Gashapon HG MS DX Volume 1

The basic Gashapon HG Mobile Suit Selection series is a non-scale Gashapon range which spanned 40-odd sets between 1995 and 2006. The series was augmented by a number of accompanying ranges of figures featuring larger mobile suits, mobile armors, and even a few spaceships. Among those, the Deluxe Series is a range of four sets released between June 2005 and March 2006, the first of which we will look closer at today.


Like the other sets in the deluxe series this is a blind-boxed product. While I don't have a sample of the store display box I would assume it is the same size as other volumes I have seen, holding a total of 8 individual boxes. No idea also about the figure distribution. It could be like some Ensemble and Converge sets where one figure (the Windam in this scenario) might appear as A or B versions becoming rarer than the other figures but to my knowledge this was never a thing in the Gashapon HG range. It seems more likely that an even number of figures would be spread out over two or three store display sets.


Each figure is contained within a larger plastic bag which will in turn contain one or more smaller bags for individual limbs and parts, presumably to keep paint from being scratched off.


As usual, the figures can be disassembled even further, this is just how this particular lot looked when it came out of the bags. You will notice in this set a fair amount of discoloration or rather, an oily residue as a bonus top coating creating a milky tone. This generally means that the figures have been stored in a hot and humid environment but some figures are more susceptible to this than others. This set has it in spades. I can see traces of this chemical separation in all of the DX1 figures from this set that I have collected over the years. I cleaned up some sections of the figures but left others as-is to give you an idea of what to expect. The residue can be removed by gently rubbing it off with your finger or a Q-tip but I don't know if it will come back in the future.



NRX-044 Asshimar


There is something menacing and alluring about the mono-eye designs. When I first encountered Gundam Converge in the wild in 2013 I was drawn to the Dom and the Asshimar channels that same energy in spades. Look at this thing, absolutely brutal! Unlike Converge and SD Gundam Full Color series which just show it off as yet another figure the Gashapon HG version is intimidatingly large. I can't wait for it to make an appearance in Converge +Plus format. This Gashapon figure sports semi-articulated limbs with some extra joints thrown in at the hip which allows the leg to swivel sideways. This makes it a bit unstable if you try to pose it off without the stand but other than that this is true perfection. You can see the oily residue clearly against the green sections but also at the other components; even the action base which is made from a different hard plastic material has this issue.


The Asshimar ships with an adoring little mobile armor-mode figure which even has a special adapter that allows it to sit on the action base. Only one base is supplied with the figure though, but these bases are standardized so you would have to cannibalize another figure to have them both sit like this at the same time.






ZGMF-X42S Destiny Gundam


The Destiny Gundam is an example of a figure which may not necessarily be large enough to warrant inclusion in this deluxe line but the larger box gave the designers the ability to have it spread its wings and extend both the beam sword and beam cannon to full lengths which would have been a bit of a nightmare to pack into a Gashapon capsule. Adding an action base to send it up into the air also allows it this cool pose with dangling legs.


One of the signature gimmicks of the Gashapon HG Deluxe line is that the figures were released in tandem with basic capsule figures and then feature one or two cross-overs such as parts-swapping. In the case of DX Volume 1 it pairs together with Gashapon HG Volume 37 which released around the same time. That set features a basic version of the Destiny armed with a beam rifle. Apart from another fancy version of the Destiny released later in DX Volume 4 these are the only two representations of the suit in the Gashapon HG line. If you have both on hand you can let them exchange gear with each other. At the moment, I can't for the life of me figure out where I have placed the other figure so I put the booklet of Volume 37 here as a placeholder to give you an idea of the parts-swapping process going on there at the bottom of the list.






MSZ-010 ZZ Gundam


Next up we have another large mobile suit that gets some extra wiggle room that allows it to grow in size and complexity. The figure feels pretty basic and a bit tame compared to the other ones seen in this set but it sports a very attractive colour palette and a weighty ankle support piece (clear from the beginning but yellowed over time) that helps it keep both the pose and its balance. A bit meh in my eyes but definitely a looker that will display well with your other Zeta and ZZ-era figures.


The ZZ Gundam was first released as a basic capsule figure in volume 20 four years earlier in September 2001. While the original figure is not bad looking at all and also quite tall you can see how the new figure has been developed further with improved sculpt and a comparatively luxurious paint-job.






