The METEOR system support craft is one of those toys that start out with a cool name and then someone tries to come up with an explanation for it. The Cosmic Era tech has some really desperate acronym explanations and this is right up there with the best of them.
Released as a companion item to the Freedom Gundam in December last year the METEOR will set you back another ¥4950. I can't remember if there was a P-Bandai combo price but otherwise you are looking at a rough 9000 yen to get your war on in a fully decked out Freedom. When I picked these up in February through - what else - Mandarake the Freedom had increased from its ¥4180 to ¥5000 while the METEOR had come down to ¥4500. Of the two, my guess is that the Freedom will continue to be in much higher demand.
As usual, the box is loaded to the max and wow; there are a lot of components here. Still, the METEOR is a pretty straightforward design so apart from a couple of critical components the build wasn't too tedious. Man, how I miss the days of just picking up a prepainted 1:220 figure...
The METEOR is a large Ensemble figure but its footprint is even more enormous. Here it has reached the point that the base stands out more than the figure itself, which cannot really be a good thing. There is a recent trend in both
Mobile Suit Ensemble and
Gundam Converge to come up with these oversized and ugly bases that really detract from the presentation. Just look at the box art itself, the base stands out like a sore thumb.
Not only is the base big but the display is also 100% flat and uninspiring. I placed a Gashapon base underneath it here just to get some more interesting camera angles in the photo shoot. Man, the base looks even bigger now.
Once again, Assault Kingdom comes to the rescue. There are a couple of peg holes on the METEOR engines which are somewhat compatible with the Assault Kingdom bases but you will need a couple of them to build something sturdy.
One of the main gimmicks of the METEOR is that its center body can fold into a more aerodynamic shape when not in use by a mobile suit. I wasn't able to fully close the fuselage on my figure, probably because I placed one of the hinges backwards, the instructions are really fuzzy on that part, and frankly I couldn't be bothered to pull the figure apart just for this shoot since I will not use it anyway. Still, it is a pretty cool feature.
All the missile hatches open up on the METEOR unit except the smaller ones on the fin. The fin instead has an option part with the hatches fully opened. This is the only option part you will have lying around after the kit is built which is a testament to some good engineering.
The kit has a hinged connector piece specifically design for the Freedom Gundam figure, although it should work fine with various other Ensemble figures that are not too bulky to fit comfortably inside. You being by stripping the Freedom of its HiMAT wing assembly and gear it might be holding. the pegs on the Freedom's backpack match up with two peg holes on the connector piece and still gives the illusion that the wings are connected to the mobile suit.
Next up you unlock the two hand held beam cannon assemblies and slide them forward. Moving handles pop out and these can easily be connected to the Freedom's two hands. I didn't try it with any other mobile suits but I would think that several other figures should be able to use the METEOR system as well.
Since the original base is so horrible I just ditched it in the photos below. Now that the Freedom Gundam figure itself is connected and can help carrying some of the weight you can probably come up with something less distracting yourself using bits and pieces from other figures you have lying around.
I have to say, this looks pretty impressive. And then we just take things to the extreme by attaching the two MA-X200 beam swords to the tips of the beam cannons:
As cool as the beam swords may look, they sure don't make it easier to display the figure. You'd need a lot of shelf space to pose it as if engaged with another mobile suit. Oh, yeah speaking of other figures... where is the Justice Gundam, eh?
Conclusion
I give the Ensemble METEOR high marks for execution and fun factor although the kit definitely is an acquired taste and certainly only for the Freedom Gundam fans out there. You can spend those four or five thousand yen on something more crucial otherwise. Having said that; if Bandai decides to release the Justice Gundam in Ensemble I would seriously consider picking up another METEOR because yes, I am that stupid.
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