Assault Kingdom : FA-010A FAZZ

It is nice to revisit the Assault Kingdom figure line again after its (much too) early retirement in May last year. It seems Bandai had similar thoughts although in this case we are probably dealing with a very old project that has been shelved for some time.

The FA-010A FAZZ or Full Armor ZZ Gundam is a bit of an anachronism. The design, introduced in 1987's Gundam Sentinel is supposedly a development step between the enhanced ZZ Gundam (MSZ-010S) and the original Full Armor ZZ Gundam design (FA-010S). The original Full Armor Gundam had appeared in the Mobile Suit ZZ Gundam series a year earlier in 1986. And once the FAZZ had been released the Full Armor ZZ Gundam design also came to benefit from it by being upgraded to also carry the FAZZ's majestic shoulder cannon.

The Assault Kingdom FAZZ is also a backwards implementation of the existing MSZ-010 ZZ Gundam model. The ZZ Gundam was released as EX09 in March 2016 and the FAZZ followed as a Bandai Premium release in March 2017, at a point where the Assault Kingdom product line had already been sleeping for ten months, replaced by the Universal Unit line.

It took me some three months to finally find the FAZZ and I had to spend a soul hurting ¥3500 to obtain it. This is about twice the price Bandai originally sold it for. Ironic, considering how the standard ZZ Gundam figure (which also comes with the Mega Rider) originally sold for ¥3200 and can now be had for about half that price.

Although the titular FA-010A FAZZ mobile suit cannot unequip its armored coat this is a redesigned ZZ Gundam figure so of course we have the option to do so here. In fact the basic figure is a direct replica of the ZZ Gundam figure, apart from the different paintjob this is the exact same figure down to the last hinge and panel. So our model is free to pose without its cumbersome armour which gives us a lot of playability to consider.

The basic figure without its armour has some decent articulation but a lot of it is held back by the gigantic backpack. Don't expect anything that fancy but you should be able to get some decent poses out of it.

One thing I did not like about the original ZZ Gundam figure and that (of course) remains unchanged is that the action base is dark gray instead of transparent. This is an obvious production cost choice but since the figure only comes with the standard sized Assault Kingdom hexagon plate you can easily repurpose a transparent base from one of your other Assault Kingdom figures. In fact, I would encourage the purchase of some additional cheap AK figures just for this very purpose.

Improving the dynamic feel of the mobile suit with a custom transparent base and also borrowing a beam saber from the Qubeley.

Completing the FAZZ involves doing a few changes to the basic figure and then attaching the various armor components by clipping them on to the figure's various limbs. If you have built the Assault Kingdom Full Armor ZZ Gundam before this will be familiar territory since this figure holds no surprises on its own.

The transformation between two modes of this figure is simple once you have figured out which parts go where, and you can alternate between the two fairly quickly. As with all Gundam figures though, it is probably a wise idea not to do a lot of parts replacement as it can sometimes wear out the joints and create lose fits.

The FAZZ certainly looks the part in its fully assembled mode. The articulation is of course not helped by the addition of several bulky components but it is still really only the backpack that produces the most posing limitations.

The oversized beam cannon slung over the FAZZ' right shoulder is of course also a huge articulation stopper. Not only is it tricky to line up all the components to make the FAZZ's right hand hold on to the grip (I tend to use the open hand and consider a near miss good enough here) but if you want to swing it in any direction other than straight forward you will most likely end up uncoupling it from the backpack.

As pointed out earlier in the review a flying mobile suit works best with a transparent action base and since none is included with the figure, make use of other bases that you may have lying around.

Here the FAZZ poses next to the FA-010S Full Armor ZZ Gundam (Assault Kingdom EX09) showing the kinship between the two. I did unmount the shoulder cannon from the FA-010S as I think that design looks cleaner that way. With the advent of the FAZZ figure it now looks even more convincing to load the two out differently.

And just for fun, here the FAZZ poses to the MSZ-006C1[Bst] Hummingbird, a Universal Unit figure which released around the same time in 2016.

Conclusion

Overall the Assault Kingdom FAZZ figure is a successful repaint of the existing MSZ-010 ZZ Gundam figure. While it seems strange that Bandai would release it almost a year after the demise of the Assault Kingdom line, and as a pricey P-Bandai limited item to boot, you got to wonder who the target market is for a figure of this kind. However, if you are a hardcore Assault Kingdom fan with an accommodating budget I can definitely say go for it (and don't be shy to pony up the cash once you actually do manage to find it) but for casual collectors the money can probably be spent better elsewhere.

