More space bad guys! This review takes a look of an unusual pair of mobile suits bringing the hurt to the protagonists in the
After War Gundam X television series. While I have yet to watch the series beyond the what... three minute mark where the Earth gets destroyed (whoops, spoiler alert...) and therefore know absolutely nothing about these suits I still really enjoy it when Bandai lets the bad guys flex their muscles in figure form a little. A Gundam mobile suit figure without a proper adversary is no fun, after all.
The Ashtaron/Virsago pair is a very expensive Premium Bandai release that was delivered to customers in in September 2019. The initial price was ¥6480 which is kind of terrible when you consider that for that money you get two Gashapon figures with a few extra components. But... I didn't just want Gundams to represent the After War era so I took the plunge and wasted ¥7000 on a box as soon as it hit Mandarake.
And so here we are six months later... damn that is a lot of parts. Maybe I can review something else in between. Yeah, that seems to be the curse for me when it comes to the Ensemble EX figures. But hey, I am trying to work through the back log now. :)
As you can see there are a lot of components at work here though mostly the build was kind of a breeze. I didn't encounter any of the troublesome issues I had with parts not lining up properly like when I did the Gundam SEED Meteor for example.
NRX-0013-CB Gundam Virsago Chest Break
The Virsago Chest Break (which I will refer to from now on as simply the Virsago) is an upgraded form of the base NRX-0013 Gundam Virsago and is an area dominance-type of mobile suit with some over the top weaponry at its disposal. I guess you could put it in the same category as say the Destiny Gundam or the Epyon.
I really like it when mobile suits have striking colour schemes and the Virsago really delivers in this regard. It has an attractive red and navy blue style going for it with some metallic golden detail which gives it an almost royal look. It has an aggressive facial expression (and in my case with a beard component which is very prone to falling off...) and its bulk just screams of menace.
Here the Virsago displays its basic weapon options. On the outside of the forearms sit the two Strike Claws for melee action; you un-peg them and face them forward to bring them to bear. Alternatively you get two of the weirdest hand held weapons I have ever seen, a pair of 3-barrel Strike Shooter beam guns.
I don't know why there is a big talon at the top of the Strike Shooter. I can't imagine a scenario where you'd want to use your gun as some sort of melee weapon unless perhaps for self defense. It looks pretty good though...
The main upgrade for the Virsago Chest Break is its three-barrel Mega Sonic Cannon located in its chest area. This replaces the single barrel weapon of the previous Virsago version. For the Ensemble figure the transformation is straightforward. You remove the chest plate and separate the torso from the lower body and then insert the new shiny component for the upgraded cannon at the center and put on the new chest plate above.
The Virsago can use its wings to draw power for its weapon systems in the same fashion as the Satellite Cannon works for the Gundam X and Double-X. The wings can swing about ninety degrees to come forward and then open up in a modular fashion since each segment sits on a round peg.
The last gimmick for the Virsago is its extending arms. Thanks to some clever engineering on Bandai's part these can simply unfold from their stowed positions. It is a neat feature and the fully transformed Virsago figure is pretty impressive looking, although I do prefer its compact mode better myself.
There aren't a whole lot of Virsago figures out there. Besides the Chest Break version from Ensemble we have one accurately proportioned Gashapon HG figure from 1996 (which I so far haven't managed to find) and the recent Converge representation of the basic NRX-0013 Gundam Virsago which was released around the same time as the Chest Break figure, in August 2019. I kind of wish the Virsago figure would have come with a nice translucent green beam saber accessory. Here it borrows the beam saber (dipped in green paint) from the Ensemble Gundam X figure.
NRX-0015-HC Gundam Ashtaron Hermit Crab
I guess you can say that the second figure in this box is the battle brother of the Virsago. I don't really know if the Ashtaron was designed to complement the Virsago or if they were just pressed into action together because their two pilots were related to each other. Where the Virsago is more of a traditional looking mobile suit the Ashtaron can transform into a high speed mobile armor mode which makes it look like some freakish offspring of a Grublo and a Bigro.
As you can see, in its basic mode this looks very much like a very basic Mobile Suit Ensemble figure, except for the fact that it carries a backpack as large as a building. The actual mobile suit can stand detached from the armored shell but doesn't come with any accessories of any kind so it seems kind of pointless to display it that way. Here I let the shell of the flight armor act as a support for the figure. There is no way it would be able to stand up on its own without toppling.
The action base included with this set is designed for several different display modes. While I can appreciate the design effort behind this I don't really like this type of base at all; no matter which mode you choose to display your figures in, the presentation will be suboptimal and this one is no exception. Here the two figures sit side by side with zero ability to swivel, rotate, bend or lean - they just face forward like butterflies on needles in a museum. Poor effort.
The Ashtaron transforms into its mobile armor relatively easily. First you have to remove the underbelly panels, replace the closed up Gigantic Scissors (that's actually their official name) with the articulated ones that come on extended arms, remove the mobile suit's own hands before attaching the figure (the hands don't fit inside) and then just seal it all up.
The Ashtaron Hermit Crab suddenly looks a bit more intimidating but I really don't like how the arms are hollow and not covered up. If you want to pose the Ashtaron in this form you'll want to flip the arms around because now the nice looking side is facing backwards.
The figure attaches sturdily to the action base and while it still cannot wiggle even a little you can at least mess around with the arms and open up its Gigantic Scissors if you want. On top of it sits an optional Satellite Launcher weapon, here in its stowed mode.
You have to do a bit of parts swapping to extend the Satellite Launcher for it to be ready to use. Notice also how we attach another segment to the action base itself. The Virsago will attach here when riding atop the Ashtaron (if there is such a thing as atop in space...).
And here we the have full strike package. The Virsago must deploy its extended arms to hold on to the Satellite Launcher but it works really well and the figure is really sturdy. The base might be a bit ugly and rigid (the post is as static as they come) but at least it will stick together reliably. Notice how the Virsago figure's feet aren't touching the top of the mobile armor at all. You can probably fiddle with it a bit to connect the two but I couldn't be bothered to be honest.
See how much nicer the display would have been if the base allowed for more dynamic posing? Why the Ashtaron Hermit Crab couldn't sit on a sturdy ball joint I don't really know.
The dynamic duo poses together with the Ensemble Gundam X for size comparison purposes. By the way... I can't really fault the figures for this but why on Earth does the Ashtaron rely on the Virsago to operate its Satellite Launcher? Surely it would have made more sense from all sorts of efficiency parameters to have the two machines operate independently of each other? Yeah yeah, don't question the logic of computer games, I know...
Conclusion
So there you have it folks. Is the Virsago and Ashtaron team something you would like to add to your Ensemble collection? I think their price tag is an enormous turn-off and they aren't all that easy to find. If you are really into
After War Gundam X and are planning to get the other figures from the show that are lined up for release over the coming months this would be a nice addition to that display. Otherwise, you are probably better off spending that money elsewhere.
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