Gundam Converge #Plus 03

The Plus series has really been a vitamin-shot in the arm for the Converge series. The opening up for larger mobile suit figures in the retal line unlocks a lot of interesting mobile suits that were either omitted so far (or released in puny standard size form begging for an upgrade). Volume 3 was released in March 2022 with an MSRP of ¥900 plus tax. As is typically the case the prices quickly increased on the secondary market and as with the other Plus sets you most likely want to hunt down an option parts set which is an excellent way to spoil some fun.

Those unsightly big orange blurbs on the top of the boxes promote Bandai's recent drive to upload detailed build instructions to their website. The same can be seen in their other figure brands as well, such as Mobile Suit Ensemble and EVA-FRAME. I get that they want to highlight this but surely you could have placed this ugly thing on the back cover instead of ruining the classic artwork. Be sure to download the five-page pdf for Plus03 by the way, who knows how long the page will stay up. Bandai sometimes remove brand pages without warning.


For this review I used a full set plus one extra Hildolfr tank. If you wanted to display all the official figure variants of this set you should aim for a total of five Atlas Gundam figures, three Hildolfr tanks and if I am counting correctly three Option Parts Sets.




+010 : RX-78AL Atlas Gundam


Not only does the Plus-series serve larger mobile suits but it is also a great platform for mobile suits with loads of peripherals or option parts. Bandai seems hell-bent on opening each wave with a Gundam figure, the first wave saw the Assault-Buster Gundam, wave two had a Full Armor Hi-Nu Gundam and this time the turn goes to the Atlas from Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt. This is definitely an exotic choice and I don't think we have ever seen a representation of it in figure form (not counting the larger model kits of course). It is a striking design with an insect like colour pattern of white, yellow and black. While the figure itself is a regular size Converge it comes with a pair of large "Sub Legs" attached to the back skirt that dominate its profile.


Apart from the Sub Leg assembly we also have a neat looking assault rifle with the figure. As you can see it has two holding hands so you know there is something else going on with the figure but for that you will have to check out the Option Parts Set section further down. Notice also the two rails on the action base intended for the Sub Leg connectors to rest on. I have to say assembling the figure and getting it to look good is a bit of a pain, if you are unfortunate enough to receive a warped component it will be even more annoying.


While the parts for my figure were reasonably straight (the line-up of the face parts is a bit suspicious) we can see that once again the QA team is sleeping on the job when it comes to the paintwork. I mean, I can appreciate that there will be some smears or inaccuracies in the zones between two colours but this is a new low for Converge. Step up your game gentlemen.


The Thunderbolt series has a lot of interesting and eclectic suit designs that could do very well in the Plus family. While I generally prefer the space to be reserved for larger suits a Thunderbolt Sector GM with heavy shields or a revised Acguy with a crazy option parts set would also be really cool. In the image above we have Daryl Lorenz' Acguy (Bandit Flower promo figure from August 2017), the Thunderbolt Sector Full Armor Gundam (EX13 from July 2016), the Atlas and the Psycho Zaku (EX32, released in November 2020).






+011 : FA-00100S Full Armor Hyaku Shiki-Kai


There is something special about the Anaheim Electronics Gundam designs that make them look like timeless and highly capable predators. The golden Hyaku-Shiki is an offshoot of the Delta family and while we were recently blessed with the Kai and Mass Production variants never would I have dreamed that the Full Armor Kai would see the light of day in Converge. The actual design is brimming with colour and components and must be a nightmare to break down. The actual Converge model is naturally a bit toned down but still looks fantastic. Well, except for the face on my figure, which seems to have taken a punch to the left cheek. I don't care though, this is a 10/10 figure for me absolute must have.


The list of weapons cleared for use with the Full Armor Kai is longer than my review backlog but we have to make do with the Long Mega Buster rifle here. The weapon has no handlebar and is plugged into the right hand which has a sculpted hand with trigger-finger at the ready.


While the FA Hyaku-Shiki Kai is big, it is still your average Hyaku-Shiki Kai with a deluxe kit applied at the factory. Still Bandai decided to upsize the general proportions of the figure which will no doubt be triggering to some. I have to assume there are technical requirements behind this change as some parts might be too flimsy or expensive to manufacture but I wish Bandai could settle for and stick to a figure size for once.






+012 : PMX-001 Palace-Athene


Now, we've been seeing some really cool figures this far, but for me the true litmus test of Plus03 is the Palace-Athene. I have been moaning and longing for this suit ever since the Converge SP era and Converge Plus has been very kind to the Titans when it comes to realizing the Jupitris-family of hulking beasts. The Messala and The-O seen in Plus01 and 02 respectively were cool if a bit lacking in the oomph-factor but here comes the Athene to redeem them all. Would you look at that thing, what a work of art! This figure does the suit complete justice with tasteful proportions and lovely detail. This is a 12/10 (or at least it will be once we get to the option parts), what are you waiting for go and get it now!


There is one obvious shortcoming of the figure but this has moretodo with Bandai being evil than anything else. While technically complete, the suit is missing its signature backpack mounted anti-ship missiles. This of course is due to the frustrating marketing decision to strip the figure of components and call them option parts. This is what happens when corporations are in charge of your entertainment, kids.


