I don't know what happened to the mystical summer skies but it suddenly got really dark around here. Well, actually I do - it is the same story every year - a thick blanket of oppressively dark clouds has moved in and parked above the continent and it plans on staying for a while. Hello, Autumn. Well, that should at least give plenty of opportunity to try out the gimmick of the figures in today's review. Today we are examining a one-off set from the glory days of Gundam Shokugan from the mid-2010s.
Being a candy toy, each Cosmic Light figure gets its own dedicated box-art, the appearance of which gives me heavy FW STANDart-vibes. There are four mobile suits to collect with no variants or secret figures. The set was released in November 2014 and I have read that these were P-Bandai exclusives. This seems a bit odd for a Shokugan figure set - the whole candy-toy idea is intended for display in convenience stores and so I cannot confirm it. It is not unusual to see Shokugan figures released as premium only - Converge does it all the time - but then there is usually also a main series available through retail.
Anyway, the price is quoted at around 4500 yen for a semi-randomized set of six boxes. I have ignored these ever since they came out but an opportunity presented itself and I decided to pick a set up a while ago. The price was 5000 jpy if I remember correctly - quite steep for figures such as these but that's what the market is looking like lately.
The figures are packaged in the typical plastic bags that have been in use for Gundam Shokugan-figures for the last fifteen years or so. Both the bags themselves and the plastic material is sticky to the touch as the material has slowly begun to separate. This process can be accelerated if the figures are stored in a humid environment.
Each figure is supplied with a light-up base where a coloured LED-light is powered by two LR41-batteries that are also provided. The batteries are decoupled with this little plastic strip to prevent them from running dry while still in package. However, after all these years two sets had completely deteriorated while the other two were good to go. Notice that the colours of the lights aren't exactly matching what you would expect to see. Rather than red, the light produced is pink and the green is more of a minty tone and so on.
Something else that didn't endure the test of time was the Shokugan chewing gum inside the boxes. You can see them on the right there next to a couple of fresh examples from my spare pile on the left. These figures were probably stored in a bad environment because I have a whole bag of more than 10-year old samples that look just as mint as when they were new.
RX-93 Nu Gundam
That's a buff looking RX-93, isn't it? You can immediately see what this series is all about with the odd combination of translucent and opaque parts mixed up in an interesting fashion. It is kind of impressive to see components with a fade effect like the lower edge of the shield which is gradually become see-through. It creates an interesting effect even when not illuminated but I'd lie if I say it was attractive. The eyes are of course intended to glow up so they just disappear under regular lightning conditions.
The figures do indeed have a bit of FW STANDart-vibe about them. There are a couple of articulation points but the feet are also on ball-joints to allow the figure to dangle its feet in flying mode. Some of the joints are quite loose and some figures are maddeningly uncooperative with pieces falling off constantly. It is a bit of luck of the draw. The triangular action base is standardised for all the figures in the set, only the colour of the LED differs between them.
The Cosmic Light figures are fairly small, here you can see the RX-93 next to companions from the Gashapon HG series on the left and the STANDart family on the right. It should be pointed out that individual sizes vary in the HG series depending on suit (this Nu for example is comparatively small), but the STANDart series are a bit more consistent around the 1:220 scale.
Alright then, time to apply some cosmic light magic. It is hard to capture the effect properly and these photographs become a bit washed out. The glowing effect on the translucent sections does look better in real life but I found that the little LED won't necessarily cover all the body parts. Thus I found that the figure may have to lean in quite steeply to catch the light on the upper part of its body. I'm not thoroughly impressed but I guess it works as a novelty item.
MSZ-006 Z Gundam
Next we have the venerable Zeta. I really like the faded colour thing it has going on on its shoulders and legs, it looks pretty good even in normal lighting conditions. Not as happy about the pose of its head which is looking down into the ground. I know the idea is for the figure to fly at a 30-45 degree angle or something but in that case, shouldn't it have looked up rather than down? I find it strange. I also do not like how the shield almost wraps around the arm, it would have looked better if it was positioned straight.
The Z Gundam comes with a pinkish-purple LED light-up base. Notice how it's V-fin comes on a little sprue, be very careful when you cut it out so that you do not damage its two top horns that are practically wrapping themselves around the runner. It was the same story with the Nu Gundam, I was really taking things slow to avoid accidentally cutting a piece off. The centre fin that sticks out from its back is attached between two pegs which allows you to rotate it up or down, a neat design that I don't remember seeing on any other similar Z Gundam figures.
