SD Gundam Full Color Stage 12

It is late December 1999. The whole world is holding its breath, collectively awaiting the Y2K systemwide breakdown. The IT-boom is just about to start and your distant auntie in Tokyo has sent you a crisp ¥1000 note for Christmas. You hurry on down to the arcade eager to spend it before doom hits the world and walk into the Gashapon section. You only have to take a few steps before you spot the latest release, the Full Color Stage 12 beckons you in. You exchange the note and burn all ten ¥100 tokens on Zeta Gundam goodies...


If you were lucky enough to do the above, this is some of the items you may have ended up with. Like most of the early sets there are only six items to collect, seeded in no particular rarity to my knowledge. To this date I still haven't seen an SD Gashapon figure in its original capsule, it would be interesting to know a little bit more of how they were packaged back then. What you see here is a set of still in bag figures that you typically encounter in the second hand-market in Japan. This particular set cost me ¥1000 which places it somewhere in the medium range as far as these figures go.


Not a whole lot of assembly is required here. When shopping for loose figures, pay special attention to the fin component for the Zeta Gundam which is a typical item that will go missing. The Hyper Mega Launcher with the Waverider will probably be missing many times as well I imagine.


062 : MSZ-006 Z Gundam (Ver.2.0)


This entire set is devoted to mobile suits from the Zeta Gundam television series. It is the fourth such set, but only the second time the Zeta itself appears. Ts figure looks a bit different to how they are usually depicted. The colour is very dark blue and we get a half-baked action pose at the cost of missing the iconic black and red shield.


The Hyper Mega Launcher carried by the Waverider figure is compatible also with this Zeta. The launcher has two handles so you can choose to display it in use or held at rest, which is a nice touch. The beam rifle of the Zeta is in turn compatible with the Waverider.


My collection still lacks a lot of the early Zetas for some reason, here it poses with a number of the later figures. Notice the very dark blue colour as well as how the figures have shrunk over time.


063 : MSZ-006 Z Gundam (Waverider Mode)


Next up is the Zeta in its mobile armor Waverider mode. The figure has two peg holes, one on top and one at the bottom, which enables it to carry different weapons or sit on the standard SD Full Color action base. No such base is included with the figure and with the Hyper Mega Launcher attached there is no place to attach the base anyway, but I still think it is a bit of a missed opportunity. I have used various bits and bobs to prop the figure up here for this review.


When the Hyper Mega Launcher is removed the peg socket becomes available for the standard action base. Here the Waverider is using the Zeta figure's Beam Rifle as optional armament.


The Waverider returns once, in Stage 63 in 2006, with a translucent atmosphere re-entry effect part. As you can see, the two figures have a lot in common as far as the appearance goes.


064 : RX-178+FXA-05D Super Gundam


Third and last representative of the A.E.U.G. in this set is the final form of the Gundam Mk-II, the Super Gundam. In this mode it docks with the FXA-05D G-Defenser and uses the Defenser's Long Beam Rifle which gives it a highly destructive potential. Being a large contraption made up of two different vehicles the actual figure is of course in a smaller scale than the sizable Z Gundam we just looked at (and the same pattern will hold true for the remaining figures in this set which are all really tiny).


The Super Gundam figure was re-released in the Stage 50 jubilee set as version 1.5 which is essentially the same figure but with a special coin-shaped base. Seen here however is the Super Gundam from Stage 27, which is actually a combination of a separate Z Gundam and G-Defenser figure. I have had more than enough of my fair share of fiddly Super Gundam parts conversions and much prefer figures such as the one from Stage 12 which is good to go right out of the packaging. It is the same story like Macross toys; just give me separate toys for each mode instead of messing with obtuse parts configuration technology (yeah, I guess I am in the minority there...).


065 : ORX-005 Gaplant


The remaining three mobile suits are all massive machines with ridiculous performance across the board. In fact the entire Stage 12 is really crowding with monsters at the high-end of the power spectrum. The sexiest of these is the Gaplant, a tall sleek machine with menacing purpose and transformable ability. The SD version however is short and fat and is dwarfed by most of the SD family of figures. It still retains the attractive colour scheme and an angry stare, but i really wish there was a super-deformed figure to do it proper justice. This is the only Gaplant ever released in the SD line and so it is highly overdue for a revision.




066 : PMX-000 Messala


The Messala has a lot in common with the Gaplant as far as size and shape are concerned, and the result is just as tame in its SD form. The sculpting however is excellent. Look at all that detail on its clawed arm getting ready to smoke an unwitting pilot with a round from the grenade launcher. Just like the Gaplant, the Messala has never been seen in SD form again.


Three of Paptimus Scirocco's experimental mobile suits made it into SD form, the PMX-002 Bolinoak-Sammahn being the missing one. Seen here are the PMX-000 Messala, the PMX-001 Palace-Athene and one of the three different PMX-003 The-O figures available.