If you enjoy custom builds and repaints it would be a much better deal to buy the EX09 MSZ-010 ZZ Gundam figure. Not only is it much cheaper but it also contains the exact same figure plus the Mega Rider vehicle at half the cost. Before Bandai revealed the FAZZ figure I had actually gone and purchased myself a second EX09 with the intent to have it converted. Right now I'm still trying to decide whether I should pass it on or hold on to and display it as a plain ZZ Gundam to pose next to the Full Armor version.

Assault Kingdom : Hambrabi Team!

So, I finally got myself a complete trio, the last thing you'll ever see on the battlefield! The Assault Kingdom Hambrabi figure is truly excellent. It is a bit lacking in the accessories department, but you can always steal Haman's beam saber and if I weren't so lazy I would have dug out the Sea Serpent shock weapon from the HCM Pro figure too. Maybe for next time... :)

"FALL!"

Ain't it dead yet?

Well, well, well... it seems Bandai are still kicking the corpse. A rather surprising announcement made on the Bandai shokugan page today, we are actually getting a new Assault Kingdom figure. Now, before anyone works up too much excitement let's be clear about a couple of things. One, it is a reworked Assault Kingdom ZZ Gundam and two, it will be sold as a Premium Bandai exclusive only, so forget the regular retail channels.

Still, we are getting a new Assault Kingdom figure and I think that is worthy of a little bit of celebration after all. The irony is that I have already purchased a second ZZ Gundam figure which I planned to have repainted into FAZZ colours myself, so it seems I might not have to go down that route now.

The Assault Kingdom FAZZ is scheduled for release in March next year with a price tag of ¥1800. The retail ZZ Gundam which it is based on sold for ¥3200 but that also included the Mega-Rider. So, not too shabby.

Assault Kingdom EX 10 : RX-0 Unicorn Gundam & Banshee

So... it appears we have come to the end of the road. Assault Kingdom EX 10 marks the latest and most likely last sign of life we will ever see from this figure line. It had a short run, of roughly two years time, which initially produced a steady set of interesting figures only to decline rapidly over the last year to peter out into nothingness with a bland set of Unicorn figures. Seriously, is there anyone out there who collects Assault Kingdom who doesn't own at least one of these?

Assault Kingdom EX 10 is the last in a line of loosely counted nine waves of regular figures and ten especially pricey EX figures. The latter type has made up the entirety of the figure line for the past year, with the last regular figure wave appearing back in July 2015. EX 10 was officially released in the end of May 2016 and features a suggested retail price of ¥3200, which puts it on par with for example the ZZ-Gundam set.

As most of you are acutely aware, nothing Assault Kingdom seems to be so numerous as RX-0 variations. The closest thing out there would be the Zaku II with a total of five variations. After the Full Armor Unicorn and recent Banshee Norn I felt quite pleased that by now Bandai would have to put the Unicorn to rest. Perhaps if they had been bold enough we'd have seen a Phenex, although admittedly that would have required at least a little bit of new engineering. It was apparently way easier to just chuck the ol' RX-0:s in a new box and ship them out again.

I didn't exactly have high hopes for this last of the EX sets, but with Bandai using the term exclusive, you sort of  hope for at least something interesting other than a basic price hike. So I opened the box and out spilled what must indeed be considered a mixed bag(s). Upon seeing the contents spilling out on the floor, I was struck with a terrible sense of fatigue and déjà vu which almost stopped me dead in my tracks. I felt a sudden urge to just chuck the stuff back into the box and hide it away in a closet but decided to persevere for the sake of the review. Taking one for the team, so to speak.

RX-0 Unicorn Gundam (Destroy Mode)

Well, at this point this sucker requires no introduction, as I'm sure most people out there are familiar with the good ol' Assault Kingdom Unicorn by now. If not, there are several reviews of its previous iterations available in our archive, as I feel no need to go over it all once again. Instead, let's focus on just exactly what is unique about this particular version of the figure.

As you can see from the parts list picture, this figure is best described as a cross between the regular Destroy Mode Unicorn figure and the green Awake Mode Full Armor figure from the old (and still excellent) EX 05 set. Apart from the basic weapons we also get a new pair of pointing hands (same as those on the Full Armor Awake Mode figure) and some of the components from the Base Jabber which has to function as the figure's action base.

