Mobile Suit Ensemble Part 29

I was looking back into the history of Ensemble and was surprised to see that my review of Part 28 was published almost a year ago. Now granted, MSE Part 29 was released all the way back in September itself, but various issues meant I didn't get it onto the assembly table until this weekend. The most annoying problem was that the equipment packs I had ordered turned out to be duplicate wing binders for the Black Knight Squad instead. This gave me Vietnam War flashbacks of similar problems when trying to purchase the ol' ZAKU Warrior from Part 18 and being shipped equipment packs instead. A cursory glance into that box will reveal an green helmet option part in the equipment pack that Mandarake staff kept misidentifying as the figure itself. It even went so far that I had to put requests to verify the item they were selling in the order comments only to be told that the pickers at the SAHRA warehouse could not accommodate such request... not Mandarake's proudest moment. I still have half a dozen surplus packs sitting in a box somewhere.


Beyond Parts 28 and 29 there were actually three additional retail waves last year (plus some reissues of older sets); the Hatsune Miku collab that I reviewed last year as well as the Requiem for Vengeance special set (still can't get my hands on Iria Solari's Zaku) and the Fukuoka special with the RX-93ff and MSN-04FF - two figure's that I haven't even seen on the secondary market yet. Today however, we will be looking at a classic retail set, number 29. In fact, Part 30 released in Japan this January so with my track record expect to see it on here six months from now or something. Alright, enough waffle, let's get to it.



205 : GQuuuuuuX (Omega Psycommu Activated)


First out we have the plague of 2025, the ever-present GQuuuuuuX. This overly complicated Evangelion-wannabe design has some strange quirks to it but is pretty much a classic Ensemble figure, albeit the articulation is a bit hampered by its crowded anatomy. A lot of Part 29's budget has clearly gone into the painting and it looks really vibrant and the coloured blue joint pieces fit in really nicely. The whole figure does feel pretty static though, and its small and strangely inward pointing feet make it a bit unstable. Not a bad figure at all, but I imagine what you could have done with its budget if you spent it on simpler builds. It would be interesting to see how far its budget would have gone towards a GM Sniper and a Zaku Flipper for example.


The engineering team has been tampering with the little sprues that contain the joints and skeletal components. Besides coming in that harder sky blue plastic you can also see that one half of one of the sprues has been omitted and the hands come in black colour on a different sprue. No expense was spared on this thing. Notice also how this figure is the first to have feet that do not attach vertically into the legs, instead the connector pieces fit at a 90-degree angle at the ankles. Very peculiar but it works fairly well. Notice also the complete absence of any accessories.






206 : NOG-M2D1/E Black Knight Squad Cal-re.A


The Ensemble design team have another fancy design in store for us. While the Black Knight Squad machines are mostly white there is a lot of crisp gold trim all over its body and we have some shiny metallic colouring in blues and purples as well. It looks very regal although the Levitator Wings on its back look a bit bland and could have used a little extra colour. We will return to them shortly.


The Cal-re.A (who names these things?) comes with two traditional "full" sprues with joints and frame components including the hands, in gold colour plastic this time. I don't know if I am imagining things but the material feels slightly softer than the sky blue counterparts in the GQuuuuuuX box. I recall that the SD Gashapon Senshi Forte figures were also playing around with differently coloured connecting pieces on some of the later figures shortly before it folded. Again, no proper accessories are included with the figure. Is this a new trend? What are included though are two super-tiny Anti-Mobile Suit swords that rest in dedicated slots on the side skirts. As soon as you touch the figure you will nudge a sword and it will fall off. Glue these MFs in place before they drive you insane...






207 : Black Knight Squad Expansion Set


I can't say with certainty which figure is the highlight of Part 29 but this is definitely its lowpoint. It is a box of wing components that fit on to the Cal-re.A figure, just like we had the Proud Defender in Part 28, the wings of the Rising Freedom Gundam in Part 27 and the Skydart Lifter System in Part 26. Thank the maker that Bandai has turned its eyes away from SEED Freedom because these things are really boring. Still, this thing is really huge (and over-engineered?) because it fills up the entire box so there is no way you could have fit it in the equipment pack or bundled with the figure itself (at least not at this size). You might wonder why there are bags labelled A, B and C. Well, the online build instructions make no reference to them but the A-bag contains four identical sets of wing components while the B-bag contains their mirror images. It looks complicated but you'll get the hang of it quickly.


The main thing that bothers me so much about the Ensemble SEED Freedom figures is that the basic figure will come with a miniature version of the option parts that are then repeated in more intricacy in a bag of its own. What am I supposed to do with the parts from the original figure? Total waste of plastic and manufacturing budget (not to mention customer's money as these things will plonk out randomly from Gacha machines or from you buying blindly in a store). I'll talk more on this subject further down in this review.


