SD Gashapon Senshi Forte 12

The Gashapon Senshi Forte line really hasn't been getting much love here on the blog for a while now. It seems every time I try to catch up in one end someone else is bound to suffer and in this case I have really been slipping behind on the Forte figures. It doesn't help that they are hard to come by from my main source in Japan. In general I prefer to pick them up from sellers in Thailand or Hong Kong which is from where this particular set also originates. I was however lucky to pick up an extra Zaku II and another equipment set from Mandarake and the fact that the Zaku II is already going for ¥600 whereas the equipment set fetched ¥200 we can already see that there will be supply issues.

 

Gashapon Senshi Forte was busy reinventing itself with volume eleven when Covid-19 hit the marketplace and I don't really know what happened during this time. I think that part eleven was already manufactured at the time Bandai's production got hit but volume 12 seems to have been released more or less on schedule in August 2020, I believe it was originally intended for July? I am also curious to know what happened to the Shodai Shou Gundam premium figure that was slated for delivery in March. It appears to have been released but I haven't yet seen it on the secondary market.

   

 

F077 : RX-78-2 Gundam

Well, it took twelve volumes for Senshi Forte to return to the roots and the granddaddy Gundam itself, but now he's here and looking really good. It was definitely worth the wait. While I happen to enjoy it when the Gundam toy lines go into the more exotic realms and not just rehash the same old suits constantly it is hard not to be impressed by this little figure.

 

Bandai really decided to outdo themselves with this figure. The proportions are on point and seem to take a couple of nods both from recent Ensemble and MicroWars designs. Notice also the two-coloured backpack with white beam saber handles. From a functionality perspective the figure has a peg hole on the back skirt to carry a hyper bazooka (part of the equipment set) and a peg on the backpack to carry the shield on the back.

 

Senshi Forte now uses a modified Mobile Suit Ensemble frame which has really simplified assembly a great deal compared to the older figures. The best part is that the shoulder joints even improve on Ensemble placing a ball-joint at the tip which allows for even better articulation. Now that the two pairs of hands are standardized we no longer get unique sculpts for each suit and the colour must match the inner frame, meaning they will almost always be black.

 

This picture really says all you need to know about the rapid development in the super-deformed figure series. From left to right we see the RX-78 as it appears in Gashapon Warrior NEXT (2010), Gashapon Warrior DASH (2015) and Gashapon Senshi Forte (2020).

   

 

F078 : MS-06F Zaku II

Next up we have a mass production suit every bit as legendary as the Gundam itself. I don't know exactly how the figures are distributed if you buy the boxed variety (which I believe is 10 pieces) but in the old era of Senshi Forte you could expect colour variations such as the two Zakus in this set to actually be produced in lesser numbers than the other figures in a set. If this is indeed the case also for the Zaku II it is going to mean squad building this little bugger is going to be really painful.

 

Again I see a lot of MicroWars in the Senshi Forte figure and I can't help but think that the two figure series have been developed using the same schematics at least partially. While the colour separation is nice also on this figure you can immediately spot a corner cut on the Zaku II as the tubes that reach from the backpack to the front have not been painted in bright green on the backside. It is not a big deal but definitely a bit cheap.

 

The Zaku II figure comes with a Zaku machine Gun as its only gear choice, but you will find some more gear in the equipment pack. Missing completely is the option of having an optional commander antenna headpiece which we sometimes see in Shokugan figures.

 

The Zaku II figures have a modular head and the eye sits on a disc that can be rotated to change the facing of the monoeye, a classic gimmick that is common to many Zaku II figures.

 

There was no green Zaku II in the Gashapon Warrior DASH series (a bit off-putting since they made the red one) but we can at least compare the Senshi forte figure to its counterpart from Gashapon Warrior NEXT. Just as with the Gundam the new figure is a massive improvement over the older design.

   

 

F079 : MS-06S Zaku II (Char's Custom)

Got to milk that nice Zaku II sculpt you've got going there so here is the spiffy red counterpart with a large and bendy plastic commander antenna. Other than that the two figures are perfectly similar.

 

I really like the strong red colours that Bandai selected for this figure, especially wen you compare it to the older more pinkish variants from DASH and NEXT. However Char gets no more love than the mass production type Zaku in that the tubes on the backpack are again missing the brighter colour detail.

