Banpresto Mobile Suit Gundam Big Size Softvinyl Figure Z'Gok

While we usually concern ourselves with smaller figures here on the blog - that is 1:220 and smaller - the collection also features some MSIAs, Robot Spirits and the like because that's where I need to go to fill my Titans and Z.A.F.T. fixes. Sometimes I also end up with larger figures, mostly because I was curious or wanted to do a comparison with something else. Today's mini-review is shining the light on a couple of Banpresto prize item figures that are definitely on the larger side of the collection.

Yup, here we have a pair of prepainted soft vinyl (or sofubi as it is also affectionately known in Japan) Z'Goks manufactured by Banpresto in 2008 and look like they have been designed for use as prizes in some type of claw machine. The boxes have the typical circular cut outs on the sides which you will often see on this type of prize item packaging.

Most if not all current day Banpresto items feature a five digit product code usually present on all figures contained within a set. These two figures have been assigned the number 45372. The material is apparently ATBC-PVC or acetyl tributyl citrate-polyvinyl chloride, which is a soft and bendy material that easily reverts back to its original shape even though I abused it a bit during my attempts at assembly.

Each figure comes in a thin box with some additional supporting cardboard inside. Notice that the two figures come in various states of assembly and are wrapped in a different number of plastic bags. I don't know if this is a manufacturing variation or if the previous owners may have repackaged one of the figures in a different way.

All of the limbs and bodyparts of the Z'Gok figures are hollow and have a really nice paintjob applied to them. The legs are actually made up by two different components since the upper leg can also rotate within its knee socket. You assemble the figure by jamming the limbs into the sockets in the torso and I had to apply a lot of pressure to manage to squeeze them in, bending the torso heavily during this phase although it easily reverted back into shape. I would not really want to pull the figures apart again for fear of breaking something.

Looking pretty smooth there, Mr. Mass Production Type Z'Gok. The figure features arms and legs that can rotate in their sockets, the upper legs rotate at the knee joint and the torso swivels at the waistline. Even the claws can rotate within their sockets. The eye is of course painted in place and so will not change position.

To give you an idea of the Z'Gok size here it poses next to a 1:220 STANDart Z'Gok (far left) which is about 7.5 cm tall as well as a 1:300 machine from the Strategy of Gundam Gashapon line (far right) and a classic SD Full Color Custom figure. Scale-wise I guess we are talking somewhere around 1:90 or so.

While not a hundred percent accurate in placement the colours on this figure are very vibrant and cleanly applied. The Z'Gok is of course well suited for being made into a sofubi figure with its many rounded and simplistic design features.

And here we have Char's Custom machine. As you can see it is a simple repaint of the previous figure and it has the exact same silky smooth colour apps and presentation all around. I couldn't really ask for anything more here.

You can see a slight deformation on the upper light red part of the torso of this figure. I was worried I might create other deformations of this type when trying to jam the legs into place because the joints on this figure were really not very cooperative. I wonder how well this type of plastic will stand the test of time. I will definitely not keep them out of their boxes unless for some special use. It is a good thing that the boxes are big enough for the figures to fit even in assembled form, although I did have to take out the supporting cardboard and so I replaced it with bubble wrap plastic instead.

Char Aznable from the Bandai Emotive Figure Collection (First Generation set, released May 2006) is looking almost as angry as the Z'Gok itself.

Overall, if you are a fan of the Z'Gok design I think that these two figures are a really nice representation of the machine itself. Given that this is a one-off release though, you may find it hard to come up with other mobile suits of similar size and style to display them with (Bandai's two recent sofubi Gundam and Zaku II figures for example are only about 18 cm tall). The figures are of course also uncommon on the market and not very cheap; I paid about ¥2500 for each of them.