Gundam Converge #27

Wow, a figure review? We still do those round here? Apparently it seems, and these are pretty current too. Converge #27 has been out for two months already at this point so apologies for it taking this long but my thoughts on this set just kept expanding and I "had to" keep adding points to the analysis and in so doing going back to the studio multiple times. Anyway, here we are - it is always a special feeling to do a Gundam Converge retail set review, it is the backbone of this website after all.


I recall recently saying in a review that the overall impression of the set was pretty drab and colourless. Specifically I was missing some red in the mix and well, apparently that was due to volume #27 hogging all the good stuff because this set is clearly dominated by a single colour.


The figures come mostly assembled in the traditional plastic bags. As usual some of the delicate components are supported with extra cardboard padding and as usual the cardboard pieces aren't big enough to do their job as the parts fly around inside the bags willy nilly anyway. Notice especially the Z'Gok which comes with a fully assembled flightpack in a separate bag. Yes, it was supposed to have that cardboard wrapped around it for extra protection but it was loose inside the box already.



303 : gMS-Ω GQuuuuuuX (Omega Psycommu)


The market is currently completely saturated with uuuuuu-products and it was no surprise that Converge wanted to hop on that train. We will be seeing a couple of additional GQ suits this autumn (No Police Zaku? Come on...) so I guess I will have more things to say about it then. For now, this is a nicely sculpted and painted Evangel... I mean Gundam that leaves me a bit indifferent, the truth is I never cared much for these one-shot type of figures and would be more interested if the designers would do a big set of figures in one go. Did you know that the Converge brand also extends into other intellectual properties? Seeing this figure I think it would have been cool to see the EVAs in Converge format in a series of their own but I guess I'll have to make do with the larger EVA-Frame series.


The main armament of the GQuuuuuuX is a reasonably colourful beam rifle which is strangely absent in this package - instead we get two melee-type weapons and also no shield. You can choose to equip either its peculiarly shaped beam saber or a very Universal Century-looking heat axe. I must say I am bit surprised by the rifle-omission, perhaps the figure will return as a premium full wepaon spec version later? Due to the small feet of the design the figure comes with a clear adapter into which the left heel is inserted and then plugged to the base. As usual with this assembly-type the whole thing is unstable at best and you might want to consider gluing the whole shebang together.






304 : ZGMF-MM07 Z'Gok (SEED Freedom ver.)


Sometimes I don't understand how a quirky design is allowed to make it all the way into figure form. The Cosmic Era version of the Z'Gok is a prime example. Yes, the original authors struck gold when they lifted the Zaku II into SEED Destiny and came up with the ZAKU Warrior modular system. The GOUF Ignited/Crusher was also alright I guess but everything after that was just lazy and done for the hell of it. The MM07 Z'Gok is the worst example of this bunch; an amphibious suit with a flight pack? That's like putting booster rockets on a submarine and the overall appearance is terrible too; sleek wings on a crusty old bucket. This looks like a rejected toy concept for Masters of the Universe...


The figure doesn't have traditional hands and so comes without hand held accessories but instead sports a large AMGS-X18P Cavalier Aifrid flight pack. The Aifrid comes fully assembled out of the box, bit of a risky proposition but I was lucky not to have any bent or broken parts. However, one of the legs does not reach the floor and the top of the head does not fit well atop all the other components that make up the head. I can get the top of the head to look good from the front or from the back but not at the same time. I don't know, man... can't you just spend the energy on doing a proper Leo instead?


The MM07 Z'Gok figure is large, even larger than the Universal Century Z'Gok sculpt (represented here by the recent release in the Movie Visual Selection series from last year).


One of the reasons for the lumbering frame of the Z'Gok is that it hides the Infinite Justice Type II within. The Converge figure does a limited take on this by sporting a deactivated version of the Justice's head underneath the dome of its own head. It looks quite bizarre and I guess it is a neat detail but I would rather take a proper deactivated Infinite Justice figure instead. :)


Does the Cavalier Aifrid look familiar to you? Of course it does, it was part of the Infinite Justice Type II figure in volume #26 (it just so happens that we had to wait six months in between the two) but already Bandai had to redesign it. The previous incarnation is smaller and was built to display with the wings arranged in three different modes. The new figure has only a single colour and is pretty much static. Sometimes I don't know what the designers are up to, I would have imagined that the two figures would be designed together and their equipment too, but nope, here we are.