 

Sometimes Bandai will ship Char's Zaku II with a gear choice that differs from the mass production type but here they both get the Zaku Machine Gun which I think is the preferred accessory all things considered.

 

Again we have the line-up of Char's Zaku II as seen in Gashapon Warrior NEXT, DASH and Senshi Forte respectively. Apart from the improved likeness in the sculpt, notice also how the shoulder and elbow joints are less conspicuous on the new figure.

 

I would really love to have a larger squad of Zaku II's but so far I consider myself lucky to even stumble on a single extra figure. I've moaned about it constantly ever since Senshi Forte hit the Gashapon machines; if you really want us to buy more figures why don't you make it easier to army-build?

 

Team Zeon now has a nice selection of mobile suits in the Forte line but here's hoping tat we will get a couple more. I'd be very surprised if the Gouf and Dom don't make an appearance and perhaps the Acguy as well.

   

 

F080 : RX-77-2 Guncannon

The last of the four figures from U.C. 0079 is another classic and it is looking more stylish than ever. The sculpts in Senshi Forte have really improved overall and they look more and more like tiny versions of Converge at this point.

 

While looking rather good in general the Forte version of the Guncannon has a really weird thing going on with its shoulder cannons. Presumably because they are not attached to the shoulders, or even the suit proper. Instead they have been allowed to attach directly to the boosters on the backpack which looks odd to say the least but I get where the designers are coming from now that they have to deal with the Senshi Forte anatomy.

 

The Beam Rifle included with the Guncannon is of a respectable size unlike the pea-shooter that was bundled with the Gundam. I guess it would have been perfection if they also slapped some yellow paint on the respective sights of each rifle but you can always fix that yourself.

 

The Guncannon never made it to Gashapon Warrior DASH but I can compare it to my really pale figure from NEXT. I actually have an entire squad of these pale figures which look like they have been exposed to too much sunlight but they are like this all-over so I don't know what is going on there. Notice that the NEXT figure has cannons in proper mounts unlike the new Forte design.

 

Together with the GM from Senshi Forte 11 we now have the basic trio of mobile suits from U.C. 0079 (notice how tiny the Gundam in compared to the GM by the way...). I haven't seen any hints that Bandai will continue adding suits from this era into Senshi Forte, but it wouldn't be surprising to see the Guntank appear (even though Senshi Forte is very light on non-mobile suit craft) and after that the line-up is pretty much complete, save for a Ball and all that tedious G-Armor crap.

   

 

F081 : OZ-00MS2B Tallgeese III

The last mobile suit in this set breaks off from the Universal Century and is actually the very first entry from any of the After Colony designs of Gundam Wing and its extension Endless Waltz for Forte. I have to give Bandai endless praise for not just going down the tired route of the Wing Gundam tree and doing something bold (although the Wing Zero is slotted to make an appearance in Senshi Forte 13 together with the Serpent no less).

 

Looking pretty good there sir. A little on the white side of things perhaps but you cannot really fault the figure for this, since that is how it really looks.

 

Notice how the Tallgeese III gets an "inner frame", hands and base made from white plastic, to better suit the mobile suit itself. It will be interesting to see to which degree Senshi Forte will feature differently coloured bases like this. The last volume also had a gold-coloured variant for its Strike Freedom Gundam.

 

The Tallgeese III actually already saw a release in Gashapon Warrior NEXT 13 back in 2013 and although it was pretty impressive at the time the new figure sets the bar much higher. Now if only we could get a Tallgeese II as well I would be really happy.

   

 

F082 : Equipment set for wave 12

Taking a cue out of the recent Bandai playbook the Senshi Forte line now also comes with its own dedicated equipment packs in a desperate bid to pad sales and lower the costs of each individual figure and adding a layer of annoyance to the consumer's lives. I will never understand how figure lines such as Converge can seemingly prosper while Gashapon figures must stick to the ancient blind box-system designed to operate more like a lottery than anything else...

 

Wow, the equipment pack is full of stuff, but as it turns out it is mostly of the filler variety. Let's break it down in more detail:

 

I haven't mentioned the simple stands that come with each figure thus far. These are pretty basic and modular and in my opinion a rather huge step up from the annoying tripods that came with the figures up until wave 10. Each base is of somewhat semi-circular appearance and has multiple peg holes that give you a bit of creative freedom which is nice. Each figure then also features an L-shaped piece that slots into the base and a circular hole in the figure's leg connector piece. The base plates also have pegs on their own used to conjoin multiple plates with each other which adds to that nice Lego-type feeling.

