Alright, let's do another MicroWars review, and this one is still pretty fresh. Released in February 2020 the fourth regular set of MicroWars figures grabs suits and gear from all over the Universal Century, well except from U.C. 0079 which has sort of been the series' roots. While I haven't seen the 10-figure box that these figures would usually come distributed in I would hazard a guess that each box contains two of each figure. I think everyone has by now realized what a bad move it was to only supply one Zaku II in Char's colours per 10-box in volume one, incidentally making it the rarest figure released to date.
Well... everyone except Bandai that is, because I am pretty sure we will see this practice return again in MicroWars 5. Specifically, volume 5 will be the first set to contain six different figures so it stands to reason that the two different colour variations of the Full Armor Gundam in that set will have to share the same space normally assigned to one figure. This (mal)practice has already been carried out for some time in figure lines like
Gundam Converge or
Gashapon Senshi Forte and
NEXT.
01 : RX-0 Unicorn Gundam (Destroy Mode)
So... we are four volumes into MicroWars and Bandai has decided it is time to bring in a new faction into the mix. I really hope that the designers will try to keep the original spirit of this series going - that is primarily pitting the E.F.S.F. against the Principality of Zeon. Sure, I can dig that they have introduced some hangarounds from Neo Zeon, Londo Bell and now even the Vist Foundation. I would certainly tolerate the A.E.U.G. and the Titans joining in on the fun as well. I just don't want to see this series going down the rabbit hole of digging up random Gundams from various other timelines and turning this into yet another
Mobile Suit Ensemble line-up clone.
Well, what can you say... it is another very, very white figure. Sure, there are a couple of nice red psycho-frame details on the front but you know the figure's backside will be without them. The backpack which you would of course want to see navy blue is white as well. I did the feet, a little panel lining on the legs and shield and then just pretty much gave up on this figure. It is what it is.
Except for the shield the Unicorn also comes with its standard beam rifle with that off-putting unpainted handle. The decal sheet features the front camera as well as wrap-arounds for the feet. As ususal I recommend not bothering with trying to get these decals to fit when you can do an equally good job with a marker pen. And in my disgust at having to paint mobile suit feet again instead of playing with the figure's gimmicks I forgot to use blue rather than black. Too bad, it would have livened up the figure a bit.
However, I did notice one interesting thing with the figures in this set. All the mobile suits now have properly covered up legs. If you go back and look at the previous figures you will see that most MicroWars figures feature hollow legs with no backside, just big gaping holes. The legs would come as single pieces but now there are two components per leg. I would assume that this is a course correction following consumer feedback and it gives me some hope that Bandai intends to keep the series running at least for a while longer.
The Unicorn cockpit is a pretty tight fit but once you manage to squeeze Banagher Links inside there should be no issues shutting the hatch tight again.
02 : RGM-89 Jegan
The only army builder mobile suit in this volume is the very sexy Jegan which successfully bridges the gap between the RX-93 Nu Gundam in MicroWars 3 and the Unicorn in this set. Unfortunately I haven't yet picked up any multiples of this figure but I am looking forward to building a little squad of four eventually (even if it does mean a lot more feet will have to be painted).
I think the MicroWars Jegan figure has turned out quite well. Sure, it suffers from the same "everything is one colour" syndrome as the Unicorn does, so you will want to put at least a little bit of effort in, in adding some extra detail.
The Jegan comes with its typical beam rifle and a shield which at least has its black area painted up. However the decal sheet really should have contained the yellow E.F.S.F. insignia to go on that shield, it would have made the figure look a lot more impressive. Instead it is mostly made up of wrap around crap for the feet.
The Jegan figure in this set appears to be the older type from the Char's Counterattack era so I would assume that the yellow pilot suit is also modelled from this era. Amusingly we get two of these pilot figures and one Banagher Links figure in the set, yet the box art suggests that Banagher should pilot two of the three machines.
03 : TOLRO-800 Torohachi
The last figure on the "feddie/good guy-side" may resemble a regular mobile suit but is actually a small utility vehicle for commercial use. The TOLRO-800 only stands around three meters tall and so is actually fairly well aligned in scale with the pilot figurines themselves (unlike the regular mobile suit figures that should be roughly six times as tall as the TOLRO).
I don't know what it is with this set, but all the figures seem so colourless and bland. I get that this is a cost saving measure but since the figures come as good as fully assembled (or rather the being molded as huge mono-coloured blocks) you can't even pull them apart and paint the figures piece by piece. Were the older MicroWars figures really this bland? I had to go back and check, and no, not really is my finding. As far as the TOLRO goes the main problem is the large fuel tank / backpack assembly which is supposed to be gray. I settled for painting the skids and some minor details black or red and then moved on again.
