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.
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