Unifive Universal Century All Gundam Key Holder (Bandai Museum Limited)

This review is a little follow-up to yesterday's All Gundam Keyholder set which featured various incarnations of the RX-78 as well as the RX-79[G]. This particular item is a variation on one of the figures found in that set, and was made available as a Bandai Museum exclusive item. Just like how some items are sold through the Gundam Café shops today. To quote a few lines from the Wikipedia article on the museum:

 

"The Omocha no Machi Bandai Museum is a museum devoted to Bandai characters located in Mibu, Shimotsuga District, Tochigi, Japan. It opened on July 19, 2003 as the Bandai Museum at Matsudo, Chiba. It was closed on August 31, 2006 and moved to Mibu, Tochigi on April 28, 2007, where it features exhibits on Ultraman, Gundam, Godzilla, Super Sentai, and a Gundam-themed cafe along with various shops attached to the museum."

 

Looking at this particular figure's barcode and ST markings it does not look like it was released at the same time as the retail figures. I don't know if this figure was released in tandem with other figures but I do know that there exists at least one additional Bandai Museum exclusive in this figure line, that one being a Casval Custom version of the Full Armor Gundam which I sadly do not own.

 

The packaging is as you can see rather Spartan; a slip of paper and a crumpled plastic bag. Here is the figure with its metal strap before it being permanently removed.

 

The RX-78/C.A. is a variation of the RX-78 developed by Neo Zeon for the personal use of Casval Rem Deikun, better known as Char Aznable. The suit was featured in Gihren's Greed, one of those turn-based strategy games I never got to play. The figure itself has a nice paint scheme with some really fine markings on the shield, which drastically ups the detail level compared to the basic figure (which carries no text markings). Being a keyring figure, the material is soft, durable and somewhat bendy plastic.

 

There isn't a whole lot to say about the figure really, what you see is what you get. Here it poses next to the original retail version from the Universal Century All Gundam Key Holder set which was also released in 2004.

 

Here is an expanded family view togeter with the RX-78 versions from that retail set. I wouldn't be surprised if there are even more variations released of this figure; a Real Type-colour version would seem quite likely for example.

 

One thing I didn't discuss in detail in the previous review is the actual size of these keyring figures. Here is a comparison shot of some figures in nearby scales. From left to right we see:

- Casval's Gundam in 1:400 scale from the Gundam Collection figure series.

- A unique olive green-themed RX-78 from the Gundam Gsight 1:350 figure collection.

- The dual bazooka wielding figure from this particular review.

- A classic coloured RX-78-2 with weathering from the Strategy of Gundam 1:300 series.

- A non-scale Zaku II from the long-running Gashapon HG figure series, which is somewhere around 1:285.

- Another white RX-78-2 with even more weathering from the Banpresto MTSS 1:250 collection.

- Lastly a 1:220 scale RX-78/C.A. - here from the Bandai Hybrid Mobile Suit Selection series.

I don't have a whole lot more to say about this figure except that it is a great addition to your keyring figure collection, should you happen to stumble on it. I don't know exactly how rare it is, considering that the ordinary retail figures are pretty damn hard to find to begin with. Gashapon second-hand stores are probably your best bet. Good luck with the hunting. :)

Unifive Universal Century All Gundam Keyholder

Today we are looking at another Gundam-themed keyring line. This particular series, under the All Gundam name, was produced by Banpresto in 2004 for Unifive. If you dig into this a bit you will find that the company Unifive was actually swallowed up by Bandai in 2001 and there it was allowed to live on until 2006 as a subsidiary of Banpresto, another of the giant's acquisitions. Banpresto is of course now also a memory, living on under the name of Bandai Spirits. It is all one gigantic conspiracy...

 

There is an interesting gimmick to the blind boxes of these figures. Each box has a little peep hole in the bottom corner (covered with see-through plastic) but you'd still have to be pretty aggressive to identify the contents within. Many keyring figures are sold without boxes and with only a bit of paper wrapped inside the metal ring and so tend to be wildly bent but hopefully these will have fared a bit better.