305 : MS-06R-1A Zaku II High Mobility Type (Char's Custom)


Another red mobile suit figure; when it rains it pours! You'd think we have enough Char Aznable-coded figures in Converge to focus on something else for a while but no, I guess Bandai does not agree. The High Mobility Type features additional thrusters for... well... better mobility... in space, even though the changes are kind of minor at first glance. The commander antenna didn't really fit all the way into its socket, I'll have to carefully carve it open and will then probably glue the antenna in place.


The HMT Zaku comes with three different weapons; we have the archetypical Zaku Machine Gun, a powered up Heat Hawk for close combat and a Bazooka for anti-ship action. The top-loader magazine on the Bazooka is not standard U.C.0079 gear but rather a weapon we saw used in The Origin; the A2 Type Zaku Bazooka. Logic dictates that this figure is then also lifted from The Origin storyline rather than being a U.C. mobile suit variation and this bugs me somewhat. Check this out:


This Origin-type Zaku II was one of the first figures to make it into the Converge #Sharp figure line, released in volume #02 back in April 2016. The new High Mobility Type Zaku II looks nothing like it; the figure is clearly based on the standard U.C.0079 sculpt and looks much too small to pose next to the Origin Zaku II. Notice the Type A2 Bazooka on the Origin Zaku II figure as well. The Zaku II has changed shape and size many times in Converge; perhaps more so than even the RX-78.


All the weapon options work well with the figure and I must confess I am having some trouble deciding which option to go for. If Bandai had made a mass-production version in green I would easily have bought multiples but I have enough red mobile suit figures already.


In case you were wondering; yes it is possible to switch the gear between the GQuuuuuuX and the Zaku II although the fit isn't perfect, so be careful that you do not wear out the joints if you plan on doing this. It helps that both figures have hands that are reasonably similar looking both in size and colour. However, the Zaku II should of course have had red hands, but a compromise was made here to allow the designers to sculpt the hand directly on to the different weapons without having to paint them. A visible downgrade from prior versions of the Zaku II which ALL have colour separation in place here.


Let's take a closer look at the evolution of the Zaku Heat Hawk. We see here the development from the original Converge 1.0 format equipped by Garma Zabi through some recent incarnations from the Converge #Sharp line. The original 2.0 version next to its CORE version Char's Zaku II is very compact and has the area between the blade and the (I assume) power cable filled in, a notable downgrade from the original sculpt. The recent blade seen on Cucuruz Doan's machine replaced the blade with a translucent part and now we have a completely different sculpt in Converge #27 with a very elongated shaft and more delicate structure. While the new sculpt is a major improvement something about its proportions look off to me and as previously mentioned we no longer have colour separation for the hand.


We now have several R1A-type High Mobility Type Zaku IIs in Converge. Char's figure poses next to one of the versions found in the White Wolf of Solomon set (CORE 039, released February 2024) and Anavel Gato's custom unit from the Nightmare of Solomon set (CORE 030 from May 2022). In front we see two versions of the Black Tristars custom livery; the figure in the middle is the original Converge "1.0" sculpt from Converge Volume 9 (released December 2012) and the one on the right was released in the CORE 026 boxset in April 2021. The green mass-production figure is sadly not available in Gundam Converge (they should have tossed out that Z'Gok...) but you can pick up this slightly larger figure from Mobile Suit Ensemble #24, released in April 2023.






306 : XXXG-01SR Gundam Sandrock (TV ver.)


It has been roughly a year since Converge last featured something from Wing and so now they are throwing its fans a bone just in time for the show's 30th anniversary. This time the designers decided to revisit the Sandrock as it appeared in the original 1995 television show. It looks simple but great in that classic Converge-style that I really appreciate. I kind of wish there were more simple Converge figures like this in the line-up and there are so many options to choose from rather than just reissuing the same old faces endlessly.


