Volume 19 of the Gashapon HG Mobile Suit Selection carries the sub-title "Game Edition 2nd" and features mobile suits from the Playstation 2 title "Mobile Suit Gundam: Journey to Jaburo". The game launched in Japan in December 2000 and got an English translation in August the following year. This figure set was released in between in the summer of 2001, sporting seven different mobile weapons that were seen in the game. Based on the game footage I have reviewed on youtube I would say that the selection is a bit awkward seeing as how some of these figures are boss fights or available as bonus content only. To me personally a more focused release on common mobile suits seen in the game would have worked better but I can get why Bandai preferred to stick in some high profile machines into the mix and I cannot really fault them for it either.
While I have picked up several of these figure piecemeal over the years the foundation for this review is a complete set that I purchased as seen above on the secondary market for ¥1200 but you can also find individual figures cheaply here and there if you are lucky. As is typically the case when purchasing figures like these the capsules are not included but the plastic bags you see here are the same ones as used inside the balls. They do a good job of keeping components separated but don't give much protection when it comes to prevent parts from warping. If you are familiar with soft plastic Gashapon you know the deal here.
RX-79BD-1 Blue Destiny Unit 1
The set sports a brand new mobile suit as its main course, a suit only seen in the Journey to Jaburo game's secondary "Tactics Battle" mode which unlocks after you complete the main campaign. So, what to say about the figure? Well, it certainly lives up to its name - it is blue. I am not a great fan of awkward action poses such as this one since it really limits the diorama options; you can't park this figure in a hangar for example. While arms, torsos and heads often rotate and swivel on the HGMS figures the legs are stuck in that spread. They did a fine job with the additional EXAM markings though, Gashapon HG figures rarely have any markings on them at all so it is clear a bit of extra effort when into this one.
The Gashapon figure isn't looking half bad when compared to the 1:220 Shokugan figure from the old STANDart brand (volume 12, released January 2012). The mobile suit is also featured in the tiny 1:400 Gundam Collection range, as a really rare 1:350 Gsight figure as well as super-deformed in SD Gundam Full Color Stage 27 and Gashapon Senshi Forte 04.
RGM-79 GM
This set has a sturdy GM figure in a pose very different from the Blue Destiny, very suitable for example as a background item in a diorama. I really like the size of the tower shield used on this figure, it also sports excellent colour separation and sculpt detail). If you are looking to army build a GM force this figure is probably the easiest to find in this size (which isn't really saying much 20 years down the road, but...).
The Gashapon HG series also features a teal colour GM in a more action-like pose (from volume 7, released in 1998) and a floating GM paired up with the line's only RB-79 Ball, sold together in the HGMS DX2 figure series (released in 2005).
RX-75 Guntank
Alright, let's talk about the elephant in the room. Gashapon HG figures are often made from soft plastic but the mix they used for this wave is one of the worst, so many components are bent out of recognition. You'll see bent weapons and shields all over the place here, the thinner or flatter the component the more likely you will come across a bent one. This was partially corrected in later sets and some figures use harder plastic for their fins etc. but this is just what you will have to deal with in the wonderful world of Gashapon Gundam.
Size and style-comparison with a 1:300 Strategy of Gundam figure from the first SOG wave released in June 2006. The sizes are nearly the same so you could easily replace the Gashapon HG figure with the better looking SOG figure, provided you can find one of course.
RX-78-2 Gundam
The RX-78 is no stranger to the Gashapon HG line, this is its twelfth appearance so you know the designers have to resort to ever more unusual poses each time. Here they have gone for a kneeling figure with rifle and shield. There was another kneeling Gundam in volume 13 already, but that particular figure was holding a beam saber. As with the Blue Destiny figure this sculpt will limit the display options quite a bit but at least with the Gundam you have a lot of different sculpts to work with. Incidentally, the Gundam and Char's Zaku II from this volume were selected for the memorial 100 000 000 Gashapon units (for all Bandai Gashapon HG brands, not just Gundam) memorial release, probably only because it happened to be released around the same time and so the mould was reused. You can see a little notice about this special release at the last page in the booklet.
MS-06S Zaku II Commander Type (Char's Custom)
Oh my, that's a really sad bazooka you have there, Char. Fortunately there are a lot of medical options available for you, just look into the nearest email spam folder and order today! Jokes aside, the Zaku Bazooka accessory on one of the two figures seen here really shows off the worst aspect of the plastic material used in this release. While other HG MS figures also suffer from bent parts it fortunately rarely doesn't get this bad. The main culprit as usual is the idea of tossing up a lot of components into a ball-shaped container. If you can look beyond this problem (as well as the bendy commander antenna) you have a really great looking version of Char's Zaku II in this set, one of the better sculpts I would say.
MSM-10 Zock (Game ver.)
The most interesting figure in this set I think is the Zock in its overhauled design from this particular game title. While the original design was also two-faced this new sculpt looks more like an enormous hovering land battleship and it is a major improvement over the original TV series design (which is if we are being frank pretty abysmal). The figure is made up out of several components and armour plates and these do not always cooperate. The massive torso armour for example attaches with soft plastic pegs and these sometimes want to push themselves out of the sockets again, you can see the big gap between the head and the rear torso armour as well as on some of the feet.
The Zock appears near the end of the game campaign (appearing as an unknown enemy type to the Gundam's onboard computer) after the player has been chasing Char's Z'Gok through the underground tunnels in Jaburo. You'd be surprised at the agility of this thing yet the boss fight itself seems to be the two machines slinging potshots at each other from a distance.
Close-up of the thruster section hidden underneath all the armoured bulk. I really like this design but the soft plastic material doesn't necessarily agree and prefers to slowly twist the components out of the sockets and having them fall off at the slightest touch.
The classic U.C.0079 Zock is a behemoth and the PS2 version is not smaller but due to the limits of Gashapon capsule magic the figure is considerably downsized from its full scale. Compare this with a Zaku II and a classic Zock (if we nitpick it looks like the design from the Battle Operation 2 game) in "true" 1:300 scale from the Strategy of Gundam figure line, this should give you an idea of what we are missing out on. Still, I think the Gashapon HG figure could be an interesting rival for smaller Gundam figures of the 1/350 Gsight line. It is probably a bit large for the traditional SD Full Color figures but might also be an option to go with the larger SD figures of the Gashapon NEXT, DASH and Senshi Forte families.
MS-06 Zaku II
The set closes off with the good old mass-production type Zaku II in a very attractive and basic pose. The exact version of the machine is not given in the game but it would be safe to assume that the same 3D-model was used for both standard MS-06F and ground type MS-06J variants and so the figure is quite flexible in this fashion. Apart from the traditional Zaku Machine Gun the figure also wields a secondary shoulder shield as an improvised shield on its left arm (although it lacks the spikes seen on the more combat-oriented knuckle shield).
In spite of being very bendy (soft plastic is not kind to thin and flat components like those shields) this is a very useful army builder figure. It would have been really cool if the figure came in an alternate version with the bazooka and commander antenna used on the Char figure but the HG MS figure series rarely if ever worked with the alternate figure concept.
Conclusion
While the soft plastic utilized in this wave must be seen as a bit of a failure the set is made up of a really useful selection of classic U.C.0079 designs. I for one would have liked to see a second wave with additional figures such as the Guncannon and the Gelgoog but when volume 20 came around Bandai had already shifted the focus to Stardust Memory and Mobile Suit ZZ Gundam.
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