What do you do when your product has gone stale or your sales are in decline? Well, you reinvent yourself. Wouldn't it be great to come up with a new way to sell the same product to your customer all over again? Well it appears Bandai may had this idea back in 2008. With the SD Full Color Custom series winding down after its 20th set a period began when the company would toy with brand Spin-offs in the popular Gashapon format. Impact was one of the first such lines and premiered with this set in October 2008.
At first sight this looks very much like your average SD Full Color figure set but there are some notable differences in the conceptual design. The figures are smaller, feature less paint applications and have very little to no articulation, instead being propped up on little action bases in dynamic poses. The impact of this change differs from figure to figure.
01 : GN-0000 00 Gundam
You can easily date the Impact-brand based on its first slot being occupied by the 00 Gundam which was the current hotness in the autumn of 2008. It is as you can see from the images a very unremarkable looking thing. While the sculpting of the figure is at least somewhat decent the paint applications are as minimal as possible. Care is generally take to the face section and maybe shoulders and torso but from then on you won't get a lot to rejoice about in the SD Gundam Impact line. Notice also the two feet that are fused together.
Side-by-side with what I presume is supposed to be Trans-am colour version of the double oh, released in Impact 04 in February 2009. There is also a 00 with the 0-Raiser in Impact 03 as well as a late entry into the Full Color Custom series celebrating the 30th anniversary in 2009.
02 : GN-006 Cherudim Gundam
Another fresh face! The Cherudim Gundam joins the SD line-up in what must be said is a very... green appearance. Man, the colouring on these figures is really pathetic. The suit itself has a fairly vibrant mix of white and greens but here we only get a couple of splotches in the face and that's it. Perhaps at some point I should have these figures commission painted and they could probably end up looking pretty good but I don't really know how suitable these soft PVC figures are for permanent paint applications in the first place.
Again, another Trans-am colour variant from Impact 04 and yes it isn't much to look at either. However, as far as SD Gashapon are concerned, this is a unique mobile suit choice for SD Impact, not available anywhere else to my knowledge.
The Impact-series collects the main four successor-suits from the second season between volumes 01 and 02. There is also both an 0 Raiser and the combined 00 Gundam + 0 Raiser available in Impact 03 and Mr. Bushido's Ahead Sakigake in volume 05 but I haven't stumbled across these so far and don't expect to anytime soon unfortunately.
03 : ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom Gundam
When you are producing a low end figure series on the cheap you might want to focus on simplistic mobile suits and not try to squeeze in something fancy like the Strike Freedom with its man different colours. Besides that beam shield on the arm I guess you could convert this figure in to the base X10A Freedom Gundam by repainting that golden dot on the chest red instead. Notice also that oddly shaped mini-base underneath the right foot. It is supposed to create a more interesting pose I guess but it just blends together with the figure in general.
Teaming up with the Infinite Justice Gundam from Impact 02. There are a couple more SEED-theme figures in the Impact line, the Destiny, Akatsuki and somehow the Aegis but not the Strike Gundam (perhaps it was intended to have followed if the line didn't fold after only five sets).
04 : RX-93 Nu Gundam
Whenever there is a new figure series being launched you know there is a pretty good chance of the Nu Gundam and the Sazabi being dragged out to garner some interest. This figure comes across just as flat as the others. Still, the detailing of the sculpt itself is quite good - look at the fin funnels for example - but the end result is still a tiny white figure with huge feet.
To be fair to the Impact figure it is not as if previous SD-releases have been a sea of colour either (the fun funnels especially) but notice how just a few more colour applications make the previous versions that much more interesting to look at.
05 : MSN-04 Sazabi
While the assortment of mobile suits is pretty much all over the place for such a small figure series several units are coming in pairs or little groups so that they can spar or support each other. Here we have a Sazabi ready to subdue the Nu Gundam wielding not only its large Beam Tomahawk but also a regular beam saber. The signature shield is there as well but it disappears in a red lump of plastic on the backside of the left arm which is a shame, the shield is usually what adds some flair to this otherwise very red looking plastic figure. There are no yellow details painted on the figure anywhere not even a dot.
Again, the forerunner SD Gundam Full Color version of the Sazabi wasn't a marvel of painting either but you could at least see its shield clearly. Note also the general difference in sculpting, the old figure is bulky and static while the Impact figure is slimmer in an effort to be more dynamic.
It's duelling time! None of the pilots seems to give their shields any thought, they are simply hanging limply from their arms. If it was me sitting in that thing I'd curl up behind the shield - actually no, I would equip the long-range weaponry...
MS-06 Zaku II
Next up we have a good ol' mass-production type Zaku II. This figure is a bit of an oddity in Impact since it isn't really matching up with anyone. An RX-78-2 Gundam will eventually arrive in Impact 05 together with the Zeong, and Johnny Ridden's High Mobility Type also makes an appearance in Impact 03 but beyond that it sits very lonely here. This figure clearly show why the supporting base needs to be of a distinctly different colour. This is one of the better looking figures to come out of the Impact-line in my opinion.
Size-comparison with some of the many Zaku IIs that have appeared in the Full Color-line over the years. I deliberately picked some of the smaller figures as well as one of the large and fairly primitive ones from the early days of the Full Color-era.
07 : Shin Musha Gundam
Impact does that same thing that Gashapon Senshi Forte used to do, which is sprinkling in character Gundam figures here and there in the sets. Each set features one such figure except Impact 02 which has two of them. The samurai-style Shin Musha was given the honour of being first and while it suffers from the same problem of limited paint applications as the other Impact figures it at least has a couple of interesting colours in place. However, if you look at the detail on the figure's back you can make out a lot detail and the extra weapons that just scream to be painted up. A good painter should be able to elevate these figures to a completely new level.
The Shin Musha Gundam hanging out together with some of the other characters. On the left we have the Musha Zeta Centaur Mode from Impact 04 and on the right the Knight Gundam and Musha Gundam Mk-II from Impact volume 02.
Conclusion
Coming from the history established by the SD Gundam Full Color and Full Color Custom lines it is hard to whip up any enthusiasm for the Impact line, it seems to me it was doomed to failure already from its inception. The only reason to seek out this series in my opinion is to find the couple of esoteric mobile suits that did not make it into the older series. While Impact figures aren't that expensive prices have gone up significantly the past couple of years (this appears to be a general trend for Gundam Gashapon in general), the main problem is the availability. I'm really curious what would happen if Bandai decided to revisit the Full Color line in 2026, reissuing older figures as well as mixing in new figures from the television series that weren't even invented back in those days.
No comments:
Post a Comment