Is it that time again already? Yep, Bandai continues to churn out their recent Gundam-themed prize figures at a steady pace. The latest Newtype-girl to see the light of day is the insane Ple clone from Mobile Suit ZZ Gundam, one of those whimsical character types that littered that entire television series. The previous entry, green-haired menace Quess Paraya made it to arcades in Japan early summer and this figure appeared somewhere around the end of summer/beginning of autumn 2023.
Nothing has changed in the box department (save for its size, more on that later), we still have all the usual logos including the blue Bandai one, the Banpresto eyes and the JAIA craneking crest of excellence... The background shows that cozy Axis mansion but is otherwise rather sterile when it comes to additional information. As with the recent Quess figure Banpresto has dropped the A- and B-version thing with slightly different colour tones.
The figure comes in two parts and has the same type of sturdy circular base as the previous figures. No additional support is provided save for a shaped plug connection for the left foot.
Banpresto have just been killing it with this new range of simple but elegant prize figures. The new Ple figure is no exception as the likeness is dead on. The series has now run its way through the OG Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta, Double Zeta and Char's Counterattack. I am curious if they will keep the series going, I mean where can they go from here without circling back? Personally I would like to see more pilot figures in flight suits instead of this constant stream of anime girl stereotypes. If I live long enough to see Japanese companies throw out their fax machines, then just maybe it will happen.
As usual with the new Banpresto figures the printing and colouring is absolutely spot on. While they are indeed two different beasts, I still can't help but wonder if it would be possible to produce non- or very low-articulated mobile suit figurines and reach a similar level of quality. God, I miss the 1/220 range.
Notice how the Ple-box is much smaller than the previous outings in the series, although it stays true to the graphical style. This new box is the same size as the one used by Banpresto for the recent Witch of Mercury figures. It makes sense to keep the box-size down, as the figure doesn't feature outstretched arms like the previous two, I can't say I am a fan of the posing they chose at all. Happy go lucky insane Newtype doesn't exactly lend itself well to a mobile suit hangar diorama backdrop now does it?
Well the box might be smaller but the figure inside is not. As you can see, the scale is unfortunately way off between the figures in this series. On its own though, this is another great looking figure with a very affordable price tag; expect to pay slightly above 1000 yen in Japan. To my knowledge Ple has only ever been released as a "red shirt" once before, also by MegaHouse in their old HaroCap collection from 2008, which is now very difficult to find. Other than that you have a few of the yellow/green outfits and of course the rival Ple Two in pilot uniform but those all sit in the pay-through-the-nose-category. If you are interested in this figure, now is the time to shop around, as availability is good.
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