The Sandrock comes with its two Heat Shotels that have a couple of gimmicks associated with them. You can either store them on the backpack or use the optional hands to equip them. Notice the extended thumbs that follow the handle all the way up to the guard, something we have never seen on a Converge figure before. The main problem with the Sandrock is that it lacks a long-range weapon which is a shame because it would have looked good to see it armed with a beam rifle instead but what can you do?


Heat Shotels equipped and ready for action. You can place the shield in the centre-section of the backpack to keep it from interfering with the blades. The shield can also be stored on the back in conjunction with the weapons for a really lean look.


The Sandrock was previously only available in Converge in its Endless Waltz forms. The Sandrock Kai-form was released first in Converge #12 in October 2018 and the base version followed in the popular Operation Meteor boxset (CORE 019, released in January 2020). I would still like to see a version covered up in a Anti-Beam cloak.






307 : MS-14C Gelgoog Cannon


Finally a battleline unit - I was getting a bit exhausted from all these hero-type units. The Gelgoog Cannon is a simple mobile suit variation that adds an extended range beam weapon artillery option to the versatile MS-14 while retaining its standard beam rifle. The reactor is powerful to support both weapons which is pretty impressive. As for the figure itself it resembles a regular Gelgoog except that the head is very different with a prominent forward facing camera and an overall slimmer appearance.


The hand is molded directly onto the Beam Rifle which is a little bit lame but at least this version of the MS-14C has black hands so it doesn't detract from its look in the same way as on the HMT Zaku II figure. Notice the option parts attached to the elbows; the left arm has a booster unit while the right arm sports a three-tube missile launcher for dicey situations. You can switch these around or remove them completely but they do not fit onto regular Gelgoog figures nor the Ridden Custom Gelgoog Cannon as they lack similar elbow peg holes.


There was a time when the Converge figures began to shrink, I clearly remember myself moaning about the tiny Zaku IIs for example but now the trend is going a bit too far in the opposite direction. Now, granted that the Gelgoog is an imposing and large mobile suit, the Gelgoog Cannon is of course not supposed to be taller than the basic MS-14A. Yet here he is, half a head taller than the base model. I'll have to assume that the slightly larger figures we keep seeing lately open up new possibilities for the designers but it is really jarring to have a figure collection where everything is getting gradually taller. Seen above are the original Gelgoog sculpt from Converge 8 (released October 2012), the #Sharp-version from Converge #08 (October 2017) and the new Gelgoog Cannon.


Not only is the size different (it becomes even more pronounced when viewed from the side like this), but the elbow pegs are shaped differently between the MS-14A and the MS-14C. It is possible to squeeze in the shield from the standard version onto the Cannon-model but the peg will be deformed if you attempt it, here I have just attached it extremely loosely for purposes of demonstration. You can of course modify the peg to suit your needs.







308 : MS-14C Gelgoog Cannon (Johnny Ridden Custom)


The last figure is a variant of the Gelgoog Cannon painted in ace pilot Johnny Ridden's stark red and black scheme. We even get a couple of extra markings on the right shoulder and chest which look pretty neat. As is not uncommon with Converge this particular figure is a bit deformed, the lower head section does not line up with the top, and the same goes for the antenna. We've seen it many times before.


Nothing new in the accessory department here, the same beam rifle and the same RA-2 beam cannon and still no shield option. We get a commander antenna to go on the head of the figure as this version differs a bit from the standard MS-14C. What is going on here? And hold on a bit... isn't Johnny Ridden mostly known for rolling in his red MS-14B Gelgoog High Mobility Type unit rather than the MS-14C? You know, at this point I just want to wrap up the review and press [publish] already but oh, no... seems we have to get ourselves into yet another rabbit hole...