 

Keyring figures are rather hard to collect these days, I reckon if you have access to the Japanese secondary market and plenty of time you can do quite well though. I was fortunate enough to swipe this set off the Mandarake store for ¥1000, which is outrageously cheap. It would seem that this type of figure isn't that sought after in Japan but they tend to be quite aggressively priced in markets targeting foreigners. Go figure.

 

Each box contained this nice flyer illustrating some of the other contemporary Unifive keyring figures. You'll be surprised how many unusual mobile suits have made it into keyring format which makes them worth considering for the Gashapon collector. The main drawback is that they are (of course) often not to scale with anything else on the market.

 

Take a quick look at those metal chains because they will now be permanently removed. I don't get why Bandai loves to develop beautiful and detailed figures only to permanently damage them like this. Has anyone actually ever used one of these in their own keyring? (Answers on the back of a postcard)

 

 

RX-78-1 Prototype Gundam

 

We are not going to linger very long on each figure but just admire the detailed sculpts and thorough paint schemes that have been applied to them. These figures are made of a soft plastic which makes them very durable but I wouldn't just throw them in a box as I could imagine paint scratches or perhaps even paint carrying over from figure to figure. Notice the nice weathering effects applied here and there for added realism.

 

 

RX-78-2 Gundam

 

Notice the painted detail on the beam rifle and even the backside of the shield, these are not cheaply painted SD figures but are excellent all around. All the figures in this set also have the benefit of being able to stand upright. Many keyring figure series feature mobile suits in very expressive flying poses that are impossible to display without a lot of customization.

 

 

RX-78-3 Gundam G-3

 

The G3 figure is a direct colour variation of the basic RX-78-2 Gundam while the RX-78-1 figure actually has a unique sculpt of its own. A lot of care has gone into the creation of these figurines.

 

 

RX-78-2 Gundam (Final Battle Specification)

 

The bazookas have not taken well to being stored in a plastic bag but you should be able to straighten them out if you equip yourself with maybe a hairdryer and a bit of patience. I love how the figure isn't just a straight weapon replacement, care has been taken to store the beam rifle on the back skirt and even the shield has been added to the back and it still features a dark gray back side. Very impressive.

 

RX-79[G] Ground Type Gundam (machine gun ver.)

As nice as the RX-78 series figures were it is the Ground Type Gundams that steal the show in this set. They come in a lot of different types and poses; here the most basic variant equipped only with a YHI YF-MG100 100mm Machine Gun. Notice how both hands are holding the gun.

 

 

RX-79[G] Ground Type Gundam (180mm Cannon ver.)

The next figure is equipped with what is arguably the most iconic weapon of the RX-79[G], the oversized YHI FH-X180 180mm Cannon and a large weapon container. I can imagine that this figure's ability to stand upright may vary quite a lot between individual figures, but this particular figure is doing just well.

 

 

RX-79[G] Ground Type Gundam (Missile Launcher ver.)

We even get a third variant of the ground Type, and this unit wields the YHI 6ML-79MM Missile Launcher and another classic piece of equipment, the RGM*S-Sh-WF/S-00109 Shield. This is another figure which is very top heavy, unaided it won't deal very well with even the slightest sloping surface.

 

 

RX-79[G] Ground Type Gundam (GM Head) (secret figure)

 

The first of our two "secret" figures is Karen Joshua's variant on the missile launcher wielding Ground Type Gundam with a replacement head from a Ground Type GM, a real trope when it comes to figure collecting.

 

 

RX-79[G]Ez-8 Gundam Ez-8

 

With no less than four Ground Type Gundams in the set we still have room for one more, the heavily modified Ez-8. This figure is armed with a BLASH XBR-M-79E Beam Rifle and RGM*S-Sh-WF/S-00109 Shield. On its back sits a thruster equipped parachute pack that allows it to airdrop from a Medea aircraft. I wonder if this is the reason why the figure was given a kneeling pose, I guess there was no way they could make it stand up properly without support.

