Alright, this review has taken its time to get off the ground, mainly because I was looking high and low for a capsule version of the figures to be able to get that sweet booklet for use as a banner. :) Ensemble Part 27 has been out for about two months by now, with the official release date of July 5, 2024. It is a set that has a lot in common with the set that precedes it and the set that will follow it. In each set you get one of the flagship SEED Freedom mobile suits with its flight pack in a separate box, a new exciting Witch of Mercury design as well as one of the classic vintage Zeon U.C.0079 machines. What's not to like? Let's jump in!
As usual, Part 27 is available both in Gashapon capsule form or in box form (the latter presumably only available through the P-Bandai store). Notice the revised box design. These items were picked up from Mandarake in Japan but the backside is full of scribbles regarding distribution in various international markets including that huge blurb for Thailand. I am curious if this is an export item manufactured for Bandai Namco Asia in Hong Kong that has been brought into Japan or if this is now the common design for all markets. The usual full illustration of the set is heavily reduced in size and now sits on the lid because apparently there were not enough disclaimers on the box.
180 : STTS-909 Rising Freedom Gundam
On to the figures then. Part 27 quickly reminded me about what I did not enjoy about Part 26. Not a strange thing really because the two sets mirror each other a lot. We start out with the Rising Freedom which has just been everywhere (and I am really starting to get sick of seeing it). It has a lot in common with the Immortal Justice both in-universe and as an MSE figure. The design is rather busy and there are several small parts that are a bit fiddly to handle. It doesn't help that the new rubbery and bendy plastic mix they use cause unnecessary friction around the peg areas, sometimes the pegs just change shape instead of going in when you apply too much force. I hate this material. There are some really nasty marks in places where the runners attach to painted parts, most notably on the wrist guards which I just covered up with some blue pen because it looked awful. Overall though, a solid sculpt once you get around the technical shortcomings.
The Freedom comes armed with a beam rifle and shield and also has extendable railguns attached to its hips just like the previous Freedom generations. Notice the two white sprues with painted red parts? Those are meant to make up the red design on the shield and you have to manually fit three tiny pieces together and as you can imagine this is annoying. The white colour you see around the edges is the unpainted areas near the pegs and on the sides, I didn't bother to cover them up because it looks alright when viewed from a distance. However, why are there five parts when you only need three? It is because two of them have alternate designs with short and long pegs at the back. This comes into play when you are transforming the figure into HiMAT mode, more on that in a bit.
181 : Rising Freedom Gundam Expansion Set
Just like the Ensemble version of the Immortal Justice the wings of the mobile suit are sold separately, or rather the tiny wings included with the basic figure are meant to be replaced by these. I can well understand why the wings are kept separately because this is a fairly complex design with many moving parts but it is still an annoying business practice to spread out all the components for the Freedom in three different blind boxes.
That is a respectable parts count right there, but it still doesn't change the fact that you paid 500 yen and got a pair of wings for the trouble. Imagine the frustration when you pull your second wing pack while trying to get the mobile suit itself.
Replacement is simple; just get rid of the tiny wings sitting on the basic Freedom figure and plonk these into the same spot. The Immortal Justice Gundam also came with a rudimentary wing pack to be replaced like this. It still feels like a waste of resources to me. Can't wait to see Bandai do a hat trick in Ensemble Part 28 with the new Strike Freedom and the Proud Defender pack...
All my moaning aside, the figure looks great with the wings installed. Extending and rotating the wings is possible but very clunky and handling this figure is a bit frustrating due to its many delicate parts just waiting to come off. Just pick a mode you like and then stay there.
To convert the Freedom into its High Mobility Aerial Tactics (HiMAT) Mode you remove the head and put the white cone in its place, then comes the fiddly bits. You must remove the chest cockpit section and tiny vent pieces to allow you to stick the beam rifle and shield into an exposed peg hole. This presumably also requires you to rotate the red decorative parts on the shield because I wasn't able to attach it properly and the online build instructions suck.
I really am not a fan of exclusive online-only build instructions and I think the video production is really lazy. Initially they spent a whole lot of effort highlighting which parts to use when assembling the joints and connectors, which directions they should face and so on. However, when it comes to non-generic parts exclusive to a single figure the whole thing is often rushed without highlighting which parts to pick from the sprues and there are no close-up stills showing you the supposed outcome. I find myself constantly rewinding such sections and getting none the wiser.
Once assembled there is no interesting way to display the HiMAT Freedom anyway. Here you can see a contraption I put together using Assault Kingdom components. The HiMAT mode is okay I guess if you want to hold the figure in your hand and run around from room to room while making engine noises. The fact that the product has an age recommendation of 15 somehow tells me that this is not their target market.
182 : MDX-0003 Gundam Schwarzette
I was really excited to see a rival suit from Witch of Mercury in this line-up. It may not look like much when at lot of grey and black parts fall out of the package but this thing looks badass. I have spiced it up a bit by filling in some sections where the black colour was missing, such as the backside of the shoulders, certain sections of the legs and the weapon. The unique ring-shaped V-fin is made of soft plastic so you might end up with a warped part here that might frustrate you a bit. I struggled a bit with the feet because the black heel sections are made from the soft rubbery plastic and so the entire contraption is unfortunately not very stable on its feet.