You may have noticed that the two wing sets have identical mounts, only the wings are larger and now articulated. You can do all sorts of bending and flexing but as you can imagine, the figure will require heavy support or it will just topple over unless you balance everything perfectly. When removing the original wings and putting these things on parts kept falling off the main figure at an alarming rate, parts of the skirt armour, those blasted swords, even the chest plating. Pick one set and never touch this figure again is my advice. the large wings do look cool though. A shame we can't get the red levitation effect as optional pieces, it would have improved the look of this figure further, perhaps there will be a really expensive P-Bandai wing kit out in the future. For now you can of course look at the smaller Capsule Index Gashapon figure as a red-winged option.


Here we see the wings folded halfway to mimic the pose of the basic figure. This looks pretty good too but the weight at the back means the slightest vibration or breeze will topple the figure unless you plonk it on a base. An as we all know, the Ensemble bases aren't very sturdy either. We are now around 300 figures deep in Ensemble but there has never been an attempt to swap out the retail figure bases for something better.




208 : MSM-07S Z'Gok (Char's Custom)


I haven't discussed Ensemble quality control so far but let me just say that it appears to be slipping. My Part 29 set had a surprising amount of pieces that just did not fit together as they should. We're not talking bendy plastic here but peg holes filled with excess plastic or paint that needed to be carved out, peg holes that were squeezed or crushed turning them slightly oval, one figure has a partially deformed foot and I had to remove one of the pegs on the Z'Gok body that is supposed to hold the front and back armour plating together. I am not liking this trend one bit.


As far as Char's Z'Gok goes though, this is a simple colour swap of the mass-production type from Part 27. I don't mind alternate colour variants when they fit in with the lore (go ahead and make an olive green Zeon Remnants version and I will happily buy it) but the overall feel of the Ensemble Z'Gok is still the same letdown as I found it in Part 27. My main problem with the figure is that its claws are supposed to be white. Hello, Bandai, what are you doing!? They spend who knows how much of the budget on drawing little yellow stripes on the GQuuuuuuX's thighs but refuse to get the colour on the Z'Gok's claws correct? Every bloody Z'Gok even released in Gasha or Shokugan format the past 20 years have managed to do that with little trouble but oh no, here comes Ensemble with a fantastic cost-saving idea. It is just beyond cheap. Don't think I don't notice how the claws have also melted together into a single cone. Bandai love's putting little sprues with Converge figures, surely a little sprue with six white claws could have worked for the Z'Gok figures too. Not impressed.


Char flanked by his equally toothless looking mass-production counterparts from Ensemble Part 27. I may have to get these figures painted up but I'm not sure the effort is really worth it if I am being honest. What a depressing sight.






209 : Equipment Set for Wave 29


The equipment pack for wave 29 is really all about accessories. Sometimes Bandai puts additional bodyparts in here but this time it is all about weaponry (well, yeah the Z'Gok's claws are technically part of its body but you catch my drift). The infuriating practice of sticking all the weapons for Part 29 in a single box means there will be a lot of unarmed figures out there on people's shelves. Not everyone will be pre-ordering 10-boxes from P-Bandai but Bandai wants to guarantee that you will have a miserable time if you don't.


So what is in the box then? Well, we have three different weapon options for the GQuuuuuuX. We have the Universal Century classic the Heat Hawk as well as one of the GQ's own beam saber thingies. The fact that both weapons are molded in transparent clear plastic means you really need to paint them up but at least on the plus-side, you can get a nice transparent effect going on the blade-sections of each weapon if you persevere. The beam rifle and shield combo is fully coloured and easily the go-to choice for me.


The Cal-re.A figure also gets two weapon choices. You can either equip two Anti-MS Swords (that are much larger than the tiny ones seen on its hips by the way) or a good ol' high-energy beam rifle. remember kids, don't bring swords to a gunfight. Speaking about the swords, they would have looked better in white or grey I think, and it wouldn't be too much work to put a nice red edge on them after that.


Incidentally, the coolest component in all of Part 29 is reserved for the Z'Gok. And no, I am not talking about the two optional hands with open claws but the spectacular barrage of head-launched 240mm missiles. This accessory was found also on the regular Z'Gok figure but this time around Bandai have actually enhanced it a bit by adding a yellow glow effect in one end of the smoke trail to create this really cool looking exhaust effect. Be warned though, these things are fiddly to work with and very prone to falling off so glue these little suckers into place before you lose them.