Take a look at this. Here we see some pictures that I stole from the Gundam-Wiki (who in turn have been borrowing them from the Battle Operation 2 game and the original Mobile Suit variation artwork). On the left we see the MS-14B High Mobility Type Gelgoog in production and Ridden colours, and on the right we have the same set-up for the MS-14C. Notice how the MS-14B is using the typical Gelgoog head while the Cannon has the different slim type. Then you see Ridden sporting "010" on his MS-14B but "011" on his MS-14C.

Now, I have never seen this particular MS-14C described anywhere before but that clearly looks like MSV artwork. So what Bandai did here is take the body and paintwork from the MS-14B and then slapped on the MS-14C backpack on it. Come on guys, what are we doing here? It should have been the simplest thing to just repaint the MS-14C properly and then feel free to release the MS-14B as a separate figure. What we have now is a figure that is neither one nor the other, what a disappointment.


In this side-by-side of the two Gelgoog Cannon figures we can see that except for the different head and the missing peg holes in Ridden's machine the rest of the two are clearly the same. This is such a hugely missed opportunity. Save for the insignia it would be pretty easy to have the standard MS-14C figure painted up in JR colours, something I would actually consider if I can get my hand on some suitable decals.


Moving on... Ridden's MS-14B/C joins the previous family which consists of the Converge 1.0 and #Sharp versions of the High Mobility Type Zaku II (from Converge volume 6 and Volume #14, released in February 2012 and February 2019 respectively). On the far right we have the abomination that is the MS-14J/BR Gelgoog Vertex Testarossa which was released fairly recently in CORE 040 in March last year.






Conclusion

I've gone on at length blabbering about the various features and quirks of volume #27 for a bit now, but in the end it will always be the same boring conclusion anyway. Yes, there are some issues with the figures in this set, some really questionable decisions by the designers and a couple of missed opportunities but overall the retail Converge figures remain really fun to collect. It helps that the prices are affordable (at least when they are freshly released) and it is always fun to keep expanding the line-up. the designers will bless us with one more retail set this year; Sharp #28 is scheduled for release in November and will contain a full seven figures. The premium range of Converge has been a bit bleak this year in my opinion and there is some really obscure stuff lined up for the next six months. Just how excited can you get for a "renewable energy demonstrator" figure for example?

Gundam Card Game - Newtype Rising (GD01)

No, the blog is not changing format into becoming a card game resource but with the new boosters for GCG out for a week now, why not talk about it some more? Newtype Rising is the first booster pack set for the Gundam Card Game and released worldwide on the 25th of July. Here we are examining the English edition although there are also Japanese and Chinese language versions distributed elsewhere. Before its launch I wasn't sure I wanted to jump in or which language edition to go for, since I primarily focus on the Japanese language products but in this case I just let what was easily available guide me. I will not be surprised if the Japanese will end up getting more frequent and beautiful promo cards for example.


First impressions of the box is that it is really flimsy. Even though it arrived well packaged and in shrink the box was crumpled and caved in a little. We have some stylish mobile suit art on the sides and top with some newly commissioned artwork (I assume that the Wing Gundam and Unicorn we see on the sides are also found among the cards) but to be honest the whole thing looks a bit bland and generic to me. The game's logo is of course also not helping.


On the backside of the box we find a whole slew of disclaimers to help hem in your expectations, a card rarity count and information for - in my case - the various European distributors.


After having opened a lot of booster packs from games like Gundam Chronicle, Duel Company or Cross War in the past, the first impression of the GCG packs is that they are short, stubby and thick. Japanese games tend to have really thin packages often with only with 3-5 cards in each so this will be a welcome change although I expect a LOT of repeats.


Let's turn our focus to the card types for a second. The box informs us that the set is comprised of 130 different standard cards (i.e. the blue-backed ones) and an additional number of six support cards in the form of tokens and resources that don't go into your main deck. Each pack contains 12 regular cards and one of these supports chucked in as a bonus kind of like the Pokemon energy cards that were bloating every booster pack in, was it the Sun and Moon-era? How many resource cards could you possibly need?

