We are steadily working our way through the Converge Crossbone Gundam Steel 7 releases, the Team B set here is one of the two that shipped first in February 2026 with the Jupiter Empire adversaries following in March. I don't know if these had been presaged through Bandai's various social media activities but when news of these figures reach me it was very near a jaw-dropping event. We haven't exactly been spoiled with huge releases like these for the past couple of years. Instead, Bandai are heavily busying themselves by tinkering with old releases and touching them up a bit before taking them through another round in the P-Bandai mill. I love it when the designers brave the unseen horizon and take a leap of faith into uncharted waters rather than releasing a Nu Gundam-variation for the umpteenth time.
You know the drill at this point. We have messy black and white artwork although not quite as unintelligible as on the Team A box. We have some nice write-ups about each suit on the flip-side. I skimmed through one of them using a translator app and it contained some basic facts kind of like in a cliff-notes version of the Gundam Fandom wiki. Still, I think it is a nice touch, especially when it comes to these lesser known machines that come from a rather obscure setting somewhere between F91 and Victory.
This is the third review of the small-box entries into the Converge Steel 7-special - after this we'll only have that big bastard left. In the previous two entries we looked at the "A-team" of Steel 7 mobile suits and that dastardly evil clone team from the Jupiter Empire in their floating hand-things. When you compare this B-set of figures to the ones in the "A-team" the designs are much more conventional. I don't know anything about chronology in Steel 7 but I would expect that Bandai deliberately split the suits in a more fantastical and traditional style respectively when they came up with the A- and B-sets.
As with the other small boxes in the Steel 7-family this one is also chock-full and the sides of the box are all bulging outwards. For amusement, I briefly tried to squeeze everything back in again and I quickly lost patience and interest, I don't know how they do it.
One reason I kept stalling on opening this set was the multitude of small parts. I am one of those who prefer my figures to be sturdy and simple and I have PTSD from previous Converge Crossbone-themed figures that tend to be overloaded with option parts. I still remember that green Phantom Gundam and the absolutely insane orange Anchor-figure with its half-dozen different configurations.
XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1 Full Cloth
We'll just rip off the band-aid immediately and start with the Crossbone Gundam which is responsible for much of the overflow of components in this box. We've had plenty of Crossbone Gundams in Converge so far including the X1 in versions with this Full Cloth, a torn up mantle and completely without. This figure is actually a revisit of an older EX-figure which has now had a bit of a facelift but still largely looks very similar. I apologize in advance for not taking this figure through its paces but I am bored of stripping these figures into all their different configurations. As a primer I would refer the interested reader to the original detailed review of the EX 25 Full Cloth figure available here.
Besides redesigning the figure for the updated Converge #Sharp-era we also have a couple of new gimmicks included with this Full Cloth figure. On the parts-photo I have placed all the new components to the right of the skull-themed action base. I was really happy to see that the figure now comes with a standard base, the OG figure only had that flying base. I tend to prefer my Converge figures standing at the same level. Among that new equipment you can also see the "Brand Marker", which is a stumpy type of beam-weapon. That new translucent red part is its X-shaped blade and immediately above it you see the white handlebar and part of the lower right arm which must be replaced to equip it.
On its right you have two new black components which are optional hands with pegs to which you attach the "Skull Head Units" (sigh...). That refers to those two skull-shaped things with claws that normally sit on the shoulders and generate a blocking I-field. Why you would want to use your defensive weapon as a melee boxing glove I don't know but there it is. Lastly we have optional shoulder and chest pieces for the suit if you wish to display it without its anti-beam cloak. We already have a basic retail figure that accomplishes this so it seems a bit excessive in my opinion. The bottom line is, all these weapons and gadgets are neat but the more you rebuild your figure the looser all those pegs will become and I would generally advice against it.
Here the new figure stands beneath its old counterpart from 2019. The new X1 has a much better face-sculpt and a nice crest on its righthand cloak but beyond that they look rather similar.
F90I-I Gundam F90 Intercept Type (Jupiter Battle Specification)
The Crossbone mangas at times go a bit overboard with the unit designations. The figure you see here is the old Gundam F90, specifically unit 1, carrying the Type I mission pack, gear that originally belongs to the Gundam F90 Unit 2. The mission pack has been upgraded in the weapons department, where the original beam lancer (which you will see shortly) has been upgraded to a more classic-looking shot lancer weapon. Those little yellow-tipped rockets hanging from the weapon are five nuclear weapons because screw Jupiter I guess?
