Gashapon HG Mobile Suit Selection 35

Today we will power through another of the legacy Gashapon HG figure sets, this one from December 2004, nearly 20 years ago on the dot. The set was coming out on the very late tail end of the Gashapon HG saga and is noteworthy in that it only contains mobile suits picked from the SEED Destiny show which was running at the time. The current episode would likely be somewhere around 10 which is also when the Saviour made its first appearance in the television series.


Being late era Gashapon figures the attention to detail here is pretty meticulous and you can get an idea of the figure complexity from the above parts breakdown. As usual, the figures can be picked apart even further, this is how they appeared when they came out of their original plastic bags for the first time.



ZGMF-X56S/α Force Impulse Gundam


I am not a huge fan of the derivative Force Impulse design in general but this figure is absolutely killing it. The attention to detail is excellent and the pose is superb. As usual with finned type mobile suits you can expect to have to deal with a bit of plastic warping here and there, some figures will be better off than others, it is all pretty random.


The figure has a couple of gimmicks to it. The first is that the Force Silhouette backpack is removable and in its place you get this small blue backpack that attaches in its place, effectively converting the figure to the basic Impulse Gundam form. We also get this all-white colour Force Silhouette Flyer which is screaming for some colour apps and a peg hole to make it compatible with the standard Gashapon HG action base. I guess they tried.


The Force Impulse had a really random re-appearance in the single set of figures known as "Ultimate Solid", released in November 2008. The new figure has a fairly advanced, weathered paintjob and also sports a new exclusive accessory, an enormous Excalibur sword (full review here).






ZGMF-X88S Gaia Gundam


Next up we have the trio of Z.A.F.T. experimental suits that just so happens to look very similar to the second generation Earth Alliance machines from SEED, all down to being piloted by a similar troika of deranged pilots. The first challenger is the black Gaia which is highly reminiscent of the original Raider Gundam but this time it transforms into a black panther instead of a bird of prey. This figure of course has no transformational features about it and there also isn't any mobile armor mode variant available in this Gashapon series. The closest match you can find is an old 2006 SEED Styling-S figure of its four-legged mode. I was going to post up a comparison photo of it here but I couldn't figure out where I kept it so it may come up later. :) All-in-all this figure looks really crisp but its features include several thing and long parts that may require straightening out.






ZGMF-X24S Chaos Gundam


The Chaos is next with its beautiful green, black and white colour profile. Its aesthetics are vaguely similar to the old Calamity Gundam but it now sports a new backpack with two remote weapon pods of the same type as seen on the Moebius Zero piloted by Mu La Flaga. I have never seen a figure that can transform into its weird looking mobile armor form - which is somewhat similar to the Aegis Gundam - you may have to grab an actual model kit to access that mode.






ZGMF-X31S Abyss Gundam


The Abyss finally is your big-shouldered submersible Destiny look-alike of the Forbidden Gundam, replacing the Forbidden's large angled shoulder pads with sleeker rounded Qubeley-like shoulder binders. The close-combat aspect of the Nidhoggr Scythe is similarly replaced by a large Beam Lance. Like its brethren the Abyss can transform into an Asshimar-like mobile armor but and again I am not aware of any figure that represents this mode.


The full Phantom Pain-piloted trio side by side. Seen here without their large plastic supports that clip to the back of the legs these figures don't always cooperate willingly but you should be able to display them without supports for the most part.






ZGMF-X23S Saviour Gundam


Finally we have the fifth of the Z.A.F.T Second Stage mobile suits, the Saviour in a somewhat leaning pose. The colour feels a bit too pink compared to the original but the colour apps are on point for the most part with just enough whites and blacks to break up the red. Crazy spread out poses like these mean these Gashapon figures can be a bit of a pain to store unless you want to disassemble them, at least partially.






ZGMF-1000 ZAKU Warrior (Lunamaria Custom)


The last two slots in this set are given to a couple of variants of the ZAKU Warrior, the Cosmic-era rip-off of the Zaku II. While this is overall a really cool design I'll never be able to come to terms with how they just lifted in the Zaku II, Dom and Gouf into Destiny. SEED Freedom continues this creative bankruptcy with variants of the Gelgoog, Gyan and Z'Gok. I mean what the hell..? Anyway, the figure has a couple of neat posing tricks available to it. The figure comes with two optional right arms, one with the elbow bent at a sharper angle. This makes more sense when we compare Luna's machine to the mass-production type below.






