Mobile Suit Ensemble Part 25

Ensemble Part 25 has been out for almost half a year at this point, released back in September 2023. In fact Ensemble Part 26 is due any day now; see you in summer I guess. As usual a couple of factors have conspired to delay this review, a not unimportant one being the absolute misery of collecting all the boxes needed for the review. If you are interested in building all the variants of this set you'd do well to hunt down the 10-Box as all three mobile suits in this set have alternate forms, getting two of each figure is a good start (I assume this is the overall distribution in the 10-box but I don't know).


Ensemble is still available in both capsule and box form. As always, I recommend seeking out the boxed version if possible since stuffing components into a plastic ball is a guaranteed way to bend at least something, chances are the figures will fare a bit better in a rectangular box where the bags don't need to be crumpled to fit inside. As is usual with recent Ensemble releases, step-by-step build instructions can be found on Bandai's Youtube channel although the quality of the instructions can be more or less clear from time to time.



164 : GF13-017NJ Shining Gundam


The God Gundam and Master Gundam recently received rather lavish EX releases where Bandai expected you to cough up several thousand yen for just each base figure and then a couple of thousand extra for the effects parts set they put together for the respective suit. In total you are looking at something like 10 000 yen for a complete figure which of course is absolute nonsense. The Shining Gundam instead gets the standard figure treatment which means it will end up in more people's hands and it is not a bad figure at all. The figure is lavishly painted and even features a clear effect part on the hidden inside of its backpack for the Core Lander craft.

One word of warning though; the Shining Shot beam guns attach to soft pegs which have larger heads, intended to allow the part to rotate and bend a little. You will find that the peg will likely prefer to deform rather than go into the hole smoothly and I even managed to break one peg off completely having to super glue the gun to the arm. Be very careful when attaching these.


Your are paying a price for the nicely painted up figure; no accessories are included in the box. I think a pair of expressive hands would have worked wonders for a figure of this type and am reminded of the cool hands that were included with the Assault Kingdom God and Master Gundams all those years ago. Also notice the clear effect part on the backpack/Core Lander. We will look at the accessories that do exist for the figure in the section regarding the separate equipment pack below.






165 : XVX-016RN Gundam Aerial Rebuild


The Aerial continues to stir up interest also in its new rebuild-form. This figure took absolutely forever to dig up compared to the other ones, and delayed this review several months. As a concept design however I am a bit torn. While I do like the two-colour style of its body the original design was more vibrant. The Ensemble figure has a neat gimmick with a clear effect part going over the front camera but the bendy V-fin is a bit disappointing but that is a common occurrence in Ensemble. All in all it is a very traditional Gundam-esque Ensemble figure sporting a backpack with four articulated thruster components.


The Aerial Rebuild is also bereft of much of its equipment which has been tossed into the wave equipment pack. This leads to the figure looking a bit hollowed out with gaping holes dotted over its boy hinting at something more. You do at least get its beam rifle which is made up of multiple components as it has a transformation gimmick of its own. More on that later.






166 : GAT-04 Windam


Going into Part 25 I was very hyped about the Windam coming to Ensemble and in spite of some tough competition I managed to dig up four units and three equipment packs for the review. My initial impression however quickly sank when I realized that most of its body and gear is made up of soft plastic components. All of my figures came with bent beam rifles and shields, and look at those horribly bent out of shape V-fins across the board. How did this pass through QA testing? What is made of hard plastic however is the pair of thrusters mounted on the lower legs, a strange priority since they don't feature into any additional parts conversion, why the shield wasn't given priority I don't know. My best guess is it has to do with the manufacturing process and painting method somehow. All in all, a nice figure but with a huge letdown.


Apart from the bent weapon and shield there is actually several cool components made for the Windam - and made in hard plastic too - so let's skip ahead to the next box below.






167 : Windam Striker Packs


On its plus-side, the Windam actually gets a special accessory pack with two completely different loadouts, each making use of its backpack adapter. Each item is fairly complex with multiple components to be assembled and for once each option is so large that it wouldn't actually fit in the capsule together with the mobile suit itself. Each accessory pack can equip two Windam figures with one or the other kit. Let's examine them separately below.



