kingdom comes to the rescue with its compatible action bases. If you are a MicroWars collector and haven't done so by now, I recommend picking up some of the Assault Kingdom figures that come with clear modular action bases. They add a whole lot of fun.

Here we have the six different figures for volume three again. I have to say, a lot of effort has been put into these and if you want to paint them up (I recommend gluing them into static poses first) they are going to look really stellar. I might try that with a couple of figures further down the line.

Above you can see the total line-up for each team at the time of MicroWars 3's release. We already have a new set out on the shelves and I have a couple of the figures on order already although I am gunning for a few more to build a sizeable Jegan squad.
   

Conclusion

While MicroWars 3 is clearly my least favourite of the three sets I have reviewed so far I still like it a lot as a collection builder. Its main strength is that it continues to build up the forces for each side even though I don't really like the jump into U.C. 0093 (and with volume four we will go all the way to Unicorn...). I also would have really preferred that the Z'Gok in this set was the mass production version and that Char's Custom red figure was relegated to the SP figure set, but I have a feeling that there is a financial decision in there somewhere. That's just how Bandai likes to operate these days it seems.