I am really behind on the Ensemble EX reviews but hey, here is something that comes in a rather small box and looks really straightforward. So I dug straight into it.
The Ensemble Freedom Gundam was released in December 2019 as a premium figure and premium it truly is. Especially the price. At ¥4180 it comes in at the higher end of the EX figures. I even had to spend ¥5000 to grab one off Mandarake. By the way, does anyone know what is up with the X101 designation on the box (and on the figure itself)? I haven't encountered this number before.
The box may be small but Bandai still managed to squeeze five bags of components and a large instruction sheet inside of it. Impressive.
As you can see from the components here we are basically looking at a typical Ensemble figure that happens to come with a couple of extra accessories and features. The paintjob is probably responsible for propelling the price quite a bit and I would hazard a guess that there were a bunch of development costs to recoup as well.
While the Freedom will at first glance look like a standard Ensemble figure we have quite a bit of new technology here. Notice the new and seemingly complex sprues with a lot of new joint components. These seem to only be present in the Freedom so far.
These are the revised shoulder- and waist connectors. It doesn't really make a huge difference since a bulky figure like the Freedom will have a pretty limited movement range in its limbs anyway.
A comparison of the beam rifles and shields used by the Strike Gundam and the Freedom Gundam. The Strike is a basic ¥500 figure and it has a typical one-colour weapon with a large hole drilled through it to
increase playability or something. The beam rifle for the Freedom on the other hand looks absolutely amazing. Imagine if this was the standard for all Ensemble figures.
Here we have the Freedom assembled with its various weapons systems stowed. It looks absolutely striking straight out of the box although my figure does have some paint smudges here and there. I added a little bit of marker pen detail here and there but overall this machine looks great as is.
The figure will stand unaided as long as you keep the wings in a position that do not upset its balance. When the wings are folded and swept all the way back you can cheat and use them as an extra support.
Notice the two plasma cannons hidden inside the wings. These can be
folded forward and feature small bending joints which allows them to face forward even when the wings are positioned at various angles. Meanwhile the two railguns at the hips also unfold. They unfold in the same way the letter Z would, if it started folded up and was then straightened out to a straight line.
Apart from the cannons and guns built into the suit itself we get three different hand-held weapons and the shield. Apart from the beam rifle there is also a standard Ensemble all-transparent beam saber here plus the extra long double bladed version (as seen in the battle with the Providence Gundam in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED). I guess if Bandai had added another ¥500 or so to the figure's price we could actually have got beautiful beam sabers in translucent purple but it was not to be.
The figure comes with a somewhat awkward looking action base designed to look like the top section of the mobile suit carrier Archangel's upper bridge section. You can kind of see what they were going for here; the scene where the Freedom is revealed in its full glory for the first time (I can watch that episode over and over again too. Better not do it now because then I will most likely end up binging four hours of SEED again...).
As I have moaned countless times, the Ensemble line is a bit weak on the mobile suit selection. Lately it seems to have become fixated on a lot of high profile titular mobile suits and so far we only have the Strike and the Freedom available together with the Skygrasper fighter jet. I'm really hoping for more of the Cosmic Era mobile suits to join in on the fun.
Conclusion
I must admit that I enjoyed this figure much more than I thought I would. Expensive though it may be, if you have even the slightest interest in this mobile suit you should seriously consider adding it to your Ensemble line-up. It is hard to tell if this will become one of those highly sought after figures with ridiculous asking prices; I would say it stands a pretty fair chance.
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