The Schwarzette has no traditional ranged weapon or shield but comes with this weird anime-looking sword called the Guardian. This is a gimmick weapon of sorts made up of the same type of GUND-BITs that can transfigure into various configurations but here it is just a really flat spatula. We'll talk more about this weapon when we hit the equipment pack.
183 : MSM-07 Z'Gok
The third and last suit brings a really classic Universal Century design to Ensemble, the all-star amphibious Z'Gok. At first I was very sceptical to Bandai's decision to use a lot of dark green components but I have to say it looks great. Z'Gok figures are traditional light blue and black but there are certainly many different variations on that theme out there. Another good thing is overall artistic design, the Z'Gok sculpts tend to be a bit hit-and-miss but here I find the proportions excellent. I do question the two peg holes on the sides of the chest armour however, but it is normal for Mobile Suit Ensemble to do these quirky choices in the interest of playability. The mono-eye sits on a little wiggly bit that attaches to the top section of the head and it will give you a bit of side-looking ability which is a neat touch but again the soft plastic connection didn't feel very secure.
Alright, so we have to discuss the Z'Goks' claws. See that warped and stretchy component up in the right corner? The suit comes with claw options for both arms which is great because these things are soft, squishy and thin pieces of warped plastic. If you want to try to straighten them out - be my guest, I salvaged the least bent open claws and stuck closed claws on the rest of the figures - this is a huge blunder in my opinion. Even the Converge and Assault Kingdom figures traditionally come with hard plastic claws on a sprue and this would certainly have been my preferred option here. It would also rectify the wrong choice of colour, Z'Gok claws should be white or at least grey, even the old SD figures could manage that.
Did you notice the light grey pins with a ball-joint on top? These replace the modern Ensemble shoulder assembly with something a bit more similar to the older figures but it works well enough in my opinion.
Now, here is something I have never encountered in Ensemble before; a mis-cast hand. Luckily it was on a figure that didn't need it but still, is this a worrying sign of things to come? Don't tell me Ensemble is next to embark on the train of questionable quality control. I have such mixed feelings of Gundam figure collection in 2024 - is it time to sell the license to Takara Tomy?
There appear to be many opinions about what a Z'Gok looks like. Here we can see some different interpretations from Gashapon Senshi Forte, Gundam Converge, Mobile Suit Ensemble and STANDart. The lack of white colour on the Ensemble figure makes it stand out like a pair of unpolished boots in a military parade.
184 : Equipment Set for Wave 27
The option gear pack comes with a little bit of this and that for everyone. As usual there are no generic parts such as generic beam sabers or expressive hands (although here we actually do get a couple of really neat and versatile beam sabers for the Freedom).
Rising Freedom Gundam
The Rising Freedom gets a pair of beam sabers with separate hilts cast in white plastic, this is such a neat touch and should be standard for all Ensemble figures. Why there isn't one of these in every equipment pack I don't know. The shield also gets a couple of wing-like extensions and translucent red beam effect parts just like we had for the Immortal Freedom. However, here the soft material of the shield gave me trouble again as the wings won't remain in their sockets unless I were to glue them in. I have a feeling this experience is going to continue with Ensemble Part 28 and it just makes me sigh already.
The reason we get these nice beam saber hilts for the sabers is so that we can replace them with this dual-wielding special. While it would still have been possible to insert two beam sabers into the same hand from two directions this special component is much preferred. The saber effect parts are clear out of the box and have been touched up with a felt-pen based on a tip I received from a reader comment a while ago. it looks great but the paint won't stay on so be careful touching it or leaving it in a position to rub off on the figure.
Even though it doesn't have as many sparkly features as its bigger MSE brother the Converge Rising Freedom can give the Ensemble figure a run for its money. Well, hold that thought - the Converge figure is actually currently trading at ¥1500 on the secondary market which is essentially about the same as the Ensemble figure with both of its expansions.
Gundam Schwarzette
The Schwarzette gear-option is taking a page out of the Rising Freedom experience and provides components that replace its Guardian sword-thing. You can either assemble the components centred around the main blade to create a larger and thicker version of the rectangular-shaped weapon that comes with the basic figure (I didn't want to fuss with it so it is not visible here) or you can spread them out like the Funnel wings on the Nu Gundam like above. I haven't studied the lore around the mobile suit as I have yet to watch the show but I assume this is some type of set-up to be able to launch the individual pieces as remote-controlled weapons. It looks pretty spectacular I might add, even though the real thing should feature a lot of sexy black and purple colour on top.
Z'Gok
The Z'Gok recycles the idea used on the Gyan in Ensemble Part 26 and gets to launch four of its 240mm missiles with this nifty but delicate assembly that just rests on top of its head. Rests as in it doesn't attach and so when I lifted the figure up after the photo-shoot it flew right off and the projectiles scattered across the room in all directions. I have still only managed to recover three of them.
Conclusion
Okay, I moaned quite a bit through this review and while assembly was easy for the most part there were some really frustrating design decisions that really lowered my overall impression. With the build-a-bot experience gradually fading from memory the figures remain and they all look great, I just wish I could buy statue-style figures painted to a high standard and that was that. As for finding them, my impression is that the availability of Part 27 has been quite good for the last couple of weeks. I saw a number of full sets selling for ¥2500 over at Mandarake but as usual that window is always kind of limited. Right now I am waiting for the Ensemble Mecha series to hit the online shelves, a set comprised solely of vehicles has the potential to be a real money-pit for yours truly.