Conclusion

What to say about Part 29 then? I must confess that immediately after completing the assembly I was pretty annoyed and fed up with the various shortcomings I felt the figures suffer from. Now that some time has passed those frustrations have faded away somewhat and I have to admit that although this set is far from my favourite, the figures are mostly excellent well-sculpted and highly detailed. If you can look past some of their defects I think they are a fair inclusion into the collection but I really want Bandai to look into doing something less fancy and more true and tested now. I want to see Ground Type GMs with bulky missile launchers, Zaku Mariners with Subroc launchers, Oz Leos in different colours with different accessories. I'm so bored with the "latest and greatest" trend that is engulfing all of the Gundam Gashapon and Shokugan brands where everyone is pretty much focusing on the same suits at the same time.

Gundam Card Game - Iron Bloom Starter Deck (ST05) [English]

At the risk of recycling old-hat content we will return to the Iron Bloom starter set for the Gundam Card Game. There is already a review up for the Japanese edition (link) but I figured this might be a more useful reference for international players. The box was released internationally on September 25 2025 and quickly sold out pretty much everywhere. After being available only through unscrupulous secondary sources for a bit Bandai Namco eventually decided to do a second print run in December and the pack has since returned to the pegs, in my region it happened in early January. Iron Bloom is of course yesterday's news since it was followed by ST06 in October and recently sets ST07 and ST08 in mid-January - two starter sets that quickly sold out here again even though Bandai promised to raise the production numbers so I guess I will be sitting around hoping for a second print run. Man, I am beginning to loathe this game.


Iron Bloom or ST05 as it is commonly referred to is the first starter deck of the game to introduce the fifth violet colour. In keeping with the starter format the deck is made up of a combination of white and violet cards with a definitive slant towards the latter which makes sense; it is a new faction choice and thus needs to get on the ground quickly.


Here is a quick comparison of the Japanese and English packaging variants. I find it a little bit amusing that a starter deck is referred to as a start deck in Japan but that is pretty much the only aesthetic difference I found.


The contents mimics the four first generation starter decks; a fixed set of 50 cards for the playing deck plus another 10 resource cards, a playmat/rulebook and the randomized single-card promo pack that Bandai puts in there to entice you to buy multiple starter sets.


You get a full-colour playmat with the starter that also features a quick breakdown of the rules on the flip-side. As I have stated before this is not the ideal way to do it and a mini-booklet would have been a more logical choice but I suppose there won't be much need to reference it much once you get up to speed.


The first 30 cards consist of units and are easily the most interesting components. Here we have brand new artwork for nine mobile suits (eight plus one mobile worker vehicle if we are to be picky) all pulled from the Iron-Blooded Orphans TV-series. Rather than repeat the previous review word for word (linky...) I'll just state here that two thirds of the cards are centred on Tekkadan for violet while Gjallarhorn has to make do with nine white cards only (but there are a total of seven Graze in there, nice!)


The pilot- and command cards share the same lopsided distribution; McGillis has to fend off those pesky Tekkadan kids himself. Tsk, tsk. I am still sitting on an unopened box of the second booster pack set for the Gundam Card Game and am hoping to find more fire support for Gjallarhorn in there. That review has been put on hold due to terrible gloomy weather and the fact that my camera broke down and I had to get a replacement.


Iron Bloom is the first starter box to get rid of the "Token Cards" and instead comes with the same old miserably ugly resource cards as we saw in the other starters. The Gundam Card Game should have taken a page out of the old Gundam War NEX-A game which featured different card art for the different colours; it could just be something so simple as the cover image from the starter box. Anything is better than this. I'd consider using tokens or chits with two different colours and flip them over instead.

So, which promo card did I get this time? There are 16 possibilities, each card type featured in this package upgraded into foil (and the two "legendary rare" foil cards get a slightly altered foil version). You of course want to get a mobile suit and with 9 chances out of 16 the probability should be pretty high but I am instead really good at pulling command cards which is what I ended up with again. I'm starting to think that the distribution might be skewed because out of the eight promos I have opened four are command cards. I shouldn't complain too much though - I got a Graze in the Japanese version after all.

Gundam Converge #28

Converge #Sharp 28 is an extended 7-figure volume that was released on November 3, 2025 although technically I guess you could say it is five different figures or even four mobile suits and an extension if you are particularly picky. Whatever the case I love sinking my teeth into these larger Converge retail sets although I am curious exactly how these figures are distributed in a 10-box, must be a bit of a headache from a logistics perspective.