 

 

RX-79[G]Ez-8 Gundam Ez-8 (green color ver.) (secret figure)

 

The second secret figure in this set is the Ez8 in military-style olive green and bronze. I don't think that I have ever seen the Ez8 in these colours before and it may well be unique to this very figure set. As far as distribution goes I have no idea just exactly how rare the secret figures are compared to the regular ones. I could well imagine these are just as common as the normal eight.

 

So here's a quick recap; we have the four RX-78 series figures with their varying sculpts and colours. I am usually not a huge fan of this mobile suit but I must say these all look really neat.

 

Here's a close up of the two "secret" figures and their regular counterparts. The GM Head figure is definitely the more interesting out of the two.

 

This line-up is one of the finest displays of Ground Type Gundams I have ever seen. What a stunning set! I wonder if there are further Ground Type GMs and/or Snipers also available in this figure series, it would be really fun to build a massive force of these.

 

 

Conclusion

 

I hope that blog entries like these can make people more interested in the often overlooked world of keyring figures. While they are hard to combine with other figure types they are certainly of very high quality and if you manage to find them under the right circumstances they should also be dirt cheap.

 

The latest Gashapon news...

We got a new post on the Bandai Gashapon Blog which contains some interesting information indeed. First out is the announcement that Ensemble Part 17 has hit the Gashapon machines in Japan. This set is retail the first volume to feature six different figures in the set rather than five, which will upset the delicate balance of the usual 10-boxes. As far as I can tell, these boxes have not been extended to 12 slots, so just exactly can you look forward to seeing in a 10-box? My assumption is that each 10-box will contain doubles of everything except for the Jagd Dogas which will be limited to one each per 10-box. This is usually how Bandai does it with Converge and Senshi Forte and would if this is true make the Dogas slightly scarcer than the rest of the pack. You could also say that the ZZ Gundam itself would be just as rare in such a scenario, which is why I am not entirely convinced this is how Bandai will go about it.

Two new premium figures sets have opened for preorder through the P-Bandai program. EX 29 is the Virtue Gundam which will round out the Celestial Being team nicely, especially with the Nadleeh making its appearance in Ensemble Part 17. EX 30 is a jaw-dropper for me personally and features the Earth Alliance's three first prototype Gundams - Forbidden, Raider and Calamity. The Virtue will be priced at ¥4950 and the O.M.N.I. troika will have a massive ¥9350 price tag. Both are scheduled for delivery in August.

We also get to see prototypes for more upcoming Mobile Suit Gundam SEED-themed releases. The Strike Freedom and the Providence are shown to be in development. The Mobile Suit Ensemble series will have its fifth anniversary this December and more news will be forthcoming as to what Bandai is planning to celebrate it. I hope it won't be one of those reissue sets with Gundams featuring gold-trimming on their V-Fins like in Converge.

Things are not as rosy when it comes to Gashapon Senshi Forte. Ever since the switchover from volume 10 to 11 the release pace has been glacial. Volume 13 is at least out since February and I even managed to grab a set which is on its way now. When it comes to volume 14 it appears to have completed development but I don't really know anything about it. Perhaps pictures have been leaked through the Komagata Information Bureau twitter account but it is nothing I follow. Thus I am not even sure if this sketch of what appears to be a RGM-79N GM Custom from Stardust Memory is intended for volume 14 or if it is a possible contender for volume 15. We've been hearing warnings regarding the imminent death of Senshi Forte for quite some time now, here is what our writer states on the blog:

 

"そして、ガシャポン戦士も14弾の準備を進めております。14弾の進行も大分時間がかかってしまってますが、15弾をどうするのか？というかどうしたらいいのか？がまだ固まっておらず、とりあえず辞めないという意志だけは持ちつつ今は14弾の進行に全力を傾けております。

毎年どんどん生産環境が悪化していき、低単価で薄利多売という商売スキームにガシャポン戦士やアンサンブルのような高仕様の商材というのはまったく合わなくなってきております。これもまた時代の流れとは思いつつも、限界を超えても走り続ける意志を持って頑張るしかないですね。もう今からコレクション新シリーズとか言われてもまた1から？という気持ちになっちゃうかなというのもあり新シリーズへの移行などは現時点では考えておりません。

とかいって14弾盛りすぎてボリュームヤバいんですよ・・・結構私も仕上りが楽しみだったりします。デコマスなどあがりましたらご紹介しますのでお楽しみに！"

 

 

Parsed through Google Translate this comes out as something like:

"And the Gashapon warrior is also preparing volume 14. It took a long time to progress volume 14, but what about volume 15? What should I do? However, it has not been settled yet, and while I have the intention of not quitting for the time being, I am now devoting myself to the progress of volume 14.

