Right, so I finally decided to release this Mobility Joint 3 segment before the figures go completely off the market but not with the 100% coverage I would had preferred. I am still chasing those elusive ReZELs as they are being sniped off the market incredibly fast. I wanted to be able to build a set of the different variants to display side by side but that will have to wait until... 2025, when perhaps I have managed to get myself a couple more. The Mobile Suit Ensemble ReZELs from 2020 are still just as frustrating to find by the way, it took me two years to eventually complete a quartet.
Anyway Mobility Joint 3 was brought to shops in November 2022 and as usual features four mobile suits from a single era. The first set was themed around U.C.0079, the second around Char's Counterattack and now we have reached Unicorn. The set contains four different suits and four "EX"-equipment add-on packs which still display a fully decked out figure on the front cover which is bound to confuse more than a few buyers out there I imagine. I'd hate to be the kid to receive a Full Armor Unicorn figure only to find a couple of bazookas and fuel tanks at the bottom of the box...
The MJ figure series is actually not figures at all, but simplified model kits. While the core torso section will usually be built for you, you will have to assemble the rest. The required build instructions used to be printed on the insides of the box but no more. Nope, those are gone in MJ3, head over to the website shown in the ugly blurb on the top of the box and download for safekeeping...
01 : RX-0 Unicorn Gundam (Destroy Mode)
05 : EX Full Armor Parts Set
06 : EX Option Parts Set for Unicorn and Sinanju
I still can't figure out how to organize these MJ reviews so but we'll start with the base Unicorn figure that you get in box 01 and add components as we go along. Above you can see the figure without additional accessories and it is a perfectly fine mobile suit with a beam rifle and a shield, which is certainly more kit than you get with the ReZEL below. Almost everything red you see here is a metallic wrap-around and I was rather apprehensive about applying them but for the most part they chose to cooperate. We don't get stickers for the backside but the components are pretty much identical on both sides so if you really wanted to I think you could take stickers from a second figure and apply to the back of the shoulders and arms although I haven't been able to test it. Mind you we don't know the expiry date of the glue on these stickers but I assume Bandai doesn't expect us to care a couple years down the road anyway.
I should point out that there is a lot of finely sculpted detail in the psycho-frame sections that just get carpeted over by these flat 2D-stickers so if you have the time and patience actually painting it in would be the way to go. I am sure that is going to require quite a lot of patience and frankly in that case you are better off just buying an actual HG model kit. I know I harp about it in every Mobility Joint review but i want to have it on record here also I have no idea who these kits are supposedly for.
Here are the parts that come out of the respective box (the last couple of accessories can be seen in the Sinanju section below). As usual with the EX boxes you don't get a whole lot of stuff in the box, it is just Bandai's current meta to try to sell you half figures in an attempt to lure you into pre-ordering a whole box...
Next we are applying the Full Armor Unicorn components from the number 05 EX accessory pack. You get the carrying frame that attaches to the back pack and stores two hyper bazookas an two booster propellant tanks and also includes the pair of leg missile units. You don't get any stickers for the missiles here so I endeavoured to paint them red using some acrylic paint and it is really needed to bring some life into the gear. You can of course also equip the bazookas but I didn't bother with it here.
If you squint a little bit you can see that I added two additional Shield Booster units (the third one sits on the back) and removed the Beam Magnum rifle since the two forward facing shields now have Beam Gatlings attached to them. These are the final option pieces found in the Sinanju EX pack number 06, the Full Armor Unicorn is now ready for action. While it would have been cool to get the large Hyper Beam Javelin as an accessory there is no way it would have looked good on a Mobility Joint budget, probably just molded in all black. I was surprised at how much I like this figure even though there might be a best-before date on those stickers.
This comparison displays the Unicorn together with its counterparts from Micro Wars, Mobile Suit Ensemble and Gundam Converge. It is not an entirely fair comparison since the Ensemble figure also exists in Full Armor form with a multitude of equipment; I just haven't managed to drag myself to putting it together because of all the gear choices to deal with. I should point also of course that the plump little MicroWars figure on the left might look a bit anemic in comparison but don't forget his body opens up to reveal a cockpit with a pilot figure inside. With some heart and patience you could probably repurpose some of the FA kit from the Mobility Joint figure to breathe new life into it.