Finally we have a complete line-up of the Zeta Gundam Jupitris-family. While the Athene is further morphed into the PMX-004 Titania in some games I don't expect that design to ever show up in figure form. The Bolinoak-Sammahn is the only figure to have been released in the standard Converge retail line and both it and the Byarlant could have benefitted from being transformed into Converge +Plus figures but I'd rather see Bandai spend the energy on something new, why not continue down the Zanscare fleet for example?






+013 : YMT-05 Hildolfr


Our last figure is the enormous prototype mobile armor-tank from MS IGLOO. I really do enjoy the combined arms approach seen in e.g. Battletech and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and wish that there was a bit more focus on it in the Universal century as well. The Converge figure is a modular design made with predominantly soft plastics and this figure didn't want to cooperate fully with everything it was supposed to do according to the fancy online build instructions. You can see some warping here and there but overall the figure looks pretty good. You get a standard size base which is of course much too small for the figure but unlike e.g. the Guntank the figure has a massive peg hole to connect it firmly to the base.


You get all the parts needed to assemble the Hildolfr in its sleek Tank form. You'll definitely want to follow the build instructions as it gets a bit fiddly here. Personally I wouldn't have minded two different sculpts rather than transforming figures, I just like my Shokugan sturdy and playable I guess.






+014 : Option Parts Set


Finally we have the Option Parts Set. This gives us the chance to revisit every figure in this set again, although some of these encores are very token-esque due to the rotten marketing of Bandai in the 2020s. The business must be bad these days... As you can see here, we get the most action with the Atlas Gundam and the Hildolfr.


The Atlas has no less than four different out of the box modes and I guess you can come up with several more with a bit of imagination. I have assembled them in the way they appear in the instructions which will put some wear on the joints. As usual I recommend deciding beforehand how to display your figure and refrain from reassembling it too much. We begin with this mode, where the Sub Legs remain to the sides but the machine has been upgunned with a massive railgun in place of the assault rifle and the right hand holds on to the Blade Shield for dear life. The shield has an interesting design with a handle bar that is secured firmly in the hand. However, it gets a bit crowded with both shield and sub leg, I may have arranged something not 100% correct. All in all it looks great and spoiler-alert; this is the mode I will choose for my figure (even though I really liked that assault rifle a lot).


Next up we have the Atlas in its flight mode which looks just ridiculous. I actually made a mistake here, the Sub Legs are pointing the wrong way so the figure doesn't stand upright properly but right now I am too lazy to fix it. You get the idea... This and the two following modes each make use of a different pair of connector pieces from the option parts set and also involves re-aligning the centre connecting pieces of the Sub Legs themselves. For stability reasons it may have been nice to have had a clear piece between the two sub legs to align it better.


The Atlas can swim too and has a dedicated Submarine Mode. Here we attach the Sub Legs to the Blade Shield to create some kind of raft looking thing. If you look closely you can see some of the white colour from the figure's right hand having rubbed off on the handle bar of the Blade Shield. The hands are really tight fits for the accessories and you should take care not to apply too much pressure when assembling it.


The last official variant sees the Atlas lie down on the Shield and this mode wasn't really that convincing to me. You get a different neck connector to bring back the head a bit but it still looks odd. Perhaps if the figure is raised up a bit it will look better. I briefly considered getting some extra Atlas Gundam figures to display the different modes but to be frank I don't think most of them are that interesting. Your mileage may vary.


The Full Armor Hyaku-Shiki Kai gets a really forgettable tweak. The hands are removed and instead replaced with these Explosive Bolts (which is presumably some sort of stun weapon?). You can see the gear attached to the back of the figure's arm and you are of course also supposed to remove these parts but I didn't bother with it for the review because I prefer to keep those pegs firm as I will never bother with this accessory again. NEXT.







The Palace-Athene finally recovers its eight Anti-Ship missiles and is now ready for a bit of havoc. The profile is completely altered once these go on and I think that it was really cheap of Bandai to split the figure up like this. The option parts kit could have contained a handheld translucent beam saber or perhaps the shield firing some of its missiles, you know, like actual Option Parts? NEXT.







The Hildolfr figure gets actual option parts that allow us to rebuild it in its mobile armor form. This is a rather complex transformation with a lot of parts swapping and I had some issues with the shoulder armor components. The soft plastic pegs where a micro-millimeter too big and so chose to deform rather than to go into the proper peg holes and it took some effort to assemble everything properly and those parts don't feel very safely attached at all. Other than that the figure looks really cool.


But wait, there's more. The shoulder armor can also pop-up a bit and in this mode all the parts aligned properly without issues. Go figure. This mode looks great too although I prefer the more compact design.


I have no idea how all that super structure fits inside the tank mode but at least the two figures look great. As I mentioned before I would have preferred two solidly built fixed configurations rather than messing around with tiny parts. These will probably show up more or less complete in the Gashapon second hand stores over the coming years.






Conclusion

While I had a couple of gripes with the Plus03 set, most notably in the QC department, I still really enjoy all the figures in this set. The wave holds two personal favourites of mine so I am rather biased in its favour of course. Now, here is the million dollar question: Has anyone seen any sneak previews for a Plus04 set?