Mobile Suit Ensemble Part 19

Wave 19 was the third out of four 6-figure retail Ensemble waves and originally hit the store shelves in October 2021. It has taken me a considerable bit of patience to source all the figures needed for the full review. Initially I was mainly concerned that it would be difficult to find the Jegan figures which I anticipated to be sold as A and B-variants (since you cannot do 2x6 figures in a 10-box, some are bound to be rarer than others) but availability has been quite good. The machine they put on the box cover however - the Astray Red Frame - is a real evergreen and consistent favourite among collectors and it has proved almost impossible to acquire.


Ironically, in the end I ended up having to buy a full set to get my hands on the missing Red Frame figure. At least I ended up with a nice 10-box for the trouble. Extra Jegans are always welcome too I suppose. Still, the figure itself isn't extremely priced on the secondary market; the real challenge is still the green ZAKU Warrior...



121 : MBF-P02 Gundam Astray Red Frame


The basic Red Frame figure is very competently designed and features some interesting colour mixes both in the form of painted detail on armor panels as well as differently coloured parts going on top of the arms and shoulders. The paint detail on the shield is also worth of note although the soft plastic material it is made means you might end up with a slightly warped item to work with. (Pay no mind to the back pack being upside down on that picture by the way...)


The Red Frame features two red coloured sprues of joints and hands which are part of the colouration success. Don't go breaking these as they will be a real hell to replace. The figure comes with the Type 71 Beam Rifle which is usually not the weapon you would first think of when you hear "Astray Red Frame" but come on, Bandai needs you to buy those equipment packs, so you will find the Gerbera Straight katana there. On the plus side, the Type 71 rifle is used by the mass-production type M1 Astray and you could do a semi-decent variant of it using parts of the backpack in the equipment parts but that is mostly a theoretical concern as there is no way in hell you can army build these figures unless you are 3D-printing them somehow...






122 : MBF-P03 Gundam Astray Blue Frame


The blue P03 belongs to the same prototype batch as the Red Frame and so it is mostly just a colour-swapped version of the Red Frame. The main difference is that it is armed with a 500mm M68 recoilless rifle and it has a couple more options in the equipment pack. Notice also the uniquely coloured blue sprues of connector pieces, treat them very carefully as replacing them will be hard.


I wouldn't have minded seeing the M71 beam rifle with this figure and the M68 bundled with the rest of the Full Weapon Form gear in the equipment pack but I guess this was a strict cost saving decision that I can accept.






123 : RGM-89 Jegan


We get not one but two army-builder suits in this wave although they are really minor variations on the same platform. The Jegan is at the forefront of a line of very capable looking E.F.S.F. mass-production type suits culminating in monsters like the ReZEL and Jesta, a giant leap forward from the GM-family designs. The Ensemble figure itself is very green (let's face it, the original design is very clean) and so it will benefit from whatever type of panel-lining you are willing to give it. The two-colour shield looks really sharp however, especially with the black underside component.


Any mass-production figure benefits from gear choices and this is where I would have appreciated at least a beam saber option with the Jegan figure. There isn't even the bog-standard toothpick beam saber in the equipment pack but hopefully you have amassed a number of them if you have been collecting Ensemble for a while. If not it can pay to shop around for several of the old equipment packs as these are typically what remain as unwanted left-overs on the secondary market.






124 : RGM-89D Jegan D-Type


The D-Type Jegan is an organic improvement of the original design that extends the suit's service life into the Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn-era since its introduction in Char's Counterattack. Just like wit the Red and Blue Frame figures Bandai are building on an existing design although these two figures actually have some subtle sculpt and colour changes. The easiest way to tell them apart is the different colour on the upper part of the feet, the redesigned shoulders (which are now intended to function as weapon pylons) are another thing to look out for.


The two Jegan figures come with the same basic beam rifle and shield. At least you can never have too many beam rifles so this works for me even though a secondary beam saber would have been nice. There is no extra gear for the Jegan in the equipment pack since it is all focused on the Red- and Blue Frame figures.


Side by side of the RGM-89 and the RGM-89D Type D. Most of the changes were internal between the two types but it is nice to have both options (together with the old Stark Jegan figure this makes a really nice family). In the squad assembled below I have stolen a beam bazooka from one of the myriad of Ensemble Unicorns which I think is a pretty nice fit. Currently pondering on building another basic Jegan and give it the Blue Frame's recoilless rifle for added variation...






