Seika Sharpener Collection EX : SEED Destiny

Seika is one of those large corporations that seem to produce a little bit of everything. If you visit their corporate website it looks just as bland and uninteresting as the rest of them; a cavalcade of buzzwords and image bank material, visit at your own risk. In its more inspired moments however it does produce toys, or at least it did. You'll mainly find various types of IP-related stickers, books, or similar knick-knacks. Among the highlights of its contributions to the Mobile Suit Gundam-themed toy landscape the large Toy Book series springs to mind as well as a bazillion of various pencil sharpener figurines. The EX line upped that game but only saw a few releases themed around Zeta Gundam, SEED and SEED Destiny. Today we are examining the first SEED Destiny batch of sharpener figures released somewhere around 2004-2005.


Here is a quick walkaround of the standardized box because yes, these things are packaged randomly. Ex figures typically come in larger boxes holding 6-12 individual figures or similar. I don't have enough data to speak on the figure distribution among these boxes and I have never even seen an image of one for this particular set.


These figures belong to a previous era, when the world was at peace and third world labour was still cheap. This allowed us to enjoy cheap figurines packaged in lavish full-colour boxes and a rather redundant mini-booklet thrown in for good measure! Nowadays, black and white packaging is everywhere and we don't always get printed assembly instructions with the larger figures either. The early 2000s is a bit of a golden age for mini-figure collection.


Each individual figure comes wrapped in a plastic bag and occasionally has some additional cardboard wrapping around the thinner parts to protect them from bending out of shape. The material is a mix between soft PVC and a somewhat harder ABS-PVC blend.


The main gimmick of these figures is of course that they are pencil sharpeners. Underneath each figure a simple sharpener has been glued into place. That's why we have the hole in the side of one of the six edges and why we have the large and unwieldy bases on these things in the first place. Come on kids, surely you know what a pencil is? Right?



ZGMF-X56S/α Force Impulse Gundam


This set is pretty much dedicated to showing off the various Silhouette Packs that apply to the Impulse Gundam, a popular theme for miniatures around this time. The Aile Stri... I mean the Force Silhouette is basically a copy of the Strike Gundam atmospheric flight pack and is seen here in action as the figure hovers slightly above the ground. The figure is attached directly to the base and you are not meant to try to remove it from the base itself. Similarly there is no articulation present, think of this as a soft plastic statue with a decent ability to not bend out of shape. Both the sculpting and paint applications are as you can see really nice for such a small figure. I should point out that the Force Impulse also returns in the second set of SEED Destiny figures in a more traditional standing pose. I didn't have it out of packaging at time for this review but will revisit this entry to add a comparison photo eventually.






ZGMF-X56S/β Sword Impulse Gundam


Next up is the Sword Impulse silhouette close range combat variant, a daring design for a such small PVC figure. The (very nicely painted) blades are protected by cardboard wrapping and came out of the box in pristine condition, don't throw these away and keep them around for future storage. I am not a huge fan of this pose as it feels a bit unnatural and not to mention it will encroach on the space of figures you chose to place next to it. Still, this is my favourite variant of the Impulse Gundam and this figure does do it justice.






ZGMF-X56S/γ Blast Impulse Gundam


The Blast Impulse is the Launcher Strike look-alike for the Impulse and comes in a bit of an awkward pose here. Look at the beautiful detail and paintwork, notice the detail around the launcher handles and the various exhausts at the back. Even the little backpack peering out beneath the large fans is heavily detailed. Seika figures sometimes have a bit of a weathered finish with slight colour variations in the main body paintwork, you can see the shifting tone of greyish white on the legs here for example. It is a pity that we can't get small, pre-painted figures such as these anymore.






ZGMF-1000 ZAKU Warrior


The last design in the set is my personal pick. and one I would have loved to get multiples of but Seika Sharpener figures is only something you will come across happenstance and these larger EX figures are even rarer. This mass production-type figure is the only one in the set to come in a classic standing pose and stands out a bit from the others in this way. Again beautiful colouring and detail work all around including the spare ammo drum attached to the backside of its shield.






ZGMF-1000 ZAKU Warrior (Lunamaria Hawke Custom)


Don't look so sad, Shinn. Yeah, I know why you are disappointed, that secret fifth figure is indeed impossible to find - I have never even seen it on a photo. On the odd chance that I were to stumble on it somewhere in the future I'll come back and update this post. For now I just decided to upload a review with the basic range covered because otherwise it may never come up at all. I suppose I should confirm that I actually do not know that the secret figure will be Lunamaria's red variant but it is just something that I take for granted. The same pattern shows up in the SEDD Destiny 02 set by the way, where the basic set includes a green Gunner ZAKU Warrior and a secret red variant for Lunamaria's personal use (and that figure I have actually seen).



Conclusion

Should you go after the Seika EX sharpener figures? While there are a few really unique looking sculpts in this range they are unfortunately very hard to find, among the rarest of the rare small figures I would say. Still, they do show up at places like Mandarake from time to time and are generally not expensive, but you'll just have a miserable time trying to actively find them. I have resigned myself to picking Seikas up whenever I happen to stumble on them myself.

Seika Sharpener Collection EX : RX-178 Gundam Mk-II (Chara-Hobby 2004 Limited)

I recently had the good fortune to stumble on a set of Seika figures that I didn't even know existed. The Seika Sharpener line (EX to be precise) has been featured here once before and they are some of the more difficult to find Gashapon-size figures out there. These figures are soft plastic fully-painted statues glued on top of hexagonal bases with a little pencil sharpener underneath. I believe Seika has also produced sharpener figure sets based on other franchise licenses but I haven't really bothered to investigate further.


Seika began producing much smaller Gundam-themed pencil sharpener figures around 2002 and soon followed them up with the larger figures around 2004. To my knowledge there is only a single set of EX Sharpener figures themed on different Zeta Gundam mobile suits, released in 2004. One of those figures was the RX-178 Gundam Mk-II in A.E.U.G. colours and this Chara-Hobby limited edition from the same year features the same figure repainted in Titans colours. I don't know what the figure cost back then but I bet they weren't particularly pricey. As you can see the figures come in generic boxes with a sticker identifying the unit number variant housed inside.


Each figure is further protected in a plastic bag with the right arm held in a separate smaller bag. The arm is designed to go on the shoulder in a specific way and so you have no posing options at all unless you want to modify the figure.


Whenever I see these old fully painted Gashapon figures it saddens my heart to look at the current era excuses we have for Gashapon and Shokugan figures. Just look at all this detail. The only modification I would consider is painting the leg thruster exhausts black but I decided against messing with them right now. Sadly, i don't own the white A.E.U.G. figure to compare the painting detail level but from what I have seen online they appear to be at the same level of detail.


Here is the full trio side by side. Only the unit number differs between the figures. It sure would have been cool if Seika had created optional arms with a beam saber and a bazooka but I can well imagine that such extravaganza was way out of the budget for a gimmicky figure series such as this. If you really wanted to it should be possible to dig up a suitably sized bazooka from the Gashapon HG figure line if you fancy a bit of modification.


The EX sharpener line is rated at roughly 1:280 although individual differences exist, considering the standardized sizes of packaging and bases that should come as little surprise. This line-up features a 1:300 Ground Type Gundam from Strategy of Gundam and the RMS-154 Barzam from the 1:400 Gundam Collection Gashapon series. The sharpener figures are unfortunately a bit of an anomaly outside of most of the common figure scales (not to mention the bases they come on) but are great miniature statues that will naturally appeal to anyone with an eye for lovingly detailed Gashapon figures.

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.