Bandai Gasha Portraits Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom Set

The Bandai Gasha Portraits capsule toy range was in full swing between 2017 and 2021, pumping out characters from various anime franchises. By 2022 it had begun the switchover to a premium range and lately I haven't seen much signs of life from it. Thus I was quite surprised to encounter a new twin-pack for SEED Freedom on the secondary market earlier this year and picked it up on a whim in spite of the high price of ¥6000. I believe the official release was this March and that the price was ¥5000 plus tax which is pretty steep for two tiny figurines. Nevertheless, we've had a couple of Gundam-themed Gasha Portraits premium sets before and I had always been very pleased with them so it was an easy decision for me.


What a beautiful box, it really succeeds in capturing my attention. The fact that the figures themselves are only shown in silhouette form is a bit of a problem however, and something we are used to from this series unfortunately. I think it would have been prudent to have an actual image of the figures at least on the back of the cover.


While the regular Gasha Portraits figures are crammed into round capsules and suffer from bent extremities every so often these premium figures are pre-assembled and come in proper protective plastic packaging. The figures are even wrapped in plastic bags for added paint protection.


So, what do we have here? Lacus Clyne in her new spicy SEED Freedom pilot suit (I have to say I like the Destiny suit better) with goofy angelic wings and the most painful shoes ever invented. Cagalli Yula Athha has dusted off her old Orb Union flight suit looking as sharp as ever. The paint details are really crisp overall, there seems to be a slight colour difference on Lacus' legs and torso, maybe a result of different plastics being used. Each figure comes with a circular base with two pegs that ensure the legs stay in the intended shape and it also grants the figure very good balance. From a technical standpoint I have no complaints, however when it comes to the character likeness things are starting to go south.


I can't put it any other way; this figure doesn't look like Lacus at all. While it is not easy to capture the exact detail in such a small figure there are countless examples of successful Gashapon figurines of Lacus from the old SEED and SEED Destiny ranges that succeed but this figure is honestly pretty hideous to look at. Fortunately we have a much better rendition available from the Glitter x Glamours line that captures the seriousness of Lacus' character admirably and is available on the secondary market for a much lower price.


The Cagalli figure fares a bit better but I can't say I am terribly impressed by it either. While the sculpt is really great and the paint applications on the uniform with all those thin white lines came out looking great there is just something uncanny about the face, it kind of looks like a ball with bowl on top. Look at some of the previous renditions of Cagalli through figure lines pushing 20 years age at this point, I find them much more vivid and interesting to look at. I was overall quite disappointed with this set and considering the high price I cannot really recommend it to any SEED Freedom fans out there.

Bandai Gasha Portraits The Witch of Mercury Suletta and Miorine Set

I miss the old days of cheap mass-produced Gashapon figures. Nowadays that market segment continues to split up into two branches - On one side we have semi-painted model kit style-figures like Gframe and Ensemble and on the other hand full on premium pre-painted product. Todays item decidedly sits in that second category. Delivered to its preorder customers in June 2023 this two figure limited release had another one of those hefty price tags: ¥7700. So yeah, have fun with that.


With the string of Suletta figures appearing on the blog recently you may be forgiven for thinking I am the hugest Witch of Mercury fan out there, but I haven't even watched the series beyond that first teaser that dropped in early 2022. It just so happens that these two characters are making up the majority of Gundam themed releases at the moment, milked to high heaven by pretty much each and every brand out there with a complete dearth of other releases. I really like figures in this size range and it is a shame the market cannot support extended ranges of mobile suit pilots in flight suits for example.


When Gasha Portraits started out as cheap to mid-range capsule toy brand in 2017 the figures had a rather high susceptibility for parts warping due to the questionable idea of placing long soft plastic components inside cramped balls. It got better with time and with the P-Bandai products you get harder plastic packaged in specially designed blisters so you should be all covered here. The figures even have little plastic bags to be wrapped around the flowing hair to keep the parts from mixing up and rubbing off paint on each other, something you normally see on much larger figures only. Gasha Portraits figures are unarticulated but sometimes come with option pieces such as a different right arm pose, but these are 100% static.


