Gundam Collection 00-1 box opening

Following on from yesterday's look into a DX3 box I also have one for the double-oh set. This release is a bit of an anomaly that exists on the side of the regular retail series. The fact that it is labelled 00-1 clearly indicates that Bandai did leave it open for possible future expansions but sadly this is the only set that was made. While it is a strong start there is so much unbroken ground to cover and it makes me a little sad. How lovely it would have been to see 1/400 minis for the Union Realdo, GNX-III or the Anf for example. At the time of its release in October 2007 the GC series was well into its decline and it was followed only by a few more DX sets and some other outliers.


This distribution-style box comes with the usual provisions for modifying the box into an attractive counter topper just like that of a collectible cardgame. The box contains 12 blind-box figurines. Let's complete the walk around of the box sides:


We are informed that there are ten different figures to collect (plus a hidden number of extras) in this set but as is usual with Gundam Collection the selection is much deeper. However, at this point in time the GC sets had devolved into a pretty miserable state. While this set does contain alternate variants of some of the figures it also heavily pads the contents with the dreaded silver- and gold-colour figures. These are basically the same figure with some cheap single-colour paint slapped all over it, not sure what you are supposed to do with those? the answer is of course, spend more money buying blind boxes until you get the properly coloured ones. Nowhere on the box do I see a representation of these dud-figures, all the sides contain the fully-coloured figurines which is rather deceptive.

Bandai did these shenanigans with a number of the last GC sets before the series folded entirely. Interestingly, we see a spin on this take in the new 2026 Gashapon Senshi ZERO figure line which sports 15 figures to a set, of which only three are fully painted. Very frustrating.


So, before we start here is a rundown of the ten different mobile suits you can find in the box. Celestial Being is represented by its four essentials - Exia, Dynames, Kyrios and the Virtue. The three "enemy" nations get three, two and one suit respectively. All the CB suits come with at least two different weapons choices while only the Tieren Ground Type gets an alternate variant among the others. Imagine what an awesome collection this could have been if the 00 series would have kept going for 4-5 volumes.

For me, I am still missing several of the different colour variants from the 00-1 set and so I hope to find a couple of new faces in here to flesh out the checklist.


As I covered in the discussion regarding DX3 you never really know if you are buying a genuinely seeded box or not when you are trading on the secondary market. In this particular case however it appears that the contents were untampered with which makes this opening more interesting from a historical point of view. The figures are prearranged in alphabetical order (each figure has a short code identifying it) with the first figure starting in the top left corner seen here which would be the last row of figures when looking into a box from the front. Below, is a simple schematic of how the figures in this particular box were arranged:

A001 - A001 - A002 - A003
A004 - A005 - A006 - A007
A008 - A008 - A009 - A010

Since 00-1 is a relatively small set with only ten figures you will most likely find all ten inside a single box. However, you should not expect to get a full set of painted figures. The worst set in this regard is DX9 where my usual experience is getting four fully painted figures out of 12, but 00-1 is a little bit more generous. There were seven fully painted figures in this box and then five of the pretty much useless silver- and gold versions. Normally I would expect half of the figures in a 00-1 to be the fully painted variants.


Here are some close-ups of the individual figure boxes. I love how the text on the backside reads something like "There are also other variations in weapons and equipment etc". Right. The word "etc." here means we took the figure and repainted it into something that you do not want or even expected.


Each Gundam Collection figure also comes with a little folded paper with some basic information about your figure. This set also includes a separate mini-flyer for the luxurious Ptolemaios carrier in full 1/400 scale. It had a devastating price of 12 600 yen already back in the day - these days I see them routinely going for about 50 000 yen so have fun with that. While I am not particularly interested in the carrier itself it does come with four unique variants of the Celestial Being mobile suits which I highly covet. Or well, three at least - I'm not so sure if that Virtue figure is actually different from the figure included in 00-1.


The figures that you see here are the three that sit in the leftmost out of the four columns, so the first figure in the back row, middle row and front row. And as you can see things aren't exactly starting out great. One silver-colour Exia, the Virtue in gold and a fully painted Enact. I won't dwell on these figures or review them in detail as many of them will stay in their bags for resale but it will give you an idea of what to expect from a 00-1 box.


