Bandai Namco Gasha Portraits Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX Machu & Nyaan Set

I think it is fair to say that the Gasha Portraits figure line is the closest thing we have today to the various Mobile Suit Gundam-themed Gashapon figure series from the early 2000s. However, Bandai Namco doesn't do "simple" retail Gacha figures anymore and this is exclusively a Premium Bandai product like the other Gundam-sets released through the brand. I have noticed that the prices of Gundam-character figurines have gone up a bit on the secondary market in the last couple of years but overall they are still fairly good value.


Today we are examining the latest Gundam-themed Gasha Portraits set which - of course - focuses on GQuuuuuuX, much like the focus was exclusively on SEED Freedom earlier. It gets a little tiresome that all brands are featuring the same figures in parallel but that is often what the market is like today. The Gasha Portraits brand has been subtly changed to "GQuuuuuuX Portraits" on the box. Actually, I'm not sure what the status of the retail Gasha Portraits figure line is these days - for some reason I only seem to come across these figures when these premium products drop... The GQuuuuuuX Machu and Nyaan set opened for pre-order earlier in the year and was delivered to customers in October 2025.


There are multiple different product identification numbers on these boxes. Beside the barcode I can spot two additional identification numbers and I'm curious why this is.


If you are familiar with the Pokemon Scale World figure series this packaging will feel very familiar (ironic perhaps since the GQuuuuuuX character designs really look like modern Pokemon trainers...). The figures are safely sandwiched between two layers of plastic and wrapped in a plastic bag to prevent paint scratching. The box is quite airy which will give additional protection but as a result the boxes themselves are sometimes a bit compressed as can be seen on this second-hand item. I picked it up from Mandrake for ¥5000 and they are currently selling for around ¥6000 there.


Here we have the duo in what I believe their smallest figure form as of yet (not counting chibi plushies or similar) atop a school bench. The first impression is very good. The material is mainly hard and not prone to bending (even though there is some softer PVC mixes in places) and of course is devoid of any articulation. Think of each figure as a statue.


If we zoom in a little closer you can see the careful attention to detail, the beautiful comic book-style rounded shapes and the overall impressive paint applications. I think these look insanely good.


Here is a closer look at the eyes. The shape of the eyes and the colour choices are indeed cartoony but I have no complaints here. Something I am not a fan of however is the weird colour choices for the hair, I don't think these green and violet highlights look good at all. I hade the same issue with several of the character designs from The Witch of Mercury, it appears to be a current design thing to throw in odd colours in the hair of Gundam characters recently and I'm not a fan. The choice of giving Machu a cellphone (which looks very 2020s era) is of course also a questionable idea when you are designing your alternate future universe but we can't fault the manufacturer for this, but rather the style of the show in general.


This cliché school bench is the only accessory included in the pack and you have to wonder if school furniture is doomed to remain in the late 20th century style forever. Jokes aside it is a nice prop that you can easily adopt into custom dioramas if you have other figures roughly the same size. I think it would have been fun if the designers included maybe a chair as well, especially if could have supported one seated figure as well.


These figures do not have any bases or connecting pegs and rely solely on gravity to stay where they are when placed on the desk. This opens up many possibilities for you to pose the figures however you see fit. The figures are completely flat underneath and so you can place them on any flat surface you fancy, if you are feeling particularly brave you can let Nyaan sit on the edge of your shelf and dangle her legs in the air for example.

Overall this is a really neat set and easily one of the better entries for Gundam-themed figures in the Gasha Portraits line (follow the Gasha Portraits tag in this review to see reviews of the previous sets). On the other hand, the high price and the rather specific artistic style of GQuuuuuuX characters in general can serve as drawbacks that will limit the appeal for some. If you are interested however I think now is a good time to get it since a fairly good number of sets are currently out on the secondary market but over time these might become harder to find.

Mobile Suit Ensemble - Gundam x Miku Anniversary Special Project

Right, so what do we have here then? A special collaboration between Mobile Suit Gundam and the virtual artist known as Hatsune Miku doing a collaboration to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Mobile Suit Gundam? Yeah, sure - you guys celebrate away. I'm not going to take this set too seriously and personally I am really starting to get sick of "collabs" which is just a lazy way to water down your own brand hoping for synergy effects. I'm not too sure Lacus Clyne is all that pleased either - imagine if Miku booted out Lynn Minmay and strapped herself into a Valkyrie for example.

So what else can we learn from the booklet? Well we can read that this is a premium Gashapon product - fancy that! Still, at the time of writing you can still find these for the normal retail Ensemble prices over at e.g. Mandarake, hovering between ¥600-¥800. The set originally shipped this summer with the official release period as August and they are currently fairly easily available on the secondary market, at least for a short window of time.


There have been three distinct types of packaging for the regular Mobile Suit Ensemble figures; blind-box, Gashapon capsule or in barcoded plastic bag from the Bandai online service as seen here. I know that the Miku set does exist in boxed form (and I would really like to pick one or two up just for the box itself...) and the official webpage also suggests that they were also kicking about in the traditional gacha machines.


