Well, look who it is that has finally decided to show up. The thirteenth gang certainly have lived up to their name. It can be hard to come by Senshi Forte figures on the secondary market in general - presumably most never leave their original markets since they hold little perceived upfront value. From a collection point of view on the other hand they are a bit of a pain to source. When you do happen to find them on the other hand they are typically quite cheap (unless you go hunting among the many poor deals on eBay).
The Bandai Senshi Forte distribution model used to be a bit of a pain. Before the reset at wave 10 Forte figures featured sets of five different figures that were distributed in fours as A. or B-type. Now that each wave contains six different items (still only five figures...) it would be tempting to hope that the 12-boxes now hold two of each item. I'd be interesting to hear some experience because my box is just an interesting extra that I got when buying a 6-pcs set from Mandarake.
The wave released way back in February and while I was able to snag a complete set in March (from Mandarake, paying ¥1800 for the lot and so less than $3 per figure) extra Serpents were just nowhere to be found. It wasn't until September that I got some additional units. Finally I realized I only had the boxed version figures but managed to find an extra that came with the capsule version booklet. How else can I get a nice top banner for the review? :)
I think that is enough of waffle, let's dig in to the figures...
F083 : XXXG-00W0 Gundam Wing Zero (EW)
Volume 13 is all about New Mobile Report: Gundam Wing, or to be more specific its sequel Endless Wing. All the suits got major design changes and the Zero is perhaps the most obvious, new spouting two pairs of angelic wings. I am not really that fond of placing wings on mobile suits in general and in the case of the Wing Gundam the rest of the figure is really unassuming in style. I do prefer the mechanical and colourful wings on the XXXG-01W variant at least.
The Wing Zero comes with its iconic pair of Buster Rifles and like all the other figures in this set the generic modular half-circle base-stand. Previously we have seen differently coloured bases (and consequently hands) for high-profile machines like the Strike Freedom but in this set they all black which makes more sense if you are building a multi-figure display. Senshi Forte got rid of the uniquely sculpted and coloured hands with the reboot in wave 10 and so now we have a pair of hands molded in the same colour as the rifles. I dunno, I think this figure feels a little flat - a custom green beam saber might do the trick and liven it up a bit.
F084 : XXXG-01D2 Gundam Deathscythe Hell (EW)
One more of the five Colony Nations Gundams made it to Senshi Forte but I suspect this might be the end of it. Volume 14 has switched its focus to Stardust Memory and I haven't even seen any announcement for part 15 so it looks a bit grim. For now though we have the black bat Gundam with a really wide set of bat wings (that must end up being bent in so many capsules...) and a lot of colour apps, many of which can be hard to spot but the suit changes between black and gray with some nice white and red detail.
The Deathscythe of course has its close combat curved green beam blade, here molded in nice translucent green. It would have been nice to see the Wing Zero's beam saber included in the same style.
F085 : RX-75 Guntank
Time for a Universal Century intermission! Oddly placed in the middle of this After Colony set we find a really antiquated Guntank, dropped in here to complete the White Base line-up from the previous waves of course. I don't think I have never seen a Guntank with so much articulation, even the threads can be re-positioned since they are only attached to the main body with a single peg each. This can create some interesting diorama options.
Guntank anatomy differs wildly among different figure series. The Senshi Forte design resembles a mobile suit torso stuck on a lower body. This sets the imagination in motion and while you could easily create a crazy mash-up based on another mobile suit top-half the connecting pegs do not follow the traditional Senshi Forte model. Here the upper body has the connecting peg where the traditional figure has the connector peg on the "inner frame" component which the legs are attached to, but there is of course always glue.
The White Base trio lined-up. The RX-78 and the Guncannon can be found in Senshi Forte Part 12 and if you dig back into part 11 you will also find a suitable RGM-79 GM to join the party.
F086 : MMS-01 Serpent (Gatling Gun ver.)
The main course for part 13 is, as far as I am concerned, the Serpent mass-production type suit. This mobile suit is few and far between with its appearances, in spite of an impressive After Colony line-up in Converge we are still waiting for it to show up there (just as we wait for all the Oz army builders...). The Senshi Force figure has a great three colour base pattern but the head does look oddly flat, almost like it was made for 2D. The large back pack with its boosters also feels very large. Notice also how the red paint detail is missing on the vents on the back of the shoulders (par for the course when it comes to Gashapon but sometimes figures do impress).
The Serpent comes in two variants in this set - or rather it ships with different accessories. Figure F086 which we see here is armed with an iconic dual barrel Gatling Gun. Your thoughts will probably go along the same line as mine; geee, wouldn't it be cool if it had two? While I haven't watched Endless Waltz myself most figures do seem to come with only one such weapon although the Gundam Wiki gets a bit muddy on the subject saying "Unlike the Heavyarms Custom, most Serpents only carried one Double Gatling Gun" which to me indicates a second piece might even be some type of canon. If you want to double up on Gatlings you will have to find and purchase two Serpent figures and give both weapons to one of them. At least Bandai could have had the courtesy of adding a second Gatling in the volume's Equipment Pack but... nope.
F087 : MMS-01 Serpent (Bazooka ver.)
The second Serpent figure is exactly like the first but here it comes with a Beam Cannon for all your energy weapon needs. The weapon is a bit bulky and you'll struggle to get a whole lot of poses with it.
Was it really necessary to come up with two different versions of the Serpent when both weapons could have nicely fit in the same box? I mean, we understand why Bandai did choose to do so. Had it been a Leo or an Aries or even the Taurus they could have done a cool colour swap but here it feels a bit disingenuous.
It doesn't happen often but one of the Serpent figures I bought was missing a part, its armored skirt no less. Luckily that part is small on the Serpent and so I was able to cover it up with the Beam Cannon. :)
Finally a respectably sized Mariemaia Army, eight months down the road. An interesting parallel is that the GINNs from Part 07 have finally begun showing up on the secondary market. Three years after release I can build a squad of four. The GMs from the new volume 14 are going to be a real nightmare to army-build as well.
F088 : Equipment set for wave 13
The equipment pack for volume 13 looks very similar to the previous equipment packs. Basically you get parts to build a modular multi-story display for your Senshi Forte figures as well as a few extra weapons (that really should have been tossed in their respective figure boxes to begin with). Mega-yawn.
I don't even bother with these stands anymore so here is a recycled image from a previous review. All components have multiple peg holes for a bit of customizing, this is what you will get out of one box if you put it all together the traditional way. As usual, the main problem here is that you only get one of these stands for every five Senshi Forte mobile suits. If you want to display your collection you are still looking at a custom solution...
We only get three accessories in this box and two of them are wasted on Twin Buster Rifles for the Wing Zero. These are basically pairs of the single rifles held by the standard figure and look minimally different. What am I supposed to do with these? Can the Wing Zero hold four buster rifles now, or am I expected to give one of the pairs to the Deathscythe as an option piece? I just gave one pair to a Serpent and threw the remaining one in the box. Here is where the optional beam saber for the Wing Zero could have made sense.
The last weapon is a large bazooka for the Serpent. It looks cool but just like the Beam Cannon you will have a bit of trouble equipping it.
Conclusion
Senshi Forte Part 13 is a great departure into the After Colony timeline, if you are into that sort of thing. Will we ever see the Heavyarms, Sandrock and Altron? Highly unlikely, it feels like Senshi Forte is dangling by a thin thread. I suspect that the introduction of the MicroWars successor Mobility Joint Gundam will kill two birds with one stone. I'd love to be proven wrong though, because volume 14 with its Stardust Memory line-up looks phenomenal.
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