The TOLRO-800 also comes with the three pilot figures for the federal forces. We have two new sculpts with nice reflective style-paint applied to the visors. The white figure looks like Banagher Links from Unicorn while the pilots in the pale yellow suits appear to be Jegan pilots.
I like that the TOLRO is quite a bit shorter than the average MicroWars mobile suit. This enhances the difference when compared to the fullsize mobile suits. Not that there is any particular consistency among the figures in this series anyway, especially as far as vehicles are concerned.
The TOLRO has already been released in Gashapon form in the Gashapon Warrior DASH series back in 2016. That figure can also be a reasonable option for display together with the MicroWars mobile suits although it will look silly next to the pilot figurines of course. oh, and notice the grey backpack on the DASH figure...
04 : MSN-04 Sazabi
Switching over to the Zeonic side we only get one mobile suit in this set, and that is a unique machine so no squad building for you guys this time. Instead Bandai has chosen to roll out the Sazabi thereby making a pretty decent line up for the Char's Counterattack era. It is doubtful if we will see the Re-GZ or the two Jagd Dogas make an appearance but you never know. As for Rezyn Schnyder's blue Geara Doga you can always consider repainting one of the green machines (I am keeping a spare figure in storage for this eventuality).
And so again, for the fourth time this review, I have to point out that this is a really, really blandly painted single-colour figure. You kind of want the impressive mobile suits like the Nu Gundam, Unicorn and Sazabi to look impressive, as things stand in MicroWars now they are outperformed by more colourful figures like the GM or even Geara Doga. I find it interesting that Bandai bothered to paint up the four yellow vents on the figure's shoulders, presumably because they already used yellow to paint the tubes running along the waist (well, they painted them on the front side at least...).
Wow, that's a lot of red. The main problem is of course the backpack with its fuel tanks and funnel weapon system pods. I just had to paint those pods black since they are so clearly visible from the front but I couldn't be bothered with the (still hollow) fuel tanks. Notice the very tiny decal sheet. You know what is missing there, right? A yellow sticker for the front skirt of the machine as well as an impressive Neo Zeon insignia for the shield. This figure just looks dull and unfinished without all this missing detail.
The U.C. 0093-era Char has climbed into the tight cockpit of the Sazabi and is very easy to mistake for the federation pilots from the previous sets that I typically use as maintenance crews in these displays.
Here we have the full MicroWars line-up for the
Char's Counterattack-era. The Geara Doga may be the shortest of the lot but it still dominates the others as far as style goes.
05 : YMT-05 Hildolfr
The vehicle option for the Zeonic forces this time around is the massive Hildolfr prototype. Classified as a Mobile Tank (well, d'uh...) this actually means that the vehicle can transform between a more classic looking tank mode or something resembling a Zaku Tank where a torso rises up from the hull extending fully articulated arms. The simplified MicroWars figure of course does away with such gimmicks and remains eternally in
Mobile Mode, which means the body will always rise up.
I think the designers did a pretty good job on this figure. The compacted form looks ok and there is a lot of detail going on in the hull especially. However, since everything except the superstructure is olive green you will at least want to paint the tracks at a minimum. I really should have painted the hand held Zaku Machinegun black as well, but I wasn't really feeling inspired. I may end up doing it later.
The Hildolfr figure comes with three crew members for the Zeonic side. We have the previously mentioned Char Aznable figure in his U.C.0093 orange colour as well as two Principality of Zeon pilot regulars. You will recognize these from earlier releases in this series.
While battle tanks from our era are notorious for being cramped affairs the crew compartment inside the MicroWars Hildolfr is very generous indeed.
Above you can compare the MicroWars Hildolfr to the Magella Attack Tank from MicroWars volume 1 as well as the transforming Hildolfr from Gashapon Warrior DASH volume 04, released in December 2015. The Gashapon figure is one of the harder to find DASH figures out there and for good reason I would say.
Here we have a close-up of the four different pilot figures present in this set. I like that we get two each of the generic E.F.S.F. and Principality of Zeon pilots and look forward to stocking up on a couple more. Traditionally I have been buying multiple sets of the MicroWars volumes released so far but I haven't yet mustered up the will to do so with MicroWars 4. Perhaps if there had been at least one more army builder mobile suit in there though.
Conclusion
Overall MicroWars 4 is a fine set and a good expansion for the figure line. While I wouldn't necessarily describe the figures in this batch to be spectacular they clearly do feature improved sculpts as far as their legs are concerned and it will be interesting to see if the figures in volume five will also do this. And speaking of volume five; we can look forward to the Full Armor Gundam, Acguy and Dom hitting the stores some time in May. Before that we will also see the first SP figure set for MicroWars scheduled for delivery in March. These will be four repainted figures out of which I am primarily interested in the mass production type Z'Gok, the rest is really just "Real Type Color"-filler.
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