Next column has a fully painted Exia, this time with the GN Short and GN Long blades instead of the GN Sword which we saw previously. Next a very welcome fully-painted Ground Type Tieren with the Smoothbore gun and then another AEU Enact but this time in silver colour. When you inspect the silver- and gold-colour figures closer you can see the original plastic colour peeking through at the pegs, so these were not cast in silver or gold but painted over.


In the third column we get a fully painted Dynames, a silver-colour Tieren High Mobility Type (dang!) and a gold colour AEU Hellion. I'd much rather have gotten fully painted mass-production type suits as they would be more useful.


In our last column all three figures are actually fully-painted. I was a bit surprised by this as I would have imagined the fully painted to unpainted ratio to always be 50% which has been my experience so far. Here we get the Kyrios with a beam saber, the Space-type Tieren and the Union Flag. All in all, this was a really good box for me because I ended up with six new variants to add to the line-up on the checklist page.


Above here you can see the individual booklets for each figure in placed in a pattern similar to each figure's position inside the box. So, the two Exias were found in the left corner furthest from the front and so on. Notice that the figures are only depicted with their primary weapon variants on the booklet covers. below you can find a reproduction of the checklist for the 00-1 set after I updated it with the new figures from this box. There are still plenty of gaps in the line-up but nearly all of them are just pointless silver- or gold-variants.

Gundam Collection DX3 box opening

I recently got my hands on some Gundam Collection boxes and thought it could be an amusing diversion here on the blog. These 1/400 scale soft PVC figures were a hot commodity some 20 years ago but nowadays they are becoming harder to find on the second-hand market, especially if you are looking for the rarer items. Each set features a healthy number of figures and the key gimmick is that many if not most of them are made available in different versions, typically with different unit markings or weapon choices. I still have a couple of gaps in the DX3 line and so maybe I can get lucky and find one of the missing items this way.


Broadly speaking there are three groups of retail Gundam Collection series. The first collection consists of ten waves released between 2002 and 2004. They were followed by the NEO line between 2005 and 2006 which is basically an extension of the original ten. Then there was also the DX line which as the name implies focused on larger and more elaborate designs that couldn't be accomplished on the regular budget.


There are nine DX-sets released in tandem with the original series from 2004 onwards until the last set in 2010. DX3 here was released in November 2005 according to HobbyLink Japan and this distribution-style counter-top box includes nine blind-box figures. With an original retail MSRP of 294 yen the prices haven't really increased that much on the Japanese secondary market (avoid being overcharged on sites like eBay) but supply can be a bit of a hassle. I bought this particular box for ¥4000 which makes it reasonably expensive as far as Gundam Collection boxes go.


Let's take a closer look at the figures in this set. DX3 especially showcases the Endless Waltz versions of the Wing Gundam family but as you can see there are also half a dozen large Universal Century machines included as well as the Devil Gundam from G. Every figure bar Heavyarms and the Tallgeese III has an alternate variant. The set also features a secret figure which in this case is simply a recolouring of the Asshimar pair in the dark livery as seen in Green Divers.


Blind-box purchases such as this one are really nothing different from picking up trading card game booster packs. The boxes in this particular box were all sealed but the larger package is not, so there is always a chance that the contents have been shall we say... curated, by the seller. While the second-hand seller could be operating in good faith the previous owner may have re-seeded boxes with duds etc. In this particular case however it appears the contents were genuinely untouched and the boxes contained inside were sorted alphabetically which is something you see a lot in Bandai boxes like these.

AX3 - BX3 - DX3
FX3 - EX3 - IX3
JX3 - KX3 - MX3

The arrangement in the box looked like in the above diagram, with figure AX3 situated to the left of the backrow and MX3 down in the right corner towards the front and so on. I did find it odd that the EX3 figure appears to have switched places with FX3 but there could well be a packaging reason for this that I am not aware of. Long story short it appears we are getting a genuine experience here.