 

Since the stands share sprue with the figure's optional hands they are molded in the same plastic colour as the mobile suit's hands meaning that the Tallgeese gets a bright white base which will of course look completely out of place, but at least it beats having black hands on all figures (like they do it in Mobile Suit Ensemble).

 

The components in the equipment set can be freestyled in similar fashion but are meant to make up a modular unit as presented above. These units can then be strung together both horizontally and vertically to build a massive display shelf. While a neat idea in theory the fact that you will get one such stand per every figures means it is not exactly going to be the method of choice to display your entire collection. I don't know what they were smoking when they came up with this system. Perhaps if Bandai would offer cheap accessory packs with ten such stands per box it would be something I could take seriously, at this point it is nothing but a technology demonstrator.

 

There are a couple of weapons thrown into the equipment pack which is the main benefit of getting one. The Gundam can enjoy two weapon options, a really nice translucent beam saber complete with a white handle and a LARGE hyper bazooka (the figure wielding two in the image above wll require two equipment packs to complete). Both weapons are molded in soft plastic so expect to see bent bazookas and beam sabers, about 50% of the pieces I received were bent rather badly.

 

The two Zaku mobile suits also get two extra accessories to share between them, one Heat Hawk for close combat and the classic Zaku Bazooka for added firepower. This really gives you everything you need to build a nice looking Zaku platoon (now if only I could manage to pick up a few more Zaku figures...).

 

Even the Tallgeese gets an equipment option although it is pretty minor. Basically you get an optional look of its Mega Beam Cannon in its extended and opened up format. The basic figure has the shorter barrel option for when used in regular beam rifle mode. Again I was lucky to have found two equipment packs since one of the cannons was bent very badly. The only figure to miss out on a gear option is the Guncannon which is a bit stingy since the optional white missile launchers have been seen frequently on recent Guncannon figures. I would have preferred more weapons to these rather pointless display stands.

   

 

Conclusion

 

I was pleasantly surprised by the speed at which I was able to build the new figures, I completed waves eleven and twelve in one sitting. I used to dread building the Senshi Forte figures (well I still do for the older ones) because of their unwillingness to co-operate and my fingers would be damn sore after a session of brute forcing stubborn pegs into holes filled with flash. There is a reason the part 09 review isn't up yet you see...

The new figures are not only easier to assemble but the style of the new sculpts has also improved in proportions in my opinion. As far as the new action base systems goes, I guess I can say it is one small step forward compared to the old tripods. Below you can see what I was able to cobble together using components from six figures and an equipment pack, it is hardly presentable. And if you were hoping for something that allows for dynamic poses you will have to look elsewhere.

 

 

Gundam Converge CORE : AMA-X2 Neue Ziel

There has been a string of CORE releases in the past few months but they have not been very visible in the secondary market, what few units have surfaced usually shift into sold out status quicker than I can put together an order of my own. At my third attempt however, I was fortunate to happen on a Neue Ziel that had just been added to the Mandarake inventory and I managed to swipe it within a minute of seeing it. Being one of those CORE "marking plus" releases it was a P-Bandai release wit a price tag of ¥3700. I had to cough up ¥4000 myself so the price hasn't run amok just yet. More worrying is the lack of Neue Ziel mark twos in the marketplace. This was a regular retail release out in the end of July but I have yet to spot one for sale myself.

 

Anyway, supply issues aside, the Neue Ziel reissue comes in your average CORE-style box with a nice Zeonic green style which is perhaps a bit spotty on the consumer information side, but I guess anyone purchasing it would know exactly what they are in for.

 

The Converge Neue Ziel figure is one of those in my opinion very successful designs that hammer home the Converge aesthetics perfectly. On top of that it is an extremely easy build and sturdy figure, which you can see from the very simple instruction sheet. You build it and put it on its base and it stays there, nice and easy.

 

There are no option parts or build variations for the Neue Ziel so you end up using all the components and will be done in a few minutes. Large pegs and soft plastic go well together and avoid all that fiddliness you see in more complex builds like the Gundam Sentinel designs which can be a pain to build (or even pick up without having tiny parts falling left and right all over the place).