While the box sizes may have shifted over time the Converge packaging has stayed true to its original design form since 2011 which is something I really appreciated. The ugly QR-codes that appear on some of the boxes are still a bit of an eyesore and I wish they could hide them away somewhere else on the side or even inside the lid.


Everything is as it should be also inside the boxes. We have the same old multi-compartment plastic bags, the same old cardboard padding that rarely manages to protect the component it is assigned to and the same old chewing gum. Good stuff!


As I was preparing the figures for review I realized that the GQ Zakus were actually coming with different accessories and so I ended up delaying the work to order a couple more. This is the total amount of figures used to display the various suit types you will see in this review.



309 : GN-0000 00 Gundam


The 00 Gundam is one of the older Converge figures and it is finally being revisited for a makeover. There is nothing particularly exciting about the new #sharp version, it is a bit larger and the front camera is now molded in clear red plastic. The biggest difference is that the pegged foot is replaced by one of those clear plastic supports that clip around the left ankle. As you can see in the photos this can cause the figure to lean into it in an unfortunate fashion but you can easily opt to display the figure without it and let the weapon act as a support if needed.


There are no optional weapons or accessories included with the 00 Gundam. personally I would have liked to see a second GN Sword II as well as optional holding hands, perhaps there will be an expensive CORE-variant with optional equipment further down the line.


The original 00 Gundam figure was released as part of volume 9 in December 2012 and is typically selling for 1500-2000 yen on the secondary market right now. The new figure is a good opportunity to pick up a cheaper version but you can't go wrong with either in my opinion. The older figure still looks just as good, has the same equipment and features and looks a bit meaner and leaner I think.






310 : GNR-010 0 Raiser


You can't facelift the 00 Gundam without an accompanying 0 Raiser and so here it follows. While the sculpt is all new it really doesn't differ much from the original version, the main difference is again in the basing. The new figure sits on a smaller clear rectangular base. While this looks really good in isolation it is a bit jarring to have a figure stand out from the others with a different base colour. Bandai have always been a bit schizophrenic about the Converge bases and I think they should just commit to one style and stick to it in general.


While not obvious at first glance both the 00 Gundam and the 0 Raiser figures feature some light parts transformation which we will examine closer below.


Side-by-side with the original 0 Raiser which is also from the original volume nine. As you can see the two are very similar, the older figure is slightly larger, more elongated and has a lighter shade of blue (the original figure actually has more paint applications to it). The colours of the GN Sword III have been changed and stand out more but overall I feel the new figure is a bit of a downgrade.






309+310 : GN-0000+GNR-010 00 Raiser


The main gimmick of #Sharp 28 is the conversion of the 00 and the 0 into the 00 Raiser. Parts-swapping involves flipping the back-end of the Raiser and reattach it to simulate it literally bending over backwards and remove its wing-like binders before affixing them to the shoulders of the 00 Gundam. While these should ordinarily cover up the two white GN Drives these are instead removed from the Converge figure. Lastly you replace the GN Sword II with the III-version carried by the 0 Raiser and attach what remains of the fighter to the mobile suit's back.


I purchased two of each figure to be able to pose both variants side by side without having to switch components back and forth all the time, an alternative if you already have the first generation figures could be to simply keep one set combined and the other as individual figures.






311 : RX-78-02 White Gundam


After this brief stint into Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (Hey Bandai, I wouldn't mind staying longer and seeing some Flags, Aheads or GNXes you know...) focus shifts back to last year's darling GQuuuuuuX. The White Gundam may share its designation with the classic RX-78 from The Origin (you know, the one with the shoulder cannon and the upside down shield) but all likeness pretty much ends there. This hockey mask Gundam looks like it accidentally stepped in from the Neon Genesis Evangelion studio next door and was simply given a classic RX-78 paint for the hell of it. While I am not too impressed by the repurposing of mobile suits into different eras I think we can give Whitey hear a pass and the figure looks much better in this compact Converge form than its usual overall lanky appearance.


While the figure comes with the archetypical weapons combo of a rifle and a shield we also find a pair of small sprues tossed into the box. The white sprue contains the beam saber hilts to be stored on the black backpack - I always appreciated this gesture but it would have been even better to actually get a proper beam saber as well. The black sprue contains six small pegs that you plug into holes spread across the figure's arms and legs. These are extension points kind of like pylons on a fighter jet. Ironically you have to remove them to actually attach accessories such as the shield but hey, it looks cool.