125 : Astray Powered Red equipment pack


Two packs to go and from here on it will be all Astra-option parts. First out is the really unconventional Powered Red arm replacement for the Red Frame. I don't know what the author of SEED Astray R was smoking when they came up with a 150 meter long sword to be wielded by the mobile suit when attached to an enormous power loader machine (a figure by the way, that Bandai wasted precious resources on developing for the Ensemble line rather than say, a GINN). The way the story goes the Powered Red upgrade boosts the mobile suit's power output enough to wield the 150 meter sword without said power loader. Bandai actually supply two specific holding hands with this package that I assume are intended to wield the "150 Gerbera Straight" sword that comes with the EX32 Power Loader figure (I don't own it and so cannot confirm). Also included is a pair of transparent adapters so that you can mount the two arms to the standard Ensemble figure base when not in use.


These arms are pretty complex as far as components go. Luckily Bandai have now uploaded video build instructions to their Ensemble page (tip: download these from youtube before the Ensemble line is retired, who knows what Bandai will do with the build instruction videos then). Still, even though a lot of effort has gone into these build instruction videos it can still be difficult to see what is going on at times, especially when it comes to black components that tend to blur into a mess. In typical Bandai fashion, the instruction videos have their comments disabled - you'd think that could be a natural forum for buyers to help each other out...


To equip the Powered Red pack, remove the red frame's arms and back pack. The new arms attach directly to the torso and you get a new red piece to close the back pack section off and instead attach the back pack to the back skirt. Note the extra large hands on the Powered red arms.


Honestly, this thing is a bit grotesque. The figure design is really nice though, with lots of attention to detail and armor components that attach to the arms. The shoulder section joints are very tight but I imagine you should be able to fold down the big shoulder pads to the sides of the arms as well (the instruction video does not cover this). Now that I think of it I actually have a spare set of arms, perhaps I should try to build those with that configuration and try it out, rather than risking damage to the joints on this particular figure.



126 : Equipment Set for Wave 19


Next up we have the regular equipment set for this wave and it contains even more components for the Red Frame figure, as well as the remaining gear needed for the Blue Frame's Full Weapon Form. Again, I felt a bit lost at sea without the online build instructions and several of the flight pack components are very thin. Be extra careful with the lower fin section components that are very brittle and need to be cut from them sprue diagonally. If you don't pay attention and attempt to stick a square peg into the hole these things look like they could snap off without warning.


Good news here, the attachments for the Red Frame are add-ons to the basic design and so no parts-conversion is needed to use them. You have to remove the existing back pack to attach the flight pack and the sword sheath simply attaches to the left knee peg hole.


The Astray Red Frame was a good looking figure from the start but they are really killing it with this flight pack. The figure is now so busy looking that you almost do not notice the katana. You can draw the weapon from its sheath and equip it but the component is all lack and pretty unremarkable and so I think it looks best on the hip. These accessories are of course interchangeable with the Astray Blue Frame.


Interestingly, the katana even comes with a different connector piece that lets you mount the sword to the back of one of the Powered Red's arms. It still looks ridiculous but the playability factor is spot on. There is even an extra two-peg connector piece that I assume is intended to allow you to store a second weapon on the back of the other arm (although this is speculation on my part because Bandai forgot to include it in their build videos).


Recently there was a comment on the Destiny Gundam review by a user who thought the figure had arms that were too big. I can only speculate what the same user would think of this particular figure...


Next we switch to the Astray Blue Frame. it receives a new back pack with two 8-tube missile launchers as well as two 3-tube M68 Pardus missile launchers to be attached to the legs, lanchers normally used by Z.A.F.T.'s GINN forces. Too bad we don't have such a figure in the Ensemble line (hint, hint, Bandai...)


The figure looks really sharp with the yellow missile pods. Notice how the back pack is moved down to the back skirt just like on the Powered Red figure. I switched out the M68 Cattus recoilless rifle for the spare Astray red's beam rifle to mix things up a little.


If you are a skilled painter I guess you could repaint either of the Red- or Blue Frame figures to represent the other Orb Union prototype machines (MBF-P01 Gold Frame, P04 Green Frame or P05 Mirage Frame), perhaps this is also a reason why the figures are so rare. Either that or someone out there is trying to customize and build an Orb Union MBF-M1 Astray army (I know I would if I could...)..




Conclusion

Ensemble Part 19 is a great figure set with four killer mobile suits. While I am not sold on the Powered Red concept myself everything is well realized in figure form and you have a whole lot of gear for the two Astray machines to play with. The Jegans are of course also very worthy to collect and go well together with all the other Ensemble figures we have seen from the Char's Counterattack era. It is a pity that these figures are so hard to come by, but with Bandai reissuing some of the early waves recently perhaps it will also make its triumphant comeback.