Gundam Converge #14

Gundam Converge volume 14 is currently the latest set of retail figures in a busy schedule of Converge releases spanning limited premium items, extra large figures and the odd promotional release. Sales started in February 2019 and the figures follow the regular MSRP of ¥500 per Converge figure.

I picked up a 10-box myself from a shop in Bangkok and paid 1800 THB for it, which is maybe 25-30% more expensive than they would be in Japan. As you can see from the box contents above the distribution is two per figure except for the two Zaku variations which are only to be found in half that amount, unfortunately making these much rarer than the rest of the figures.

In my opinion it is unfortunate that Bandai continues to inject these artificial rarities into the retail stock. At least the two mass production type mobile suits in this set are not the ones to suffer this time around, although limiting access to (in)famous Zeonic ace pilot suits is not much better.
   

200 : RX-9/B Narrative Gundam (Type B Equipment)

When Converge released figure number 100 Bandai had a little mini-jubilee and commemorated the release with a special logotype that also ended up on a couple of EX-figures based on the Gashapon SD series. This time around though, figure number 200 is released without any special fanfare. Number 100 was awarded to the Turn-X Gundam and here again number 200 is also given to a machine from a minor story.

The hopelessly named Narrative Gundam from the anime with the same name is the first Converge appearance of this very recent mobile suit design. While the machine has already cropped up as model kit and also in Gashapon format through the Gframe figure series this is its first Shokugan appearance. We can look forward to its C-type variation in Converge #15.

While a beautiful and nicely painted miniature, from a Converge figure point of view this figure is not all that interesting. Equipping no weaponry in its clenched fists the only available gear is the B-type wire-guided "assault units"; two remote units attached to the mobile suit with cables. In Converge form they of course remain attached to the backpack although you can adjust their positioning slightly.

The Narative team is slowly growing...

The Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative line is set to expand also in Converge with at least a couple more releases. So far we have, apart from the Narrative B-type and the redesigned Sinanju Stein also seen a pair of Unicorn Gundams as well as the Jesta in this set as we shall see. I am looking forward to see this line grow and I hope they will also make room for some more interesting machines such as the Anksha or the Gustav Karl.
  

201 : F90 Gundam F90

For about half a year Converge has been busy featuring both old and new mobile suits from the Gundam F91 and Crossbone Gundam storylines. I have been following this expansion with great interest and can't wait to line them all up once the extravaganza concludes (most likely with the Den'an Zon's in July...).

For Converge #14 we get one new machine from this era, this obscure predecessor to the Gundam F91. The look of the F90 has very much in common with the Gundam NT-1 Alex from the War in the Pocket miniseries although this machine is even more colourful. The Converge figure itself comes with a beam rifle and a very colourful shield. The heavy brow covers most of the eyes but if you peek in underneath you will see them gleaming with intelligence.

The F90 has two main variations, neither of which are present or scheduled for inclusion in Converge format. The OMS-90R is the new designation of a red and white modification of the second of the two F90 prototypes after it is stolen by Mars Zeon remnants. The F90II is a further development based on the OMS-90R after it is recovered by the Strategic Naval Research Institute (which also developed the original prototype).

Converge Earth Federation F90/F91-era inventory includes the Gundam F91 (far left), the mass-production type F91 (center left) which only available in the older Converge F91sculpt, the RGM-109 Heavygun (available only with the Rafflesia Option parts Set) and the F90 Gundam. Soon to follow are the RXF-91 Silhouette Gundam and the RX-99 (AFX-9000) Neo Gundam.

   

202 : RGM-96X Jesta

The Jesta is a high-performance mobile suit in the Jegan family. It is first introduced in Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn where it is available in limited numbers. We have seen it n Converge a long time ago so it is nice to get an updated figure which also has a couple new gimmicks.

The Jesta figure comes armed with a beam rifle, a shield attached to the backpack and a couple of head gear. I think it is a bit unfortunate that the rifle is attached directly to the right hand. This is how Converge did it in the old and more primitive times but nowadays the standard is to usually separate weapons and hands, allowing for more customization.

The Jesta mobile suit was first released all the way back in Converge volume 5 back in November 2011. It comes armed with the same rifle and shield and holds up quite well with the new figure as you can see below. There was also an "Overseas Only" limited metallic color version released by Bandai Asia (Hong Kong) in 2012 in a triple pack with the Unicorn and the Delta Plus. The updated figure is a slight colour variation featuring metallic paint, but it also loses the E.F.S.F. logo on its shield (also not present on the new figure).