ZGMF-1000 ZAKU Warrior


The mass-production type figure is a simple colour swap of the red version but it also replaces the Beam Tomahawk-equipped right-hand with that of a Beam Assault Rifle-holding one. While you need to get both figures to access both weapons this opens up some interesting posing variations. Notice by the way the two peg holes on the flipside of the shoulder shield. These are intended for storing spare ammunition-drums for the machine gun, although no such accessories are included. I don't know why these are not present, maybe a late change to cut on production costs?


Here we can see a trio of ZAKU Warriors utilizing the different weapon options and also right-arm variations. One of the more interesting design choices in this Gashapon-line I think and I wish more figures had synergies like these.






Conclusion

Overall, this set is an auto-include for any Cosmic Era collectors but most Universal Century-aficionados will probably just want to focus their resources somewhere else. Gashapon HG figures are not that easy to come by these days but from a price point of view this set shouldn't set you back that much. Last time I bought a set was in 2021 and it cost only ¥800 so maybe around ¥1500 or so today (provided you can find it of course).

Banpresto Glitter & Glamours Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom - Lunamaria Hawke

The Bandai Glitter x Glamours line features various female characters from all sorts of anime themes and we have seen them here on the blog a couple of times before; I believe this latest offering is the third Mobile Suit Gundam-themed appearance. The figure was released as a prize item sometime in the spring of 2024 but you should be able to easily find it on the secondary market, expect prices somewhere in the ¥1200-1500 range.


The flowery theme on the box is consistent with the previous Gundam-figures in GxG and is one of the highlights of the product in my opinion. I really the colourful layout and you'd better because as you can see a lot of space and money is wasted on selling you a near empty cardboard box. In this day and time you'd think manufacturers would be more interested in cost-saving measures when it comes to shipping Chinese factory air around.


It is not like the voluminous box needs it space to secure the figure in a blister-sandwich either, we have a multi-compartment plastic bag stuck inside some cardboard padding and it does the job just as well. This figure comes preassembled, you just need to press the back end of the left foot into the provided support piece and you are done.


Well, there is not a whole lot to say about this figure, I think the images speak for themselves. The sculpting is excellent, the paint-applications are on point and there are no unsightly bends or deformations present. The support piece is bordering on being too small, you will need a very flat and sturdy surface to display this figure. I would advice against putting it high up on an unprotected shelf as the slightest vibration could potentially cause it to topple over. Having said that I am really pleased to see it in place of the typical large diameter circle base which keeps figures well apart from each other, with figures like this you will be able to group multiples together to form interesting scenes. I do wish the support piece was made in a different colour though, preferably clear.


Whenever I encounter figures such as this I always wonder why Gundam Converge or Ensemble cannot be more consistent in their paint applications or avoiding bent components. Personally I would much prefer un-poseable statue-like mobile suit figures to articulated but low-grade painted or sloppily applied details that we tend to see these days. Let model kits be model kits and figures be figures.


The Lunamaria Hawke figure is a companion release to this previous SEED Freedom version Lacus Clyne. As you can see both the boxes and the figures display very nicely together, I would love to see more figures like these but in flight suits. I had some reservations about the first Gundam-themed GxG figure (Gigi Andalucia from Hathaway's Flash) but these two are solid options for a display that won't eat too deeply into your wallet. For those with endlessly deep pockets you may want to check out Swimsuit Lunamaria from the MegaHouse GGG-line released last year.

Gundam Converge Movie Visual Selection

Aaahh.. Summer, that special season of pushing out beach-themed alt art cards or naughty bikini-skins for your Gacha-game characters - complete with social media controversy and drama. For its part, Converge treads a different path; the path of rehashing. Maybe some of the development team is on holiday and you just want a reasonably simple launch without too much hassle. That green UC Selection was pretty cool for example, should we do something like that again? Or how about a trip to Jaburo? Oh wait... we did that last year? Well, don't sweat it, I have an idea...


