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.