Once again we are comparing the figure with a figure from the Gashapon HG line on the left and from FW STANDart on the right. While the Cosmic Light figures are not small, they are not big either, and do not really match the scale of other Gundam figures.
It seems like the batteries on this base are a bit tired compare to the bright light I was getting out of the Nu Gundam's base. This one is barely enough to light up the Zeta's legs. If you lean the figure forward the light will miss out most of its body so this comes across as pretty weak. It is a bit unfair of me not to do the test with fresh batteries but frankly I am too lazy to go out and buy some so I will showcase the figures as-is.
AMX-004 Qubeley
The Qubeley is an interesting choice and its large butterfly-like silhouette seems like a good candidate for a light-up parade. Once again the figure has some interesting fading paint applications on its shoulder binders and arms while other sections are completely see-through. Thankfully the figure has clearly defined eyes which I think works better than the non-descript and hollow faces of the Gundams. Qubeley figures often have interesting hand sculpts and these look really good too.
Over the years I've come to notice that translucent plastics (or plastics with applied metallic paints for that matter) are often a bit uncooperative. It is not uncommon for pieces to have a poor fit and sometimes you have to take out the knife to trim down oversize or soft deforming pegs for example. This Qubeley figure suffers from a loose left foot and you can see its ball joint assembly in the picture there. For some reason that particular foot doesn't want to stay on while the other foot is alright. The four shoulder binders also sit on ball joints that have individual temperaments. If I were to permanently display these figures I would probably select a pose and then glue them up. I did pre-emptively address any problems with the Nu Gundam and Z Gundam V-fins and glued those in place immediately.
The batteries in the Qubeley base had given up the ghost during their long rest in the box and so I brought in the base from the Z Gundam for this shot, since their LED-colours are similar. It has a nice effect going on there and it probably would have looked even better if the battery pack was fresh. As it stands, the light is just enough to cover the legs but most of the upper torso is unlit. I also discovered that some of the arms propping up the figure from the base were looser than others and some would collapse under the figure's weight. Again, some figures will simply work better than others.
AMX-004-2 Qubeley Mk.II (Elpeo Ple use)
The last figure in our set is a re-colouring of the Qubeley-figure without any additional changes. This is however the only figure in the set to use coloured translucent plastic, instead going for a see-through blueish-violet colour which looks nice also in unlit form, creating an interesting ripple-effect in the pattern. While it is a little bit disappointing to have two duplicate figures in a 4-figure set I am even more disappointed that they didn't just go ahead and do Ple Two's red Mk-II as well, it could have been a secret figure for example.
The Mk-II figure was the most troublesome of this lot. The right foot just refuses to stay on for any duration of time and the front right shoulder binder doesn't want to sit on its ball joint either; the faintest nudge will blow it right off. In addition, the figure's skirt with the 12 remote weapons had split in front and back halves across the glued seam and had to be re-glued again. The figures took well to superglue and I had no issues since. The LED light looks almost green in this photograph but it is in fact yellow.
Once again I had a dead LED on my hands here, so I decided to use the green colour base from the Nu Gundam for this photo. It would be nice to see the yellow colour-effect but green works really well with this dark figure giving it a very ominous glow. I don't understand why they chose to make the action base in clear plastic, the effect is somewhat ruined by the base itself glowing up like that, but I guess you could always cover up the base by putting something in front of it. Then there is of course the fact that you can play around with whatever lighting solution you want, there is no reason to limit yourself to these bases provided by the manufacturer.
Combining Bases
The last thing I should mention is how the bases can combine together to create larger displays. Remember the little additional pieces that come with each base? One acts as a clip that can connect two sides to each other and the longer piece is used to put the main display arm in the centre between two bases. This leaves you with a fair bit of options to create various displays where you could light up one or more figures from different sides and with different colours. You will still be at the mercy of the angle at which the LED is pointing but you should be able to cook up some interesting layouts from it. Below you can see a quick slap together using two bases and one Cosmic Light figure but nothing is stopping you from shining a light on whatever else you might fancy. This is a neat trick that extends playability and utility.
Conclusion
In summary then, I am not surprised that Cosmic Light did not catch on - or if there were any designs ready for a second wave at all. The figures are a typical novelty thing and I'm not sure if there are a lot of mobile suits that would really suit a display like this. The obvious choice would be suits with angelic wings like the Destiny Gundam or the Victory 2, but I don't see this concept working for neither bulky suits like the Gelgoog or thinner MS like the GM. It doesn't help that they are pretty much in a size of their own.