02 : MSN-06S Sinanju
06 : EX Option Parts Set for Unicorn and Sinanju
Ever since I saw the promotional shots of this figure I wondered how Bandai would do the sleeve and chest decorations. Would they go through the trouble of pre-painting this delicate artwork, simply give you a red plastic body and ask you to do it yourself à la MicroWars, or maybe a compromise with some red and black plastic. Somehow, the intricate art-style of Neo Zeon is rather ill-suited for cheap toys in general, you'd think the artists would keep this in mind when designing mobile suits. Well, the Sinanju has more of these 3D-stickers and I was a bit apprehensive about putting them on especially for the sleeves and the shield but in general it turned out okay. The coolest stickers were found on the knees, they are wrapped around a part that is then partially concealed inside the outer armor. Flat 2D-stickers can look quite bad when the light is falling on to them however, as you can see on the shield in one of the shots above. As with the Unicorn figure the sculpt is prepared for you though if you want to do some delicate painting yourself.
Bandai did decide to stick the beam rifle and the shield inside the basic Sinanju box and put the rest as an EX kit. To fill that box up there are also a couple of equipment options for the Unicorn Gundam lurking inside the EX package. This follows the poor precedent set in volume two where the Nu Gundam and the Sazabi also shared an equipment pack. So if a Unicorn fan buys the pack for the shield boosters a Sinanju fan will be lucking out, especially if the Unicorn dude tosses away the leftover parts of no interest to them.
The equipment options for the Sinanju are quite varied. Let's see, we have Beam Bazooka and option parts for it in the shorter barrel mode which can be slung underneath the barrel of the Beam Rifle. The two can also combine into an all you can eat-sandwich with the full length of the bazooka.
The bazooka can also be deployed as a stand-alone weapon. As usual with bulky figures like these you won't be getting a whole lot of cool poses out of it but it looks pretty neat and is an unusual gear option for the Sinanju.
The two beam axes can be deployed individually, linked together to form a naginata of sorts or attach to the edges of the shield (which is by far the coolest option...). The beam effect has been painted over the black plastic and of course there are two gates on these parts which will leave ugly black marks on the edges of the blades. I hid those with some yellow acrylic paint here.
Comparison of the MSN-04 Sazabi from the previous Mobility Joint wave 2 and the new Sinanju. I'll give Bandai this, the detail and sculpts are overall excellent.
03 : RGZ-95 ReZEL
07 : EX Option Parts Set for ReZEL
And so here we have what is in my firm belief the figure responsible for MJ3 being a bit of a sleeper hit. Not only is the ReZEL - the pinnacle of the EFSF Jegan development line - capable of dominating the battlefield with its varied kit but it also has a unique and gorgeous colour scheme of deep blue with multiple white highlights, highlights that you will have to curse as it is time to whip out those 3D-stickers en masse again. Because as you can see on the parts laid out below apart from a white splotch on the ReZEL's box backpack unit and a tiny runner with two small components the rest is sticker hell. Still, even with my botched job the figure is very attractive.
The base figure comes completely unarmed and Bandai has hid away a lot of its goodies in the EX pack, together with the Wing Unit option pack which replaces the Box Unit pack that the standard figure is equipped with. We also have a separate sticker sheet with green sensors replacing the pink ones - these are intended to be used when you convert the figure into the RGZ-95C Commander Type. Bandai provides an additional set of shoulder armor so that you can switch between the two but you will have to disassemble the shoulders to do so. I think they could have included the internal shoulder parts as well so that it would be enough to just replace the entire shoulder section rather than pulling components apart and risking sticker damage in the process. Since I currently only have one ReZEL figure in my possession I will not do this transformation here but will eventually update the review once I can get hold of multiple figures.
Let's start by replacing the ReZEL Box Unit backpack with the Wing Unit pack. This gives increased mobility to the suit and the wings themselves can swing a little like on a fighter like the F-14 but the movement is quite limited. Each wing is attached to the centerline with a balljoint so you can wiggle them around but the figure is already back-heavy and with no action base support you will need to carefully balance your figure to prevent it from toppling over. Assault Kingdom this is not.
