I hope that one day, the seminal and definitive guide to Bandai's toy empire will be written, replete with a magnificent tomes of manufacturing and sales diagrams, scrutinized in every little savory detail. It would be a pure joy to dive deeper into the (probably) insane production numbers of some of these figure lines. I cannot even begin to guess the number of SD Gundam figures produced over the years but surely it must be beyond millions at this point? Whatever the truth may be, the set we look at today is a real staple on the secondary market with a couple of really familiar faces.
The figures of Stage 4 were released to the world in July 1998 and follow the early concept of pitting a lone Gundam versus an entire contingent of Zeon mobile suits. Many of the figures from these early sets were re-released in the special "revive"-stages 10 and 17 in August 1999 and May 2000 respectively. I don't know if there is any discernible difference between the first waves and reissued figured and so I am not even sure were many of these figures in my collection belong. Here was a chance however to pick up a full set fresh in plastic bags from Mandarake and so will be perfect material for review. The price, you ask? ¥1000.
Like most early SD figures these are pretty much statues with the occasional moving arms, but the swiveling heads haven't been invented just yet.
RX-78-2 Gundam (Ver 4.0)
The early RX-78 figures basically come with different gear options. The Stage 1 figure has a beam rifle, Stage 2 introduces the bazooka, Stage 3 features the beam saber and here it is time for the dual bazooka from the assault on A Baoa Qu. I find it quite stylish for being an early figure. There are vey few G3 figures in this line and I think this would be a suitable candidate for a custom paint.
MS-09 Dom (Ver.3.0)
No one would be surprised to find three RX-78 figures among the first four sets but having three different Doms already is a real treat. The reason for this can be found in the Black Tri-Stars and their Jet Stream Attack. The figure from Stage 2 comes with a heat saber, version 2.0 from Stage 3 holds up a bazooka with both arms and the last member of the trio also wields a bazooka but is content with resting it on its right shoulder only. I'd love to pose the trio for comparison here but I am still missing out on that sweet 2.0 variant, even though it was reissued in Stage 10! This figure on the other hand is the only one of the trio that was not reissued at all.
YMS-15 Gyan (Ver.1.0)
Nobody in their right mind would design a mobile suit for close combat only. as cool as that beam saber might be surely a back-up rifle (or even Zaku Machinegun) would have come in handy. The paintjob is a little bit scruffy on these early figures but they are so small that it shouldn't bother you. I'd really like to see the missile compartments on the shield having some additional detail (déjà vu from the Converge review from a few days ago already...).
MS-14S Gelgoog (Char's Custom) (Ver.1.0)
The Gelgoog is a really solid suit design, and while it can wield a beam naginata like the best of them a beam rifle will always save the day. This figure has a little bit of trouble posing the way the sculptor intended it to, the rubbery pegs for the arms don't always fit that well and I had to trim them down here and there. It would have been nice to get a shield on the figure's back but it would probably have been left unpainted by Bandai anyway.
Char is backed up by a pair of mass-production MS-14A machines sporting beam naginatas. Somehow I think it would have made more sense to switch the weapons around. Notice that neither figure has access to a shield - this has got to be a cost-cutting decision right there.
MAN-08 Elmeth
Next up we have a mobile armor. I guess it was easier to cover the more exotic types back in 1998 when the number of suits to choose from was considerably smaller but there is still a surprising amount of mobile armor to find in the full color line-up. The Elmeth is perhaps one of the least memorable designs out there which might explain its rare appearances in figure form. I mean, it is named like a helmet and looks like one.
The most interesting thing about this figure is the care that was taken into its form. The hull consists of two major parts where Bandai could just as easily have gone for a solid lump of plastic. It sure looks as if the figure was designed with the intent of having movable cannons, likely scrapped due to budgetary constraints or the technology just wasn't there yet. Bring on that Bandai Gashapon book already, inquiring minds want to know. :)
Lalah did get those moving cannons in the end and a couple of newtype bit weapons too. The up-gunned figure hails from one of the two SD Full Color DX sets and can be a bit tricky to find (though not half as difficult as the figures from the second DX set...).
MSN-02 Zeong (Ver.1.0)
Coming in at the last slot is Char's last hurrah the legless Zeong, a design I do not care for that much. The figure is pretty solid though.
Bandai gave the figure legs and had it reappear as the Perfect Zeong in Stage 5 (the two were then reissued once each, in Stage 10 and Stage 17 respectively). There is a flying 2.0 variant that sits on a peg in Stage 37 (which I do not own) as well as another flying variant, the 3.0 with High Mobility Gear as seen here, in Stage 48. Then there is a really obscure version in Stage 61 that I do not even have a good reference photograph of and finally the Perfect Zeong returns in its DX variant with its little Char Aznable pilot figurine.
Conclusion
I love the early SD Full Color sets with their chunky and static little figures just as much as the later more technically accomplished designs. The figures in this set (or their reissued counterparts) should be relatively easy to come by, especially if you are looking into lots of people's old collections.
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