GAT-04/E-M11 Doppelhorn Windam (Neo Roanoke Custom)


The set is rounded off with two versions of the GAT-04 Windam which like the Leo was treated very poorly as mere cannon fodder in SEED Destiny. This could easily been a basic capsule release but Bandai decided to ship it with two distinct equipment packs. Being an Earth Alliance design it features various striker packs similar to both the Impulse and the Strike Gundams. Ace pilot Neo Roanoke here gets the Doppelhorn variant which is a backpack with two recoilless cannons intended to fire against slow-moving targets. The long barrels are of course made of soft plastic and may or may not be a bit of a nightmare to handle. Each cannon also sits on a swivelling joint which allows you to change its angle pretty much up to fully vertical.

Notice the different appearance of the clear support pieces. The figure on the left comes straight out of almost 20 year old packaging while the figure on the right comes from the secondary market and it has probably been on display for quite some time. You can get away with not using these supports but some poses will be hard to achieve without having the figure toppling over at the smallest breeze.






GAT-04+AQM/E-A4E1 Jet Windam


Finally, we have the mass-production type Windam equipped with an atmospheric flight pack. Look at this beauty, truly perfection! I wish I could army build the hell out of this but on average I have managed to find one only figure every 2 years... The basic figure is the same as Roanoke's Windam but the backpack is different. I think Bandai missed a trick here - both figures have the same type of black hands and it would have been cool if one of them was armed with a beam saber instead. But hey, at least you can never go wrong with a beam rifle.


We recently saw the Windam in Mobile Suit Ensemble and it was a pretty good figure except for the bendy plastic material but it lacks that bit of extra colour evident on this old Gashapon design. Both figures came with the Jet Windam option but the Doppelhorn cannons are only available for the Gashapon HG figure, while the Ensemble figure is the only one to carry the Multi Striker dual nuclear launcher.


The Windam figure is designed with backpack switching in mind. The top image shows the two Windams from this set exchanging gear with each other while the lower photo shows the intended compatibility with the GAT-02L2 Dagger L figure from Gashapon HG Volume 37. Good stuff, I just wish I had more of them on hand!






Conclusion

I know that the bendy old Gashapon figures are a bit of an acquired taste but I love them to bits and this particular set is one of the absolute highlights. Like all the other deluxe sets they can be really hard to find, but the price (in Japan) is usually not something to worry about. Last time I picked a set up (which also triggered this review) was in August 2024 and I paid only ¥1500 for all five.

That new Card Game...

If Mobile Suit Gundam and card games are both anywhere on your radar you likely already heard about Bandai uploading an online presentation of their new collectible card game project the other day, complete with celebrity studio guests and a couple of slick presentations. What is interesting about this project is that they are eyeing wider global distribution into North America and Europe and not just into the domestic market (or as is sometimes the case limited release in the neighbouring countries). You can find the full 40-minute presentation through the game's official website but I thought I'd just give a very quick introduction to the project here via selected screen grabs.


The infomercial was hosted by a speaker, the game's producer Mr. Hashimoto and two celebrity guests who were gushing and fawning over the game - typically with awkwardly scripted questions followed by I-am-glad-you-asked-that-question-I-just-happen-to-have-a-little-video-that-will-explain-it-in-detail type of responses. Overall though it was informative and not as jarring as say an Amazon Lord of the Rings-superfan panel. :)


We have to discuss the name of the game though... is this really the final name they are going with? It doesn't help that the logo looks like a facelift of Windows 95. I really hope the final product will have a bit more draw to it because now it looks like a smartphone accessory.


There have been many Gundam-themed cardgames over the past 25 or so years if you include arcade game hybrids and similar. However, when you shorten the list to traditional card games there is really only Gundam War that springs to mind; sometimes referred to Bandai's Gundam-themed Magic-clone. The game had a decade-long shelf-life with around 30 regular sets and lots more special releases. The game was overhauled, redesigned and pushed out again as Gundam War NEX-A but it only survived for half that time and the cards are damned hard to find these days. After that we had the hybrid game Cross War which features much smaller cards and it could also be played online. Cross War halved the lifetime again and since 2017 there are only some guest appearances in the Battle Spirits cardgame which features all kinds of IPs in a huge blender. If you are familiar with these older games you will recognize a lot of the concepts seen in the new.... what was that name again... "Gundam Card Game" title.


According to the presentation we have four basic card types as seen above. This feels very recognizable to the earlier Gundam card games although here support units have been broken out into a separate card type called Bases instead. The Command and Operation types from Gundam War and NEX-A have been streamlined into a Command category which spontaneously seems like an improvement. The presentation actually also showed a fifth category of cards called resources, similar to Energy, Generation or NEX-A Graphics cards. The resources in the demo only had that bland logo on them and were devoid of art, so I guess they might only be found inside dedicated starter sets.