The production environment is getting worse and worse every year, and high-specification products such as Gashapon warriors and ensembles are no longer suitable for the business scheme of low unit price and low profit and high sales. I think this is also a trend of the times, but I have no choice but to do my best with the will to continue running even if the limit is exceeded. Even if it's called a new collection series from now on, is it from 1 again? At this point, I'm not thinking about moving to a new series because I might feel like that.

That said, there are too many volume 14 and it's voluminous ... I'm looking forward to the finish. We will introduce you when the decorations are finished, so please look forward to it!"

 

 

From the looks of it, it almost seems like volume 14 might be a set larger than usual. Maybe the entire series will go out with a bang. I personally don't think that Bandai is interested in letting the series live on as a low quantity-higher price product because that is already the direction they are bringing Ensemble, a series which seems to survive mainly thanks to its pricey EX-figures. Still, killing off Senshi Forte would mean disrupting a steady stream of super deformed Gashapon - a well known property that has been in constant production since 1997 in one format or other.

Mobile Suit Ensemble Part 05

I've been meaning to review the Ensemble Assault-Buster for quite some time now but in order to do the review justice it would make most sense to first tackle the previous Victory 2 Gundam incarnations. This in turn meant completing the outstanding builds for parts five and six and while I'm not done with Part 06 yet I at least managed to wrap up Part 05. And it is about time too, because this set has some really interesting things going for it.

 

Ensemble Part 05 was the fifth retail set and appeared in February 2018 and so has been around for more than three years already. When I first bought into it I wasn't yet a dedicated Ensemble collector, being on the fence for quite some time. The Gedlavs definitely brought me in and I picked up a full set of the capsule version in Thailand for 950 THB which at the time would be something close to ¥3000 - slightly higher than the ¥500 the figures were selling for in Japan at the time. I rounded out the set with further duplicates which had dropped to ¥400 on the secondary Japanese market in the same year. These days you don't see the figures too often and the prices have gone up significantly.

 

Besides coming in capsules the figures are of course also available in a boxed version. These don't come with the nice booklets but I like storing spare parts in these because Ensemble figures typically mean a lot of leftover parts.

 

028 : GNT-0000 Qan[t]

 

On the title page we have the weirdly named Qan[T] which replaces the 00 Raiser combo. With the recently released Exia figure we now have a nice evolution line-up available in the Ensemble line.

 

The Qan[T] figure goes all in on translucent green and features several nice details for a retail figure. It gets special bonus points for the little parts you can insert into the head and lower legs which looks just fantastic.

 

After the recent Ensemble sets we are back to looking at a first generation figure. These are easily recognizable from the fully circular mini-sprues to which hands and joints are attached. Personally I prefer these older sprues since the torso component is only attached with two gates instead of four.

 

 

029 : LM314V21 Victory 2 Gundam

If it wasn't for the previous figure the V2 may well have been on the cover for this set. It seems Bandai rarely chooses to display the Victory as the faces of a set, which is a bit odd considering it has a lot of character. It finally got the honours when it reappeared at the front of Converge #19 last year though so perhaps it is just my imagination.

I think the V2 has a really clean design and just enough dashes of blue and yellow colour to make it stand out. When you add the beam shield on top it goes crazy. Victory and F91-era figures should always come with their beam shields deployed yet somehow Bandai continues to sell the Crossbone Vanguard short in this regard.

 

The V2 comes with said Beam Shield and its signature Beam Rifle. We will take a closer look at some extra options when we examine the volume five equipment pack.

