And now for a word from our sponsor...

A comment was posted here the other day talking about Shokugan figures bundled with chocolate snacks. As I was not able to provide any insight into the query I will post it here in the hope that perhaps some of our esteemed readers may have any knowledge about it. Message reads:

"I don't suppose you have any information regarding Gundam Shokugan figures from the mid 1990s? I remember that as my entry into Gundam. There was a chocolate candy package that had a SD figure that looks very similar to this Full Color series."

I have only been a Gundam toy collector for about eight or so years and my own digging into older toys have so far not led me to any super deformed Shokugans beyond Converge and some of the recent stuff like MicroWars. However, the combination of chocolate and toy immediately makes me think about Morinaga & Company who are well known for doing cross-promotion with other popular brands. So I decided to do a little mini-review of one such object that has been lying around here unopened for quite some time. Behold:


What you are seeing here is a really messy but technically still sealed Gundam-themed chocolate snack with love from Morinaga & Co. I'm afraid the candy has disintegrated so let's take everything out of its plastic wrapping, clean things up and then inspect them a bit closer.


Ahh... much better. As you can see we have two boxes wrapped together. The small box contains the toy and the larger box the chocolate snacks themselves. You can see what the candy looked like down in the corner on the packaging but I'm afraid things have progressed to a later stage in 2021:


Yummy... I guess I do not get to try out the chocolate which is a shame because Morinaga snacks are usually quite good. The candy type survives to this day though and I made it a thing to try out their different flavours whenever I was fortunate enough to spot them in Japan (those are the boxes you see at the top of the review). In this particular box there was a faint but not so appetizing smell of some kind of nut but I have no idea if that is how it was supposed to be from the beginning. How old are these things anyway? I couldn't find a date on the packaging but I am guessing late 1990s early 2000s maybe?


So what random toy could I hope to get out of the set? Let's see... we have five different mobile suit figures; a really wild and interesting selection at that. Apart from the old Gundam we have four unusual faces on offer, a Hambrabi from Zeta Gundam, the Hyaku-Shiki Kai from the Zeta MSV series, a Hy-gogg from War in the Pocket and Cima's Custom Gelgoog from Stardust Memory. Figure nine is a variant of the G-A.R.M.O.R. and marks the last interesting thing to find here. The rest is mobile suit heads, Amuro's helmet, a couple of busts of Sayla Mass and Roux Louka, two military emblems and a weird "Amuro Ray" christmas elf-style figure. I sure hope that's not what I will find inside this package. Let's open it and find out:


Gee... I suppose it could be worse but a Baund-Doc head is not exactly high up there on the wanted list is it? We didn't even get the painted one because yes, there are variants scattered among these figures. The mobile suits for example are also available in gold colour versions. Presumably to make it harder to find the figure you would really like and to make you spend more money trying to find it. Thanks Morinaga & Co...


Yeah, okay so it is a nicely detailed head and I am sure you could paint it up to look pretty decent but who in the world would be taking the time to do that? The main sections of the head are made from hard plastic where as the two antennas are made from soft and slightly bendy material. The figure comes with a little base and a sticker that you can glue to the front side of it to proudly display your Baund Doc head.

To make this entry a bit more interesting, let's take a look at some of the other figures in this set that I happen to have actually scooped up elsewhere over the years. These would typically be random crap from eBay sold for something like under the dollar and are as you will see more or less complete.


Here we have a black version Gundam with stylized metallic chipping which I suppose raises the impact a bit, but it would still have been more interesting fully painted. I am not 100% sure that this figure hails from this set since it comes with a bazooka not advertised on the box but I'm pretty sure it does. This figure also differs from the other ones below in that it has a simple flat base whereas the others have a peg and grid system to allow for some flying poses.


Next up we have a cool Hambrabi about to strike some poor sod with its Umihebi Taser paralyzing weapon. I have borrowed components from some of the other figures to allow it to fly, it seems these bases typically come with one short and one long peg included.

Notice how the two peg types are attached to the base when taken out of the original packaging.

Up next is a Hyaku-Shiki Kai (just in time for the Converge Gold review which is nearly ready to go...) which I have managed to find in both full colour and gold variants. The fully painted figure is really detailed and even includes the Hyaku Shiki Kai insignia on the shoulders which are really tiny. I didn't include a size comparison with the 1:400 Gundam Collection or MFS figures (which would be the closest matches for size) but I think these figures could work quite well on display next to those. The base for the golden figure on the right is obviously not the original one.


I have also managed to find both(?) versions of Cima Garahau's Gelgoog Marine Custom. You can see that the plastic has been "bleeding" a bit on the full colour version. This typically happens when plastic compounds begins to separate and creates an oily or sticky sensation when touched. Although it does not appear to permanently damage the figure who knows what will remain in 50 years time?


The two pins are actually made of metal and are given some crude miniature stands on which they do not display all that well, instead dangling and rotating a bit as they please in that lose grip. Put one on your collar and go out into the world to make a statement (until someone will mistake it for an actual political standpoint and beat the crap out of you because that's where we are in 2021...) instead.


As a bonus I also have this nice MS-07H Gouf Flight Test Type which is either a secret figure, released as part of a different wave or what I think is the most likely; this is a promo release or special edition of some kind. Notice that the mobile suit name has been embossed directly onto the base so this figure probably did not come with a sticker like the other ones.

Here is a Palace-Athene from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam packaged in a ZZ series box.

Before I sign off let's just take a quick glance at some of Morinaga's older figure outings, or rather, miniature kits. I have collected some of their older Zeta and Double Zeta figures that I found interesting, specifically rare mobile suits like the Gaza-D or the Ga-Zowmn as well as some U.C. mobile armors. There is actually a surprisingly big range of kits. If you go even further back in time you will find miniature kits in roughly 1:300 scale of mobile suits from the U.C. 0079 era like this Z'Gok that I received as part of a bundle a long time ago. It should give you a fairly good idea what these older kits were about. They feature some basic articulation like swiveling arms and as in the case with this Z'Gok a swiveling torso.

I would love to show off some of my Zeta era figures once they have been assembled and painted up but that is such a low priority at the moment that it would be anyones' guess when that could happen. Another downer is that these kits are hard to come by and really expensive. Prices seem to however around one to ten thousand yen, so it isn't exactly something you decide to get into on a whim. :)