The autumn is here and dark clouds hang like a thick blanket across the sky making daylight a precious commodity. The useless session for figure reviews is here in full effect. While I am waiting for workable daylight to complete the shots for a couple of more recent items I dug out a set that I documented back when the summer was still warm and pleasant and most impotantly full of sunlight.
What we have here is a set of soft plastic keyring figures manufactured by Banpresto. While these types of items are normally not the focus of the blog they are definitely worth investigating closer if you have a taste for prepainted and super-deformed figures like the various Bandai SD Gundam series. Keyring figure sets are noteworthy for containing some really rare mobile suit options that do not exist in similarly sized figure ranges and can be a great complement to those.
This particular set covers figures from the
Turn-A Gundam television series. It was manufactured way back in 1999 and carries the Banpresto short code 75773. We can also see a small "Toru Toru Mascot" logo on the card which is presumably an overarching series of figures for which this set was made. I grabbed these from Mandarake (where else?) and it cost a respectable ¥2000 for a full set of six figures. I always remove the keychains from the figures and junk those components. This leaves an ugly hole at the top of the head of the figures which honestly doesn't bother me that much but if you are a serious figure collector you may want to fill it up with some green stuff and a drop of paint or similar.
1. System A99 Turn-A Gundam
We of course open up with the one and only mustachio-Gundam. Why use a V-fin resembling bushy eyebrows when you can instead model your gear based on some interesting facial hair in its place?
While the Turn-A is a really white figure you can see that the attention to detail is still really good. We have detail here that even a bog-standard Converge figure can only dream of unless it is part of the CORE-program. And unlike the Bandai SD figurines Banpresto's keyring figures get detail on all sides and not just the front. Presumably because they are intended to dangle on the back of a school bag or something to that effect.
Size and detail comparison with the basic System A99 Turn-A Gundam from Bandai's SD Full Color series. All of the Bandai comparisons you will see here belong to the only Turn-A Gundam centered set, Full Color Stage 11 which was released in October 1999.
2. FLAT-L06D FLAT
The weird looking FLAT has a design that is completely unmistakable compared to any other mobile suit. Supposedly named for its Flexible Ladder Actuator Technology it also has less impressive nick names like High Heel.
The paint detail on this figure is simply outstanding, look at all those tiny areas where colours have been carefully separated. Now, I haven't seen the Turn-A show myself but most official artwork suggests the FLAT is typically black with red detail rather than navy blue and orange. I am not sure if there is perhaps a unit or pilot that operates the FLAT in this particular paint scheme. The Inglessa Militia has a unit painted bright red all over however.
The SD Gundam figure has colours more in line with the common artwork but man, the Banpresto figure has it outclassed in every other aspect. Notice especially the namesake heels on the Banpresto figure that just disappear into the overall feet of the Bandai mini.
3. MRC-F20 SUMO
Next up we have an iconic mass production type figure. I don't know why the SUMO hasn't made it into Converge, it practically screams compatibility with that figure line as far as complexity and rounded parts go. "SUMO", by the way, is one of those pointless acronyms that Mobile Suit Gundam SEED is so fond of and translates to "Strike Unit for Maneuver Operations" which makes absolutely zero sense.
The mass-production type SUMO is sometimes referred to as the Silver Type and the Banpresto figure certainly lives up to this name. It comes armed with a Heat Fan, which is supposed to be a combination melee weapon as well as a shield. It mostly resembles some kind of seafood eating utensil.
The Bandai SD figure has to make do with white instead of silver but it does have a better weapon choice as far as I am concerned; the more traditional looking Hand Beam Gun.
4. MRC-F20 SUMO (Harry Ord Custom)
Ace Pilot Harry Ord crews his own custom painted version of the SUMO, sometimes referred to as the Gold Type. This particular figure looks more like it would be a Bronze Type however as it is really dark but still very pretty.
The Gold Type figure is a simple colour swap of the Silver Type figure. I would really have liked it if the two figures had equipped different types of weapons (to be honest I would have been fine with Beam Guns for both of them...).
Bandai's SD figure goes for yellow instead of Gold and features the same Heat Fan weapon as the two Banpresto figures. Points awarded to the SD Full Color series for having different sculpts for the two SUMO type mobile suits.
5. Loran Cehack
The last two slots in this set contain a pair of pilot figures. It is not unusual to see keyring figure sets come with mixed types of figurines such as these in the very same sets. Sadly character figure sizes aren't very consistent between sets so they rarely pose that well together.
The first figure is the main protagonist from Turn-A, Loran a.k.a. Rolan (I'm not going to step into that debate...) who amusingly has received the most detail paint work on his suspenders. While the figure can stand up on its own I suspect there could be variations from figure to figure as even a small bend in a leg would make it impossible. I usually superglue these figures to small transparent bases to rid myself of such headaches.
6. Sochie Heim
The second pilot is Sochie Heim who is one of the supporting cast of the show. I don't know why we have to get figures in civilian clothes as pilot suits would have been way cooler, especially when the alternative here is some kind of pink princess thing. There are two more Sochie Heim figures in much larger scales and these too feature this ridiculous dress. Maybe the MegaHouse Gundam Girls Generation figure series dares to do something different in the future.
The sculpt and paintjob is excellent also on this figure, but the smaller feet and larger head means even more trouble to get this figure to stand up unaided. This particular one is just barely managing.
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The Turn-X, WaDOM and Kapool sadly do not appear to have made it into the Banpresto range.
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I don't know if Banpresto ever made another Turn-A Gundam inspired set in this range but I have never seen any evidence thereof. We saw the same thing happen also in Bandai's SD Gundam and Gashapon HG figure lines; the show got one set and that was all she wrote. Gundam Converge even gave the Turn-X the celebrated 100th figure slot but apart from the Turn-A and the Turn-X Converge only produced a Kapool as a colour variant of the Neo Zeon Capule as well as the MS-05 Borjarnon which was a half-baked conversion of the Zaku I figure (I bet people buy it second hand thinking they have scored a Black Tri-Star Custom Zaku I...)
Overall, this is a set of high-quality Banpresto keyring miniatures and if you are a fan of the line as well as the series I think that you will enjoy them. For everyone else I guess this is really fringe figure territory. :)
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