 

I praised the original Neue Ziel retail figure at the time of its release and then subsequently in pretty much every EX figure review where I am moaning about material choices or figure scaling. It just does Converge perfectly and is easily one of the best mobile armor designs to have come out of the line (if not the best). And so unsurprisingly, the reissued version improves upon it even further. You'll notice immediately that its green colour has a better Zeonic vibe to it and the metallic detail added to thrusters is really attractive

 

Scattered all over the design you will find the usual nonsense CORE-markings added for no other reason than for adding markings. Personally I don't think they add much value (save for that nice crest on the chest) and I always prefer unit or tactical markings myself.

 

The Neue Ziel figure nails the size perfectly as well. Lately we've seen a couple of EX figures that were too small for their own good (the Byg-Zam was the most recent offender) but there can be no complaints here. As for the Stardust Memory line-up itself, Converge remains rather weak and could do with an injection. I have full faith in FusionWorks revisiting the line (with updated  Gundams no doubt) eventually in the same stellar way they have went to town on War in the Pocket, Gundam F91 and Victory.

 

Side by side with the original retail figure; EX12 which released in June 2016. While the new figure is upping the game I see no real reason to replace the old one unless you are a completionist (and I am getting really sick of buying the same figures all over again myself). Do keep in mind also that the Option Parts Set released for the old Dendrobium and Neue Ziel contains green arm components that don't match the colours of the CORE figure.

 

The latest Shokugan news...

It is not every day we get treated to a new Gundam-related Shokugan brand, yet here we are. In a year signified mostly by being shot in its own foot, we are now seeing some product brand news after quite the while. I am personally very worried what is going to happen with the MicroWars figure line for example. It has been pretty quiet around here and wave five was originally supposed to be released this August but I haven't seen or heard anything about it yet. There also haven't been any updates regarding a possible wave 6.

 

MicroWars 5, where are you?

The latest idea from Bandai however is called Gundam Artifact. In short, the concept is all about very small ultra-detailed mini-kits. The first wave consists of five tried and tested mobile suit design in ABS plastic. The figures are supposed to be around 55 mm in height but I guess they are not going to be to-scale if the promo pictures are anything to go by which would be a real shame.

 

Look at the smallest part on the right and ask yourself if you can even grab them with your fingertips.

The main kicker is however that they will come as unpainted kits with around 50 components. The component shots do not reveal if we can expect parts on sprues or if they will come loose in a bag, but I would be very surprised if you don't get tem on sprues, since this is the way that more and more bandai gashapon and Shokugan are going lately (I assume because of production-related costs). Can you imagine the tedium of taking fifty tiny pieces from sprues all full with large nub marks considering how small the figures will be? I don't know about you but I just want to collect figures, not put piles and piles of to-do's on a pile of shame.

 

Do you take commissions?

Do you remember the Mini-kit Collection which Bandai introduced in 2016? They had the tag-line "made in two minutes" and mine still sit in their boxes awaiting assembly. That line folded after three volumes and remains notoriously difficult to pick up abroad. If I couldn't get around to building figures with max half-a-dozen parts, this doesn't exactly bode well for Gundam Artifact...

The first line-up consists of the following mobile suits (in the order presented by Bandai):

RMS-099 Rick Dias

MSA-0011[Ext] Ex-S Gundam

RX-93-ν2 Hi-Nu Gundam

MSN-04II Nightingale

RX-160S Byarlant Custom

Gundam Artifact is slated for release in January 2021. A single (blind box I assume) retail figure will be priced ¥450 and you can pre-order a 10-pcs box through P-Bandai for ¥4950.

Mobile Suit Ensemble EX 03 : RX-121-1 Gundam TR-1 Hazel Custom (Titans Color Set)

So, we have finally reached the goal set the other week once I heard that Bandai are reissuing the Premium Hazel Custom box set this autumn. This meant finally cracking my still sealed box open and getting around to building this beast. Since the figure features so many alternative builds I kind of dreaded it a bit but I decided to do a concerted effort together with the myriad of Hazel Custom figures that preceded it (in the retail Ensemble sets Part 03 and 3.5 respectively). So if you just skimmed through those reviews you will find a lot of repetition here. I guess this review acts as that dreaded mid-season clip-show that Sunrise likes to throw into the middle of a long-running Gundam TV-series.