Premium product or not, Gasha Portraits figures are usually really well painted and the quality is upped even further with the limited releases. Look at all those beautiful details and insignias. Unlike Gundam Converge (even its premium range), I have never seen a Gashapon figure allowed to ship with obvious smudges or stains, whatever Bandai is doing with the Gasha Portraits brand has a higher threshold of quality approval. Perhaps this comes down to different printing and painting techniques, or the plastics used, but I can't think of a single reasons why Converge is allowed to fail regularly when other brands are not.


Technical detail aside, the character likeness is as you can see on point. There has been a string of figure releases of this duo in all sorts of sizes, shapes and brands but almost all of them are decidedly premium product, which is a stark reminder that the market for prepainted figures is - in spite of the continuous evolution - in a rather rough spot.

Bandai Gasha Portraits Mobile Suit Gundam Build Divers Ayame Set

A few months ago I noticed a new Gasha Portrait figure making its way into the secondhand market. And then suddenly there were three. I like to think that I have a pretty good idea of what rumbles in the Gasha Portraits line but here Bandai snuck out a load of premiums without me noticing. If only Bandai would keep their Gashapon blog more up to date. Anyway, I jumped straight at these and figured I'd better make a quick review for any other latecomers since these will probably not stay in circulation that long.


Once I had secured the full set of figures the next hurdle appeared. I knew absolutely nothing about Mobile Suit Gundam Build Divers except that it is a rehash of the tried and tested Build Fighters/Build Fighters Try formula and the few details I had seen about its characters left me highly skeptical. I mean, just look at the main characters and their outfits in that shot. The rest of the cast is even more eccentric with half a dozen furries, an Oni look-a-like with horns on his forehead and a very flamboyant ladyboy mentor for the young protagonists. Still, I sat down and figured I'd better watch it from the start, at least until Ayame shows up to get a feel for who she is and what her character is supposed to be all about. Well, I have stomached roughly half of the 25 episodes and while I have some reservations about recycling old concepts and the same annoying talking during fighting aspect that kills all suspension I think it is a decent and light-hearted if not stellar follow-up, but the original Build Fighters set that bar pretty high.


The packaging was really Spartan for this lot. Gone is luxurious cardboard boxes like the ones used for the SEED Destiny or Evangelion premium figures, instead Bandai go for individual transparent plastic chucked into separate bags on which a stickered barcode is the only ornament. Each figure in this set has an individual barcode as can be seen above. This does not seem to be reflected in the price however, because you are paying ¥2500 for the privilege of owning these... per figure that is. The figures began delivery in May 2021 and the price quickly jumped to ¥3000 on the secondary market.


Taped to each figure's packaging is a multi-compartment bag containing the action base components. There was also a typical Gashapon style mini-booklet included with the two larger Ayame figures. There was probably one with the Aya Fujisawa figure as well which may have gone lost in handling.



Build Diver Ayame (Masked ver.)


Here we have Ayame as she appears on the early title card together with her chosen steed, the super deformed RX-Zeromaru. This is basically the Unicorn Gundam with some additional ninja-style components because why not? The machine can alter modes between the Unicorn's Destroy and Unicorn modes granting it different abilities such as overwhelming speed or stealth.


The RX-Zeromaru later gains a bird-shaped support craft together with which it can transform into a fully proportioned beast. For some reason Bandai seems content on sticking to model kits for their Build Fighters/Divers designs, there are some really neat designs in Divers that I wouldn't have minded to see in Gashapon or Shokugan form. The Zeromaru (and why not Fumina's Winning Gundam?) seems a given for the Senshi Forte line, which used to shake things up at the end of the early sets with SD character designs.


For the bigger figure classes there were several other interesting customs like the GM III Beammaster or the Powered GM Cardigan seen here. How exquisite they would look in Converge form. :)


Well, back to Ayame then. As you can see this figure has its basic pose from the title card with some slightly different posed arms. The left foot has both a small peg and a rest supporting it while the right knee is propped up by a longer support. Great job on making a discrete and functional base. The flowing hair is made of slightly bendy plastic and so maybe there could be a slight deformation over time if keeping the figure up on display. The colours chosen are as you can see pretty much spot on.


