Mobile Suit Ensemble Part 15.5

Love them or hate them, it has been quite a while now since we saw one of the Ensemble repaint-sets. Bandai used to churn these out steadily in the initial years of Ensemble, all the first four waves got a .5 set of its own, then there was a lull before 7.5 dropped in the summer of 2021 and since then it has been dead quiet. While I am strongly in favour of repurposed figures being released in repaint colours (it saves the hassle of doing a custom) the way Bandai has been releasing full waves as repaints means you tend to get a lot of useless filler in each wave of the "Marking Plus" variety. This time however, we have a set filled with proper canonical suit re-colours so my hopes were really high going in.


Wave 15.5 released in February 2023 taking the spot of a regular retail wave, in between Parts 23 and 24. The set features the classic three suits plus one vehicle/mobile armor line-up and is available both in capsule and cardboard box form.



148 : GN-001 Gundam Exia (Trans-Am)


Yes, Ensemble has finally come back to its 00 line for a bit of Trans-Am treatment. This was a gimmick started off early in the Ensemble history, Part 2.5 saw the re-appearance of the 00 Gundam and its 0-Raiser companion in Trans-Am style already in 2017 (it looks like the Qan[T] from 2018 will be overlooked however). Basically what you see here is the original Gundam Exia from Part 15 with a colour switcharoo, using a nice metallic coating effect. What is not to like?


The Exia and all other figures in this set belong to the "second generation" of Ensemble figures with the updated slightly smaller rectangular sprues for the joint components. The structure of the figure retains the original anatomy so you won't get the updated shoulders like on current era figures introduced with Part 20. The figure comes armed with two translucent red beam sabers which are always a godsend even if you don't end up using it on the Exia itself.


Side-by-side with the original standard colours Exia from Ensemble Part 15, released in October 2020. The original figure can be really hard to come by these days but if Ensemble keeps going will probably be reissued at some point.






149 : GN-002 Gundam Dynames (Trans-Am)


Next up is the Dynames which also gets the same pink and purple treatment. It bet it is no coincidence that Gundam Converge just so happens to be reissuing its own 00 figures in Trans-Am colours in May through the pricey P-Bandai Converge CORE brand. Considering the similarities between these two brands the Ensemble figures are a much better buy as the Converge figures are already priced through the roof and will go way beyond that once they hit the secondary market. The Converge 10th Anniversary 00 set is one of the most expensive things out there.


If you want to levy some criticism against this figure it is the fact that you only get a pair of GN Beam Pistols in the box, the iconic gear is held off in the equipment pack because Bandai hates its paying customers.


The Dynames next to its Part 15 ancestor. Whoever came up with the Trans-Am gimmick is a genius - these differently coloured toys look great together.






150 : RGZ-95 ReZEL (General Revil Deployment colours)


The biggest star in this wave for me still has to be the ReZEL. Although it doesn't get any fancy metallic paint like the 00 profiles it has a unique colour scheme of its own for the squadrons deployed to the General Revil battleship (oh, how I want a CosmoFleet figure of that vessel...). Now technically, the ReZELs stationed onboard the Revil are of the Type-C Commander variety which as far as I know do not use the box-type backpack included with this figure, so think of it as a slight anomaly. That's what you get when figures are re-purposed and repainted but not tweaked further.


Another gimmick of the Part 15.5 release is that all the clear action bases have been molded in a pale yellow colour (suspiciously resembling a certain liquid), presumably because of the need to redo the ReZEL's sensor suite in yellow rather than the purplish-red of the original figure.


Now, this is just sad. My first precious ReZEL figure came without a key component, grinding assembly to a halt. I had to cannibalize another un-built blue ReZEL to get the part that I needed for this review and so ended up ordering yet another figure to make up for that loss. Fortunately I found a cheap G-Self backpack which also comes with this particular sprue. Now, I can't say with certainty whether this was a manufacturing issue because the box was not sealed and the sprues are not packaged in plastic bags. It does happen from time to time however that Ensemble figures arrive with a missing part, usually a piece of the elbow/knee joint.


Two of the greatest Ensemble figures side by side. It took me two years to finally get four ReZELs so I am looking forward to fielding a full General Revil squad sometime in 2024.