The breakdown further talks about commons, uncommons, rares and legendary rares, but doesn't mention different card categories such as units or pilots. I don't know if there will be additional secret rares, alternative artwork or other similar denominations not included in the official tally, I am going on completely blind on this opening. Based on previous Gundam War-experience I would expect a pack of 12 to contain 8 commons, 3 uncommons and a single rare but we shall see. Let's crack 'em open already!


If you are like me and like to really drag out the opening process note that all cards are facing the front cover side of the pack. Keep the pack upside down when taking out the cards. The bottom card will either be a red- or yellow-back resource of token card so get rid of that one first. Next just go through the remaining stack of blue-cardback from front to bottom. The common cards are at the top of the pile, followed by the uncommons and then the rares. I remember some of the old Gundam War-game packs actually flipped the uncommons or even the rare upside down so that you often accidentally spotted them too early, but here everything is neatly organized.


Alright, first pack then! Everything is laid out in the order you encountered the cards from top to bottom. I was quite wrong about the rarity distribution, GCG is a bit more generous than I expected. Each pack will net you six common cards, four uncommons and two rares and at the end the resource or token card seen there in the bottom right corner. All of the artwork appears to be brand new for the game and has a fairly consistent style which is a huge plus. Different eras of computer or hand-drawn animation always poses a challenge to a game that tries to blend 45 years of Gundam-history into a single mix.

Really surprised and pleased to see the Mistral-class mobile worker depicted in-game but I still don't like how command cards are blended together with pilots. In this pack we can see two pure pilots cards for Yzak and Marida, and then three command cards that double as pilot cards for Rashid, Shaddiq and Dozle Zabi. Of course, if the game proves popular it is not unlikely that there will be pilot-class cards for some of these characters with different abilities. Colour-distribution appears thoroughly random so for those of you who like buying single packs there is of course the chance that you may end up with just a single card for your preferred faction. In this pack we have five white cards, four green, two red and just one blue.


The second pack is really unit-heavy, there is only a single command/pilot-card in the mix which is exactly how I prefer it. :) Note that we also get two base-cards in this pack, Newtype Rising contains two additional base-cards for each colour. I definitely did not expect to see these awesome ships in the game, colour me impressed. Among the two rares we have a basic rare "R" Shamblo (type-coded as Zeon but part of the red deck and not the green?) and holy-smoke a legendary rare PLUS-version of the Deathscythe Gundam. Did we pull the highlight of the box already in the second pack? If this was a Pokemon CCG booster box I would say we are pretty much done here, but hopefully that is not all she wrote for GCG. Notice how the resource card is just the same dull EX Resource found in each of the starter boxes. Let's press on.


In the third pack red and white dominate with four cards each, three blue cards this time and only a single green card but hold on... it is the Deathscythe Gundam again. This time as a legendary rare (LR), that is, minus the plus-sign. You see, the LR+ card in the previous pack is an alternate art-version of this card but the abilities and stats are exactly the same. Both cards have the same number but different classification. There are even some cards that have a second alternate-artwork variant classed as a "LR++" but - spoiler-alert - I didn't pull any in this box. Some of the faction traits of the cards confuse me. We have another mobile suit with the Zeon trait in the red deck and in this pack we also find both Guel Jeturk and his personal Dilanza - but his machine isn't linked to him personally but to any pilot with the "Academy" trait.


The fourth pack is more of a mixed bag but OH MY GOD, they put the Anksha in the game! I am still waiting for - any figure-series really - to include it. I'd even spend money on a Robot-Spirits figure even though it would break the bank. What a beauty! There are two new bases here, both blue. Besides Side 7, home to the V-project, the Nahel Argama (from Unicorn) shows up as an optional base and we have Banagher Links in the pack too, coded as a civilian. Does that mean that the Unicorn Gundam will be classified as civilian kit as well I wonder? :) I'm seeing more and more examples of grating spelling on the cards too... first it was Rasid and Yzak Jule and here comes Dearka Elthmann, who localized this thing? The two rare cards here are the Gyan - linked to M'Quve and Andrew Waltfeldt's personal LaGOWE linked to... any ZAFT pilot. Sigh...


