Vinyl Chloride Spirits Full Color SD Gundam The Pop3

A couple of weeks back we looked at a pair of self-distributed publications covering the history of Bandai's various Gashapon SD figurines, or rather, some of the brands in this long running series. The first book went through the original SD Full Color series while the second volume focused on other issues and mainly the overseas editions from Bandai USA. Still, neither edition covered some of the other major series, the most glaringly obvious example being the SD Gundam Full Color Custom successor series. I don't know what caused the author to skip over this series but I do recall reading how the book series expanded wildly beyond his plans and so it probably became an impossibility on the current budget. I suppose there is the possibility that he might actually not have access to all the FCC figures but that seems highly unlikely.


Whatever the reason might be, we have a third volume in this series with a completely different title, format (landscape instead of portrait) and concept. "The POP3" is a much smaller tome clocking in at 60 pages, where the original two books were 156 and 74 pages respectively. And where the previous books went into covering each figure with detailed photographs this book is a simple collection of Gashapon mounts; those stiff cardboard sheets that go into the front slot of the Gashapon vending machine.


If you are unsure what the purpose of this book might be a quick glance on the first page will tell you everything about it immediately. Here we see images that grazed vending machines in October 1997 and February 1998 and the first two SD Full Color Stages went and became part of Gashapon history. The price of ¥100 for a figure permeates through all the sets you will see in this book - the two exceptions being the two larger SD Full Color DX sets - it wasn't until Gashapon Warrior NEXT came around that ¥200 became the new norm. Prices continued to climbed with Gashapon Warrior DASH upping to ¥300 which was then true for most of the Gashapon Senshi Forte period until the last two volumes that spiralled to ¥400 and ¥500 before the saga was concluded.


There isn't a whole lot to say about the contents of this book really, each image speaks for itself. It is barely even useful as a figure identification tool, since the images are quite tiny but acts more like a collection of memorabilia to feed the nostalgia of us older collectors. Seen above are Stages 8-10 of the Full Color Series, with volume 10 being the first of two "revival" sets that reprinted older figures (the other such set being Stage 17).


As the Full Color series soldiered on, the mounted artwork became more pronounced and eye-catching. The early sets feature photographs of figures in action but these were later replaced with fancy expressive artwork with images of the figures itself almost added as an afterthought. Here we see some wild Mobile Fighter G Gundam battles taking place on the artwork for Stages 32 and 33 and the special 200th figure release in Stage 34.


More cool artwork on display here for Stages 47 through 49 and Stage 51, which was a Zaku Special release. What happened to Stage 50 you might wonder, well flip the page and scroll down a bit...


As you can see there are two different styles for the artwork made for Stage 50, which was a special jubilee edition which also included little coin-like bases for the figures. I don't know why the two different styles exist or if they existed side-by-side or one after the other. Notice also the promotional images of other special releases, the infamous Colony-can filled with Zakus (that I have never seen) and the clear-colour version of the Falmel Musai-class spacecraft playset.


The original Full Color Series ends with Stage 63. However, there was one additional SP release promoting the Bonds of the Battlefield arcade game released several months later. The set recycles older figures and the artwork focuses on showing off the slick arcade cockpit set-up for the players.


Next, the book shows off the handful of Full Color Extra-series released that were released interspersed between the regular Full Color waves. These sets show off Gundam characters from the various SD cartoons and games.


On the right hand page you can see the images for the two DX-figure sets that feature larger figures like mobile armours and vehicles. Each figure also comes with a tiny pilot figure which makes them very collectable.


Here then finally we have the only documentation so far of the SD Gundam Full Color Custom series in these books. I don't know if there are other books out there that cover these in detail but so far this is the only book I have managed to find myself. Maybe our intrepid author will come back in the future with additional volumes in this excellent series of publications?


As the Full Color Custom series drew to a close the later releases were loaded up mostly with single colour translucent figures, mostly in red, black or blue with other colours much less frequent. The mounted artwork also places focus on playability and encourages buyers to pull the figures apart and reassemble them into fantastic creations of their own.


We have some nice coverage of the smaller sets that followed Full Color and Full Color Custom as well. Seen here are the first three volumes of SD Gundam Impact which is an odd and short-lived - pretty abysmal too if I am being honest - series of tiny figures with very basic paintwork and presented in stiff action poses.


Impact was followed by another short-lived experiment called Bind which features two types of figures. Half the set would consist of tiny fully painted mobile suits in official colours and the other half being single colour figures of mobile suits where a limb or other part would have been swapped out into something fantastic. The idea was to collected the full set of these and then combine pieces from all of them into a single large monstruous creature of sorts. The single-colour figures would typically be variations of the figures that were painted up in normal colours although they would typically not be present in the same volume. Seen here are the Gashapon mounts for Bind volume 3 and 4 on the outer left and right. The two centre panels showing off full artwork are intended to be displayed as additional artwork on the top and/or sides off the vending machine based on what the text above the image explains.


