Gashapon Warrior DASH 04 has been something of a Holy Grail set for me personally. As I have been chasing down various figure sets I somehow never seemed to find this particular volume. Sure, I picked up the odd Gasshia or Graze here and there, but in particular the Zudahs and the Hildolfr have been extremely elusive. Then out of the blue not one but two complete sets appeared on Mandarake and I pounced on them with extreme vigilance.
Originally released in December 2015, DASH 04 contains seven different figures that were sold in Gashapon vending machines at ¥300 per piece. Considering that there are three different Zudah variations in this set I don't know if these particular figures were actually rarer than their counterparts, since Bandai sometimes loves doing A/B sets (or in this case A/B/C) where you'd get just one of the variant figures per each base figure type effectively making them extra scarce.
01 : ASW-G-08 Gundam Barbatos (4th Form)
DASH 04 is the very first SD figure set to feature figures from the Iron Blooded Orphans series and of course opens up with the Barbatos itself. Here it is represented by its fourth iteration with the stylish rounded shoulders and original feet.
The figure has pretty good colour and markings, at least on its front side while the back is a bit boring; all white except for where some parts from the joints peek through. The red markings on the shoulders are present but the corresponding markings are missing from the chest and knees. Not exactly surprising for an SD Gashapon figure and it could be remedied fairly easily with a steady hand and a red marker pen.
The Barbatos comes armed with its katana-style sword which has a nice metallic colour to it. The mold itself is perhaps not the most interesting as it looks like your average toothpick. :)
The Barbatos has also been released with its signature Mace in Gashapon Warrior DASH volume 06. As you can see, the figures themselves are pretty much the same.
The very same Barbatos figure was also reissued as a "Real Type Colour" version from DASH's first Real Type colour set, released in August 2016. The new version has toned down colours, replacing the bright yellow with near orange and turning reds and blues into maroon and dark navy blue.
02 : EB-06 Graze
The second IBO figure in the set is something as unusual as a mass production type unit; the Graze which is sort of the Zaku II of the IBO saga.
Looking pretty smooth there, I must say. Notice the multiple colour applications on the Graze's torso, they even gave it a bit of gray paint on the back side which is a really nice touch.
The Graze comes with two different accessories which is useful for army building; the GR-H01 Battle Axe and the GR-W01 120mm Rifle (in its compact Short Form, the Commander Type figure features the rifle in full length form). Of course it would have been nice to get the Graze Bazooka as well but together with the Graze Commander Type figure from DASH 05 you will still have three different weapons to play around with.
The Graze has a long range Head Sphere Sensor hidden within its head. You can deploy it by opening up the two halves that make up the Graze's head.
There are a myriad of Graze variants and versions although so far we've had to make do with the EB-06 and the related EB-06s Commander Type figure, which was released in DASH 05. Otherwise the Graze is a very rare sight in figure form. I believe the only other two appearances are in miniature model kit form; once with its accurate proportions in the Mini Kit Collection series and once as a deformed figure in the short lived Gundam Expand capsule toy set.
03 : EMS-10 Zudah
Next up is something really odd; a rare peek into the often overlooked corner of the Universal Century that is depicted in the short episodic series of MS IGLOO. This short story of Mobile Suit Gundam has produced some really impressive and stellar looking mobile suit designs, yet they rarely get a chance to show it off.
The EMS-10 Zudah was a high speed mobile suit prototype suggested for mass production, but its fate was sealed when it lost out to the Zaku I. It later appeared in a very limited production run and Bandai have been gracious enough to supply no less than three of these machines in this set.
The first of these three figures is a standard grunt type machine armed with - ironically - a Zaku 120mm Machine Gun and a shield. The figure has the common gimmick of a monoeye painted.on a black cylinder to allow you to rotate its facing. On the back side we have the nicely painted thruster of the high performance yet volatile Jupiter Engine. This is the first of the three types you can find in this set.
04 : EMS-10 Zudah (Commander Type)
Next we have the Commander Type mobile suit which is equipped with a very prominent commander antenna wich gives the suit a rather menacing look. Otherwise the figure is trhe same as the previous.
The Commander Type figure comes with a large 135mm Anti Ship Rifle. This weapon is big enough that you can simulate the figure holding it with both hands which is decidedly cool.
Notice that the Anti Ship Rifle is made up of two parts. You could actually create a fairly convincing bullpup machine gun type weapon (similar to the ones carried by E.F.F. GM's) by leaving out the barrel component.
