Gundam Converge EX 29 : MA-08 Byg-Zam & FF-X7-Bst Core Booster

When Bandai began dropping the Zeonic mobile armors in the Converge EX line we immediately began speculating about the Byg Zam and now finally it has arrived with a couple of Core Boosters as a nice surprise. It will be interesting to see if Bandai and FusionWorks are going to release any further mobile armors from the original U.C.0079 television series considering how many classics were introduced there. I mean it is nice and all that we are going to see a Neue Ziel II in Converge later this year but come on, were are the Bigros and the Grublos?

The Byg Zam was released in the middle of March with a recommended retail price of ¥5170. The first ones I saw online just swooped right out into sold out territory until it was my turn to grab one in late April at a price of ¥5000. This surprised me a bit as I would have expected it to be one of those figures that would shoot up in price quickly, and certainly not down. I got my first indication as to why when the box arrived, this thing is much smaller than I had anticipated. The box dimensions are the same as for the Devil Gundam and roughly the same size as the Penelope box which just seemed a bit off to me.

Ah... okay, I see, it is one of these things that is going on again. My spirit fell a bit when I opened up the box only to realize it is the AMA-X7 Shamblo experience all over again. And what I mean by that is that the Byg Zam figure is not a meaty, chunky, soft figure like the Neue Ziel or the Psyco Gundam, but a rather tiny and delicate hard plastic figure like the Shamblo and the Rafflesia. The Core Booster figures on the other hand have that classic Converge feel to them.

The next disappointed came as I began going through the components in the box. It turns out I have got one of those really rare occurrences where the components are not complete; I received a total of three feet for the right leg and only one for the left leg; something you can perhaps forgive in a cheap Gashapon or Shokugan figure but for ¥5000 EX figure this is just pathetic.

Luckily the feet don't differ as much on the exterior, it is mainly the weird multi-shaped peg-holes that presented the problems here but I was in no mood to try and do something about it other than to find a way to force the right foot onto the left leg and deal with it. They say first impressions are everything and well, things certainly don't start out well for the Byg Zam.

Anyway, here it is flying around on its action base with two right feet dangling beneath it. You can see that foot on the left leg doesn't attach fully but it is a minor nuisance and to be frank, the other components don't fit together all that well either. The legs should just slot gently into the torso but instead you have to squeeze and pull to get them to stick, wondering if you will accidentally break something delicate on top of the body n the process. Who designed this thing? The shaped pegs for the feet are overly complicated and not sturdy at all. What happened to just drilling a circular peg hole and letting your customers figuring out exactly in which direction the toes should point? Sometimes I think Shokugan figures are over-engineered to the point that it starts to take away from the figure

Here the Byg Zam uses its standing feet option parts and a slightly lower action base which works fine except that now the figure is even shorter than before. The Converge Byg Zam is a dwarf and so it definitely needs every centimeter it can get.

The figure can stand upright without the use of the base as well but the pose is kind of terrible as it looks like it is about to just topple over. I don't know FusionWorks, if it was me I would have designed a figure with much taller legs and no wasted effort on alternate feet or action bases, just something that could stand upright and look formidable and evil.

I know I haven't yet written anything about how beautiful the sculpt of the Byg Zam's body is. The details are fantastic and very true to the original design. However, most of that is for nothing if your figure just comes off as small and timid like this here thing.

Here the Byg Zam poses together with its counterpart from the Gashapon Warrior NEXT Premier line, a figure from 2014. And while the Converge figure is all the more exquisite in just about everything it does, notice that it isn't much bigger. The old figure had a better size advantage on the regular Gashapon figures though, and that accounts for a lot when it comes to a machine that is supposed to be epic in scale.

Check out the Byg Zam next to some of its Converge EX family brethren. I think these photos are everything the Byg Zam review needs to be as it drives home just how badly it fits in together with the other Zeonic mobile armors. Well, except the Shamblo them, which was also a bit of a dud in the size and feel department.

Moving on to the Core Booster I found much more to appreciate here. These two figures are basic and simplistic yet they hammer home that Converge feeling much better. You can see that they have a fair amount of detail and some nice painted detail yet at the same time they are of soft plastic and come with traditional Shokugan imperfections such as slightly bent components. I can see that this won't be to everyone's liking but this is to me what Converge should be all about.

The main complaint I have against the Core Boosters is the weird design of the action bases that not only fit very poorly into the peg holes but also prevent any interesting display options. This is however par for the course for Converge figures so I won't moan about it too much. I will just reiterate that cheaper Gashapon figures have accomplished this feat to near perfection in the past and it seems odd that the designers refuse to learn from that experience.

Comparison of Core Boosters from Gashapon Warrior NEXT, Gundam Converge, Strategy of Gundam and the Gashapon HG MS series.

Do you remember the action base Bandai made for the Mobile Suit Ensemble series Gundam F91 being attacked from all sides by four bug type weapons? I feel that some type of diorama action base was needed here as well, because right now you cannot really do anything interesting with the pieces in this box.

To me, the highlight of Gundam Converge EX29 is being able to construct a White Base squadron where the Core Boosters fit in just beautifully. It is a shame that they Core Booster (and the Core Fighter) wasn't sold as a standalone basic figure so that more people could pick it up and enjoy it without having to spend ¥5000 getting a mildly disappointing Byg Zam figure as an accessory. Overall I was pretty disappointed with this figure but at least the Byg Zam can be stored in its tiny little box, which is where my unit is currently residing. As much as it pains me to say it; I cannot recommend this figure.