As 2021 is fizzling out I have found a suitable review to perfectly illustrate the rain and haze outside. Onwards and upwards then, it is time for the Freedom Gundam to enter center stage. Released in October 2021 as a CORE exclusive and modeled after the life-size ZGMF-X10A parked outside the Gundam Base Shanghai. While it hasn't received a unique designation like the RX-78F00 which is guarding the Gundam Factory in Yokohama it is instead referred to as the CCP ...ehh, I mean GCP version for Gundam China Project. The irony of parking the Freedom Gundam in Shanghai is not lost, perhaps the Providence or Destiny would have been a better choice.
The Converge GCP figure comes in a slightly oversized box with a very glossy finish to it. The box can also be noted for being tri-lingual with a little blurb about the GCP in not only Japanese but also Chinese and English. Don't worry the good old "Customer service inquiries are not accepted from outside Japan." is still on there. Hopefully they have a more customer friendly sticker tat can be glued over it if this figure is also sold at the Shanghai Gundam Base (which surely it must be?).
Inside we find three bags, an assembly instruction and the classic blue chewing gum. For the instructions however we are back to good old Japanese-only. Again I am curious if there is a Chinese version with a separate instruction sheets for any figures marketed in China.
Parts-wise we are looking at what would amount to say a Converge +Plus standard, basically a regular size Converge figure with a couple of extra accessories and a really large circular base.
The base appearance of the figure is similar to the machine on display in Shanghai in that it is standing at easy with wings folded at the back and carrying no weapons. While I haven't studied the real thing it appears to be standing with open hands while the Converge figures has its fists clenched. This I don't know if the life-size version has moving fingers but all things considered the closed hands are matching the Converge standard but perhaps a pair of expressive hands could have been included. The figure is coated in a nice metallic colour with some nice markings although the DIECI markings on the wings are totally garbled on my figure, not sure if this is a problem across the entire line, the text in the promotional photographs on the box are certainly much crisper.
I really don't like the enormous base just to have something for the wings to rest on (also matching the real thing) and it doesn't help that it is a bit of a pain to line everything up perfectly. You can still pose the figures with folded wings by turning the wings downward a bit until they meet the ground. I must state here that working with the wing components was very fiddly and the component pegs do not fit well with the backpack (due to the extra thick layer of paint I imagine), I had to jam them in there and when I took them out the paint had peeled on the pegs as a result. Not too impressed.
The gimmicks of the Freedom figure includes optional hands for holding a single beam rifle in the right hand and the dual bladed beam saber in the left. We also have angled center-components for the wings that enable the wings to be displayed at an angle.
Regrettably you will not see the beam saber on display in this review because the entire left arm is not cooperating at all. While I managed to replace the right hand and get the right arm to finally rotate in its socket the same cannot be said for the left. I can literally see the plastic begin to twist and stretch as I try to remove the left arm from the shoulder, the shield is firmly stuck in its socket and twisting and trying to rotate the left arm in its socket is again twisting the plastic. Although it happens very rarely I have had Converge figures break like this before so there is no way I am going to brute force it through. Hopefully I just have a really faulty copy but I'm afraid this could be a bigger issue across the line. Treat your figure very carefully or keep your glue bottle at hand. At this stage I was ready to toss everything back in the box and call it a day but after a week or two or so I was ready to continue with the review. :)
Alright, so here is the beam rifle on display. Cute. As far as I know there is no railgun gimmick and none is described in the instructions either. The beam saber hilt btw is modeled directly onto the left hand so there is no option to hold it in the right hand. That could have been a neat sword+shield style display otherwise.
Here I have taken apart the wings and based them on the angled middle segment which makes for a nice 45ish degree angle from the body. The two supports have additional peg holes so that you can rest the wingtips on them but it is not like they are actually adding any support here, it just attempts to look like it.
The wings spread out in a fan-like pattern that you can adjust to your liking. After the trouble I had with the folded wing begs not fitting into their sockets properly the spread wing pegs are fitting somewhat loosely now and like to come out of their sockets quite easily. This figure is just such a mess.
Isn't it strange that we haven't seen the Freedom Gundam in the Converge reboot line before? Are Bandai not even going to add a basic version of it into the regular line? I mean sure we have already had the Strike Freedom in #Sharp but what is the current count of the Wing Gundam by now, it has four or five releases under its belt already. Seen here are the good old basic Freedom from Converge volume 7 released in October 2012 followed by the dual-saber wielding figure from the SP 07 twin-pack (together with the Providence) from August 2016 and the new figure. Man, that is more than five years ago.
Here we have the Strike Freedom from Converge #04 (ironically also released in October 2016) which is a ¥500 figure. One of these figures costs four times as much as the other (and I have to pay even more to obtain the new figure) so I really hope there will be a toned down 550 yen version of the Freedom entered into the basic figure line because this CORE figure is a real buzzkill. The paintwork on it is pretty though...
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