The character likeness is really on point here. You can see some slight painting mishaps at the edges of coloured areas here and there but I sure am not complaining.


Mmm... how is that coffee? This scene reminds me of that old gag with the Imperial Stormtroopers having drinks in a bar.



Build Diver Ayame (Unmasked ver.)


As is common with Sunrise's Gundam television series, the opening titles change at least once during a season and now Ayame appears unmasked in this sequence. Not sure if she will do this more often as I haven't watched any further thus far, it was enough to get the review going...


As you can see, this figure is a simple head swap of the masked version. When Bandai did the Hawke Sisters Set we got two two figures with swappable head parts for Meyrin's two hairstyles and I would much have preferred a nice box with both figures and conversion headpiece or similar for the Ayame figure. Perhaps this was difficult to solve together with the long hair and so the designers preferred to make two different figures entirely, hopefully for their robustness' sake and not as a cheap money-making trick getting you to purchase three instead of two figures. I have my suspicions...


I haven't seen too much of the unmasked Ayame yet but the likeness remains except for the fact that her characters is brooding and quiet for most of the time, I certainly haven't seen her breaking into big smiles like this. I think a minor smile or even smirk would have suited the character better.



Aya Fujisawa


In the Build Divers lore, the theme has changed from doing metaphysical battle with scales models (that actually breaks them when they receive damage) into a MMORPG-style world where not only the mobile suits are scanned and virtualized, the players themselves get freaky auto-assigned avatars. I don't quite understand the lore here because most other players are seen wearing show accurate uniforms or character costumes for the most part, whereas the Build Diver troop has some ridiculous gear on display. The actual player of the Ayame character is named Aya Fujisawa and is revealed halfway through the series.


Again the attention to detail and colouring is superb for this figure. Each foot has a peg hole but I haven't forced it all the way down on its pegs since I will keep it in its packaging for the most part (although I have no idea how to store the overly large packaging itself). This smaller smile is something I think would have suited the unmasked Ayame character better. The Fujisawa character appears to be quite serious and I would have preferred a more serious expression also on this figure.


It is a war out there...





Conclusion

The Gasha Portrait series is always producing great figures and I hope to see more Gundam-themed characters in the future. I do imagine that most Gundam figure collectors are left quite cool about these figures (the price certainly won't help) but if you are a fan of Ayame this is a great figure set to grab - and now is the time. If you prefer articulated figures you may also want to consider the Figure-Rise model kit version of Ayame of course.

Bandai Gasha Portraits Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny Hawke Sisters Set

Alright, today we are going to take a look at what will presumably be a one-off thing here on the blog. I did get the feeling though that the Bandai development lead kind of hinted that he was testing the waters with this release when they were first announced but I haven't heard anything about it since. Before we continue, let's begin with a quick introduction of the Gasha Portraits figure line.


The Gasha Portraits brand was introduced in the end of 2017 and consists of mid-range Gashapon figures typically priced at ¥500, which is where we also find other contemporary brands like Mobile Suit Ensemble as well as some Shokugan like Gundam Converge. The range seems to be mainly geared towards characters from the Love Live! Sunshine!! anime (which I know absolutely nothing about...) and also features guest appearances from other animes like One Piece, Girls und Panzer and now most recently Neon Genesis Evangelion (hell, yes!).


The figures are distributed both in traditional clear Gashapon capsules and individual cardboard boxes, just like the Mobile Suit Ensemble range. My very limited experience with these figures is that the capsule edition is terrible and will bend or warp thin components like arms and legs completely beyond repair. The boxed figures fare a bit better but even though pieces like legs come wrapped in additional cardboard protection you will most likely encounter some really nasty surprises. You are going to need more than a clear support piece to deal with a twisted ankle or legs bending in all sorts of alien proportions. :)


In September 2019 Bandai announced that Gasha Portraits would do a Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny special to celebrate its 15th anniversary (gee... what a nice idea, how about it Converge and Ensemble?). This special anniversary set would only feature two figures instead of the usual three however, and would be a Premium Bandai item (of course). I was really mystified when the price was announced to be ¥6600. Wait now, what? I just assumed that the price was going to be for a 10-box or something and wondered who in their right mind would need to purchase that many. Well, now I finally have the answer.


