MegaHouse Chess Piece Collection : Gundam Ace Magazine Promo (2003)

We recently looked at a Gundam Ace Magazine promo item from 2005 containing two special MegaHouse Chess Piece figures. Here is a similar product promoted through the very same magazine except in 2003. I believe these are the only two magazine promo-style items out there.


There is not a whole lot of information to be gathered from the box itself. Besides a pair of nice looking logos and the year 2003 we just have some basic consumer information. Unlike the later box we looked at these figures are branded as part of the Chess Piece Collection DX-line. I've seen this branding used on some of the regular Chess Piece figures containing figures from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED but this branding seems to have been discontinued shortly afterwards. To confuse things further an EX-lineup was created once the SEED Destiny figures arrived in 2005. Regardless of which Chess Piece figures you go for however their size and feel will be quite similar, the later figures being a bit nicer in finish and detail but that's about it.


The figures sit side by side in the box separated by a cardboard divider and having the arms in separate plastic bags. It doesn't look like the main figures were bagged or wrapped but since this is a second-hand item I cannot be sure.



RX-78-02 Gundam (The Origin ver.)


The Gundam from the Origin storyline is the first of our two kings. As such tey have the tallest type of bases with a little bit of felt underneath but I doubt anyone has ever attempted to actually play a game of chess with these things. The finish and panel lining is great on these things and the figure has a bit of weathering for good measure. Like every other Origin-type Gundam out there the shield is held upside down and we have a really beefy type of shoulder cannon attached. I do have some reservations about the enormous right hand however. Like the other chess piece figures by MegaHouse the figure is not easily removable from neither its scenic base nor the pedestal so if you are thinking about converting these for use with other similarly sized figures be aware that this will require quite the effort.


Posing together with the Origin version of Char's Zaku II which appeared in the second Gundam Ace Magazine promo in 2005. As mentioned above the Chess Piece DX branding was not used for that figure although they are clearly similar in design.





MBF-P02 Gundam Astray Red Frame


The evergreen Astray red Frame figure comes in a very dynamic pose that will be a nightmare to pose convincingly with the other figures. Once again the colouring and detailed panel-lining is really spectacular for such a small figure. The Chess Piece range contains many beautiful figures but it is hard to make something interesting out of them due to those pedestal type bases. While not valid for the Red Frame this line contains many interesting mobile suit choices which are hard to come by in the other prepainted lines.


The Astray Red Frame appeared again in November 2004 in the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED MSV set which contains other interesting obscurities like the Strike Rouge IWSP, Hyperion Gundam and Elijah Kiel's Custom GINN. Notice the way the colours stand out clearly on the promo figure compared to the later retail figure.




As with the other Chess Piece figures, you either like the concept or you don't. If you do, this is an obvious purchase and if you don't, you will find nothing new to convince you here. Sadly, Chess Piece figures are very hard to find on the online secondary market and if you find them in the local shops they are often incomplete. This is one of the hardest mini-figure ranges to collect in my opinion.

MegaHouse Chess Piece Collection : Gundam Ace Magazine Promo (2005)

Now here is an item I have been chasing for a while. We are looking at a promo-item for the old MegaHouse Chess Piece Collection that was distributed through Gundam Ace Magazine. I don't know the exact circumstances for how it was available, either a free magazine bundle or some kind of subscription bonus item.


This particular set is from 2005 and is not to be confused with an older Ace Magazine promo-item from 2003 featuring the Origin Version RX-78 and an Astray Red Frame of all things. This particular pair is just as wild, as we shall see. The box contains three bubble bags carefully wrapping each figure's components.



MS-06S Zaku II (Char's Custom) (The Origin Ver.)


The highlight here is the Origin Version Zaku II sporting the Type A2 Bazooka with its peculiar three-round magazine which more resembles the type of weapon you would find on an E.F.F. machine. As with all Chess Piece figures this is a soft plastic statue type mold with the figure in an action pose, usually propped up by scenery or as in this case effect parts. The figure uses the black king base which is the tallest type of pedestal in this series. The sculpting and paintwork is as you can see excellent.