The Commander Type Zudah was also reissued in the DASH Real Type Color Ver. set from August 2016. It can easily be identified from its darker base colour.
05 : EMS-10 Zudah
The third and last version of the Zudah returns to the standard grunt type head and gives the figure some new gear. Other than that it is the very same figure all over again.
Notice the holes on the figure's lower legs; we can make use of them to stor weapons on the figure's legs, you will see an example of this further down. Another interesting touch is that the two shoulder parts are freely interchangable. This allows you to create figures which carry their shields on the opposit shoulder, or both, or none at all.
This version of the Zudah is the only one to comes with two weapons choices; we geat the classic Heat Hawk battle axe weapon as well as the World War II inspired Sturmfaust single use rocket. The rocket itself has a tiny peg on it which allows you to store it on the backside of the shield. However, the peg is too tiny to make the Zudah hold it in its hand or to store it on the leg, which feels like a missed opportunity.
The Gashapon Warrior DASH Zudah is a wonderful figure and it lends itself well to squad building with its various weapon options. Interestingly, the only major weapon option not included here - the Zaku Bazooka - was the only weapon available for the Zudah figure released in SD Gundam Bind 05, which is a much smaller and compact figure(which I unfortunately do not have available for comparison). We also have three 1:400 scale Zudahs released in the Gundam Collection figure series but it has never been released in e.g. 1:220 format or in Converge for that matter. Come on guys, make it happen!
06 : YMT-05 Hildolfr
We have one more machine from the MS IGLOO series, the transforming Hildolfr mobile tank. This machine is pretty much of a class of its own, although we have seen some other similar ideas like the Zaku Tank or even the Guntank line.
The Hildolfr is a powerful artillery piece designed to take out large or heavily armed targets with its 30 cm main gun. It can however also transform into a semi-mobile armor form where the torso rises up and arms extend giving it manipultor arms that can wield standardized mobile suit weapons such as the Zaku machine Gun included here.
There are no build instructions included with the Hildolfr; I had to squint into the booklet where the additional illustration is the only clue you will get on how to assemble the components. In the end though, I had to turn to more artwork online to fully confirm that the armor pieces were facing the proper direction and it took a couple of tries before I got it right.
Here you see the Hildolfr in its tank mode. Normally you'd want to fire the main gun in this mode only, since you risk toppling the machine if firing from the mobile armor mode. I have to say this figure looks awesome in the tank mode but it appears to have the softest armor facing straight to the front, hardly a functionaly design. :)
I really love the DASH representation of this machine. This super deformed Hildolfr with its piercing eye looks like something out of Armored Core. While the figure does have some issues with parts deformation - the main body is contracting like a caterpillar and the main gun leans towards the side on both of mine - it still looks great. Unfortunately the DASH Hildolfr appears to be a really rare figure; I have never seen it on sale anywhere except when I managed to grab it as part of a full set for this review.
07 : MS-13 Gasshia
The last figure is also a really rare appearance. Here comes the Gasshia, an assault type mobile suit out of the MS-X variation designs. I have only ever seen the Gasshia released here as well as in the 1:400 Gundam Collection line, so it is great that we get one for Super Deformed army building here.
The Gasshia has some design elements borrowed from the Z'Gok and the Zogok but it looks much more menacing than either of these. It also has a great colour scheme with some nice detail although the backside looks a bit plain. You could enhance the figure with some colour apps in proper places to bring forward vents and rockets more clearly. Also, unlike the Zudah, the Gasshia's monoeye is not movable.
The Gasshia comes with two weapon types except for its Iron Nail claws. The most obvious is its weird Hammer Gun which appears to be a melee weapon of sorts kind of like the Gundam's Hyper Hammer or the Mjolnir mace of the Raider Gundam. Less obvious is the 4-pod rocket launcher on the figure's right shoulder. The left shoulder is permanently offline. It would have been nice if they had fleshed out this gear with option parts so that we could display the figure with rocket launchers open or closed.
Conclusion
Gashapon Warrior DASH 04 is a magnificent entry into the DASH family and I absolutely adore the figures on display here. The rather limited availbility nowadays is a problem but the figures aren't expensive once you actually do find them... in Japan that is. In fact, you'd probably be best off searching for these in the Gashapon shops in Japan. Oh, how I would like to go on a spending spree in the used toy shops over there again...