Here is a lean view of the White Gundam sans external equipment. The shield would normally occupy the left elbow slot and so replace that component. I wouldn't have minded an optional closed right hand, it would have looked even better when standing in a neutral pose like this. Maybe we get some extra gear in the premium Red Bandai package that could be reused here? (still waiting for mine to arrive)






312 : MS-06 Char's Zaku [GQ]


The next unit to get a GQ-makeover is the Zaku II and I don't really know what to say about it. The new Zaku is for all intents and purposes still the same thing as in the Universal Century but with as many bodily mutations as possible without upsetting the original concept. Yes, it still has the same spiked left shoulder and right shoulder shield, the same old wires running from back to front and even the same old commander antenna but the overall appearance has been altered as much as possible. It now has underarm armour plating (you'd think it would be more useful in front) and strange bulbous outcroppings on its thighs that look like fuel tanks. The suit no longer has any skirt armour and so the thrusters are fully exposed. A lot of the black coloured regions are instead painted dark red on the Converge figure for some reason.


The figure comes with two armament options; the GQ-equivalents of the Zaku Machine Gun and the Zaku Bazooka (the latter is for some reasons not described on the Gundam Wiki, has it not appeared in the animation perhaps?). While the hands are molded directly onto the weapons they are the same colour as on the mass-production type Zaku [GQ] so they are freely interchangeable.


Optional weapons on display, the Heat Hawk comes from the mass-production type figure in the same set. I'm thinking about painting up the blade in yellow, just need to confirm that is the colour they light up in also in the GQ-era...






313 : MS-06 Zaku [GQ]


The mass-production version of the GQ Zaku looks very much like the previous figure save for the altered head sculpt sans the antenna. Here we see more of the black colour applications where a dark red was used on the Char-variant also for areas that are supposed to be a dark green. I'll have to assume that the toy designers tested many options to figure out what would look the best with only one additional colour applied. Interestingly the top of the head has a different colour than the front, it looks a bit odd and was not used on the Char figure. I didn't mention it earlier but the look of that crotch thruster is really unfortunate centred between those two round hip joints, what the hell was the designer smoking? An easy way around it would have been to alter the shape of the thruster or maybe install a pair, once you notice this it becomes very hard to unsee.


I am happy that the two Zaku figures come with different accessories as this opens up for even more variants to display. One of the more interesting designs to come out of GQ is the MS-06-SSP Police Zaku and I really hope it will also come to Converge (yeah, right...).


All three weapon options currently available for the GQ Zaku next to each other. Bandai, take note - This is how you trick customers into buying multiple collectible figures.


Allt the GQ figures released in Converge so far. The Red Gundam should be coming up on here soon and after that we have the gFReD to look forward to in May. There is also yet another colour variant of the White Base from Converge SB arriving around that time, but I guess that might be it.






314 : RGM-79N GM Custom


The final two slots are dedicated to Universal Century proper, and what a way to finish off the set with a pair of grunt suits! First up is the toothpaste-coloured GM Custom from Stardust Memory. I think the designers decided to cut costs here because it is a bit lacking in the colour-department. I can forgive the missing reds on the shoulders or the downward facing leg thrusters but I wish the knee joints would have been painted up the same way as the ankle joints. Overall though, the figure is looking pretty sharp.


The figure is armed with the 90mm HFW-GR*MR82 rifle which is an interesting weapon as well as its signature shield. The head antenna has a large triangular peg that you will have to push in really hard to fit properly, take care not to damage it.


Several mobile suits from Stardust Memory are still waiting and hoping for inclusion in the Converge line-up but the GM Custom has actually been seen before, a long time ago in Converge volume 8, released in October of 2012. While I really like the original figure the #Sharp revision is an upgrade in almost every aspect.






315 : RGM-79Q GM Quel


I was surprised to see Bandai choosing to release a second variant of the GM Custom figure and here is the GM Quel; a further development of the GM Custom destined for Titans elite force use. The two figures are very similar but the Quel has redesigned shoulders and notable sculpt changes at the forehead and lower arms.


The Quel comes with the same accessories as the GM Custom which I think is a lost opportunity. There are many interesting weapon options for the GM family - several different rifle types, bazookas and beam sabers. Imagine if this figure had come with a bazooka for example, then I would have been happy to pick up multiples and kit them out accordingly. Bandai really hit that sweet spot when they designed the Dingo Squad and Matsunaga sets that are brimming with weaponry.


While I am always missing this or that particular GM variant I have to say that the Converge line-up is pretty good right now. There is still plenty of work left to do though so I hope that Bandai will continue to stick with Converge for many years to come. :)






Conclusion

Wrapping things up, Converge #28 is another lovely set of highly detailed figures that continue to push the line forward. If you are a strict Universal Century aficionado the contents are a bit limited and the set does contain a couple of resculpts as well but on the other hand, if you are into GQ this is the go to-set.