Posing together with the RX-78-02 Gundam from the Gundam Ace Magazine 2003 promo set. Fortunately the two have bases of similar stature otherwise it would have looked less appealing. The chess piece bases in general make it difficult to pose these figures with other brands but then again the scale is not matching most of them either.


Group photo with Origin Version Zaku II's from the 1:220 Universal Unit and Gundam Converge lines. Noticed the unusually matching colours across all these figures, this is unusually coherent.






MSM-04 Acguy (Team Acguy Shopping Ver.)


I mean... you just have to accept the madness sometimes I guess? The Acguy is a brute of a mobile suit, taller than the RX-78 and at more than twice its weight, yet in popular media it has been relegated to play the role of kawaiiiii mascot. This eventually led to the Hellspawn that is the Beargguy but in 2005 Gundam Build Fighters was not yet invented and so the Acguy got to play the part. So here is a completely normal grandpa Acguy out doing his grocery shopping in the rain... Exactly how it holds on to that umbrella I don't know, neither do I know where the "Team Acguy" moniker comes from as this is the only time I have seen it. It wouldn't surprise me if this is indeed a thing across more media. Personally I wouldn't have minded seeing a proper sculpt of a "real" Acguy as I believe it is still missing in the Chess Piece Collection. This is a typical "love it or hate it" figure but the execution is really slick.


Overall a neat little figure set, mostly worth seeking out for the deadly looking Zaku. Finding a box will be tricky, but shouldn't be that expensive. I paid ¥1500 for this one. Be extra careful when picking up loose Chess Piece Collection figures on the second hand market as these are very frequently missing parts.

Gundam Ace February 2004 promo pack

Time for a little novelty item review. Do we have any Gundam War fans here? If you are into the collectible card game aspect of Mobile Suit Gundam you will probably be familiar with Bandai's Magic-clone Gundam War, which saw multiple card sets during its run between 1999 and 2011. Apart from the common releases you can of course expect to find crossover promotion where cards are inserted into other product lines or with partner companies here and there. Gundam Ace Magazine routinely features promotional items like these and this here is a little bonus item accompanying the February 2004 issue of the Gundam monthly.

 

This pack features an exclusive promo card for the game (well... not really) and a little postcard set. The promo might seem like an interesting rarity but holds no real value. I think I paid ¥100 for the pack (sans the magazine) so it is not like it was a massive investment. :)

 

Let's take a look at the postcards first. They feature random illustrations by various artists (some signatures I can read and others not...) and feature motives mainly from the early Universal Century era. All the cards are attached together like a little mini-booklet from which they can be separated. First up we have a pretty nice drawing of my man Char Aznable himself, followed by a really artsy Haro collage which looks like scribbles made by someone in a notebook during a meeting that has dragged on for too long.

 

Haro again, this time with some freaky partner balls that I don't know what they are imitating. This is the only card in the set that has a horizontal alignment.

 

Here are two of the better ones. First we have a young Haman Karn the way she was styled in the comic Char's Deleted Affair released by Kadokawa (there are even some nice mini-figures that I will eventually get around to posting up here). She appears to be saying some random thing about a year of excellence, Google Translate doesn't do handwritten text very well. Next we have a character completely unknown to me. I'd wager she's a supporting character from one of the many Gundam-themed console games or perhaps another Manga. The insignia should be a dead giveaway except I don't recognize that either. Definitely Zeon though.

 

Here's another really cool illustration. A war is hell-type of illustration with a non-descript soldier up front. Next we slide into caricature territory with an angry Gihren Zabi giving a speech in front of a whole army of cheering chibi-style Zakus. He is probably screaming about a happy new year or something to that effect...

 

Another Zeon girl and another player aid character from a game I'd wager. At the top we have New Year's greetings but the app is drawing a blank regarding the scribbles at the bottom I'm afraid, with highlights such as "Good in the Universe" and "Space T 90"... The next card appears to be more of the same, except this operator is with the E.F.S.F. instead. Here the translate app at least figured out that she is sending well wishes for 2004.

