Gundam Converge CORE : XM-XX Ghost Gundam Phantom Light Set

The Phantom Light Set is the most recent Converge CORE offering and is of course a Premium Bandai exclusive. The set began shipping in June this year and had a price of ¥3200, however, I had to fork out ¥5000 already in early July to secure a copy for my own collection. I wonder if this is going to be one of those releases that become very sought after or if the price will begin to drop if you wait for it a couple of years...

Technically I guess this offering is really CORE 021 - that is how Bandai refers to it on their website - but since they dropped the numbering on the CORE boxes a while back one can never really know. I moan about it from time to time but the CORE boxes just get more and more uninspired, you'd think they could at least put the digits on there somewhere. I've placed the box next to the retail Phantom Gundam figure box not only to stress how tiny this box is but also because to get the most out of the box you really need to get one of those green guys as well.

Man, the box is tiny but it is really stuffed full. This is mainly due to the fact that the Converge bags seem to get more and more clunky. I wonder if the bags have been standardized across different Bandai figure lines or if it is an attempt to better avoid bent components, something that crops up in Converge from time to time. My bet is on component standardization...

As you can see the box contains one new figure and a whole lot of option parts for it, as well as for the green Phantom Gundam retail figure, released as part of Gundam Converge #19 in June as well.
   

XM-XX Ghost Gundam

I don't really know a great deal about the Crossbone Gundam timeline except that I did a little reading on the Gundam Wiki and the entry for the Ghost Gundam isn't particularly thorough either. Basically it is the centerpiece of the Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam: Ghost manga and the suit itself is actually the green EMS-TC02 Phantom Gundam repaired, using parts from the XM-X0 Crossbone Gundam X-0 Ghost which I guess explains why it is all silver now (which seems kind of odd since I'm sure they haven't done away with custom pint jobs in the future).

Here is the basic form of the XM-XX Ghost Gundam mobile suit with empty hands and no Phantom Light effects applied. Notice that the suit has one yellow and one green eye (yeah the photos aren't making it that obvious). I like this clean appearance which also makes it easier to believe something like it could actually exist and have a genuine military application. I am not really into machines with flaming angel wings and the like.

Standing next to each other the Ghost Gundam and the Phantom Gundam figures are more or less identical. The main difference is that the Ghost Gundam has a different back pack which contains a set of cartridges reminiscent of a machine gun belt. These are apparently power packs used to fuel the Phantom Light system for extended use and is an improvement over the basic Phantom Gundam (the system is reminiscent of the energy packs stored on the back of the GAT-X105+AQM/E-YM1 Perfect Strike Gundam from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED HD Remaster).

Actually both the Phantom and the Ghost are capable of transforming into Mobile Armor modes. While this is obviously out of the capabilities of mere candy toys I sure wouldn't mind if Bandai were to offer these modes as separate figures in their own right because they look quite spectacular.

Here the Ghost poses with its V-Fin deployed (there are actually two variants of this accessory as you will see further below) and its regular equipment which I guess is its Butterfly Buster (a beam rifle that can also double as a beam saber) and what I believe is a Flame Rifle, a sword sheath that doubles as a beam rifle. Huh...? Colour me confused. Just give me a BOWA Beam Rifle and get rid of all this sword nonsense already... :)

The Ghost and the Phantom come with different accessories and since the two figures are variations of the same you can swap the hands around if you prefer. All weapons are directly molded onto hands however so you are stuck with using the right hands for the main weapons and the left hand for the Flame Rifle (and what I guess are the Flame Swords that you will see below).

The old Crossbone Gundam X-0 Ghost is still the coolest figure in this family with its crossbow. The figure is due to get an update with Converge #20 and due for release in September. I look forward to see how the new figure will turn out.

Alright so here we have the main event of the box, the Phantom Light Set applied to the Ghost Gundam. This actually involves a surprising number of parts swapping and you also have to disassemble the face to change its expression to what looks like the worst Monday morning mood ever. Notice also the Phantom Light version of the V-fin.

Oh dear, that evil grin, this thing is out for blood and a piece of your skull as a trophy. This is a marked improvement over the Open Face option parts we saw earlier with the previous Converge Crossbone Gundam figures. Converge has come a long way.

Here we see the last accessory for the Ghost Gundam, the Flame Sword (once again, that's how I interpret the information anyway...) which is available a left-hand item only. The figure also comes with a large and rather ugly clear plastic support that you can slide in underneath the Phantom Light wings to offer it additional support.
 

EMS-TC02 Phantom Gundam (Phantom Light Set)

The second part of this box is basically recycling all the cool Phantom Light equipment for the Ghost Gundam and repurposes it for the Phantom Gundam.

This comparison shot shows how you go about dismantling the Phantom and Ghost Gundam figures to apply the Phantom Light Set. Everything fits nicely together just like you expect it to; the designers have really done their homework.

Looking pretty good there Mr. Phantom Sir. If you want to you could switch the coloured parts around between the two suits but since most components are attached directly to the mobile suit frame (all except the wings in fact) you would have to end up painting those parts over anyway.

The Phantom Gundam also receives a Flame Sword of its own but gets none of the other weapons that the Ghost Gundam has. You can switch them around freely if you want to though.

The Crossbone Gundam family has grown rapidly over the last two years. As mentioned earlier we are due to get a new version of the X-0 Ghost with the next retail set, it remains to see if anything further will be released beyond that one.
   

Conclusion

I think it goes without saying that if you are a Crossbone/Ghost Gundam fan and can stomach the price this set is a fantastic addition to the XM-series line-up. I kind of wish that the XM-XX Ghost Gundam was available as a regular 500 yen figure because I would love to display it in both forms and I seriously doubt I would want to invest in a second box just for that luxury. I will definitely be picking up a second Phantom Gundam figure though, that should be real easy.