 

The Hazel Custom was one of the early Ensemble P-Bandai exclusives and began shipping in September 2017. With a price tag of ¥4480 (which seemed completely wild at the time... little did we know what would follow) it marked a significant investment yet at the same time this very figure seemed too good to pass up on and kind of turned me into an Ensemble collector. So yeah, it has a lot to answer for...

 

The components in the box are separated into four smaller cardboard boxes, each neatly marking its contents. Box one has the Hazel Custom figure itself, box two contains the large boosters, box three a pair of Hrududu support fighters and part four the optional components from the retail weapon set. There is also a decent instruction leaflet describing the various official figures you can build. However, the same instructions online are not only easier to read but also contain some additional information such as which pieces to remove when changing one figure into another. Check the build instructions here (at least as long as Bandai keeps the series and its website alive).

 

Let's quickly go through the contents of each box; the first one holds your typical Hazel Custom mobile suit with its basic accessories.

 

...box two features the large support booster unit and bases, it also includes a separate booster unit for the white Hazel figure from the retail series...

 

...box three comes with two identical sets of Hrududu support craft which can act both as its own thing or combine with the Gundam...

 

...box four finally has the extra bits and bobs needed to build the variety of designs that the Bandai engineers have come up with. They really had to spend a lot of effort here and it shows, the engineering is overall great with perhaps only a few quirks.

 

For this review series I dragged out all my Hazel figures from the two retail sets as well as this box. You will see through the review that some of the builds on display are actually from the blue retail set figure since I didn't feel like picking apart each figure six times over, but the differences are very small and will be pointed out where appropriate.

 

Let's begin with a component analysis. Shown here is the Hazel Custom figure components from box one compared to a retail Hazel Custom figure. As you can quickly see, the contents of the two is identical, the only difference being that you have to cut some of the components off of miniature sprues when dealing with the retail figure.

 

Can I just point out that the components in the first box barely manage to fill the bottom layer of the box? Talk about a bad case of oversized packaging...

 

No comparison is relevant for box two because this box holds all the components exclusive to the premium figure, nothing you see here is available through the retail sets.

 

The comparison of box three versus a retail Hrududu quickly shows that the component set-up count is identical (you get two complete sets here in the premium box). Notice that there is a colouring difference on the lower wing component; there is a section painted black on the premium figure that is blue on the retail figure. It should be pointed out that the blue retail figure is a later release so not sure which Bandai considers the most correct here.

 

The equipment set also contains a couple of notable differences. The most apparent is that while the sets are overall strikingly similar you do get a pair of extra Shield Boosters with the premium figure which is crucial (and these really should have been included with the retail set as well in my opinion). The retail figure ships with the standard Ensemble beam saber accessory - which isn't really intended for the Hazel - so it has been skipped in the premium set. Lastly, the colouring of the feet also differs between the two editions and I'm not sure which is to be considered the most accurate either.

   

 

RX-121-1 Gundam TR-1 [Hazel Custom]

 

Rather than pontificating on the various Hazel combinations am I just going to power through the various types here since it just amounts to repetition form the previous reviews. Fair warning also that I went straight for the Hazel-Rah Second Form when building the Premium figure, the other versions you will see here are actually the 3.5 retail figures which I happen to have multiples of. As always I don't recommend messing with the figures more than necessary since the joints always run the risk of becoming loose.

 

First up we have the basic Hazel Custom figure that you get to build from a single retail box, available in both white and blue. Here the figure shown is the Official Titans Colour figure from Part 3.5.

 

Here you can see the slightly different blue colours used on the retail figure from part 3.5 (left) and the premium figure from the EX 03 set (right).

   

 

FF-X29A G-Parts [Hrududu]

 

Next up is the Hrududu Support Fighter Craft which is as basic as figures go. It comes with a special adapter which is needed f you wish to put it on an Ensemble base.

 

Again the images here are from the Part 3.5 review. You get enough parts in the premium box to build two of these but they are really intended to be used as additional bodyparts on the most advanced Hazel-Rah types that we will see below.

