Lacus returns to Banpresto's Glitter and Glamours line-up again (and a third racing queen style-figure is also already released this year), I guess if a character is really popular go ahead and milk it. The Pilot Suit version figure appeared in early February 2025 and is currently floating about on the secondary market with prices at Mandarake between ¥1500 and ¥2000. You are not going to get a better deal than this, so is it worth your while?
The box follows the same style we have seen for the previous GxG figures and I really like the ring of flowers on the lid and the overall design of the packaging is top-rate. Due to it being a cheaper end figure there is no see-through section of the box itself and also no plastic blister packaging inside but in my experience there are rarely issues to be found with these lower-end prize PVC figures.
Just like we saw previously there is an enormous amount of air inside the box and it is not geared at protecting the figure or anything. I assume some figures of the GxG-line (which extends way beyond Mobile Suit Gundam) requires more space but the designers wanted a standardized packaging size and will gladly waste space and increase shipping costs accordingly. Too bad because they did such a good job with the tight-fit boxes used for the recent Witch of Mercury-range. On the plus-side, with a little bit of tweaking you could easily store another - maybe two - equally sized figures in the same box.
The figure comes in the classic multi-compartment plastic bag giving me old Gundam Converge vibes. It might be hard to spot the clear base in this image but it is over there on the left.
The helmet and the angelic wings attach to the hand and arm using shaped pegs. At first I was concerned that the pegs might not fit perfectly but there were no problems at all. The material is soft PVC, especially the silver-coloured wings are very bendy but I encountered no issues here.
I have had pretty much nothing but positive things to say for the previous pilot figures released through the Banpresto name over the past couple of years; the SEED Freedom figures, the Witch of Mercury collection and the U.C. Newtype pilots before them. I have to say though that with this entry they are stepping up the game even further. The sculpting and painting is great, the character likeness is dead-on and finally we have a base that is not distracting, unstable or annoyingly large. The concerned expression and floating in space-pose suits the figure really well (although I wonder how all that hair can be fit inside that helmet...). The only thing I don't really like about this figure is the strange design for the shoes, which look more like paddles, bit I cannot fault the figure designers for that.
I must give top marks for this figure and it may well be a candidate for the best Gundam-themed figure for all of 2025. Of course Bandai are also pushing out a Lacus Pilot Suit figure this March in the MegaHouse Gundam Girls Generation line. That figure is roughly the same size but more than ten times as expensive. I can't see any reason to go for the GGG-version when this cheap item does a better job at pretty much everything, style, dignity, likeness and overall feel for the character. Don't sleep on this one.
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