The EX pack also contains a large Mega Beam Launcher. This weapon can either be held in hand or attached with a swinging arm to the Wing Unit (which has room for two such weapons if you buy multiple EX packs).
The swinging arm can extend forward to allow the mobile suit to hold on to it with its hand manipulator, similar to the launchers on the FAZZ and Full Armor ZZ Gundam. The little handle on the cannon is retractable when not in use. You can go through the trouble of trying to align the hand and weapon for a proper grip but I can't be bothered, you get the idea.
Lastly we have the basic gear for the ReZEL; a beam rifle, a beam saber and a stickered shield. Essential components and you'd think Bandai could have put at least the beam rifle in the mobile suit box itself but nope...
Evolution of the ReZEL as it passed through Gundam Converge (2011), Mobile Suit Ensemble (2020) and now Mobility Joint (2022). I find it strange that the ReZEL has not been included in the Converge #Sharp program yet, it is one of the very earliest Converge figures and would likely perform well - especially if the thirst for the Mobility Joint ReZEL figure is anything to go by.
REVIEW UPDATE: After getting my hands on a squad of ReZELs we can now see the properly coloured Commander Type figure with its green sensor array. Worth waiting for definitely.
04 : RGZ-95C ReZEL Type-C(GR) (General Revil Deployment)
08 : EX Option Parts Set for ReZEL Type-C
Mobility Joint has a really neat colour swap in store for us; the first ever ReZEL figure in General Revil colours (for the squadron based onboard the sexy Dogosse-Giar class battleship with the same name). These colours are now premiering in Mobile Suit Ensemble in 2023 as well - maybe this could be the gentle push needed to finally see the pair evolve into Gundam Converge figures as well? Strictly speaking though the MJ figure isn't a simple colour swap; we are getting the Wing Unit backpack type with this figure instead of the Box Unit that goes on the basic ReZEL. This is to indicate that the units deployed from the Revil are actually the RGZ-95C Commander Type.
The EX pack for the ReZEL C(GR) also contains some surprises - the figure has its own gear with the accessory set being a bit meatier. What has not changed is the generous amount of white stickers in here, even though Bandai were gracious to at least paint some sections for us. Bloody hell...
The Commander Type figure does not feature neither beam rifle nor beam saber and so has to stick with the Mega Beam Launcher and a shield, again found only in the EX pack. Is money really so tight that Bandai can't afford to throw in an extra beam rifle?
The two mega beam launchers can attach to the Wing Unit same as on the blue ReZEL figure but here is the neat part; we get a completely different backpack to transform the machine into the Defenser-b Type. This is basically a souped up variant of the Wing Unit with increased performance and ordinance load all around. The suit also includes two different side skirt components with additional thrusters. This figure is as you can imagine extremely back-heavy, I don't know how I got it to stand upright during the photo shoot without having to tilt the ground.
The Mega Beam Launchers have the same extending arms as on the other ReZEL figures to allow the figure to grip the handle. Notice how all the sensors on the suit and launcher are metallic yellow instead of green on the basic Commander Type gear.
Currently, the blue ReZEL figure is much harder to find than the orange variant, even though the latter packs more gear options. It would have been great to also get the Defenser-A components in the EX kit but I guess we can't have everything. Maybe in 2030 when toy technology has advanced further. See you guys then. :)
Conclusion
If you can look past the basic limitations of the Mobility Joint figure series there is a lot to like here. The set is a major step up from the two previous incarnations. The fourth set will continue focusing on the Unicorn era and I think that keeping focus down to a single era per wave does wonders for a figure range such as this. However, I have no doubt that if Bandai allows Mobility Joint to live on beyond volume 4 it would most likely shift the focus completely again, to... say a Wing Gundam and the Aerial or some disastrous combo like that. Still, volume four is scheduled to hit the shops in April and as far as I know there have been no announcements of any extension beyond that set. Thus, getting into Mobility Joint could prove to be a short-lived experience just like the MicroWars journey.
No comments:
Post a Comment