I imagine it went something like this:

"How about we make a set of figures with slightly different colours?"
-You mean Real Types? Didn't we just do that recently?
"No, no, no, this is completely different... this is the perfect movie tie-in!
-You are talking about Operation Jaburo again, aren't you? We did that last year...
"My man, check this out... I lowered the brightness a bit and slightly altered the hue...
-You've just painted the Gundam blue.
"I give you the MOVIE POSTER VISUAL SELECTION!"
-This is it? I don't know man...
"We should be able to crank these suckers out in three weeks!
-Hmm... Whatever, you've sold me. Let's get to work.

Is this the most uninspired set of Converge figures to ever be released? What's for next year; the Converge Backlight Selection featuring black silhouettes of famous scenes of Gundams standing in front explosions?


Whatever you might think of it, the Visual Selection set blasted its way onto the retail shelves in September 2024. The set sports seven different figures that come in standard size boxes so you don't have to buy the whole thing if there is just one or two figures that interest you. I imagine there must be lots of leftover Goggs clogging the shelves in Japan.


All the figures in this set are Converge #Sharp veterans returning with a slight twist to their colour palette. There may be some minor alterations in packaging or sculpts that I am not immediately aware of but for all intents and purposes we are simply recycling figures here. I do think the selection is quite interesting, there is a good number of mass-production suits here but I find it a bit odd that both the Zaku II and Z'Gok are red. I think a green Zaku II would have lightened up the palette a bit. We really could have used a GM too.



RX-78-2 Gundam (Movie I ver.)


The set is lead by a Real Type Colour Gundam with a slight modification to its colour scheme. The palette is toned down even for a real type and the white sections are slightly yellow instead.


The figure has the usual loadout of a beam rifle or bazooka to choose from. Only the right hand is able to hold on to a weapon. To equip the bazooka you first remove the handlebar, insert it into the hand from below and then reattach the rest of the weapon.


The bazooka when not equipped attaches to a slot on the back skirt. You also have a peg hole in the centre of the backpack which allows you to store the shield there when not in use.


There is a surprising amount of Real Type Gundams in Converge by now. The front row shows the two first generation figures, the first one from the original 2012 Operation Jaburo box set, and then the Art of Gundam exhibit special olive-colour version from 2014. The latter figure also has a couple of extra markings, a portent of things to come in the CORE line. The back row shows the #Sharp-era Real Types; the leftmost figure is kind of an update on the Art of Gundam theme and hails from the CORE Real Type 5-pack from late 2019, the middle figure is the updated Operation Jaburo figure with camouflage base from 2023 and on the right we have the new figure.






MS-06S Zaku II (Char's Custom) (Movie I ver.)


Next up is Char's Zaku II in a darkened brownish red shade. The figure is based on the Converge #09 resculpt of the Zaku II from 2018 which is slightly smaller than your average Converge figure which is a tad bit annoying.


This figure also has two weapon options; you get to choose between a Zaku Machine Gun or a Zaku Bazooka. There are some later #Sharp Zaku II figures with additional weapon options but at least we don't get the tiny bazooka that cropped up later with High Mobility units and the Shin Matsunaga box set.


In the old days, Char's Zaku II was a really hard to find figure but there are quite a lot of options by now. The top row shows Commander Types from the #Sharp-era and the bottom row various variants of the original sculpt which is slightly taller and in my opinion more menacing looking.






MS-09 Dom (Movie II ver.)


The Dom is up next and rather than being a darker version of itself this one is leaning into the red theme of this set and borders on pink. Even the handle of the heat sword is painted in this pinkish colour.


We have no weapon options for the Dom and the right hand is attached directly to the giant bazooka, but at least the colour separation is good. There were later versions of the Dom that could also equip the Heat Sword but here you are limited to sticking it on the back or not. The peg is shaped and attaches to the figure at a predetermined fixed angle.


We have eight versions of the MS-09 Dom in Converge by now, not counting Rick Dom variants which would increase the number further. Pinky here from the Visual Selection is posing together with the three multi-weapon Black Tri-Star customs from CORE 026, jealously noticing their improved design. The front row has the original sculpt from Converge Volume 5 (November 2011) and its brighter Operation Jaburo variant from 2012, followed by the first #Sharp-era MS-09 (Volume #13, released December 2018) and the re-colour from the 2019 CORE Real Type box set.