GAT-04 Windam+AQM/E-A4E1 Jet Striker


The Jet Striker Pack is the classic Windam gear option and grants the suit atmospheric flight capability. Basically you have a backpack with a set of wings that can fold upwards, here they are shown in their full spread. Each wing has two pylons and you get enough accessories, two rocket pods and two large missiles that you can attach freely, mixing and matching as you see fit. Unlike the bendy Windam figure the material used for the wings is hard ABS-style plastic that does not bend. If only they would have done the same with parts of the mobile suit figure itself. I think the Jet Striker Pack is pretty much mandatory for the Windam figure to look complete and is my go-to option for these figures.




GAT-04+Mk438/B Multi Striker Windam


The Multi Striker variant is highly situational and equips the Windam with two large missile canisters. I haven't been able to find any additional data on the specifications of these canisters but I assume they could be used to carry various types of ordinance. The profile is mainly known from the unimaginative scenes from SEED Destiny where Windams were once again trying to saturate the PLANT space colonies with a shower of nuclear missiles, only to be cut into pieces in seconds. Man, the writing was so bad in Destiny...


The missile launchers are enormous and look a bit ridiculous on the compact Ensemble figure frame. The back-adapter can swivel forward so you can determine the angle of the launchers as you see fit, but the figure will of course require attachment to a very sturdy base unless they are swept forward. The figure looks alright but the attachment but can't really compete with the Jet Striker option I think. Now, something I really think could have also been included is a beam saber. The Windam uses a red blade and below you can see a figure that has repurposed the from Senshi Forte, this particular item comes from the equipment pack for wave 15.






168 : Equipment Set for Wave 25


The equipment set targets the Shining Gundam and the Aerial Rebuild only. There are no generic weapons, not even the classic toothpick beam saber, which I think is kind of lazy. As mentioned above I feel that a token gesture towards the Windam would have been prudent as well, if not the beam saber at least a pair of expressive hands.


The gear for the Shining Gundam allows you to display it in Super Mode form (wouldn't it be cool if Bandai releases Part 25.5 with the golden True Super Mode form and a Windam in Neo Roanoke's colours?). You get an optional head with its armour panels open, new leg-mounted side-armour folded upwards revealing several thrusters and two translucent green hands. One hand gets the Shining Finger open hand while the other is uniquely sculpted to hold the large Shining Finger Beam Sword. You can also open up the shoulder armor by repositioning the white armour panels upwards, exposing the gold-colour vents underneath (this feature can be replicated without the need of the equipment pack). However, I am not a huge G Gundam follower so fans will have to forgive me for using a regular holding hand for the beam sword and using the Shining Finger hand in parallel, I just like its appearance better that way.


While you don't need two figures to swap between the normal mode and super mode, I would in general avoid tampering with Ensemble figures as the joints have a tendency to wear out. Unlike the premium God Gundam figure it is quite affordable to have not one but two Shining Gundam figures in your collection...


The Aerial Rebuild figure has the same gimmicks as the original design. The majority of the Aerial-reserved components in the equipment pack can be assembled to form its large Bit Stave-shield. Thankfully all the crucial components are made from hard plastic so bendy parts will not be an issue. This is an attractive way to equip the figure but doesn't completely negate the fact that the body still looks a bit like Swiss cheese.


Comparison shot with the version 1 Aerial from Ensemble Part 23 with its Bit Stave-shield deployed. The similarities are striking although I prefer the more vibrant colour scheme used on the original design.


The Bit Staves can also attach to the beam rifle which gets a longer barrel in the equipment pack, leading to this GUND-BIT Cannon monstrosity with two sidebar handles. The option is there if you want to use it, but I can't imagine it winning out to any of the other two modes, especially the third and last.


Yeah, this is how I like to see the Aerial, with the Bit Staves attached to its body and thruster pack. It rounds out the design and adds a bit more colour to the suit itself. I toyed with the idea of taking the components from several equipment packs to give one figure both the full Bit Stave-shield and armour, you could even go crazy with a third pack to give it the elongated GUND-BIT Cannon. Again this form is a direct derivation of the original Aerial design, seen here in its Ensemble Part 23 Bit-On form.






Conclusion

There is a lot to like about Ensemble Part 25, in fact the only thing I do not approve of is the use of bendy plastic on the Windam figure. If you can forgive this blunder it is safe to start your Earth Alliance army-building however. This 25th wave of figures remains pretty hard to find on the secondary market but I would assume availability will pick up a little in a couple if years. That's just the way the story goes with Ensemble (and why it is often so frustrating to collect).