   

 

RX-121-1 Gundam TR-1 [Hazel Custom] (Shield Booster Unit)

 

The simplest conversion is the Tri-booster Hazel which basically removes the figure's nice looking shield and adds on three of the Hazel Shield Booster units instead.

 

It was annoying that you didn't get enough Shield Booster parts in the retail Ensemble Weapon Sets so that you would have had to purchase two boxes for the luxury of having three Shield Boosters, three boxes if you wanted to use the black and white ones seen here. Then we see the equipment set that comes with this premium figure containing the exact number of Shield Boosters needed. The whole thing looks very suspicious to me.

   

 

RX-121-2A Gundam TR-1 [Advanced Hazel]

 

The Advanced Hazel is the first major parts conversion type that you can do with this set. It involves not just equipment changes but the replacing of bodyparts including sub-components like the front section of the skirt armor. The end result is a rather strange and bulky design.

 

Again the figure shown here is the Part 3.5 version. As mentioned in the parts review, the feet on this retail figure has white trim whereas the feet from the premium box are blue. You will see the actual feet from this box on the Hazel-Rah Second Form figure below.

   

RX-121-1+FF-X29A Gundam TR-1 [Hazel-Rah]

 

Here comes a figure that was actually made using the parts from the premium boxset, yes shocking I know. :)   The Hazel-Rah is an alternate evolution from the Advanced Hazel. It begins with the regular Hazel Custom and adds components from the Hrududu fighter craft and again switches the regular shield for one of the Shield Booster units.

 

As you can see the figure is quite back heavy but it can remain standing unaided as long as you don't make any weird poses and use the long blade rifle as counter balance. Otherwise you'll want to make use of an Ensemble stand, preferably reinforced with four feet rather than the usual two.

   

 

RX-121-1+FF-X29A Gundam TR-1 [Hazel-Rah] Second Form

 

The Second Form Hazel-Rah is the final evolution of the figure in this box set, save for the optional large booster unit that is. It tacks on everything and the kitchen sink, requiring you to remove several components and loosen the arms to allow for the second Hrududu to be carried as an extra waist mounted section.

 

While this figure might work from an engineering point of view (and only just barely) it really doesn't look very appealing to me. The design is so busy that it is hard to even figure out what you are looking at unless you were involved in assembling it.

 

The Hazel-Rah (here from Ensemble Part 3.5) poses next to the Hazel-Rah Second Form. Again you can see the colour difference between the retail and the premium figures. Notice also that this Second Form figure has the proper blue feet that were not present on the Advanced Hazel that I showed you earlier.

   

 

RX-121-1+FF-X29A Gundam TR-1 [Hazel-Rah] Second Form with Booster Unit

 

Up until this far in the review, everything we have seen has been buildable using the retail figures, provided you managed to gather enough components for them. Here in this final section we add the large Booster Unit and the special action base unique to this premium figure only.

 

There is a really nicely constructed locking mechanism in place here, which attaches both the Hazel mobile suit, the large booster and the action base to each other. While not super-sturdy or anything it still does a pretty good job of supporting the pose properly, as the booster is locked in place both by attaching it to the clear base and the backpack. I find it a bit odd that Bandai didn't think it necessary to include build instructions for the booster unit itself, since there could be some initial confusion until you figure it out.

 

I really like that we get a completely separate white booster unit for use with the white retail Hazel family from Ensemble Part 03. If this set had been designed in 2020 I have a feeling we would not have gotten such a luxury and instead had had to buy a special white version of the entire set. Actually that may not have been such a bad idea, considering how scarce and pricey the original retail figures have now become.

While the blue version of the Hazel is quite attractive I still think the white figure with its sharp contrasts between white, yellow and black looks much better. Especially the large booster unit has a very smart looking colour scheme.

   

 

Conclusion

 

I guess we have now reached the end of the road for the Hazels in Ensemble, at least for the time being. There is a large Gigantic Arm Unit premium figure scheduled for release later this autumn and beyond these we still have to mess around with the Hazel's other cousin; the Woundwort. And that box is much larger... hoh boy. I hope these reviews have been helpful for those who have not yet decided if they would like to hop on to the Ensemble Hazel train, now that this rare opportunity to grab the reissue has surfaced. At around ¥4500 I think it is reasonably priced (I can't believe I just typed that...) when you consider how hard it has become to find the original retail figures already.