 

 

030 : ZM-S24G Gedlav

 

Here is the figure that put Ensemble Part 05 on the map for me. After a rather weak introduction with recycled suits the Hazel in Part 03 and then the Woundwort in Part 04 raised the temperature but it was this figure that convinced me of Ensemble's strength and daring to go down a rarely trodden part. Since then there is usually at least one odd mobile suit choice in the retail sets and those are typically the ones that bring me the most joy.

 

The Gedlav figure is a rather quirky design and was probably a bit of a nightmare to design. While its arms and legs are fairly standard as Ensemble goes the torso is a bit of a mess. The coffee and black-coloured armour attaches to both the front and back of the body but neither connection is particularly secure and the slightest upset will force it to pop out which is really frustrating. All the four figures I have built share this same property and I had to resort to super glue for the worst offenders. You also won't be getting a lot of articulation out of this figure because of the proportions of its limbs. Another peculiarity is that the face section keeps falling out of its socket very easily and so I had to super glue the eyes and face of each figure as well.

 

The Gedlav figure comes armed with a strange looking beam rifle only, a weapon it will have trouble doing much with anyway, its main gimmick is instead riding its Einerad combat support vehicle.

 

 

031 : Einerad

Gundam have seen a fair share of outlandish concept designs. While the Einerad is an actual real world design I still tend to lump it together with other weird things like Gundams being able to pull off atmospheric flight, either on flimsy wings or those various strange platforms they like to stand on.

From an aesthetic perspective however, the Einerad is a pretty... rad design. Its German name that translates to monowheel really tells you everything you need to know about it. featuring some sort of gyro it allows the Gedlav specifically to ride it at high speeds and offers additional fire support with a pair of Beam Cannons and a nine-pod missile launcher, which for some reason Bandai's designers thought was more important to convert into eight tubes in case you'd want to stick some stupid component into the middle of it.

 

You build the Einerad by taking the components from the two bags marked left and right and construct the wheel in a staggered pattern which makes it really sturdy and a unique build experience at that. You also get two small transparent pieces to attach to the wheel to keep it in place.

 

The Gedlav figures fit reasonably well onto the rather small platforms but their limited articulation prohibits you from making cool poses where they stand with only one leg on the platform. Since there is no peg support underneath their feet you can't attach them to the platforms either but you could try out something that connects between the inside of the wheel and the figure's back if you really wanted. Such components are sometimes found in the equipment sets for Ensemble although not in this particular set.

 

 

032 : Equipment Set for Wave 05

The equipment set for this set is almost exclusively devoted to the Victory 2 Gundam. There isn't even the token clear beam saber that is so often included with these boxes. The good thing is that one set will serve you well unless you are planning on building a squad of Victory 2 Buster Gundams that is.

Overwhelming majority for the V2 indeed. The Gedlav doesn't get anything at all but there are two components for the Qan[T] Beam Sword in there a handle and a modified blade which has four peg holes that allow you to transfer the GN Sword Bits from the shield and onto the blade instead. The result is stunning if a bit ridiculous:

 

Please note that the Qan[T] in top photo uses two sets of GN Sword Bits because I didn't feel like digging out the stored leftover parts. Instead I simply stole the same type of weapon from the Qan[T]'s bigger cousin; the GNT-0000/FS 00 Qan[T] Full Saber (Ensemble EX 06a). If you enjoy the Qan[T] design I recommend getting the EX figure which goes full on crazy.

 

Spectacular as the Qan[T] saber might be, it is the LM314V23 Victory 2 Buster Gundam that steals this show. Besides attaching a large new backpack you also get a new skirt and additional leg armor. Even the Beam Rifle has a little Grenade Launcher attachment

 

While it may not be canon to see the Victory 2 enter serialized production I for one wouldn't mind seeing a full unit built around this superb looking mobile suit. All I ask is a couple more Zanscare (or why not Crossbone) units to fight it.

 

 

Conclusion

Mobile Suit Ensemble was a little over a year old when this set hit the shelves and I think the series had definitely found its soul by this time. If your love for Mobile Suit Gundam takes you beyond the usual E.F.S.F./Zeon theme you will find a lot to love in this very fine collection of figures.