Here is a closer look at the full booklet with front and back sides. Notice that over time, the assembly instructions have been removed and you now need to go online to find them which is a bit of a stupid move as no one cares about all your disclaimer text. If you are new to Ensemble be sure to study the instructions as even though these are some of the easiest figures to build it is important that you put the joints in correctly for the figures to work as intended.


I have to say I am really liking this artwork (by "KEI") which appears to have been around elsewhere because I saw it on a software box cover while researching for this review. With that headset and enormous tie she could easily pass for a dispatcher in one of the various Gundam-themed computer games. Anyway, onto the figures then!



201 : RX-78-2 Gundam (Hatsune Miku Color ver.)


This set recycles two of the oldest figures of the Ensemble line-up, in fact the very first two to appear under the brand name in the "Part 00" introductory set. While the basic frame of Ensemble figures has since been revised these figures make do with the simpler shoulder joints which is fine by me, you really don't get a lot of mobility out of these tiny figures anyway. You have most likely already encountered both the RX-78 and the Zaku in your Ensemble career already, and you probably like them for what they are just as much as I do. These are simple and painless builds and look quite good for what they are.


There is nothing too out of the ordinary in the components section. This figure has the same components as the other basic RX-78-2 Gundams you have seen in Ensemble before with th addition of a pair of expressive open hands, these were normally found in the Ensemble equipment pack boxes only. The shape of the runners that the various joint components sit on is of the second generation; the first instances of the RX-78 came on circular sprues but the components themselves are otherwise identical.


As for the "premium" Hatsune Miku colour scheme we have a couple of nice markings on the shoulders as well as on top of the shield. The "01" designation which I initially took as a gimmick (similar to those found on "marking plus version" Converge figures) actually refers back to Miku's own designation CV01 so that is a neat touch I guess. I should point out that I have added some black markings here and there on the figures as well, use the parts image to see the state of the components in their original finish. One thing I think this figure would have benefitted from would have been a different colour for the beam rifle - black or dark grey - to make it stand out more.






202 : MS-06F Zaku II (Hatsune Miku Color ver.)


The Zaku II figure is a real Ensemble classic - I don't know how many variants of this figure I have assembled and they always come out looking great. The new Miku colour scheme is quite good looking too, I especially like the green monoeye although a pink metallic one would have been a cool optional component to add a bit more flair to it. I have the same problem with the Zaku Machine Gun as with the beam rifle for the Gundam, it should have been in a different colour.


This is a very orthodox build of the Ensemble Zaku II figure with one novelty, just like with the Gundam figure an optional hand set has been thrown in but this time they are closed fists. This seems a strange choice for a Miku-style figure, open hands would have worked much better allowing it to wave to the crowd. You really shouldn't equip these two figures with weapons at all in my opinion (although it is hard to resist when they are included...).


The special Miku markings are less pronounced on the Zaku II, the "01" designator sits on the side of the spiked shoulder where it can barely be seen when viewed from the front, and the same goes for the custom Gundam x Miku logo which hides away on the opposite shoulder shield.


Not a bad looking duo at all. I don't mind building gimmicky variants of the Ensemble Gundam and Zaku II as it is a bit of tradition for the series but the latter half of this set is not as interesting unfortunately.






203 : RX-78-2 Gundam (Clear Color ver.) + Equipment


So - we have done two figures in a Miku colour scheme, now what? Do we do the Z Gundam next? A GM perhaps? No, let's just do the same two figures again but entirely in translucent green plastic - the kids will love pulling those from the Gashapon machines! I mean, what can you say... they didn't even paint eyes on them. Even the old SD Gundam Full Color Custom figures molded in clear plastic had shiny eyes painted on them to give them some kind of character. Here... nothing. I considered trying to paint at least a pair of eyes on this thing but then remembered that I don't really care, this figure will probably go straight into storage and just sit there.


I guess the one interesting thing you can say about the clear plastic figures is that there is an interesting effect where the translucent body pieces contrast with the opaque joints making it almost look like a proper skeleton. Still, with a head that lacks any kind of soul the figure still suffers on a whole. This figure does come with some optional weapons clearly intended for the full colour figure above, a two-colour hyper bazooka and a beam saber. If you paint up that beam saber hilt in a different colour you can still get a useful weapon accessory to repurpose here, unfortunately there aren't a whole lot of mobile suits with greenish saber colours out there.






204 : MS-06F Zaku II (Clear Color ver.) + Equipment


The clear colour Zaku II is of course the same type of abomination as the transparent Gundam. On this one I felt confident to paint on a monoeye but it still looks terrible. Perhaps if the entire ring it sits on is also painted black it would look better. Otherwise this figure has the same problems and features and the RX-78, a neat effect where the two types of plastic meet but ultimately a completely soulless thing.


Well I can't fault this figure from coming empty-handed, it is armed to the teeth. While neither of the transparent figures come with the expressive hands (why not?) they do feature additional weaponry and the Zaku II carries beyond its Machine Gun also a Heat Hawk, a Zaku Bazooka and two Sturm Faust missile launchers. There aren't really any good places to mount these on to the Zaku II (the Geara Doga figure with its excellent backpack comes to mind) but I think it looks ok to put one on the back, two becomes too crowded. The official artwork has the figure carry one horizontally on its skirt armour.



