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.

MegaHouse Chess Piece Collection : Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam - The Black Gundam

The Chess Piece Collection brand is one of those concepts recycled across multiple intellectual properties. Besides Mobile Suit Gundam I know that MegaHouse has also put out similar figures for Naruto, Dragonball, Kamen Rider, One Piece and a few others. The Gundam-themed sets mainly occurred between 2002 and 2005 and are focused around the original television series, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and SEED/SEED Destiny. There is also a single set for Stardust Memory and one with Mobile Suit Variations.


Selected for review today is the first of a total of four waves focusing on designs from the Zeta series. While the set takes its name from the initial episode this does not reflect the selection of mobile suits. The set appeared some time in 2003 (the second wave is advertised as being released in October in the accompanying booklet). The individual figures have a suggested retail price of ¥380 which in 2003 could be compared to ¥200 for the slightly larger HG MS Gashapons, ¥190 for either a Gundam Collection 1:400 figure or a 1:300 Gsight figure, or ¥100 for a tiny SD mini.


While I have been collecting the Chess Piece Collection very slowly over the years (these suckers can be quite hard to find) I had a bit of a breakthrough when I stumbled on a complete set at Mandarake (where else..?). I was really surprised to discover that the figures in this set were not only available in two paint style variations, but the set also features a secret figure on top of it. I have no idea how the distribution would be arranged, I'd normally assume that a 12-box will include one of every type with the secret figure replacing perhaps one of the other two "King"-rated figures but this is only a speculation.


Above is a folded out single figure box, which as you can see were sold randomly. I always found it a bit strange that the blue Mk-II on the cover was actually not present in the set but at least now that mystery has an explanation. :)


Since these figures were produced in an era when Bandai could afford both a stylish box and a colour booklet we get a very nice inlay in each box which deludes itself by trying to teach Japanese kids play chess. I imagine the horror of actually trying to find enough figures to create a full chess board, but somehow I doubt that was MegaHouse's real intention at this point in time (There was actually a "Starter Set" sold for ¥4800 by MegaHouse in 2002 which featured a folding board and 32 figures divided in all-white and all-black respectively).



King : RX-178 Gundam Mk-II with Flying Armor


As mentioned above each regular figure in this set as two paint styles; one will be weathered and realistic looking while the other will feature glossy paint. The figures are shown side by side for a direct comparison. At the top of the food chain we have the A.E.U.G. Mk-II on its Flying Armor during atmospheric re-entry on its way to Jaburo. Since the chess figures are designed to stand closely together on a chess board (and also fit in very tight boxes) you will notice that most figures have a very vertical disposition. Smaller vehicles like tanks or spacecraft frequently feature enormously unconvincing flame-style designs as present here. The figures are otherwise well-painted but the awkward poses and scenic backgrounds cut in half take a bit of getting used to.





Queen : NRX-044 Asshimar


The figures in this set alternate between the white and the black team and the second wave of figures switches this around so that the set is led by a black king and a white queen and so on. The colour difference on the two Asshimars is not as apparent as on some of the other figures in the set. The figures are made of soft sturdy plastic as the bent antenna clearly shows although some figures do come with hard and brittle plastic, and it is not unusual to see second hand figures with either missing or broken weapons or bodyparts.





Bishop : RMS-099 Rick Dias


The early production Rick Dias figure is the one standout figure in this set that has a really marked difference between the glossy and weathered look. Notice the crushed city block it is stomping around on. That street light is either the shortest one in the world or covered in massive heaps of rubble.





Knight : RMS-108 Marasai


Ridiculous or not, it only takes a Marasai to make me start collecting a figure series. This is also one of the better figures in this wave with a neutral cliff side in the background. I should point out also that as we get through the ranks of the chess pieces the bases keep getting lower and lower. At some point I would want to remove the pedestals altogether since they don't really add anything of value in my opinion, but I imagine it is going to take a lot of dedication to manage to cut through the glue holding the figures together. If anyone has attempted to do this, I would be curious to hear more about it.





Rook : FXA-05D Defenser


The Defenser spacecraft has a very traditional horizontal look about it and so the chess figure is made to point more or less into the sky to enable it to fit inside the box. The two stub wings actually come in a separate bag of their own and can be attached to the sides of the figure (and can easily be removed again if you wish to store the figure in this box). I bet there are a lot of Defenser out there on the secondhand market missing their wings or having a broken off gun. A fate that has happened to an incredibly large proportion of the Magella Attack Tanks from the early UC 0079 set.





Pawn : RMS-179 GM II


While I have my doubts about the Defenser surviving a fight with a GM II it makes sense to make a mass production machine like the GM the pawn. It is perhaps less inspiring that the pawn for the white team (featured in the second wave of figures) was also a GM II, albeit in A.E.U.G. colours - at least that one is kneeling.





King : RX-178 Gundam Mk-II (Titans Unit 03) (secret)


And speaking of confusion then, the secret figure for this set is the Mk-II in Titans navy blue colours. We see it unarmed just after Kamille has stolen it and is bumbling around in the colony's military base (man, the more I think about the plot in Zeta the more depressed I become). While blue Unit 03 was indeed used by the A.E.U.G. a short while before being painted white I still think it is odd to see this figure on the white team. I don't know if there exists a secret Mk-II figure for the black team but the other three Mk-II's are all on the white side which I think is a bit greedy.






Here is the full line-up of the realistically painted figures including the secret Mk-II. The size of the figures is as you can see adapted to be coherent rather than to scale.


Is there also a glossy variant of the secret figure? I don't know, but if it does exist out there I bet it will be a bit of a nightmare to find.



Conclusion

The MegaHouse Chess Piece Figure Collection is extremely gimmicky and not really that suitable for display together with other figure lines. Still, if you enjoy their style you can build up some interesting displays for primarily Zeta, SEED and the One Year War. The figures are not particularly expensive but very rare to come by, especially still in boxes. Your best bet for finding them is in used lots or second hand Gashapon shops.