By a peculiar coincidence the General Revil-colours ReZEL recently appeared for the first time in figure form in the third wave of Mobility Joint line last November. The two figures have a lot in common with the main difference that the Mobility Joint figure is overloaded with wrappin 3D-style stickers which can be frustrating to apply and leave a big question mark regarding their longevity.






151 : ReZEL Expansion Set


It may not look like much but the gear pack for the ReZEL makes all the difference. It is basically a replacement backpack with attached Mega Beam Cannon for use by the standard RGZ-95C ReZEL Commander Type, which is also the baseline for the RGZ-95C(GR) standard type deployed onboard the General Revil. On its own as a boxed random figure for 550 yen it doesn't hold any particular value however.


Not only is the content a bit on the light side, but check out the last of these three images that shows the contents of the original wave 15 ReZEL equipment set. Notice that the clear green parts have been omitted this time around since they are not needed for the General Revil variant. Why not take this opportunity to include the alternate winglets to create the ReZEL Defenser-B Unit? Yeah, we all know why...






150 + 151 : RGZ-95C ReZEL Type-C(GR)


Alright, finally we are getting somewhere. This is where the magic happens and we get a properly executed Revil-style ReZEL. The Mega Beam Cannon can be held as a regular rifle and that might be preferable seeing as how it dominates the figure's profile when mounted on the backpack. The added weight also makes the figure very back heavy but you can amend that by repositioning the weapon to a more forward facing profile. Overall an excellent figure just like the ReZEL Commander Type was in the Ensemble Part 15 era. Buy it while you still can.






152 : Equipment Set for Wave 15.5


Lastly we have the traditional equipment pack for the entire wave, which contains most of the good stuff for the Celestial Being figures and not so much fun for the ReZEL which, let's face it, had an entire equipment pack to itself. We also get a sprue with generic building blocks for customization something that used to be more common with the older Ensemble packs, not that I ever bothered with them.


Most of the gear in the equipment pack is actually aimed at the Exia. First up we have a GN Long and Short Blade, which can be held in hands or attached to the hips using small rectangular pegs that are of the easy-to-fall off variety.


We of course also find the signature GN Sword hidden away in this pack. The sword has a 180 degree-rotating blade so that you choose to display it in stowed or deployed mode.


Finally we have a GN Shield which attaches to the figure's elbow joint. The Exia looks really great when kitted with all this extra gear; the beautiful beam sabers that come with the basic figure are just too much. They are however perfect accessories for other figures in your collection such as the RX-78 or the GM for example.


The accessories in this pack are the same as the ones that come with the original Part 15 Exia.


The Dynames gets its missing GN Sniper Rifle as well as its heavy GN Full Shield Armor. The GN Pistols can still be carried by attaching them to the Knee joints.


Side-by-side with the original Dynames figure. If you were hoping to do a prone sniping-style pose with this figure you have your work cut out for you, I am not even going to try.


The most puzzling thing about this whole package is the sprue of four white hands included for the ReZEL. Specifically, it is strange and frustrating that the designers though it a good idea to include four open hands rather than two holding hands and two expressive hands. if you want your ReZEL to hold on to a rifle it makes little sense to give it a white open hand on the other side. This was just as dumb with the original blue figure.


While not a part of the Equipment Pack I just wanted to show a ReZEL armed with dual Mega Beam Rifles attached to its backpack, inspired by the loadout of the Mobility Joint figure. You only get one Mega Beam Rifle per ReZEL Expansion pack and so need to cannibalize a second pack for this purpose, but those should be the least difficult to find of the lot.




Conclusion

All in all, Part 15.5 is a real banger of a set. Every figure in this wave has a meaningful colour-conversion and each mobile suit included sits in the popular range of designs. Expect these to fly off the shelves as soon as they make it to the stores. Bandai also has Part 16.5 on the near horizon slated for a release in May. That set will be a bit hit-and-miss but does contain the Trans-Am GN-003 Kyrios. Lastly, the Virtue will also re-appear in Trans-Am colours in an EX-set this June. Bandai sure are milking the Trans-Ams through all relevant figure lines like there is no tomorrow (I don't think that Celestial Being has made it to GFrame however so you won't have to put up with them there as well...).