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.
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