Bandai Spirits / Banpresto Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn: Audrey Burne

We have a new entry in the rapidly growing series of Newtype gal prize figures introduced by Bandai/Banpresto in 2021. It took them a little while to find their groove but now that they are in the middle of it we are seeing a companion line of similar Witch From Mercury released in tandem. It will be interesting to see if the momentum keeps going or if this is its crescendo. I for one would love to see a little late SEED Anniversary figure series in 2024 for example. Anyway, the figure in front of us today is Audrey Burne, adding a face from Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn to the line-up that has so far covered the original U.C.0079 series, Zeta, Double Zeta and Char's Counterattack. Will we get to see Cecily Fairchild from F91 next? The way this series has been showcasing characters not seen that often it would be a natural fit.


The Audrey Burne figure was released in November so this thing is pretty fresh of the shelf from Japan where it is currently selling at a price slightly higher than ¥1000 on the secondary market. Now is a good time to go find it because these figures tend to be everywhere for a while before slowly dropping in availability.


Being arcade prize items these figures are sturdy and a bit simplistic compared to the often elaborate and overworked statues coming out of the pricy MegaHouse ranges for example. However, it is in the simplicity that you also find their charm. The sculpts and level of detail have been fairly realistic and the proportions are usually also not overblown, something that the MegaHouse range tends to exaggerate into sometimes embarrassing levels. The base is a plain white circle without any printing which might come off a bit uninteresting. My biggest complain with these bases is that they are so large footprints that it becomes impossible to create any interesting multi-figure displays since they are all adhering to Covid-style social distancing...


My other main gripe about this figure series is that the figures are scaled to be about the same height rather than in scale, so small characters like the recent Elpeo Ple figure are way oversized. The Audrey figure is approximately 18 centimetres tall and is sort of middle of the road in the series. The sculpt and painting is as you can see here perfectly acceptable but I do have some reservations about the face which doesn't look very human at all. Your only other option is the 2011 MegaHouse figure which is more detailed and has a better face sculpt although but you will spend ten times as much to obtain it. The new Audrey Burne figure is also a decent size match for the older Banpresto DXF Unicorn figure line, I will come around to doing a comparison photo eventually when the lighting conditions improve here in the currently dark winter.