Here we have some more images of the crazy Bind-series of figures, showing off waves 5 through 7. The last panel depicts the first of the last of the classic SD Gundam figure sets; Brave Battle Warriors which can also be seen below.


After the four volumes of brave warriors - complete with horses and companion soldiers - the book closes out with a couple of art panels that are supposed to go on top off and on the sides of the Gashapon vending machine. I can't really get my head around if these were created specifically for the book and if so, how you are meant to use them (since you couldn't cut one out without damaging the other). I'll have to assume this is simply documenting promotional material of some kind. All in all, this book does a decent job of closing the gap regarding the missing content in the author's previous books but I really do hope we get to see a fourth volume that goes into the uncovered figures in more detail in the future!

SD Full Color Custom 03

The Full Color Custom-era of figures coincided with SEED Destiny and as a result the figure series is heavily slanted towards it. In fact, the entire first five volumes are dedicated to various suits from SEED, Destiny and its various offshoots, we don't see Universal Century representation until wave six which is pretty remarkable. Volume 03 that we are examining today came out in July 2006 during the golden era of SD-figures when sets containing 10 figures would come out every one or two months in between. Pretty remarkable when you compare to today's complete dearth of releases.


There are plenty of small pieces and tiny accessories that can go missing in a set like this, especially when you are purchasing almost 20 year old figures on the secondary market. You also have the added aggravation of previous owners having assembled the figures incorrectly, putting on the wrong accessories or backpacks etc. It is generally not in your interest to try to explain to a tired shopkeeper (add a language barrier on top) the minute details of Mobile Suit Gundam technology trees. If I notice figures with switched around gear I sometimes just pick up both of them rather than argue about it with the seller...



021 : ZGMF-X42S Destiny Gundam


The suits on display in this set are mostly from the SEED Destiny era or its side-stories so it seems prudent to start off with the Destiny itself. This MS has plenty of appearances in SD format and this particular incarnation is a clean and simple standing pose with its most basic of gear on display. What I really appreciate about this figure is the aggressive looking face sculpt, the small eyes give it a really mean-spirited expression which suits it well.


Posing together with some differently geared up Destiny Gundam figures. The figure on the left is armed with both the sword and the launcher (from Stage 59, released August 2005), the empty-handed figure comes from Stage 56 (April 2005). The two figures on the right come from the SD Full Color Custom range and are armed with rifle and shield (FCC volume 03) and sword and shield (FCC volume 11, July 2007) respectively.






022 : LHM-BB01 Minerva


Just like the large mobile armours, spaceships were a nice inclusion into the SD line but unfortunately we only saw a handful of them. The first five came out during the original reign of the Full Color series - the White Base and the Falmel was the first couple, followed by the Archangel and the Eternal and later also the Minerva. The Full Color Custom line introduces new sculpts of the Archangel, Minerva and Eternal and just before it folded also the Ptolemaios. The Dominion, the Archangel's sister-ship is supposedly also available as a tiny sculpt in the short-lived Data SD Gundam series.


One of the troubles of converting a sleek or elongated battleship into super-deformed format is that the outcome is rather stumpy looking. The Full Color Custom-version also adds the special boosters needed to break out of the Earth's atmosphere to the already compact design and the result is a ship that is nearly twice as wide as it is long. The overall characteristics of the vessel are still retained, but I think the original version from Full Color Stage 59 (released in August 2005) has crisper detail to it.






023 : ZGMF-X56S/α Force Impulse Gundam


The Impulse Gundam is such a non-descript and derivative design that makes it hard to stand out in super-deformed size. Just look at this tired thing; were it not for its (incompletely) painted up shield you'd be hard-pressed to identify it. Not a single creative thought went into its design and as a result it is also one of the least interesting figures in this set.


The old Force Impulse Gundam from Full Color Stage 52 (from October 2004) at least had a little bit of extra painted detail on its shoulder armour and it came with both a beam rifle and one anti-armour knife (my particular unit there has an extra knife from a second copy of said figure).






024 : ZGMF-1001/M Blaze ZAKU Phantom (Rey Za Burrel Custom)


The good old Zaku II was repurposed and found new life in SEED Destiny as the ZAKU-line equipped with a modular range of weapons. The Phantom is an up-specced version of the regular ZAKU Warrior intended for use by commanders or elite pilots. it sports an additional shoulder shield and also features an antenna much like the Commander Type Zaku II. Rey Za Burrel flies a custom unit painted white which seems incredibly dumb from a survival point of view but hey, all the good colours were already taken. The Blaze version sports the grey EX-M Blaze Wizard backpack with additional thrusters and two over-the-shoulder missile launchers.


The original release of Rey's Blaze ZAKU Phantom from Full Color Stage 54 (released in January 2005) is very similar except for a different colour palette. For some reason the old figure does not come with a handheld weapon, something which has now been corrected.