We are starting to see more and more duplicates of the common cards, there are only 50 of them in the set after all, on average we should expect three of each if the packs are consistently arranged. The fact that we are pulling two rares in each pack with a total of "only" 32 of them in the full set makes me hopeful we might get most of them in a single booster box which would be phenomenal. So far there have been no duplicates in the rare-class but something tells me this will change soon. By the way, here we are again pulling Cagalli Yula Athha's Skygrasper and Char Aznable's red Zaku II, they are linked to Cagalli and Char specifically and not just any faction pilot, as it should be. I don't understand the inconsistency on display here.


A strange mix of cards in this pack with a new base-option for the Academy, an unnamed Skygrasper to join Cagalli's personal unit (I would have preferred if named units were uncommon or rares only) and would you look at that, Unicorns 01 and 02 as the rare cards and yes - the Unicorn Gundam is apparently a civilian steed. Can't wait to see its license plate and ownership certificate.


I haven't really commented on the resource cards we have been finding in most of the packs, they are beautiful close-up portraits of various mobile suits but still act as the plain resource-cards found in the starter packs. This time we got one of those confusing token cards, and as you can see it is identical to the one found in the ST03 Zeon's Rush starter set (seen on the left here). I have no idea why these are included in the booster packs and if it matters which faction they belong to, as I have mentioned previously I am only in it for the card collection aspect but I still find this unnecessarily complicated.


The green team gets a new base option in the Zanzibar-class cruiser with the same name and look, there is Cagalli's Skygrasper again, I would have much rather taken a second no-name version if it. Happy to see more iconic Gundam SEED grunt units in here, so far Newtype Rising is really burning up a lot of the mainstay suits from the series. They should be careful not to overdo it or the later sets will be full of Windmill Gundams with power creep meaning that all these beautiful machines will be cycled out of the meta too early. I notice that the resource card here is the same old EX Base-card found in all of the starter sets. Check out the legendary rare-plus (LR+) version of the Gundam card by the way, we are indeed able to get more than one of these "super-rares" in a booster box. I am positively surprised.


In pack number eight we find our first duplicate rare card, a second copy of the Gundam Aerial. However, there is something else that is odd here, the resource card in the right corner there - coincidentally also the Aerial Gundam - is coming in a foil-version which is coded as common plus "C+". This was the only such card found in my box and so I don't know if all of the resource cards are also available as plus-variants or not. Check out the ReZEL and Jegan there by the way, what a beautiful sight.


Wow, a Stark Jegan and also the Galluss-K? They clearly are burning through a lot of the Unicorn-series suits in this set, I am curious if this means we will not see them ever again. I have also noticed that so far, beyond the resource cards it seems that none of the cards found in the starter boxes are part of the Newtype Rising set. This is cool as CCG-starters often contain a couple of special cards and then a ton of recycled stuff from the booster packs, the Gundam Card Game is really impressing me in this regard.

And speaking of resource cards, what do we have here? A brand hew token card for the Justice Gundam's Fatum-00 wing unit complete with its own ability. It is coded with the Triple Ship Alliance (sigh... "Three Ship Alliance", please) trait, does that mean only the white deck can use it? The card-number T-011 indicates it is the first token card after the ten that came in the four starter packs. I didn't find any other new token cards in my box and so I don't know if there are even more out there.


We are really seeing a lot of duplicates now but I am happy to get multiples of all the mass-production type suits. This set contains two unique Leos piloted by Duo Maxwell and Zechs Merquise but you can only find the mass-production type in the ST02 starter pack which is a little odd. I wouldn't have minded seeing a different version of the Leo for example. Come to think of it, I haven't seen any GMs, GINNs or Strike Daggers either but I have seen alternate versions of the Zaku II and the Gouf. I do hope they will lean into making more alternate versions of common suits like these in the new booster sets going forward.


You know you pulled a bad pack when the card that interests you the most is an Earth Federation Ball with base stats of 1 and 1. :) One of the rare cards in this pack is a command card, the first one without a pilot trait and it feels like a waste somehow. Let's move on.