MSM-07S Z'Gok (Char's Custom) (Movie II ver.)


The Jaburo feeling is very strong with this set, and the Z'Gok is perhaps the biggest instigator. Figure-wise this is the least novel of the Visual Selection re-colourings, it is very similar to the previous released. The easiest way to tell it apart from the other Z'Gok figures is that the chest-mounted cockpit hatch is not painted white.


The #Sharp Z'Gok has a funky transparent window-section in front of its mono-eye which takes some getting used to but at least it did away with the individual claws that you had to cut from a sprue and attach to the arms one by one, claws that will fall out very soon and disappear in a rug unless you glue them in place.


Real quick, can you spot the Visual Selection figure here? The difference between the three top-row figures really isn't very pronounced at all. Here we have the Visual Selection figure on the left, followed by the 2023 Jaburo-colour version with camouflage base in the middle and on the right the standard retail figure from Converge #15 (released in May 2019). The front row shows the original sculpt as seen in the Converge Volume 3 (June 2011) and in Operation Jaburo box set-colours from December 2012.






MSM-03 Gogg (Movie II ver.)


I was really surprised to see the Gogg making an appearance in a set like this but hey, it is clearly visible on the Soldier of Sorrow poster up there, in glorious brown colour. I kind of like this colour swap but I was less happy with the imperfect joints for the arms that do not necessarily want to attach to the shoulders or rotate as freely as they should.


We have no gear options for the Gogg of course but the arms feature articulation both at the shoulder and arm, giving you an unusual amount of posing options. As always, be careful when handling stiff joints or you risk twisting the pegs rather than forcing them out.


It is not hard to tell which figure is the new one in this lot. Here it poses with two yellow-brown cousins from the original and #Sharp-era Converge retail series, released in Converge Volume 7 (May 2012) and Converge #16 (August 2019) respectively.






MS-07B Gouf (Movie II ver.)


The #Converge #Sharp-version of the Gouf is a real treat, offering several weapon options and a great menacing sculpt. The Movie Poster version is simply a darker blue version of the original figure with yellow highlights turned orange.


Look at that range of accessories! You can choose between the heat rod or the heat sword for the right hand, and the left hand can be replaced with the five-finger machine gun-variant. Be careful not to lose the antenna, I'd consider gluing it in place.


At the back we have the original retail Gouf from Converge #12 (October 2018), the awesome green and yellow Real Type-version from the CORE Real Type-II box set (February 2023) and the new Visual Selection figure. The front row shows the old school Gouf all the way back from Converge Volume 2 with figure number 12 (released January 2011) and its darker Operation Jaburo variant from the 2012 box-set.






RX-78-2 Gundam (Movie II Poster Colour ver.)


In the last slot we have the most controversial figure of the lot. Someone in the Bandai development department had a wild idea and then they just decided to run with it. "Hey guys, did you ever notice that the Gundam is kind of blue there in the background on that movie poster? Why don't we make a blue metallic single colour figure and theme a set around it?". I have a feeling opinions on this thing might be pretty varied but hey, at least it is a really unique thing. For the moment... :)


The components and features of this figure are exactly the same as the real type-colour variant figure that opened up this set, so you can always mix and match components to come up with some design of your own. Overall, this sculpt is the first #Sharp-era version of the RX-78 an while it has some wonky proportions it is a really solid design with some neat equipment customization choices. Much better than the dual-wielding RX-78 that followed in Converge #22, a figure that looks fantastic but that can rarely stand up even when pegged to its base.


Rather than digging out every variant of the RX-78 I decided to showcase blue here together with two other themes for the #Sharp-era RX-78. Basically you can opt for classic white (exemplified here by the first retail design from Converge #08, released in October 2017) and the real Type-colour version from 2019 we saw before. We still don't have a G-3 colour version of this figure and I wouldn't mind if Bandai decided to produce one.






Conclusion

So what is the verdict of the oddball Movie Visual Selection set? Well, the premise is kind of ludicrous, you probably have most of these figures in your collection already and so you can safely give it a pass. On the other hand this is a good opportunity for more recent collectors to find versions of some really classic Mobile Suit Gundam suits and I always enjoy hitting the basic retail line and not having to pay through the nose for Premium Bandai-offerings.