Mobile Suit Ensemble EX 29 : GN-005 Gundam Virtue Set

Now that the Trans-Am color-versions of most of the 00 Gundam figures are in the process of being delivered I figured I should get my act together and finally get a review out on the old Virtue set which has been sitting unbuilt for ages now. It did take me quite a bit of effort to secure a copy I recall. The figure first appeared at the end of summer 2021 but it took me a full year before finally securing a copy on the secondary market. During that time the price had gone up from the P-Bandai ¥4950 to ¥7000 which is a nasty price to pay for an Ensemble figure and now in 2023 it is almost the standard for an EX figure, just look at the recent God Gundam and Master Gundam for example.


The box is of the smaller and lighter end as far as EX figures go. I noticed that there is no good clear image of what the Virtue figure will actually look like when it is fully assembled which I found rather odd.


At first glance it doesn't look to be very complicated. The bag count is only twice that of a normal retail figure and there are no real stand-out fancy looking components that immediately grab your attention.


One reason I had been holding off on actually building this figure is the overwhelming amount of components and the fact that there are not components for one but two different figures in here. I started out the other way around this time, building the accessories and option parts first, to cut down on the number of components to get a better idea of what I was actually supposed to be doing. One of the big questions I had going in was if there would be enough components to build both the Nadleeh and the Virtue, to give some bang for the buck spent on it. Well, let's follow the assembly instructions in order. First, Bandai wants you to construct the Nadleeh:


GN-004 Gundam Nadleeh


Ok, I admit I glanced ahead in the instructions and the first thing I saw was that to continue with the Virtue you had to immediately start pulling the Nadleeh figure apart again. I wasn't having any of that so here are some photos of the identical figure from the retail figure line, the GN-004 figure from Ensemble Part 17, released in March 2021. You'll notice that the figure has not been revised to match the new frame but is still using the version one connector pieces with slightly less movable shoulders.


The Nadleeh comes armed with plain looking GN Beam Rifle and a very narrow GN Shield. It can also utilize the two GN Beam Cannons normally attached to the Virtue's backpack, either handheld or attached to its shoulders. The Beam Cannons were not included with the retail figure but where found in that wave's Equipment Pack, so keep that in mind if this is something you would like to go seek out.


There is not a whole lot to say about this figure which hasn't already been covered before. It is a nice if slightly boring looking figure but it is a very unusual figure choice and I am delighted to have one but the figure from Part 17 will not be getting a sibling out of the EX29 set unless you skip on building the Virtue entirely, so you are better off hunting for the retail Nadleeh figure instead. Here you can see the leftover parts belonging to the Nadleeh after you have put the Virtue together. In my opinion Bandai may as well have skipped including these parts entirely if they couldn't bear the cost of including the missing parts from the retail figure - why not have the retail Nadleeh figure reissued and chucked it inside the box?





GN-002 Dynames and GN-003 Kyrios Option Parts


Before we look at the Virtue proper let's just quickly cover the option parts included for the rest of the Celestial being crew. There are two main accessories to be found here. One is the container-like Tail Unit which you can attach to the rear end of either the Kyrios or Dynames - using the corresponding connector pieces also included. The pack can be loaded up with various ordnance for use primarily against ground targets. It gives the Kyrios figure a kind of Wasp-like appearance and the Dynames just looks odd with it sticking out of its rear. The enormous Super Substratospheric Altitude Gun on the other hand is much cooler and comes with a bendy plastic connector to a large GN Condenser unit. Apologies for making this part of the review a bit bare bones but I didn't want to go through the trouble of trying to line everything up but you should be getting a good idea of how you can customize the two mobile suits further.




GN-005 Gundam Virtue


Alright, so time for the main event. The Virtue figure is actually a heavily parts-swapped Nadleeh figure featuring clip on armor that attaches over the Nadleeh's arms, legs and skirt armor. We have seen attachable leg armor in Ensemble before, but not like this with armor parts that connect to each other and dangle freely around the lower legs of the figure. I feel really uncomfortable about this approach and would much have preferred a completely unique figure without parts swapping but I know there will be different strokes for different folks.


The GN Bazooka can be displayed in a deployed mode by switching around the L-shaped connector piece that attaches the lower barrel to the main body of the gun and then extending the gold shaped pieces forward. I don't think it looks particularly attractive or convincing to be honest. The second picture shows the GN Beam Cannons still attached to the backpack assembly but rotated forward.


The clear base comes with two different supports for the GN Bazooka, one suitable for supporting the weapon when the figure is floating above the base attached to the typical Ensemble groin-connector piece and one for when the figure stands directly on top of the base. Simple but effective. Once again, sorry for not going through the motions of trying to whip up a cool pose for the figure here, I don't display my figures on bases if I can avoid it. My inner eye just saw a lot of pieces flying off left, right and center if I were to try to align those bulky arms to both hold on to the weapon...


Comparison photo with the Converge Virtue from 2018. As mentioned before I would have preferred if the Ensemble Virtue don't use clip-on leg armor and featured solid legs like the Converge figure.


Bandai are currently busy re-releasing the 00 suits in Trans-Am colours with the Exia and Dynames out already and the Kyrios up next in May. I haven't seen any indication that the Nadleeh will be given this treatment (it was released in a separate wave together with the Double Zeta and the two Jagd Dogas) but you can look forward to it and the Virtue popping up in a new Trans-Am colour Virtue set in June.



Conclusion

All in all I am not hugely impressed with the Virtue Set, considering value for money. Frankly I think the Nadleeh and the Virtue would have done fine as two regular figures in a retail wave supported by a third box with equipment like the GN Bazooka and maybe a few pieces tossed in to the regular wave equipment pack. Premium Ensemble fatigue is definitely becoming a thing.