The main attraction of the updated figure and why it has become relevant again is its appearance in the new Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative storyline. Here an updated RGM-96Xs Jesta (Shezarr Type) pops up as part of an elite team of six units. These are in turn split up in three teams of two units each. While the equipment varies between the teams (one high-mobility team, one sniper team and one capture team) they all feature a new scope attached to the head which is available as an option part in this box.

The Jesta has one more trick up its sleeve. By stealing the new backpack from the Stark Jegan figure in this set you can also transform the Jesta figure into the Shezarr Type A high-mobility variant. I love how these small options allow us to build a number of different Jesta variants although it is a bit unfortunate that you need to cannibalize a Stark Jegan figure to do it.

 
   

203 : RGM-89S Stark Jegan

The second mass production type mobile suit in this set is also an E.F.S.F. Jegan-family design and what a machine it is. The S-type Jegan is a variant of the regular Jegan equipped with anti-ship missiles (considering how Amuro Ray was shooting down Musais with his rifle it seems a bit unnecessary but there you go...). It was first featured as a mobile suit variation for Char's Counterattack but later received a design overhaul for Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn which is what we are looking at here.

The Stark Jegan is a new appearance in Converge and greatly appreciated. It is a really busy design featuring large missile launchers on both shoulders and a redesigned high-mobility backpack with two large booster tanks. Unlike the Jesta this figure comes with a bazooka separated from the right hand. Had the Jesta been like this we could have been customizing the two even more.

Due to the busy design of the Stark Jegan you will get very limited articulation out of this figure. The head can hardly move between the large missile launchers and even moving the arms up and down will make the design look a bit weird.

The Jegan first appeared in Converge volume 2 in November 2010 and received a bazooka version in the special edition version of the Operation Revive figure pack in February 2014. Converge has also seen the ECOAS special forces RGM-89De Jegan in Converge #04 where it appeared with lots of optional gear in October 2016.

The Jegan was recently also featured in Mobile Suit Ensemble last year and you can see how the two compare below (the Ensemble figure in the photo has been slightly modified).

As mentioned in the Jesta analysis we can take the backpack from the Stark Jegan to create a High Mobility Type Jegan Shezarr type. Doing so however will cripple your beautiful Stark Jegan figure. While you can attach the Jesta's own backpack to the Stark Jegan it doesn't really look that great due to the different colours and you will also have to let go of the Jesta shield since it cannot wrap around the Jesta missile launcher.

The added customization options for the Jesta really means that you would want to keep both Jesta and Stark Jegan figures if you end up purchasing a 10-box. As such you will only end up with two spare figures of a Narrative Gundam and the F90, and this currently shows as those two figures are way more common finds on the second-hand market.
   

204 : MS-06R-2 Zaku II High Mobility Type (Johnny Ridden Custom)

At the tail end of Converge #14 we see another familiar old Converge face getting a revamp. The slow process of remodelling the Principality of Zeon designs have taken us to the High Mobility-family of Zaku IIs with two variant machines. The first of these is the R-2 variant in the iconic red colour scheme by Zeonic ace pilot Johnny Ridden.

According to the Mobile Suit Variation canon a total of four machines are initially produced. Each is given to an ace pilot who flies it painted in his personal unique colour scheme. We can sadly not expect to ever see these pop up in Converge but provided you can find additional figures and enjoy painting there is a lot of customization potential here.

The redesigned High Mobility Type Zaku II continues the trend of making the Zeonic figures more cartoonish than their original Converge designs. While generally more show- or manga accurate it is really down to personal taste whether you find this an improvement or not. The new figure is also a lot smaller than the original version which is a bit of a problem. Scale is not really a thing in Converge and thus all figures should be pretty much the same size as far as I am concerned.

The original Converge High Mobility Type Zaku II comes armed with the 360mm Giant Bazooka normally fielded by the MS-09 Dom.

The new R-2 figure comes armed with a 280mm Zaku Bazooka, but weirdly enough the weapon is much smaller than the bazooka featured on the recently redesigned Zaku II figure (Converge #09, released in January 2018). This seems rather unfortunate and a pretty big oversight as it makes the figures incompatible. While the new High Mobility Type Zaku II is a fine figure I think it has been seriously short-changed in this department.
   

205 : MS-06R-1A Zaku II High Mobility Type (Shin Matsunaga Custom)

The R-1A is another variation on the High Mobility Type option for the Zaku II and also returns to Converge after a long hiatus. The Shin Matsunaga colour scheme is brand new though, as the old figure was only available in Black Tri-Stars colours and I think it is a pretty fair guess to assume (and also hope for) that we will see that machine pop-up in a triple-pack somewhere down the road as a Premium-Bandai release.

