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.