This scene is too small for two divas! Or... did Bandai Namco miss out on the chance to do something like Miku x Lacus? That is definitely my personal opinion, this could have been an interesting opportunity to do something with the Live ZAKU Warrior variant. I also remember when Ensemble Part 14 included a little statue of Flit Asuno as an accessory to the AGE-1 Gundam. Why not do a little chibi-style Miku figure to pose next to the mobile suits? Overall I found this release to be a bit low effort.





Conclusion

I guess the Gundam x Miku set is a nice little diversion for when you sit there waiting for the next retail Ensemble set to drop. Actually, Part 29 just hit the shelves a couple of weeks ago but I haven't been making any inroads into successfully acquiring it. I still struggle to find the full set of Requiem for Vengeance figures that came out in July and I have never even seen the Fukuoka special set (with the quirky RX-93ff Nu Gundam and MSN-04FF Sazabi) or the vehicle-themed Mecha set from last summer available for sale on the secondary market. On the flip side, Bandai Namco has been reselling some of the older figures over the past couple of years and I think collectors that came in late would do well to focus their energy there for the time being.

Gundam Card Game - Clan Unity Start Deck (ST06) [Japan]

Clan Unity is the sixth Gundam Card Game starter deck and just like intimated in the recent Iron Bloom review, it has not been readily available in my local market for a while now. The product was released on October 24th and (as also mentioned in the Iron Bloom review) is supposedly reprinted by Bandai Namco and to be made available again in early December. Today's review however will inspect the Japanese language edition since I picked up the ST05 and ST06 decks on a recent trip to Bangkok where the decks are also in short supply. I paid 700 THB for each which is a bit over twenty U.S. Dollars. Going forward Bandai Namco has promised to up the production runs and it remains to be seen if the availability of the game will stabilize somewhat in 2026 but I'm not betting on it.


Clan Unity is all about the most recent alternate universe era of the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise, GQuuuuuuX and its flirting with Neon Genesis Evangelion (and Pokemon for the character designs). I still haven't taken a deep dive into the series and remain somewhat sceptical to the rehashing of old content in general, but at least have gathered as much knowledge as to learn the origin of the "clan" concept. It refers to organized battles between mobile suits kind of like street fighters. One of the most confusing things about this set is how the characters and units have been split into red and green decks where I would have assumed they would go together.


ST06 is the first starter deck to recycle a colour combination - we've seen a red/green-starter before in the Zeon/Neon Starter ST03 (aptly titled "Zeon's Rush"). While I guess this creates a bit of a temporary disadvantage for especially the blue deck I'm sure this will be rectified with the ST07 and ST08 starters that are scheduled for later this winter. This is a bit unusual as the older Gundam-themed cardgames usually favour the blue E.F.S.F./A.E.U.G. decks since they typically have the most mobile suits and characters to choose from.


Contents is similar to the most recent ST05 deck; 50 cards for the main deck and 12 resource cards. The first generation starters ST01 through ST04 also contained another six token cards each but these have been dropped in this second generation.


The rules sheet gives an insight into the main concepts of the game and on the flipside you have the sectioned up playmat. This makes rules reference mid-game impossible but maybe the seller tricked you into buying multiple starter decks anyway; got to collect all those shiny promo-cards, right?


We have eight different unit cards split evenly between the two decks. Red gets a foil GQuuuuuuX backed up by an alternate version and the GQ-universe versions of the Dom and Gelgoog (which honestly looks more like a GM Command of sorts). The green deck is fronted by the Red Gundam (how does that make sense?) in two variants, reinforced by two different GQ-version Doms and Gelgoogs. I don't think I have ever seen such an evenly themed deck out of any cardgame.


The pilot cards contain no major surprises, you know that you will see Amate Yuzuriha and Shuji Ito leading each team and then you have alternate command/pilot cards for two of the three Black Tristar pilots; Gaia supports red and Ortega goes for green. I suppose we can find Mash in the GD02 Dual Impact set (if he is even in GQuuuuuuX of course...). The two base cards are a bit disappointing since they do not show off bases of any kind; I want to see structures, spaceships or even planets here. I find the cards in this set a bit bland.


The resource cards reveal nothing we haven't seen before, 10 basic resources and one each of the EX Resource and EX Base, all with the same old dull placeholder artwork. As with ST05, the full-art token cards that accompanied each starter have been removed completely.


The single-card promo-pack contains one of the sixteen basic cards in an alternate foil-version. Even the two foil-cards have slightly different foil-effects compared to the "regular" cards but honestly they aren't much to look at. Ideally, you want your favourite unit or maybe pilot as this foil-card and naturally I pulled a command card which hardly looks different at all. The darkened text box is gone and there is a slight shiny effect if you wiggle the card. I'm really not feeling this set but hey, if there is a Police Zaku in the GD02 set somewhere GQuuuuuuX might still redeem itself. Clan Unity is easily my least favourite out of all the starters so far.