Since the figure in this box is basically a souped up Destroy Mode Unicorn (released as a regular figure in wave 2 back in June 2013) we can do a simple line up comparison. As the pictures clearly point out to us, the new version indeed has a couple of cosmetic changes, but mainly for the worse. Notice how the grey segments on the shield and waist have been axed for all white, including the entire backside of the shield. The previously all blue backpack which is now modified also has an ugly white peg sticking out of it.

The two beam tonfas also make a return in this pack, but where you'd think an exclusive figure might get, oh I don't know, maybe some translucent plastic, we instead get a pair of white toothpicks. Geee, thanks a lot.

Not everything is worse though. On the figure's plus side we do find a little bit of gray paint on the front legs as well as a little bit of menacing red on the figure's shoulder backside, where there previously was none. The hands are now painted in metallic grey which I suppose might also impress some collectors out there.

This new iteration really is a middle of the road thing. While far from a disaster in its own right, it is quite underwhelming from a completist collector's point of view. Apart from a pair of hands you really don't get anything Unicorn of value in this box except more of the same.

RX-0 Unicorn 02 Banshee (Destroy Mode)

The second figure in the box is pretty much the same deal as the previous one. While there have only been two previous incarnations of the Unicorn 02 both were of the RX-0[N] Banshee Norn type. This is actually the first vanilla Unicorn 02 figure so a bit of a mini-premiere at least.

As far as the figure goes, it has a lot in common with the Unicorn Destroy Mode figure. Presumably because they are more or less the exact same figure with a couple of minor variations. This however does mean that the Banshee is pretty well stocked with gear and although we have seen much of it before, the Newtype Destroyer components (again repaints of the ones found in the Awake Mode EX05 figure pack) are pretty much essential stuff for a Banshee. We also get a pair of underwhelming if slightly novel navy blue beam tonfas and a navy blue Base Jabber base plate which looks just as ridiculous as the white one.

As you can see it is quite hard to tell the standard RX-0[N] Unicorn 02 Banshee Norn (left) apart from the new Unicorn 02 Banshee figure (right). The base colours in destroy mode appear to be a bit more orange on the old Banshee Norn figure, and there are a few extra painted details on the new figure's legs. Overall, the differences between these figures are less obvious, but the extra gear is more useful here.

As you can see, Assault Kingdom EX 10 is a pretty competent set, so why do I dislike it so greatly? Well, we covered part of it already. As a standalone product this is fine, but as a tired Unicorn rehash it most certainly is not, there's simply just enough value here. You could have added the few new extra accessories and put them in a zip lock bag, selling it as an accessory. As an exclusive set, this set misses its goal by far.

The worst part is the action bases that have been recycled from the Full Armor Unicorn set. Or rather; parts of it have been. While in that particular box we got a complete Base Jabber which could, in emergencies, act like an action base, here we just get a part of it. it wouldn't exactly have been rocket science to plonk in a pair of standard transparent bases, regular ¥400 figures have been using them for quite some time, and rather successfully I might add.

Then there's that black sprue filled with extras, again taken from the Full Armor Unicorn box, simply because one two pieces were needed, the two rotating barrels that go on the one Gatling Gun. So if you happened to wonder what you were supposed to do with the rest of the stuff you can relax in the knowledge that you may as well toss them away.

The worst offence on part of the EX 10 pack though is not what it is, but what it could have been. Two pairs of translucent beam tonfas and a couple of proper action bases would have gone a very long way towards that. But it seems clear that the remainder of the Assault Kingdom budget was spent on oversized $200 limited edition figures, in some vain hope that it would turn the series around...

All is however not lost. The Universal Unit figure series, which can best be described as an Assault Kingdom v 2.0, is just around the corner, with its first releases to appear later this summer. While Bandai lauds it as figures of higher technical quality, it more importantly also gives them an excuse to peddle the same old mobile suits all over again. Just as Assault Kingdom was coming out of its corner and starting to hit some really creative ground, I fear we will be relegated to seeing the usual suspects on shelves as the UN² series kicks in.

With Assault Kingdom now dead in the water it seems way smarter to hold on to your mobile suit budget and do a gigantic skip across this depressing package. For those of you still missing out the Unicorns in your collection, this is a decent way to get them, although you'd probably have more fun collecting the original figures on the secondhand market. They're not that terribly rare as some of the other figures in the line (those that only made one single appearance that is).

As far as Universal Unit is concerned, Bandai claims it to be somewhat size-compatible with Assault Kingdom and surely it can only be a question of time before that range gets inundated with Unicorns of all shapes and sizes as well. Assault Kingdom EX 10 is for the most obssessed completists out there only.