067 : RX-160 Byarlant


I have to give a special award to the Byarlant figure as being one of the most horribly disfigured figures ever to grace the SD Gashapon Full Color series. The Full Color Custom series that followed made this style much more common, but at least that can be partially explained by the desire of the designers to make those figures parts swappable. This Byarlant figure is just a statue and as such I think it deserved some artistic flair. The Byarlant was also never reissued - as such these three machines form a sort of sad, forgotten trio.


Conclusion

Stage 12 is a fine set, although I have some personal reservations regarding the art style inflicted upon the Titans suits in particular. The set is however essential if you wish to fill those slots in your mobile suit armory. It hasn't stopped me from purchasing a squadron of Gaplants (and a second unit of Messalas...).

Mobile Suit Ensemble Part 16

Ok, so here is a review that has been sitting in the starting block for ages now. Grabbing the 00 suits was a piece of cake but that Hi-Nu Gundam proved to be really elusive, especially since the review called for two. i finally took delivery of the final item last week and so now the review is ready to go (never mind the fact that the volume 17 minis are sitting unopened in their boxes and crying for attention... c'est la vie.


Volume 16 was released already back in January 2021 and may have the dubious honours of being the last of the 10-box sets. Starting with volume 17 the regular waves are being increased to six different figures (or rather five plus the ubiquitous equipment set. I only had a partial set of the Gashapon capsule versions this time around, but here is shot of the packaging for the boxed version.


098 : RX-93-v2 Hi-Nu Gundam


Right, the main course of this meal will of course be the shiny new Hi-Nu Gundam adorning the packaging cover. Deservedly so too, of course, because who in their right mind will not find this a treasure to their Ensemble line-up? I guess the one thing not in its favour (except for the figure turning insta-rare) is that Bandai went and released an EX version of the figure two months later (I will be dissecting that particular figure in a separate review as right now I am feeling a bit of Hi-Nu fatigue).


You cannot really call the Hi-Nu Gundam a bare-bones design but at least that is what you are getting in this package. There are a couple of interesting accessories hiding in the equipment pack that we will return to in just a second.




099 : GN-003 Gundam Kyrios


Next up we have the attractive orange and white Kyrios. With a bit of black marker pen you can easily take it a couple of steps further. Unsurprisingly, the Kyrios follows in the footsteps of the Exia and Dynames, both of which were released as part of wave 15. More impressive perhaps is that the Nadleeh was allowed to follow in wave 17 (and the Virtue has been hinted to be released later this summer as an EX figure).


The Kyrios figure uses the same type of translucent green effect parts like the Exia and 00 family of figures, a real hallmark of the Ensemble 00 releases since the beginning. It comes armed with the typical twin barrel GN submachine gun and dagger-shaped shield. You will find a couple more options in the equipment pack.


A user pointed out in the comments the limited transformation ability of the Kyrios figure. I'm not sure I have done it complete justice here but then neither did Bandai. It seems they had an idea going for something more complex but decided to drop it during the development.


The Celestial Being Ptolemaios team is slowly taking form. The line-up should be looking quite strong as we near the end of 2021.




100 : SVMS-01O Over Flag


Unceremoniously flying in at the coveted slot number one-hundred we find a really rare beast in the form of the antagonist Over Flag mobile suit from Mobile Suit Gundam 00. You'd think there would be more fanfare about Ensemble hitting the 100 but at least the honours went to a highly exciting suit. I was really looking forward to this set once the line-up was revealed; mass-production type suits from 00 are very rare in figure form in general. In fact, not counting scale model kits and a few appearances of the Union Flag or the GN Flag here and there, the Over Flag has never been released in figure form before. About time!


When I began receiving my yellow Gashapon balls full of Union army machines I was quickly concerned once I saw that all the wing parts were bent all over the place. As you can see from the various pictures here you will have to contend with this fact but it isn't as bad as it first seemed. More challenging was the figure assembly itself. I didn't have any prior experience with this suit and so was at a bit of a loss regarding finer details (which wing goes up, which goes down, have I put them on upside down or not, etc,). A bit surprisingly Bandai have not put up an assembly guide online and squinting at the smaller press photos of the totally black figures didn't exactly help, I had to search wildly for various concept art and box scans to figure out some of the finer details. On the topic of details by the way; glue those white engine intakes on the torso before they fall off and disappear forever.


Not that I needed any convincing to assemble an Over Flag wing, but the fact that these figures have been easy to find made it a quick affair. I had my squad up before I even managed to find the first Hi-Nu Gundam figure.




