Bandai Gasha Portraits Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom Set

The Bandai Gasha Portraits capsule toy range was in full swing between 2017 and 2021, pumping out characters from various anime franchises. By 2022 it had begun the switchover to a premium range and lately I haven't seen much signs of life from it. Thus I was quite surprised to encounter a new twin-pack for SEED Freedom on the secondary market earlier this year and picked it up on a whim in spite of the high price of ¥6000. I believe the official release was this March and that the price was ¥5000 plus tax which is pretty steep for two tiny figurines. Nevertheless, we've had a couple of Gundam-themed Gasha Portraits premium sets before and I had always been very pleased with them so it was an easy decision for me.


What a beautiful box, it really succeeds in capturing my attention. The fact that the figures themselves are only shown in silhouette form is a bit of a problem however, and something we are used to from this series unfortunately. I think it would have been prudent to have an actual image of the figures at least on the back of the cover.


While the regular Gasha Portraits figures are crammed into round capsules and suffer from bent extremities every so often these premium figures are pre-assembled and come in proper protective plastic packaging. The figures are even wrapped in plastic bags for added paint protection.


So, what do we have here? Lacus Clyne in her new spicy SEED Freedom pilot suit (I have to say I like the Destiny suit better) with goofy angelic wings and the most painful shoes ever invented. Cagalli Yula Athha has dusted off her old Orb Union flight suit looking as sharp as ever. The paint details are really crisp overall, there seems to be a slight colour difference on Lacus' legs and torso, maybe a result of different plastics being used. Each figure comes with a circular base with two pegs that ensure the legs stay in the intended shape and it also grants the figure very good balance. From a technical standpoint I have no complaints, however when it comes to the character likeness things are starting to go south.


I can't put it any other way; this figure doesn't look like Lacus at all. While it is not easy to capture the exact detail in such a small figure there are countless examples of successful Gashapon figurines of Lacus from the old SEED and SEED Destiny ranges that succeed but this figure is honestly pretty hideous to look at. Fortunately we have a much better rendition available from the Glitter x Glamours line that captures the seriousness of Lacus' character admirably and is available on the secondary market for a much lower price.


The Cagalli figure fares a bit better but I can't say I am terribly impressed by it either. While the sculpt is really great and the paint applications on the uniform with all those thin white lines came out looking great there is just something uncanny about the face, it kind of looks like a ball with bowl on top. Look at some of the previous renditions of Cagalli through figure lines pushing 20 years age at this point, I find them much more vivid and interesting to look at. I was overall quite disappointed with this set and considering the high price I cannot really recommend it to any SEED Freedom fans out there.