Assault Kingdom EX 08 : AMX-004-2 / AMX-004-3 Qubeley Mk-II Set

The Assault Kingdom line is a bit of a strange beast. It had a moderately short run between 2013 and 2016 where it produced nine regular waves of figures, ten exclusive figures (two of which were released in two different version) and three gargantuan behemoths. The EX 08 twin Qubeley box which we are going to take a look at today is the oddest of the EX lot.

As you can see the EX 08 set is not distributed in the regular fashion. This is kind of strange since it holds a spot in the EX-catalogue number sequence, unlike other oddities like the Neo Zeong or the Queen Mansa which were released unnumbered.

Actually it is not clear to me just exactly how the EX 08 set was distributed. The box seems to indicate this to be a Japanese or Bandai website only release, yet the item I picked up from Hong Kong is stickered with a Bandai Asia note. So it seems while this set is more of a limited run, it was still distributed outside of Japan.

Well, I won't bore you more with musings on availability. Suffice it to say that this is somewhat of a rare bird. You will not find this set as easily as for example the regular Qubeley or the Hyaku-Shiki, so exercise a bit of caution if you are trying to locate a box. Bandai priced the box at a whopping ¥3800 which compares quite well to the EX 07 Qubeley which sold for ¥2000.

The box art comes in monochrome black and white with a kind of dithered effect similar to what we have seen on the large out of sequence figures, which further makes this set stand out from the rest of the EX line.

The contents are perhaps not nearly as exciting as the packaging. Inside you will find two plastic bags with the components for each Qubeley. They are pretty much reruns of the regular white AMX-004 Qubeley, minus the effect parts.

As you can see you are really getting the bare bones in this package. Each Qubeley comes with one beam saber and two choices of hands and that's it.

The dark purple AMX-004-2 Qubeley Mk-II is the initial prototype of the upgraded AMX-004. As far as the figure is concerned, it is a recoloured AMX-004 with only two notable differences. The first is the Neo Zeonic logo sported on the right shoulder binder (with a similar one on the mirrored component on the left shoulder flip side), and the second is that the beam saber hilt is painted in dark purple to match the suit, whereas the original Qubeley figure's two sabers were all translucent yellow.

The action base in these pictures is *not* included with the Qubeley Mk-IIs.

The upgraded paint scheme on the Mk-II is also a nice glossy finish which looks really good. However, the original Qubeley figure still outperforms the Mk-IIs by having an action base and funnel effect parts. This is a real drawback for the EX 08 set; the lack of at least one action base almost seems negligent on Bandai's part. I guess the alternative would have been two separate Qubeley Mk-IIs figures with extra components which would have cost even more, but this lack of an action base is a first in the entire Assault Kingdom series and a total flop.

The second prototype of the mark-twos is the AMX-004-3 Qubeley Mk-II. This figure is a colour-swapped clone of the AMX-004-2, so you get the same features when compared to the bog standard AMX-004 also with this one. The red and yellow is a bit garish but faithful to the original, but it makes the figure look decidedly more plastic.

No, the action base in these pictures is still not included with the Qubeley Mk-IIs...

As you can see from all the photos the action base is really a requirement if you are to create any spectacular poses with these figures. You can always buy a couple of extra regular figures (pick those that come with transparent bases) to round out your armoury I suppose.

Overall the Qubeley Mk-II set completes what it intends to do, it is just a little sad that we don't get more accessories for them. I mean, couldn't you at least include two sabers for each figure?

Size-wise the Qubeleys are on par with the Full Armor ZZ Gundam making them suitably taller than the average Assault Kingdom figure.

Haman Karn gets all the goodies...

Borrowing the funnels and base from the regular AMX-004. The pink funnels work reasonably well with the purple Qubeley Mk-II but would need a repaint for use with the red one.

So, should you grab the Qubeley Mk-II set? Well, I would give a casual recommendation to do so. The figures are certainly not must haves as far as Assault Kingdom are concerned, but it should be noted that there are no other representations of the Mk-IIs in the 1/220 scale. STANDart featured no Qubeleys and Ultimate Operation only has the white one, so if you like this quirky ZZ design I would say go for it, just be careful of the asking price.

If you are a DIY-collector, you can also consider grabbing some extra EX 07 AMX-004 Qubeley boxes and repaint those figures yourself, that would net you more equipment and action bases for display.