Seika Sharpener Collection EX : RX-178 Gundam Mk-II (Chara-Hobby 2004 Limited)

I recently had the good fortune to stumble on a set of Seika figures that I didn't even know existed. The Seika Sharpener line (EX to be precise) has been featured here once before and they are some of the more difficult to find Gashapon-size figures out there. These figures are soft plastic fully-painted statues glued on top of hexagonal bases with a little pencil sharpener underneath. I believe Seika has also produced sharpener figure sets based on other franchise licenses but I haven't really bothered to investigate further.


Seika began producing much smaller Gundam-themed pencil sharpener figures around 2002 and soon followed them up with the larger figures around 2004. To my knowledge there is only a single set of EX Sharpener figures themed on different Zeta Gundam mobile suits, released in 2004. One of those figures was the RX-178 Gundam Mk-II in A.E.U.G. colours and this Chara-Hobby limited edition from the same year features the same figure repainted in Titans colours. I don't know what the figure cost back then but I bet they weren't particularly pricey. As you can see the figures come in generic boxes with a sticker identifying the unit number variant housed inside.


Each figure is further protected in a plastic bag with the right arm held in a separate smaller bag. The arm is designed to go on the shoulder in a specific way and so you have no posing options at all unless you want to modify the figure.


Whenever I see these old fully painted Gashapon figures it saddens my heart to look at the current era excuses we have for Gashapon and Shokugan figures. Just look at all this detail. The only modification I would consider is painting the leg thruster exhausts black but I decided against messing with them right now. Sadly, i don't own the white A.E.U.G. figure to compare the painting detail level but from what I have seen online they appear to be at the same level of detail.


Here is the full trio side by side. Only the unit number differs between the figures. It sure would have been cool if Seika had created optional arms with a beam saber and a bazooka but I can well imagine that such extravaganza was way out of the budget for a gimmicky figure series such as this. If you really wanted to it should be possible to dig up a suitably sized bazooka from the Gashapon HG figure line if you fancy a bit of modification.


The EX sharpener line is rated at roughly 1:280 although individual differences exist, considering the standardized sizes of packaging and bases that should come as little surprise. This line-up features a 1:300 Ground Type Gundam from Strategy of Gundam and the RMS-154 Barzam from the 1:400 Gundam Collection Gashapon series. The sharpener figures are unfortunately a bit of an anomaly outside of most of the common figure scales (not to mention the bases they come on) but are great miniature statues that will naturally appeal to anyone with an eye for lovingly detailed Gashapon figures.