I haven't built any new figures in ages and the pile of shame is really building up an intimidating backlog at this point. What better action then, than to ignore that perilous stack and open up the latest entry into the Converge SB-series instead? Hot on the heels of the review of the fifth vessel the turn has now come to SB07 which revisits the Nahel Argama once again, however now with the twist of it being altered into its Mobile Suit Gundam UC appearance. As with the previous SB-released this is a P-Bandai product only, and shipped in April 2025. The original price-tag was ¥4900 (or 5390 including VAT). A cursory inspection over at Mandarake show two units in stock at the moment this review is being published, at the same fairly decent price of ¥5000 that I got my own copy for. I would expect this price to rise after the initial wave subsides.
I like the stylish and slightly intimidating angle chosen for the front cover photo. Of course it would have been even nicer if it was full-colour, but perhaps they are keeping that for the inevitable "final episode" version of the ship with a broken off flight deck. I'm 100% sure they developed a prototype already, whether it will make it into an actual product or not - I guess we'll see.
The new Nahel Argama box is pretty much the same size as the previous version that was released in October 2023. This is the fourth version of an Argama-class vessel released in this series and I am really starting to feel a certain fatigue creep in. With so many interesting ships to choose from why do we always have to get the same old boring white family of ships that pretty much all look the same?
The ship is well protected by three additional layers of packaging. Besides the compartmentalized plastic bags everything is also wrapped in a bubble bag and the box is lined by additional supporting thick cardboard.
The Nahel Argama is a really clean build with shaped and differently sized pegs helping you along the way. Unlike the White Base there are no sprues with components to deal with and there is only a single option part so you'll have her assembled in a hot minute.
Man, what a clean and crisp look! The figure looks absolutely fantastic and the muted colours gives the model a realistic feel to it. This being a hard plastic model you will encounter some obvious seam lines in places that may bother a pedantic eye. Paint applications are sometimes a cause for concern with Converge mobile suit figures but I haven't encountered any nasty issues in the SB series so far and this figure is looking nice and clean.
There is only a single gimmick to the Nahel Argama figure, two option parts for the large Hyper Mega Particle Cannon are provided and you can swap them out to change between the extended and stowed modes of the weapon. It would have been really awesome if this was a movable part but you don't really see it for most of the time anyway. The real elephant in the room is of course the lack of a damaged port-side flight-deck. This ship has been released with the missing flight deck several times already and my guess is that the team at Bandai are holding it back for a possible second release further down the SB-line (provided the series keeps going of course, I am yet to see or hear any announcement for SB08...).
The original Converge SB Nahel Argama figure came with tiny figurines representing the FXA-08R Mega Rider and the ZZ Gundam's FXA-07GB Core Fighter and this time we instead get a single D-50C Loto transformed into tank mode. I have to say it would have been nice to get something more than a single Loto, it feels a bit stingy.
I didn't really think about just how much that has changed between the Nahel Argama in Mobile Suit ZZ Gundam and Unicorn respectively, this side-by-side view shows just how many modifications the designers had to do. In this light I must say the Bandai crew did an awesome job, and the very different colour palettes clearly represent the very different feel that each show had; quirky and colourful in Double Zeta and more toned down and realistic in Unicorn. Personally I think the new version blows the older figure out of the water and it would be the version to choose if I had to limit myself to just a single figure.
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