Gundam Converge SB : Argama

The Mobile Suit Gundam franchise has this really troubled approach to spaceships and mobile suit combat. Your average episode will see the heroes onboard their white-coloured carrier of choice, endowed with so much plot-armor that nothing even manages to scratch the paint, whereas enemy fleets are gunned down more or less unopposed by some psychotic kid with a beam rifle. It is all pretty frustrating to watch at the best of times.


Left: The Minerva and the Archangel fail to hit each other at point blank range... again. The only things they should be firing are their gunners. Right: Dozle Zabi shows how it is done, taking down four Salamis with one volley. Anyway, I got off on a tangent there... I think we are meant to review the second space battleship in the Converge SB line.


These things sure take their time to develop. The first vessel - the White Base - was released in August 2021 and now the Argama followed with its launch in July 2022. If you are hoping for a Converge SB03 you better set your sights for next summer at the earliest. Still, it seemed that Converge was on a roll not that long ago but now if we look into the pipeline it is looking a bit empty. We have the Zeong and the Perfect Gundam out in October and then the third and last(?) of the 10-year specials is following in December (and there is that fan club special RX-93 variant) but after that... schedule is still looking very empty.


Damnit, I am getting off track again. Not so surprisingly however as the future is looking pretty shrouded in mystery for all the current lines. Has anyone seen any announcements for Converge #23? Ensemble wave 23 hits in October and Senshi Forte 16 is scheduled for December but I haven't seen any word on further releases. Maybe this whole Bandai-Namco rebranding (and company restructuring?) is having current projects in a bit of a lull.


Ok, I am going to let all that go now and focus on the figure at hand. Perhaps it is wrong to classify this thing as a figure as it feels more like a very easy-assembly plastic model kit, since we are once again forgoing the soft plastic for the type you can expect to find in actual kits (or the Mobility Joint figures but at least these are properly painted). There is no assembly instruction included in the box but you won't have any problems figuring out where everything is supposed to go. Even the two antennas that go on the bridge have differently sized pegs.


As you can see this is a really nice looking model of the Argama in a slightly deformed and chunkier state. The four beam cannons look quite large compared to the ship itself but I don't mind that they stay a bit sturdy since this type of accessory is often a nightmare and prone to get damaged. The ship sits on, or rather lies atop, two simple stands that offer no connecting pegs so if you nudge the ship ever so slightly it will fall off. This means you put this sucker on a high shelf at your own risk. It is not a particularly nice looking stand either and offers no interesting posing options.


There is a lot of nice detail all around the vessel including the underside. The hard plastic keeps everything straight and crisp at the expense of being more fragile and somehow losing that lovable Converge character. Note the use of metallic colour on certain details such as the shackles of the mobile suit catapults.


The main gimmick of this model is the extendable crew quarters. As you can see from the image changing the set-up is a simple affair. You pull the ship in two and then replace the middle section and attach the crew pods to it. The pegs are shaped to aid you with the positioning. The whole assembly can be made to rotate and out of the box the joint is firm enough not to move by itself.


Here we have the ship with the crew compartments stowed and ready for battle. The Argama model can also extend and retract its bridge by gently pulling it diagonally upwards. This extends the bridge section about 7-8 millimeters or so and is a neat touch.


The design of the Argama mimics that of the Trojan Horse by hiding gun emplacement behind yellow circular doors to port and starboard. These components can be switched out for option parts (if you manage to grab the tiny peg sticking out at the top of the part) with the two Mega Particle Cannons extended.


The only part where the Argama comes off a bit lacking is perhaps in its size. At roughly 16 centimeters length and that fixed stand it almost disappears behind the mobile suits. With a bit of creative display you could make it look more interesting if you replace that stand and bring it up a bit and then lean it in towards the suits in front. On the plus-side however, just like the White Base it (only just) manages to fit inside its box in assembled condition. Let's see how the ship compares to some other super-deformed figures.


Even the old Gashapon Full Color figures seem quite large in comparison but I think they work quite well together, especially since there is no SD variant of the Argama available.


Posing together with more modern SD figures, here a gang of Senshi Forte A.E.U.G.-units. Gashapon NEXT and DASH figures are roughly the same size, the NEXT figures being slightly smaller. I think this is a really good stylistic match too.


When you reach Mobile Suit Ensemble size you are starting to push it a bit far although I guess it is still doable. Continuing up the sizes with MicroWars and Mobility Joint figures would be even worse but those lines are devoid of any Zeta presence anyway.


There are some variants of the Argama out there already. Here is a match-up with the MegaHouse CosmoFleet Argama from 2009 and a really old Argama-class ship from the Gashapon HG Mecha Selection era (Part 3, released in 2002). The latter figure is not complete and has a host of small parts that you can expect to be missing if you happen to scout it in your local flea market.


Here is a comparison also with the big-daddy Argama from MegaHouse's short but sweet CosmoFleet Special range, released in 2016. The CosmoFleet figure is a bit barren because I only took out the main hull from the box (reviewing that thing is a day's work) but it should give you an overall idea of the two. The Converge figure is doing a really good job of getting the detail in, although a lot of it is modifications in the sculpt rather than colour applications as seen on the MegaHouse figure.



Overall, the Argama is another really solid entry in the Converge SB-family. The only real downside to it is its prize. It was sold through the P-Bandai program at ¥4500 and is currently trading on the secondary market for almost double. I have yet to see any announcement of possible future SB-releases and in the current financial climate it might look a bit grim (Converge Plus seems to be in a similar spot). However, even in the best of worlds I wouldn't really predict a very long lifetime for this series but would love to be proven wrong as the models are great.