Yep, that's right. You are paying over six thousand yen for two Gashapon figurines. The Bandai development lead wrote that if these figures performed well they would definitely consider doing more. Yeah I'm sure, if you can sell Gashapons that normally cost ¥500 for six times as much who wouldn't? Now, it isn't just limitation that is bumping the price. The quality of these figures is admittedly higher than the retail figures but it is not like we haven't seen high quality Shokugan like STANDart before, is it? Specifically, this set introduces harder ABS plastic into the mix, presumably because Bandai are very aware that the regular Gasha Portraits PVC figures are a bit hit and miss in the quality department.


All the moaning about money aside, this box is really great. The figures come wrapped in plastic bags and sit in a specially designed inlay keeping them nice and safe so you won't have any issues with bent parts here. This was a huge relief to be honest.


Here we have older sis Lunamaria Hawke in her very odd custom red coat. I know that the elite Z.A.F.T. pilots get to have custom paint jobs on their ZAKU Warriors but I can't imagine that any adjutant would let an outfit like that slide... Joking aside, you can see that the figure is very carefully sculpted and features large expressive eyes and a very detailed insignia on the left shoulder. The figure has a base with two differently sized pegs and due to the harder plastic Bandai didn't think it necessary to include a support that clips around the leg which they would usually include for common Gashapons of this type.


We are not exactly short of SEED Destiny figurine series. Here you can see some of the many variants of Lunamaria from Bandai's different Gashapon assortments. From left to right we have the HGIF SEED Destiny line (2005), the SEED Destiny EF Collection (also 2005), the SEED Destiny Heroine History (Ver. Z.A.F.T.) from 2007, the new Gasha Portraits figure and lastly the 2006 appearance from the Cosmix Figure Collection.


Next up we have Meyrin Hawke, the character who has perhaps the most memorable arc in all of SEED Destiny. Man, Destiny is such a terrible fall from grace; SEED is without a doubt my favourite Mobile Suit Gundam show and I go on rewatch binges far too often, but with Destiny it is hard to just push the play button. i think the Gasha Portraits figure does a great job of capturing her personality and once again the attention to detail is stunning. the one thing I kind of noticed immediately is the somewhat odd gradient colour thing they have done to her hair, it is a bit over the top but I can look past it.


Meyrin's figure comes with a bonus head so you can choose which hairstyle you prefer. Bandai have done experiments with removable hair and different faces in the past and I am thankful that here they just decided to include an entire extra head, having to deal with faces that fall apart can be really annoying.


And here we have a slightly different line-up of Meyrin figures from Bandai's various SEED Destiny Gashapon series. I guess from a cost perspective it might be prudent to compare these figures to their bigger cousins in ranges such as MegaHouse RAH DX or Bandai's Voice-I-Dolls but it seemed more prudent to stick to Gashapons here. Anyway, from left to right we have HGIF SEED Destiny (2005), SEED Destiny Heroines (2006), SEED Destiny Heroine History (Ver. Z.A.F.T.) from 2007, Gasha Portraits and lastly the Cosmix Figure Collection figure from 2006.


This box set also includes an alternative base for both figures so that they can stand closely together in the pose appearing on the box cover. This may seem a bit superfluous but hey, they got to offer something for those six thousand six hundred yen, right?

So was this set a success? It beats me, but so far I have only come across it twice. I snatched this off Mandarake for ¥5000 so perhaps Bandai were a bit optimistic when they decided on the price or I was just really "lucky". What I can say though, is that this is a really nice figure set that should appeal to anyone collecting Gundam SEED Gashapon figurines but probably no one else. Next I am going to try and grab myself the Evangelion set, those are of the 500 yen PVC garden variety so it should hopefully be a bit easier.