The aptly titled Operation V set feels like a little mini-jubilee of sorts with a strongly themed set of figures plucked directly from U.C. 0079. The early history of the SD Full Color lone is very focused on the original Mobile Suit Gundam show and they retain a decent footprint until around Stage 50 where they drop of a cliff and the line becomes very Cosmic Era-centric. Stage 25 was released in May 2001 in the good old times when figures were priced at ¥100.
Everything comes good to go straight out of the packaging. Some of the figures have a bit of articulation, most commonly it is the shoulders or head that will rotate.
This is the cardback from the Gashapon machine and it looks absolutely fantastic. If you want a real challenge for your Gashapon collection, try getting your hands on these.
134 : RX-78-2 Gundam (Ver.8.0)
In the beginning, Bandai really pumped out different RX-78s but the pace began to slow down and at Stage 25 they were down to one new sculpt every three sets... The eighth incarnation is an attractive beam saber + shield combo which is not as common as you would think at first. The beam saber is made out of opaque pink plastic which is also a bit unusual for the Gundam itself at least.
Many of the beam saber-wielding RX-78s have different action poses. By contrast, the Stage 25 figure has a more traditional at the ready look. Notice the constantly changing blue colour.
135 : RX-77-2 Guncannon (Ver.4.0)
The Guncannon is looking pretty good from the front although the sculpt is a bit funky. Due to the limitations of the Super Deformed sculpts there just aren't any shoulders to attach the cannons to so instead they simply join up with the head. Great for taking potshots at enemies to the sides if not entirely accurate to how the mobile suit is designed to work. The greys are a bit on the dark side too but I still think it looks fine.
The early Guncannon figure was a statue but the proportions and colouring is more screen-accurate. Then we have crazy ears over on the right which introduces Y-axis tilt on the cannons which might be taking it a bit far.
136 : RX-75 Guntank (Ver.2.0)
How do you liven up the Guntank figure? Why not have its arms stretched out to the sides in a weird kind of way? I don't think this pose works at all and the articulated shoulders are also kind of wasted since you won't really be setting up any interesting poses with this guy.
The version 1 Guntank seems superior in pretty much every way. Over on the right we have the Origin style RTX-65 Early Type Guntank which is an interesting re-take on the design.
The Operation V team is assembled and good to go. But hold on, we also have some additional fire support coming up.
137 : SCV-70 White Base
You can't have Operation V without a base of operations and isn't she just the cutest thing? There were a couple of Mobile Armors in SD Full Color already but this is the first instance of a spaceship. The Musai follows in Stage 29 and we also have three of the most recognizable vessels from SEED/SEED destiny further down the line. Too bad Bandai didn't choose to do more of these because they would have been an excellent source of cheap space ship tokens for your favourite custom strategy game. The figure itself is a bit bendier than the typical SD figure due to the spaceship having much thinner features than the typical mobile suit.
Unlike the later Musai-figure, the White Base does not have built-in support for the typical SD Full Color action base which is a little bit unfortunate.
138 : G-Fighter
The last entry for the Op-V team is the G-Fighter. The figure overall has really nice colouring but I would have preferred to see gray treads and engine nozzles but that would likely have meant further parts separation to achieve so for a 100 yen figure I'll gladly accept it for what it is.
There are actually SD figures that go the way of parts separation as can be seen in the G-Bull from Stage 30 (left) and companion G-Sky from Stage 31 (right). The two can combine into the G-ARMOR but our G-Fighter is content to stay just the way it is. It does however have a gimmick of its own.
That's right; the large flat beam cannons are intended for the RX-78 figure to stand upon. It is not a terribly convincing display and many SD mobile suit figures should be able to do the job just as well.
139 : RX-79[G] Gundam Ground Type (Ver.1.0)
The last two slots in the set have been reserved for a rival pair out of the 08th MS Team series, which premieres here in Stage 25. The limited production Ground Type Gundam is up first and comes armed with the snub YHI YF-MG100 Machine Gun, additional gear in its large backpack and of course with the legendary spiked shield. You can see the nice molding of "08" in the plastic but unfortunately it was too expensive to have it painted up at the factory. Adding that extra bit of paint will make the figure stand out clearly when on display.
There are a couple of different Ground Type Gundams to choose from in the SD Full Color and Full Color Custom lines, as well as several specialized GM types and the red-eyed Ez8. No Mass Production Type Guntank however, which is a bit unfortunate.
140 : Apsalus (Apsaras II)
The last slot belongs to the enormous Apsalus/Apsaras mobile armor or rather its second variant with installed Mega Particle Cannon. The SD figure does a great job of capturing its characteristic shape even though the Zaku II head has been upsized plenty for effect. I have a feeling the opinion on these baby-size mobile armors and spaceships might be a bit divided but personally I think they are great, even though they don't really do well side by side with your average SD mobile suit figure.
Conclusion
Overall, I think Stage 25 is a fine set with several exotic introductions into the SD Full Color family. As with many of these older SD figures your best bet to find them is in random collection lots on eBay or in used Gashapon shops in Southeast Asia. Places like Mandarake will get sets in from time to time and while they are usually very cheap they also sell out very fast. On my last trip to Bangkok I didn't see very many SD figures at all, availability used to be much better just a few years ago.
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