My god, they really dug deep into the pockets when they designed this set, I can't believe a spot was saved for my precious ZuOOT. At this point I am starting to feel like picking up a second box, not to chase the rarer cards but to build up a larger set of grunt suits, there sure is a lot of great ones in this set. Actually, the starters with their generous assortment of exclusive mass-production type units are starting to seem like viable multi-purchase options to me, for all the wrong reasons of course. :)


Wow, back to back ZuOOTs and... less excitingly back to back rares of Lucrezia Noin's personal Aries too. I notice that this Aries is linked to Noin specifically, you'd think any Oz pilot would be able to handle it since it is pretty much only a paint job-swap. After all, according to the GCG designers any ZAFT pilot can just waltz up to Waltfeld's LaGOWE and take it for a spin. This game...


We are more than halfway through the box by now and are still pulling new common cards. Here comes an optional base for the red team, the mining asteroid Palau and look at that, Dopp fighters for Zeon and the good old M1 Astray for the Orb Union (even though it is coded as a Three Ships Alliance unit here). We have seen none of the M1 pilots so far, perhaps there will be a different version of the Astray with the Orb Union trait in an upcoming set complete with Asagi's team? One can always hope, right? In this box we also find the legendary rare RX-78-2 Gundam card with the artwork seen on the box cover and all the booster packs.


We're pulling several cool mass-production suits as duplicates, less enthused to meet Wufei though. How many Zanzibars have we seen now? I feel like there is an entire fleet already (come to think of it - if the card had been named Zanzibar-class it would have been useful for many other gaming applications). The Guncannon shows up as a rare card together with the Banshee in a different configuration to the one we saw earlier. Let's continue.


Wufei again, really? I think that is the first mass-production Gelgoog we have seen, it is rated as uncommon after all. Yonem Kirks's beautiful Zaku Sniper shows up among the rares so I can forget about building a squad of those it seems. :/ Notice also the regular version resource card of the Gundam Aerial, it has the same artwork as the foil-version we discovered earlier.


Another strong pack with half a dozen mass-production suits including the first Rick Dom. I notice that both the MS-09 Dom and the MSM-07 Z'Gok appear to be absent from this set, presumably held back for a later booster series (and presumably with the Black Tristars team to follow suit).


I think we have seen everything here except the rares already. The Big Zam appears to have lower stats than the Wing Gundam Zero, I remember seeing somewhere that this Zero is one of the top cards in the meta at the moment which feels completely undeserved; surely it would be ground into space dust by the Kshatriya. :) That is the same artwork as on the side-cover of the booster box by the way.


Pack 19 of 24 and not much to report from here, a single mass-production type suit feels incredibly underwhelming. That combination of rare cards seems very familiar and yes, sure enough, you can see the exact same combination in pack number 8. It doesn't seem like the rares are packaged in specific groupings however, because that Aerial has featured together with a different rare card seen in the third pack from this box. While things are looking good overall it seems we may not get all of the rares in a single box (not counting legendary rares here, just the individual card numbers).


Booster package number 20 contains only a single new card but it is a beautiful one, the Strike Rouge. I notice that the card has the trait "Triple Ship Alliance" but it is linked to an "Orb" pilot. I think I need to study this in more detail... let's dig out some of the Orb cards for a closer inspection:


Alright, so what do we have here? Well, the Strike Rouge and the M1 Astray are both here and coded as belonging to the "Triple" Ship Alliance rather than Orb. I guess I can live with that since they are deployed on the Kusanagi (even though the Kusanagi never defected from Orb like the Archangel did from the Earth Alliance). Cagalli herself only has the Orb trait and notice how the Strike Rouge is coded to go with an Orb pilot rather than a Three Ship Alliance pilot (that would be Kira or Athrun if they had been released in this set which they curiously are not - they only exist as Earth Alliance and ZAFT pilots in the ST04 starter). The M1 has no special pilot link requirements. Then we look at the two Skygraspers, technically belonging to the Earth Alliance military but two were carried on the Archangel. Only Cagalli can board the named machine (which is odd since it is just a standard Skygrasper) and the second requires an Earth Alliance pilot so Kira could pilot that one but not Cagalli. This whole system is just a mess... :)


