Gundam Ace February 2004 promo pack

Time for a little novelty item review. Do we have any Gundam War fans here? If you are into the collectible card game aspect of Mobile Suit Gundam you will probably be familiar with Bandai's Magic-clone Gundam War, which saw multiple card sets during its run between 1999 and 2011. Apart from the common releases you can of course expect to find crossover promotion where cards are inserted into other product lines or with partner companies here and there. Gundam Ace Magazine routinely features promotional items like these and this here is a little bonus item accompanying the February 2004 issue of the Gundam monthly.

 

This pack features an exclusive promo card for the game (well... not really) and a little postcard set. The promo might seem like an interesting rarity but holds no real value. I think I paid ¥100 for the pack (sans the magazine) so it is not like it was a massive investment. :)

 

Let's take a look at the postcards first. They feature random illustrations by various artists (some signatures I can read and others not...) and feature motives mainly from the early Universal Century era. All the cards are attached together like a little mini-booklet from which they can be separated. First up we have a pretty nice drawing of my man Char Aznable himself, followed by a really artsy Haro collage which looks like scribbles made by someone in a notebook during a meeting that has dragged on for too long.

 

Haro again, this time with some freaky partner balls that I don't know what they are imitating. This is the only card in the set that has a horizontal alignment.

 

Here are two of the better ones. First we have a young Haman Karn the way she was styled in the comic Char's Deleted Affair released by Kadokawa (there are even some nice mini-figures that I will eventually get around to posting up here). She appears to be saying some random thing about a year of excellence, Google Translate doesn't do handwritten text very well. Next we have a character completely unknown to me. I'd wager she's a supporting character from one of the many Gundam-themed console games or perhaps another Manga. The insignia should be a dead giveaway except I don't recognize that either. Definitely Zeon though.

 

Here's another really cool illustration. A war is hell-type of illustration with a non-descript soldier up front. Next we slide into caricature territory with an angry Gihren Zabi giving a speech in front of a whole army of cheering chibi-style Zakus. He is probably screaming about a happy new year or something to that effect...

 

Another Zeon girl and another player aid character from a game I'd wager. At the top we have New Year's greetings but the app is drawing a blank regarding the scribbles at the bottom I'm afraid, with highlights such as "Good in the Universe" and "Space T 90"... The next card appears to be more of the same, except this operator is with the E.F.S.F. instead. Here the translate app at least figured out that she is sending well wishes for 2004.

 

The last two illustrations are portrait studies from the Cosmic Era. First we have Lowe Guele from SEED Astray, perhaps better known as the pilot of the ever popular Astray Red Frame. He is followed by a very violet-eye colour Kira Yamato who is of course the pilot of the Freedom Gundam although here he is still wearing the O.M.N.I. recruit uniform.

 

Finally, here we have the promo card itself. Card SPGA-1 belongs to the purple neutral faction and features a combination of several cropped in illustrations with art-styles all over the place. The card's special effect allows you to purchase a new Gundam Ace Magazine on the 26th of every month. Yes, that's correct, the effect even carries over to the real world. Meant as a dry joke of course, the card features a custom backside to avoid anyone from actually trying to add it to the game itself.