Here we are at the end of the "original" Banpresto Witch of Mercury character figure series. It was released into arcades in Japan at the end of 2023 together with the figures of Shaddiq and Guel bringing the total set to seven different personalities. Or rather... six personalities and whatever the hell this is. Witch of Mercury introduces synthetic people into the mix and Banpresto for some reason decided to go for this fifth variant Enhanced Person, which has taken a likeness of the actual human character Elan Ceres. I find this a very strange thing to do, why not include the "real" personality instead?
The box follows the norm and size of the previous Witch of Mercury character releases. The box is of a very compact size and ideal for storing the figure (in disassembled form) when not in use.
Inside we find the typical secondary cardboard protection wrapped around the figure which in turn sits in a multi-compartment plastic bag similar to how Converge figures are packaged. Notice the thick peg that goes into the base, you'd have to dispose of it if you plan on putting the figure in some other type of diorama.
There is something disturbingly creepy and uncanny valley about the design of this figure. The bodily shape is slender male but the face has a very notable female characteristic to it and the earrings and hair style add further confusion into the mix. Had this been a western production I would not have been surprised but not sure what the story is behind this design choice.
I read a little on the Gundam Wiki and learnt that this synthetic Enhanced Person is intended to act as a body double to the real Elan Ceres as well as Enhanced Person No. 4, yet all of them wear different accessories such as earrings or gloves which seems really stupid for a body double to do. Anyway... I'm not totally convinced by this figure and think it is one of the least impressive designs to come out of this line. From a technical perspective however, the execution is just as good as always.
Size comparison with the other two figures of this wave, Guel Jeturk on the left and Shaddiq Zenelli on the right. All three were released in December 2023.
Collection of the boxes of all seven figures in this series. The availability on the secondary market is for the most part good and I was glad to see that there are some additional season 2 figures being released also in 2024. This goes on in tandem with the new SEED Freedom characters as well as a Universal Century Newtype release of Aina Sahalin. All the recent Banpresto figures serve as cheap entries into the normally very expensive hobby of Gundam character figure collection and do their jobs well.
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