Time for an oddity here on the blog; how about some die-cast figures? The Tomica brand is the Japanese equivalent to brands like Matchbox and Hot Wheels and mostly concerns itself with doing contemporary cars and vehicles. They do pop-culture tie-ins from time to time, like Evangelion, Pokemon or Disney, and here comes a set from their Premium line dedicated to Mobile Suit Gundam. The set belongs to the recently named Premium Unlimited brand, which I guess means the figures are not officially limited, but whether they will actually stay in production beyond the first series - who knows? According to Hobbylink Japan the figures were released in March 2023 which is also when I began seeing them on Mandarake where they are currently selling for ¥1000 each.
This set contains three different vehicles from the U.C. 0079 timeline. Tomica actually also released four additional Gundam-themed cars around the same time in their Dream Tomica line. these are concept cars with designs based on the RX-78 and Zaku II, as well as Amuro's buggy with mini-figures of Amuro and Char (in the Lego-esque style normally used by Tomica). These figures will not be covered in the review as they weren't of any interest to me.
The full Tomica x Mobile Suit Gundam series line-up. The buggy isn't half-bad I guess but not compatible with any other Gundam-themed figures so it seemed pointless to get.
The boxes have cardboard inserts to keep the main body of the figure - which is typically metal - from bouncing around inside, while additional detail comes in plastic bags for added protection. As you can see, the figures are non-scale and instead dimensioned to be roughly the same size in between them.
SCV-70 White Base
That's a really nice sculpt and pretty well painted. There is a pretty ugly seam at the top of the fuselage where the materials change. A bit of panel-lining would have been nice since I can imagine it is challenging to apply it yourself. Tomica being a die-cast brand, only the main section of the fuselage appears to be made of metal. The upper section and extremities are made of plastic that is only slightly bendy (yet one of the hangars is leaning inwards). According to the specifics, the main body is made of Zinc alloy and ABS, the rest of the body is PVC and the wheeled action base is made of MABS. Tomica products usually have the scale on the packaging (except when they do smaller trucks and buses for some reason) but it has been omitted in this line. The figure is roughly 72mm long which based off of the official length of 262m (I bet this fluctuates between sources) should place it around 1/365 scale.
The ugly base with wheels is a typical Tomica thing; these are mainly functional toys after all. It is completely optional however and goes into a hexagonal peg hole underneath the hull.
If you are having trouble finding a White Base for your Cosmo Fleet armada you could certainly proxy her with the Tomica figure. The lack of a base would be a problem of course but you can always ship something up with excess bases from Assault Kingdom and the like. Here she is seen patrolling with the Magellan from MegaHouse Cosmo Fleet Collection volume 2.
FF-X7 Core Fighter
What an attractive figure! The sculpt looks really realistic and the colours are vibrant. The gap between the blue and red sections is a bit of an eyesore though, and don't stare too long into the cockpit which has a cylinder in place of where the pilot would sit. The immediate impression when picking up the Core Fighter figure is how heavy it is. The packaging informs us that the body is made out of Zinc alloy and MABS (it feels mostly metal), the wings and rudder are PVC and the landing gear ABS plastic.
The Core Fighter comes in at a length of roughly 67 millimeters. When compared to the official full length of 8.60 meters, this places it at around 1/128 scale.
The landing gear can detach from the main body and leaves a peg hole that - while not designed for it - is compatible with the Assault Kingdom bases.
I don't collect HG 1/144 kits but here you can see the Core Fighter parked next to two non-scale figures - A GM Sniper II from the old Bandai Robot Spirits and the Gundam 04 from Bandai's Mobile Suit in Action series.
Is the Core Fighter a good fit for your Converge collection? Hmm... I'd say not really. It might do the job if you are looking for that elusive Converge Core Fighter model but there are better Gashapon alternatives out there.
G-Fighter
The G-Fighter, lastly, is one of the better looking constructs of the G-P.A.R.T.S. family and the Tomica figure again does a very good job in the likeness and colouring departments. Unlike the Core Fighter figure this one is super light, and mostly made up of plastic with very obvious seams in some places. The main fuselage section is made of Zink alloy and MABS plastic, the guns are ABS, the wings and nose are PVC and the soft treads by rubbery TPR.
The landing gear is an integral part of the G-Fighter design are so are not designed to be removable. You can see it has been firmly bolted in place. You can actually move the treads but I don't recommend messing with them to avoid potential damage.
Size comparison with the G-A.R.M.O.R. from Gundam Converge (a combination of the G-Bull and the G-Sky figures) and the peculiar shaped G-Fighter from mobile Suit Ensemble Part 01.
I was surprised to find there is an official figure of the G-Fighter's length; 15.20 meters. The figure is a bit tricky to measure but is approximately 68mm long, which places it in the 1/220 range somewhere. Here it sits on the flightline together with an E.F.S.F. crew from the FW STANDart 1/220 series. Not a bad fit I think.
Conclusion
This is a neat set of miniatures that may or may not be useful as complements to your Gundam-collection, or perhaps as background clutter in a diorama. The various scales of the models will make them more or less suitable for such a role depending on what exactly you are working with.
No comments:
Post a Comment