Before we start let's just take a tour around the sides of the individual blind box itself. The graphic design is very similar to the larger distribution box. Will I manage to find the Sandrock without its cloak, the Perfect Zeong with psycommu hands activated or the Gaplant with a beam saber?




Here we have the three figures that make up the back row of the box. from left to right we have the Wing Zero armed with buster rifles sitting on its odd space-themed clear base which doesn't match the other Gundams in the set. It is followed by the Deathscythe with one of its wings folded and Altron there with its odd Dragon Fang extended. It also carries are very bendy Twin Beam Trident. Notice how the shapes of these bases are intended to be posed in a semi-circle as seen on the box cover.


The middle row consists of the Tallgeese III and the Sandrock with Shawl (damnit!) and the mighty Gaplant without the beam saber (damnit again!). The Gaplant figure can be displayed without the large booster unit but its base is not really suited for it since the figure would sit directly at the edge of one of the sides which looks a bit odd. Unfortunately Bandai never made the Gaplant in regular standing configuration for the 1/400 line but you can find a suitable replacement in the Mini Figure Selection Plus figure line which is very similar in size (actually, I'm not sure that you can actually find that one either because it is also 20 years old at this point...).


On the three front seats we have three of the really heavy figures, their boxes weigh around twice as much as the smaller Endless Waltz figures and so it would be easy to tell the two groups apart if you bought them in store. I am curious if shopkeepers would allow customers to just pick up any box they like back in the day. Anyway, from left to right we find the heavy Xamel artillery unit from Stardust Memory, the Perfect Zeong (very much with its hands still on, damnit!) and the alternative semi-secret version of the Devil Gundam with that huge face instead of legs. That last figure is worth a fair it actually, maybe 1500-2000 yen or so. It is useless to me however as I already have one...

Anyway, so that box-opening was a bit of a fiasco for me. Most of these will be sold on, I might keep the Xamel and the Gaplant but the rest will stay in their bags. The most interesting item here turned out to be the cardboard box itself. Since I won't be opening these particular figures I have included images of the DX3 family from the checklist posted elsewhere on the blog. No new entries added this time, unfortunately. :)

Gundam Collection : Dengeki Hobby MS-06R-1A Zaku II High Mobility Type

I just added a new item to the Gundam Collection 1/400 check list and figured it could be a good idea to write a few lines about it. This figure has been patiently waiting in its bag for almost 20 years and finally got to taken out on a spin. The 1/400 figure line started its life in 2002 and Bandai and Dengeki Hobby Magazine of course took the opportunity for a bit of cross-promotion. This figure was a promotional item for the September 2002 issue which I do not have at hand as I have not yet began fetishizing over hobby magazines. :)


The main purpose of me doing this review is to aid 1/400 collectors in recognizing its packaging, as it is quite unspectacular and easy to miss. Got to love that fear of missing out-hyperbole written on the packaging. I don't think FOMO was really a thing back then, limited edition seemed to be more trendy as far as I can recall. Some of the rare Gundam Collection figures are really pricy these days but this item does not appear to hold much value and I picked one up for a mere ¥200.


The figure is made up of these three pieces. The right arm has a shaped peg and so is not intended to swivel, which is typically (though not always) a mainstay gimmick in the series. Not also the completely unique take on a base which has no underfoot peg, but rather the feet are slid into position. I wonder if this was made so to avoid ugly see through effects in the foot since the material is transparent. The base is labelled MS-06R-1A Zaku II and has a "Z1" identifier. There are no other markings underneath it as it is clearly not intended to be compatible with the 1/400 game system.


While I am not really a fan of clear color figures there is no denying that this one upholds the fine sculpting standard of the regular 1/400 line. Thanks to its large feet you will also have no trouble displaying it without its stand.


This figure interestingly seems to be a completely unique sculpt. I may have missed kinship with one of the many Zaku II figures available in the Gundam Collection catalogue but it sure does not match either of the other two High Mobility Type Zakus available. The figure also appears to be a bit larger than the standard figures, so if you wanted to grab one and repaint into your favourite ace pilot keep that in mind.