025 : ZGMF-1000/A1 Gunner ZAKU Warrior (Lunamaria Custom)


Next up is a different version of the ZAKU Warrior armed with a beam smart gun which gives me flashbacks to the movie "Aliens" from 1986. This figure sports the EX-A1 Gunner Wizard pack which contains a "large capacity energy tank". I was under the impression that beam weapons are powered by reactors and not by some mysterious fuel. I think the designers simply wanted to make a weapon resembling a minigun or gatling cannon with an enormous magazine. The figure also comes with a Beam Tomahawk which of course is the Cosmic Century version of a Heat Hawk.


Lunamaria's Gunner ZAKU is also a returning face from the old series, seen here on the left. The Stage 56 release from April 2005 looks quite similar to the Full Color Custom version. Again, we have minor colour differences and slightly different sculpts of for example the shoulder spikes, but things like these are difficult to tell apart when you encounter a figure in the field. The biggest difference is that the FCC-figure comes with two weapons and a rack for stowing the gun when not in use, something that the original figure cannot do.






026 : ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam


If there is something I didn't long for it would be yet another version of the Freedom Gundam. On the top of my head, I couldn't tell you just how many variants there are now - just that there are probably one too many. The figure on display here comes with its two beam sabers deployed (but I can still clearly see them attached to the figure's hips as well) and since they are loose accessories you could of course also borrow them to equip another figure in your collection. What the figure does not have is the traditional shield, even though it has peg holes ready for shield use in both its arms.


Rather than just dragging out every Freedom figure for a family photo I decided to focus specifically on the figure from Full Color Stage 54. Both figures can equip both of the sabers in one hand to create a double-edged weapon but the older figure seems particularly designed for this purpose.






027 : MBF-P03 Gundam Astray Blue Frame


Unlike the popular sword-wielding Astray Red Frame the Blue Frame is all about ranged support weaponry. Currently in the employ of the Serpent Tail mercenary command it wields a ZAFT M68 Cattus recoilless rifle, a weapon typically seen in the hands of the GINN and a custom 8-barrel guided missile launcher on the left shoulder. You can of course hand the rifle to the GINN if you feel like it, and speaking of...






028 : ZGMF-1017 GINN


...it just so happens that we have a GINN figure in this wave as well. I am not a huge fan of the proportions given to that enormous crest on its head but at least the figure has the same body-proportions as the others in this set. Sometimes oversized fins and antennas like this lead the designers to shrink the body of the figure but thankfully this was not done here. The GINN can carry an assortment of different weapons, this particular figure is armed with a pair of unwieldy anti-installation missile launchers of the M66 Canus type.


We've seen the M66-equipped GINN also in the SD Full Color series, it appeared already in Stage 41 in May 2003. The original figure has then FCC beat on everything except parts-swapping - the sculpt is tighter, more menacing looking and the paint applications are both show accurate and more luxurious. It even sports the leg-mounted M68 Pardus triple missile-launchers that have been painted orange. A touch act to follow for the new figure unfortunately.






029 : GFAS-X1 Destroy Gundam


The Destroy Gundam is an enormous weapons platform that stands around three times as tall as the average mobile suit. If Bandai had kept the Full Color DX figure series running it would have stood as a given candidate for inclusion (together with a little Stellar Loussier pilot figure of course) but instead we have to make do with this tiny representation. The suit can transform between mobile suit and mobile armour mode and the figure seen here has had its large circular weapons platform swung forward obscuring the upper body of the suit entirely. Notice how the figure has peg holes compatible with other figure's arms and how the Aufprall 13 beam cannons have handles for your figures to equip them as you see fit. This is entirely for the benefit of playability (the selling point of the Full Color Custom line after all), as the cannons would never be operated in this manner in universe.


The mobile suit mode of the Destroy Gundam appears in Full Color Custom 11 (released July 2007) and it also has the ability to transform into mobile armour form but is as you can see in the above comparison even smaller. There is also a mobile suit mode figure in the old figure line in Full Color Stage 57 (from May 2005) but I don't have it available for comparison.






030 : GAT-X105E+AQM/E-X09S Strike Noir Gundam


The last slot is occupied by the Strike Noir Gundam, a beautiful black and grey design with some yellow detail here and there. This figure is instead painted all black and features a couple of white highlights on areas that would normally have been grey, so the result is pretty poor and makes it even more difficult to recognize this figure and I often mix it up with the Astray Gold Frame which is also very black. It comes armed like a gunslinger with two short beam rifles that bring a little bit of colour to this otherwise dreary figure.


There are no other versions of the Strike Noir in the Full Color series save for a transparent black version so I placed it next to the Astray Gold Frame Amatsu Mina Custom here since I keep mixing them up. The latter comes from Full Color Custom 14 and was released in November 2007.






Conclusion

I guess in closing I can say that FCC 03 is a set that has a lot of repeats from the original Full Color figure series. While they all bring something new the fact that seven out of ten slots have been filled with possible duplicates (and all of them except one being unique mobile suits at that) makes it a bit less exciting than it should be. Still, if you enjoy Full Color figures you will find little reason to be unhappy with them. The main problem is of course availability; your best bet is probably finding them piecemeal on local second-hand markets (highly increasing the probability that they might also be incomplete).