The MegaHouse brand has been producing Gundam character figures for a long time. At the time of writing we typically see one or two large figures per year from their GGG figure line. I believe the latest one is Gigi Andalucia of Hathaway's Flash which was released earlier in the winter. However, if you dig into the history a bit there are a couple of really interesting smaller figure sets in their HaroCap Gashapon-sized line.
While not carrying the HaroCap name, the "History of Char" box set springs out of this line and was released in 2010. According to HobbySearch the item launched in February and was priced at 3850 yen. The HaroCap range is very difficult to find boxed these days although the price isn't that bad. I picked this set up for ¥5000 on the secondary market. You can sometimes find figures like these on eBay in more or less complete condition (and typically not properly named), price will vary based on luck and timing apart from general demand.
The standard HaroCap range is distributed as Gashapon but this particular item is actually a fixed set with a specially designed display box. The neat thing about display boxes like these is that you don't really need to take the figures out to enjoy them although some of the accessories will not be attached.
Each figure features a typical clear plastic block to aid it standing up and some of them feature accessories neatly taped down that can be a bit of a pain to handle.
As you can see, MegaHouse have released all of these figures before under the title "Char Collection". I don't have many details on these except that they are part of the HaroCap line and so are packaged individually in Haro-style Gashapon capsules with random distribution. According to hlj, the first volume appeared in February 2006.
Starting from the left we have a classic vintage Char Aznable style figure complete with the signature helmet. Detail and paintwork is excellent all over although it is annoying to see the manufacturer gloating on the back of his boots. This is typical for Gashapon figures although it is often cut into the mold itself and not just painted like here. I guess you can paint this over if it bugs you. The figure can stand upright unaided but as you can imagine it doesn't take much to topple it over. I don't know if the painting style on this figure differs from the original Gashapon version, the box art indicates they are similar.
Here is a size comparison with a similar Bandai Emotive Figure Collection version from 2006 and the recently released Gundam Military Generation figure from last year.
Next we have Char in a Zero-G flight suit in a rather extravagant take on the normally pale light red outfit. The figure has a really unique pose that makes it ideal for dioramas and terrible handling as it very hard to get it to stand even with the ugly support attached. In general I think the flat bases used by the Bandai EF line works better, I kind of wish the MegaHouse figures came with a peg hole in their feet. Both the helmet and the mask are loose accessories that will have you pulling your hair out. If I didn't want to keep the figure in the display box I would have glued these in place.
Once again we can do a comparison with a Bandai EF figure (that goes really heavy on the eyeliner). Apart from the size difference the colours are also wildly different, well in favour of the Bandai figure although the MegaHouse figure sports more colour variation.
Time for a bit of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam as we have Char under his Quattro Bajeena alias. Zeta really has a lot of terrible costume designs and Char as strongman with red boots and sunglasses is pretty hilarious. The likeness of this figure is probably the best out of this lot.
You probably noticed how awkwardly my figure holds on to the glasses. Well, I just couldn't get it to hold the glasses as you would expect it to but then again, looking at the box cover it appears neither were the figure designers themselves. :)
Here I think the MegaHouse is outclassing the Bandai EF Zeta figure variant in every department, save except from balance. Now if someone could also make the version from the late Zeta intro where he grits his teeth in anger that would be a nice completion.
Seems we are climbing back into the pilot gear again, this time in the Zeta era green pilot suit. I am not overly excited about this action pose with a gun (this is from the scene where the AEUG team meets Haman on the Gwadan for the first time...), I much prefer the casual walking and gear-manipulating figures as they work better for most dioramas. I can't think of any other figure out there with Char in this outfit however so this is what we have to work with.
We recently had some nice Zeon ace pilots in the GMG line so here is a chance for Char to join them, you'll need to make use of the third dimension to compensate for their size difference though.
The last figure has the great leader return in his 0093 cape. You can opt to attach the ceremonial sword or not as the peg hole shouldn't be too noticable. The soft vinyl style cape is making the figure very back heavy and the little clear block will have to work overtime to keep the figure upright. Especially if, like in this case, the stand doesn't line up properly with the ground. I don't know if I did something wrong here, the block clips neatly onto either foot but doesn't reach all the way down properly so not sure what is going on here. A bit of a spoiler of such a nice figure.
Here we actually have a chance to compare the new figure to one of the older HaroCap items from the Char Collection. Again, I am not sure if the difference in paint style is due to the new figure having some sort of deluxe treatment or if the artistic design is simply a bit different between the two.
I am a big fan of expressive Gundam character figures and this set delivers to the max. There are some frustrations on the technical side that you do not suffer with figures such as the Bandai EF line and the comparable sizes are not always helpful but there is so much diorama potential here. It is a shame that Mobile Suit Gundam didn't reach the same manufacturing craze as Star Wars where every little creature seen for the briefest moment in the background of a single scene would inevitably show up in figure form. :)
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