The basic mobile suit has also been fitted with extra boosters around its lower legs reminiscent of the High Mobility Zaku II. The F90 is a very colourful suit and while it would be impossible for a Gundam Converge figure to replicate all that detail it still does a really good job. the grey colour looks a bit bland but it corresponds well to the official drawings of the thing. The F90II-I uses a slightly darker grey that I prefer.
Now, this is how I tend to prefer my Gundam Converge figures. There are only a few components that require assembly and the option part count is down to a single piece. Figures with multiple weapons choices tend to annoy me a little bit because I don't really know what to do with the spare weapons. While it would be cool to dump all extra weapons into a general bits-box to pull gear from that's just not how I roll. Instead I end up with lots of little resealable bags and then I fret about whether I should store the bags together with the figures or throw them in their original boxes - from where they will likely never be fished out again. Meh.
Besides the multitude of additional thrusters on the mobile suit's legs the F90I also has access to this large flight shield that can be used either as a flight unit (much like Base Jabbers or the Guul) or as a heat-shield during re-entry; kind of like how the Gundam Mk-II does it with its flying armour. You can pull the shield apart into three pieces and replace the centre component to have its wings extended. This also increases the overall length of the shield slightly. I have to say this is a really good-looking figure, possibly my favourite from this set.
While there are no previous versions of the F90I Type I available in figure form we actually do have the F90II Type I, the mobile suit from which the flight shield has been borrowed. The F90II comes from the good old days of Mobile Suit Ensemble when prices for premium figures were just very high and not astronomical, and when the figure line had a lot of exclusives that made collecting them extra interesting. The quickest way to tell the F90II apart from the F90I is I think the colour of its feet although there are many other subtle differences. I mentioned that the F90I got a weapons upgrade in the form of its shot lancer with attached nukes, here you can see the F90I wielding the original beam lancer which has a nice translucent part up front. The Ensemble figure's flight shield has extendable wings but the overall size of the shield does not change when they are spread.
F91 Gundam F91 (Jupiter Battle Specification)
I mentioned that the F90I is probably my favourite from this set but the F91 is also a very strong contender, just look at that striking colour scheme. I love it when Gundam figures break away from the blue-white-red stereotype, some of the Gundams I fancy the most have completely different colour schemes like the strikingly orange-red Sword Calamity or the all black Raider Gundam to name just two. The original F91 has a very traditional paint scheme about it but the custom unit two piloted by Harrison Madin went for an all-blue colour scheme with orange and white accents. The Jupiter Battle Specification machine is actually a second F91 piloted by Madin which was then converted into what you see here and being piloted by Mitchell Derek Nar, whose "M"-insignia you can see on the chest if you squint really hard. The finish on this figure is remarkable, just look at those yellow stripes and all the detail on its beam rifle. Fantastic work!
As for complexity, the F91 falls somewhere in the middle between the other two suits in this box. You get option parts to allow the figure to wield the two VSBR rifles or keep them on the back, differently shaped heat radiation fins and the "open face" part that we tend to see on mobile suits from this era. The two pieces attached to the sprue in the top right corner are the storage pegs for the two VSBR-rifles and attach to the back underneath the armpits.
Here you can see the F91 using one of its two VSBR-rifles. You have to replace the shoulder-pieces to allow the lower arms to stick out away from the body so that the rifle fits between the body and the arm. You are also supposed to replace one set of fins with the other. The illustrations in the assembly instructions do a poor job of explaining which set is which and I can barely see the difference anyway. The fins also attach very loosely to the shoulders, there isn't really a full peg hole available and so I consider picking one set and just gluing the fins in place permanently.
Just like with the Crossbone Full Cloth you can disassemble the F91's face into multiple components which will enable you to replace its lower face. This is not something I am going to bother with as I prefer my figure's face to remain tightly fit and avoid any potential scratching of the paint.
Oh my, things have really developed in Gundam Converge. The original F91 in Harrison Madin colours hails from Converge Volume 12 and it was released in October 2013. I still like the old figure a great deal but there is no denying how the brand has taken leaps and bounds forward to become what it is today. I should point out again that these two figures depict two different mobile suits. The old figure is Madin's first mass-production type F91 while the new figure is his second unit which was later handed over to Steel 7.
Conclusion
All-in-all, this is a killer set of beautifully painted Converge figures, with plenty of option parts for those who are so inclined. Of course, the subject matter is pretty obscure and the price a bit off-putting, so depending on where your loyalties lie in the Gundam meta-verse this could be everything from a given addition or a hard pass. With three packages opened so far, I have to say the Steel 7 releases have been an absolute treat and I love how the designers dare to step out of the mould and give us something unusual. A stark contrast by the way to the upcoming Converge #30 release which is full of stale, old seen-it-before-stuff.