 

The last two illustrations are portrait studies from the Cosmic Era. First we have Lowe Guele from SEED Astray, perhaps better known as the pilot of the ever popular Astray Red Frame. He is followed by a very violet-eye colour Kira Yamato who is of course the pilot of the Freedom Gundam although here he is still wearing the O.M.N.I. recruit uniform.

 

Finally, here we have the promo card itself. Card SPGA-1 belongs to the purple neutral faction and features a combination of several cropped in illustrations with art-styles all over the place. The card's special effect allows you to purchase a new Gundam Ace Magazine on the 26th of every month. Yes, that's correct, the effect even carries over to the real world. Meant as a dry joke of course, the card features a custom backside to avoid anyone from actually trying to add it to the game itself.

Seika Sharpener Collection EX : Aile Strike/Strike Rouge (Gundam Ace Magazine)

Back in the dark Pre-Internet era when I was a youngling yet to develop my Newtype potential and become a hoarder of Mobile Suit Gundam related junk I was often found with a pencil in my hand. The pencil was the ultimate tool to take the step into space and countless intergalactic adventures and horrible encounters were found at the spot where the pencil connects to paper. Towards the end of the 20th century the mechanical pencil had pretty much replaced them in everyday use. The sharpener business can't exactly be blooming in the 21st Century. Yet here I am with a large collection of pencil sharpeners that will never get to chew on even a single old pencil... Perhaps this is why Seika worked so hard at pumping out sharpener figures to stay relevant? We've seen several sets of Mobile Suit Gundam sharpener figures as well as other licensed products such as SDF Macross and Evangelion and who knows what else.

The product we are examining today comes from the Seika EX line of extra fancy sharpener figures which are larger than the original series. The EX sharpener figures are declared as 1:280 and there are a couple of sets with figures from Mobile Suit Z Gundam as well as Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. While none of these figures are particularly valuable they are tricky to come by since cheap junk like this doesn't always suit itself well for international trade. I found mine at Mandarake (of course...) and paid ¥1200 for the box.

This particular box is a special for the Gundam Ace magazine and although I don't know the details it most likely came as a freebee with one of their issues during 2004. The box can be seen to refer to SEED Part 2 which is a 12-piece set of EX Sharpeners which these two figures probably are intended to promote. I do actually have a box of figures from that set which I haven't opened up yet, I'll probably get around to reviewing those in the future.

One interesting aspect is that the Aile Strike is not included in that figure set but the Strike Rouge is, it is possible that it exists as a secret colour variation though I suppose. The set does feature two "Impossible to Find Items!". How reassuring...

The Gundam Ace figures come in a compact cardboard box and each is contained within a separate box inside it. The delicate fins of the Aile Striker backpack are made of soft and bendy plastic to keep them safe from breaking, but as you can guess this makes them prime candidates for warping. Even though the Striker packages came with extra cardboard wrapping to protect their shapes the way they came out of the box (as seen below) means you can look forward to lots of trouble trying to bend them into their proper shape again.

Except for the backpacks, the Strike and the Strike Rouge figures are really sharp and on point. They have very detailed paint applications even besting those of Gundam STANDart and come with panel lining and some washes out of the box. Awesome!

The one thing I do not appreciate about these figures is the gigantic footprint they leave. While it makes them very stable and allows for some decorative mini-scenery around them I still wish they were smaller. The pencil sharpener itself is as you can see very content with a much smaller base.

Just look at these unit markings, absolutely amazing. I can't think of anything in this scale that can best these two figures.

To get a feel for the Seika EX figure size here the Aile Strike poses with some members of its family. We have a Sword Striker from STANDart on the left (1:220 scale), the compact Perfect Strike from Gundam Converge (center) and the Launcher Strike from Gashapon HG MS. The latter Gashapon series is often said to be around 1:285 scale but the individual figures vary wildly as all figures tend to be about the same height.

I like both the older Seika Sharpener figures which are somewhere around 1:400 in size and the larger EX line. I am slowly working on expanding my EX collection as best I can so that it can be featured in more detail here on the blog. Below you can see the two Strikes with a representative from the Zeta Gundam set and the SEED Part 2 set.