Let me just hammer home this point one more time... On the left we see the Wing Gundam and the Wing Gundam Zero from Newtype Rising, on the right we have Heero Yuy and the Wing Gundam found in starter ST02. At least here all the Wing Gundam versions are linked directly to Heero, but notice how the Zero has a different trait than all the others. The other cards are tagged with Operation Meteor but the Wing Zero instead is given the G Team-trait. I guess presumably we will see more of those in a future set. Still... this system is a mess.


Moving on... four packs to go. Nothing new among the commons and the uncommons here and the two rare cards are both command cards without even the pilot ability. Lovely artwork but I am trying to find the missing mobile suits here; specifically a Buster Gundam to go with Dearka Elsmann. :)


Three packs to go and not a single mass-production type unit in this pack - what a waste. The saving grace is that beautiful Kshatriya with a puny stat-bar of [5][4], hopefully its and/or Marida's special abilities can make up for it.


Two packs to go, an awful lot of command and base cards here at the last stretch but look at that, two beautiful cards in the rare slot that I did not expect to see here. Between the Zeon starter pack and this set there is a really good selection of Unicorn-era mobile suits in this game, an important era for me personally since the original Gundam War card game folded right around the time before its release.


here is the lats pack then, and no Buster Gundam for me unfortunately. Overall though, we did really well. Out of the 130 different cards (not counting the alternate artwork variants here) we got everything except the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam (Destroy Mode), GAT-X103 Buster Gundam, ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam and the ZGMF-X09A Justice Gundam - all of them legendary rare. Wow, that's a pretty expensive group of cards to try and go find on the aftermarket.

Still, this means we found 50 out of 50 commons, 36 out of 36 uncommons, all the 32 rares and 8 out of the 12 legendary rares - I certainly did not expect such a good variety from a single box. Technically, out of the 48 rare spots there were 10 cards rated legendary rare or legendary rare plus, it just so happened that we pulled both the LR and the LR+ versions of some of them. You can also find "plus" versions of a couple of the uncommon cards, typically in the waifu category because this is a Japanese cardgame. In fact I know of at least 33 cards from this set that we did not find in this particular box, most of them in the "plus" or "plusplus" categories.


Here we see three of the four RX-78-2 Gundam cards found in the Newtype Rising series on the left as well as the version found in the ST01 starter deck on the right. Most of the mobile suits and pilots found in the starters do not even appear in this set but the once that do typically have different stats or abilities (as well as artwork), as seen here.


These were the standard resource cards found in this set. You get ten of them without artwork in a starter box so there is more than enough in a booster box to replace them here. According to the box cover there are six different resource and token cards in this set which makes absolutely no sense because here are eight of them and they all have individual card numbers. Interestingly they are numbered R-002 through R-009, the no-artwork version found in the starters has number R-001.


These are the EX Resource and Token cards we found in the box. Except for the fatum-00 which appears exclusive to this set the other cards have been seen before; the EX resources are the same as the ones found in each starter and the token cards match the ones found in the ST03 Zeon's Rush starter. Perhaps each booster box has a random faction's token cards inserted, or maybe they are all like this. It seems completely pointless though and these cards should be relegated to the starter kits I think.

When it comes to card colour balance it seems there is a reasonable attempt to keep the factions evenly distributed but hey, this is a single sample so it isn't exactly science. My package contained a total of 75 blue cards, white and green each had 72 cards while red had to make do with 69 (with the remaining 24 slots going to resources and tokens). In summary, as a card collector I am very happy with my purchase - managing to pick up a nearly complete set in a single booster box is unheard of. For example, I recall having to buy somewhere around 20 booster boxes of the first Gundam War cardgame set to get every last one of the rare cards so this system seems much more forgiving. At least if you are prepared to miss out on the alt-rares; considering I only found two of those in this box you'd have to buy many more boxes (crates even?) to have a chance of finding them randomly.