Alright, today we are going to take a look at what will presumably be a one-off thing here on the blog. I did get the feeling though that the Bandai development lead kind of hinted that he was testing the waters with this release when they were first announced but I haven't heard anything about it since. Before we continue, let's begin with a quick introduction of the Gasha Portraits figure line.
The Gasha Portraits brand was introduced in the end of 2017 and consists of mid-range Gashapon figures typically priced at ¥500, which is where we also find other contemporary brands like Mobile Suit Ensemble as well as some Shokugan like Gundam Converge. The range seems to be mainly geared towards characters from the Love Live! Sunshine!! anime (which I know absolutely nothing about...) and also features guest appearances from other animes like One Piece, Girls und Panzer and now most recently Neon Genesis Evangelion (hell, yes!).
The figures are distributed both in traditional clear Gashapon capsules and individual cardboard boxes, just like the Mobile Suit Ensemble range. My very limited experience with these figures is that the capsule edition is terrible and will bend or warp thin components like arms and legs completely beyond repair. The boxed figures fare a bit better but even though pieces like legs come wrapped in additional cardboard protection you will most likely encounter some really nasty surprises. You are going to need more than a clear support piece to deal with a twisted ankle or legs bending in all sorts of alien proportions. :)
In September 2019 Bandai announced that Gasha Portraits would do a Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny special to celebrate its 15th anniversary (gee... what a nice idea, how about it Converge and Ensemble?). This special anniversary set would only feature two figures instead of the usual three however, and would be a Premium Bandai item (of course). I was really mystified when the price was announced to be ¥6600. Wait now, what? I just assumed that the price was going to be for a 10-box or something and wondered who in their right mind would need to purchase that many. Well, now I finally have the answer.
Yep, that's right. You are paying over six thousand yen for two Gashapon figurines. The Bandai development lead wrote that if these figures performed well they would definitely consider doing more. Yeah I'm sure, if you can sell Gashapons that normally cost ¥500 for six times as much who wouldn't? Now, it isn't just limitation that is bumping the price. The quality of these figures is admittedly higher than the retail figures but it is not like we haven't seen high quality Shokugan like STANDart before, is it? Specifically, this set introduces harder ABS plastic into the mix, presumably because Bandai are very aware that the regular Gasha Portraits PVC figures are a bit hit and miss in the quality department.
All the moaning about money aside, this box is really great. The figures come wrapped in plastic bags and sit in a specially designed inlay keeping them nice and safe so you won't have any issues with bent parts here. This was a huge relief to be honest.
Here we have older sis Lunamaria Hawke in her very odd custom red coat. I know that the elite Z.A.F.T. pilots get to have custom paint jobs on their ZAKU Warriors but I can't imagine that any adjutant would let an outfit like that slide... Joking aside, you can see that the figure is very carefully sculpted and features large expressive eyes and a very detailed insignia on the left shoulder. The figure has a base with two differently sized pegs and due to the harder plastic Bandai didn't think it necessary to include a support that clips around the leg which they would usually include for common Gashapons of this type.
We are not exactly short of SEED Destiny figurine series. Here you can see some of the many variants of Lunamaria from Bandai's different Gashapon assortments. From left to right we have the HGIF SEED Destiny line (2005), the SEED Destiny EF Collection (also 2005), the SEED Destiny Heroine History (Ver. Z.A.F.T.) from 2007, the new Gasha Portraits figure and lastly the 2006 appearance from the Cosmix Figure Collection.
Next up we have Meyrin Hawke, the character who has perhaps the most memorable arc in all of SEED Destiny. Man, Destiny is such a terrible fall from grace; SEED is without a doubt my favourite Mobile Suit Gundam show and I go on rewatch binges far too often, but with Destiny it is hard to just push the play button. i think the Gasha Portraits figure does a great job of capturing her personality and once again the attention to detail is stunning. the one thing I kind of noticed immediately is the somewhat odd gradient colour thing they have done to her hair, it is a bit over the top but I can look past it.
Meyrin's figure comes with a bonus head so you can choose which hairstyle you prefer. Bandai have done experiments with removable hair and different faces in the past and I am thankful that here they just decided to include an entire extra head, having to deal with faces that fall apart can be really annoying.
And here we have a slightly different line-up of Meyrin figures from Bandai's various SEED Destiny Gashapon series. I guess from a cost perspective it might be prudent to compare these figures to their bigger cousins in ranges such as MegaHouse RAH DX or Bandai's Voice-I-Dolls but it seemed more prudent to stick to Gashapons here. Anyway, from left to right we have HGIF SEED Destiny (2005), SEED Destiny Heroines (2006), SEED Destiny Heroine History (Ver. Z.A.F.T.) from 2007, Gasha Portraits and lastly the Cosmix Figure Collection figure from 2006.
This box set also includes an alternative base for both figures so that they can stand closely together in the pose appearing on the box cover. This may seem a bit superfluous but hey, they got to offer something for those six thousand six hundred yen, right?
So was this set a success? It beats me, but so far I have only come across it twice. I snatched this off Mandarake for ¥5000 so perhaps Bandai were a bit optimistic when they decided on the price or I was just really "lucky". What I can say though, is that this is a really nice figure set that should appeal to anyone collecting Gundam SEED Gashapon figurines but probably no one else. Next I am going to try and grab myself the Evangelion set, those are of the 500 yen PVC garden variety so it should hopefully be a bit easier.
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