Deck construction involves putting together your own selection of 50 cards (better make it a meta-build if you want to win I assume) bringing in choices from up to two factions or rather colours. I didn't catch them talk about what constitutes a colour or how many there will be, from the card examples we can see the E.F.F in blue, Zeon gets green and Neo Zeon goes red, just like in the games that preceded this one. Heero and Quatre join the green team with their Gundams but Lacus and the Strike Gundam form the colour white together with Witch of Mercury. In older games we have seen the Titans and Zanscare Empire in black, franchises such as X, G and Turn-X lumped into orange while MSG00 units tends to get tossed in all over the place or sometimes as colour agnostic cards. It remains to be seen if more colours will be introduced as the game continues to expand.


Talking about the factions a bit more, the game will premiere with representatives from the five eras you see above. Personally I do have some issues with the mixing together of all Gundam franchises into a giant soup but yet they still insist on sorting the various factions into eclectic colour groupings. I guess in the end it doesn't really matter how you slice it; gamers will quickly discover the meta- or overpowered cards and make the same couple of deck variations anyway.


The main card categories to collect will of course be units and their pilots. You can field mobile suits with or without a pilot, pairing the two to combine their attack and hit points into combined values. Some unit cards are designed with a particular pilot in mind and have a name reference to that character. Pairing a combo likes this is called forming a link and it will trigger additional bonus effects.


The Command cards are used as special event cards and can sometimes be played outside of your turn. Some Command cards also double as pilot cards that can be linked to a mobile suit, you can see Quatre and the Sandrock there. I have a bad feeling that this means that certain lesser characters will be reduced to command cards and not have their own pilot cards which I would find very lame from a collecting point of view. Let's hope I am wrong. :)


The Base Card category will consist of units such as fixed installations or a space battleship. You will select one card for your deck and it will act as a meat shield for the attacker to defeat, while at the same time offering support advantages to the defender.


To deploy your units and other cards you have a set of resource cards available to you. These are tapped or rested to pay for your costed cards. Some cards will also have a level requirement which acts as a secondary restriction. In the example above you need to pay two resources to field the RX-78 but you also need to have a total of four resources available to field that card.


If you are experienced with other card games you will probably gain a lot of insight into the game from viewing the set-up alone. Your aim is to defeat the opposing player by removing their base and protective shield cards which will leave them open to a fatal blow.


One of the more novel aspects of the game is that it will ship with rules for 2v2 or Battle Royal match-ups, letting 3-4 players join in at once. Got to love that set-up with all the food, drinks and strategically placed ketchup and mustard bottles on the table, hopefully homeboy there sleeves his cards and laminates his play area...


If you are a card collector, the game's main selling point is that it will offer new original artwork for all cards, at least that is what they stated in the presentation. And to help you part with even more of your money the game will of course feature several tiers of rarities, alternate artwork or secret card variants to obsess over. It remains to be seen if Bandai will actually be able to keep stores stocked when the initial hype-train rolls in at release. Let's just say I will be very surprised if the English release will be at all available those first couple of months.


To increase that logistical nightmare the game will be offered in three different language versions; Japanese for the domestic market, simplified Chinese for the middle kingdom and English for everyone else.


Talking about the release schedule, Bandai expects the first set to hit the shelves in February 2025. They didn't mention anything about a staggered release so I assume this is a more or less simultaneous global launch. I also didn't hear any mentioning about how many sets can be expected in a single year, probably 2-3 would be my guess. Accompanied by an endless stream of promo-cards of course.... that goes without saying.


To wet people's appetite (and to give influencers some help to work that hype) a "beta" release opened for pre-order on October third, with expected delivery in December. As you can see the suggested sales price is pretty steep but to be fair there is contains a good number of cards including a fixed set to make it playable out of the box. Wouldn't be much of a beta without that ability now would it? The beta will be sold to U.S. customers via P-Bandai USA and showcased on the two events you can see above, one in the Netherlands and one in Florida.

What are your initial impressions about the game? While I think it is cool that Bandai is willing to launch a game for the global audience I kind of foresee all kinds of product-availability issues and pricing concerns. The new artwork alone means I am interested in collecting at least some of the cheaper cards. If the current Arsenal Base game is any indication the alt-art cards will likely be prohibitively expensive on the secondary market. The collectible aspect of the game will of course put off many and Bandai doesn't exactly have the best track record for keeping their games (or toy-lines for that matter...) alive, so the game certainly has a challenging future ahead of it.