SVMS-01X Union Flag Custom II (a.k.a. "GN Flag")


The Over Flag is paired with its parallel development cousin - the Union Flag Custom II. While I really like getting two variants of this machine I would have preferred a basic Union Flag in the classic grayish blue colour to go together with the black Over Flag. If Bandai ever choose to do a ".5"-reissue of this set perhaps they will grant my wish. :) Regardless, the GN Flag figure looks great and it makes use of hard plastic fins on its legs as opposed to the bendy wings on the Over Flag which helps it stay in shape.


Now, if you think I had issues with assembling the Over Flag you should have seen me struggle with the GN Flag figure. I got the basics of the body down but then it came to the equipment and weapons and I was completely lost. My salvation was finding a video review online of someone building it on camera - is this the sort of build instruction we have to rely on now? Of course, if you are familiar with the GN Flag you might have a better grasp of the situation but a newcomer will have a nice hurdle to try to climb over here.


The Custom II makes makeshift use of a new GN Drive much like the Celestial Being suits. In normal flight mode the GN Drive swings down toward the small of the back as seen above. When powering the beam saber you rotate this part up towards the left shoulder where you can instead attach it thereby making it power the GN Saber instead. While you can opt to wield the GN Saber in either hand there is no attaching mechanism on the backside of the right shoulder but you can still swing the drive to be placed behind it making for a reasonable display (the suit is all-black anyway).


The Over Flag next to the GN Flag. While the two figures have a lot in common there is also quite the difference between the two designs.


Of course I am not going to miss an opportunity for some extra squad-building. I do get a bit concerned seeing how readily available these figures have been, are people not enjoying these designs? I guess I can forget about ever seeing the Advanced European Union or Human Reform League machines ever hitting Ensemble.




102 : Equipment Set for Wave 16


The equipment pack is of course dominated with parts for the Hi-Nu Gundam but also contains a couple of accessories that I had at first not even noticed since they are so small and discrete in comparison.


Te most obvious equipment in the box is the pair of wing-like funnels for the Hi-Nu Gundam. While attractive they are still kind of small and are swept far to the back where you will hardly notice them on this already busy design. These wings have no articulation or gimmicks associated with them but of course look nice. We also get a typical Nu Gundam-style Hyper Bazooka which for some reason is molded in black rather than white, which seems a curious choice (I imagine it was reused from the original Nu Gundam figure). There is also a standard beam saber in the pack which you would really have wanted in translucent blue to be worth wielding.


Gundam Kyrios also gets some simple weapon options. You get a pair of GN Hand Missile Units which look rather unimpressive to be frank. If you were to paint them up in some interesting colours to better highlight their shape you might also be able to distinguish them from the figure's hands in general. The tip of the shield can be replaced with the strange looking claw mechanism that turns it into a close combat weapon. Lastly, there are also two unusual looking beam sabers in the pack. I am not sure which suit they are supposed to go with, but I'd hazard a guess it could be the Kyrios (unless you are supposed to hold it like a twin bladed weapon for the Hi-Nu perhaps...). Again, these feel rather pointless without colour to them.


Even the Over Flag has a unique weapon option to enjoy; the experimental XLT-04 200mm Linear Rifle. Or to be a bit more specific, the rifle is fielded by (left-handed ace pilot) Graham Aker in his custom SVMS-01E Union Flag. The Over Flag itself is in turn a variant of the Union Flag and so more or less the same type of suit.


Not a huge reveal as most of you have probably seen the Heavy Weapon option parts for the RX-93 already. When I first saw this announcement I thought Bandai were just being cheeky and painting up the old components in blue and white to sell them as a crazy "what-if" but there actually is an official Hi-Nu HWS variant and so here are the parts you need to build it. And it is looking pretty neat as well.


The HWS system is fully compatible with the winged version of the Hi-Nu Gundam I just didn't bother picking up a second equipment pack as I kind of like the HWS variant looking a bit more distinct. A lot of the extra armor clips right on top of the existing armor while some components are replaced. The shield is reinforced and we get a really meaty beam rifle also seen before with the FA-93 HWS and a pair of shoulder mounted multi-launchers. it is an absolutely lovely way of displaying the Hi-Nu Gundam - how could you not want to have one of each on display? :)


The Hi-Nu Gundam may have a leg up on the RX-93 but the Full Armor variant pales in comparison with the original MSV design. As evergreen as the RX-93 and the v2 may be, the FA-93HWS s my favourite incarnation from this family; too bad it never made it into STANDart where it would have looked very impressive I reckon.




Conclusion

Volume sixteen is another competent release from Ensemble proving that the retail figures are just as interesting as the pricy EX-variants. I imagine the suit selection is not to everyone's liking but I was dying to get a hold of the Union machines myself. This set is already proving to be difficult to complete so I would advice interested collectors get that Hi-Nu now (or wait for the inevitable special color version Part 16.5 release in 2023 if Ensemble is still running at that time...).