The R-1A figure features proper sculpt revisions and is not just a colour swap of the R-2 figure. It also comes armed with the 360mm Giant Bazooka which looks ginormous when paired with the rather diminutive new High Mobility Type figure. Perhaps this is why they decided to scale down the Zaku Bazooka included with Johnny Ridden's R-2 figure but honestly it is the size of the mobile suit that is the problem, not the weapon.

Once again you can compare the look of the old and new sculpts for the R-1A High Mobility Type Zaku II. And just like with Johnny Ridden's machine I feel that the size of the new R-1A sculpt is a bit of a bummer.

Overall, the entire Converge reboot Zaku II figure family is a bit of a disappointment. While the figures look nice enough when displayed together they are just not sized to be on par with the rest of the Converge figure series which bugs me more than it really should.

Converge reboot family figures side by side. Notice how the Zaku bazooka wielded by Char has mysteriously shrunk in the laundry when it is time for Johnny Ridden to make use of it.
 

Conclusion

Overall Gundam Converge #14 is yet another fine example of the work put out by FusionWorks and Bandai. While the review does point out some observations or points where improvement could benefit the figures the reality is that I haven't had many real complaints with the series ever since its reboot in 2016.

Gundam Converge : Heavygun and Rafflesia Option Parts Set

The gigantic XMA-01 Rafflesia (or Lafressia as the Japanese like to write it) mobile armor was recently released in Converge form as a retail figure in November last year. Priced at ¥3200 it was a fine if a little bit underwhelming representation of this rather unusual machine. This option parts set is the most recent in a rapidly growing line of extension kits for Converge figures, released through the Premium Bandai limited service. This set released more or less in parallel and had a hefty price tag of ¥2400.

While option parts are indeed becoming something of a staple in Converge they clearly aren't for everyone, so recently Bandai are trying to push sales by including exclusive mobile suit figures with the bonus parts, making the deal that much more attractive.

As you can see from the pictures, the parts set box is huge. Admittedly the box for the Rafflesia itself was a bit cramped but this thing is mostly made up of air, the same tired trick used to peddle cereal boxes in the supermarket shelves. Embarrassing...

Let's just get the value for money aspect of this release out of the way first. You are not getting a whole lot of stuff here. It is kind of like the Hyper Mode parts for the God Gundam all over again. This pack is Spartan at best.

All in all there are three groups of components in the box. We have expansion parts for the Rafflesia itself, a new mobile suit the Heavygun, and a Bug mass destruction weapon. We'll go through them one by one.

Rafflesia Option Parts

While you would be forgiven for thinking this is the main attraction of the box I think most people would agree the other stuff is much more interesting. After all, the only new gimmick we are getting for the Rafflesia itself is five optional wing (or Petal Binders if we are going with the lore) components showing its nasty Tentacle Rod equipment. While the Rafflesia design itself has room for 25 of these rods per petal binder - 125 in total - FusionWorks and Bandai are fortunately making do with four per wing for us.

The assembly involves removing the underside components of the Converge Rafflesia figure and then reattaching the option parts in their place. This is a little bit fiddlier than I would like it to be and if your parts are only slightly bent you may find that they do not slot perfectly into their assigned slots. Finally the tentacle rods themselves are made of flexible plastic although they immediately want to slide back into their factory assigned shapes making posing a little bit tricky.

Overall the effect of the Tentacle Rod parts are fine but if you attach all of them the look will become rather busy. A better option is to use only one or two of them for what I think is a better appearance. Personally I like the Rafflesia better without them at all.

   
"Bug" Mass Destruction Weapon System

The bug is easily on the list of the dumbest and most useless weapon systems ever imagined. Designed by Iron Mask as a means to cleanse a colony of its population without burdening his soldiers with disturbing notions of having to pull the triggers, they can now sleep soundly at night knowing they serve a madman who would murder an entire world through the push of a button.

Deployed in large numbers the bugs are advanced autonomous machines weighing in at 1600 kgs and come equipped with double fusion reactors. At least the Titans method of deploying nerve gas made more sense from a financial perspective...

The Converge bug is an accurate depiction of this idiotic yet gruesome weapon, and also comes with its own little clear stand. The stand has a ball joint at the top, allowing you to change the pose the bug a little bit. I think it looks great but what exactly is the point of only including only one bug in the box? If we could have got 4-6 it would be possible to create some interesting dioramas, but with one the effort is kind of wasted. And it is not like you are going to pick up multiple Rafflesia Option Sets to get more... How sad that this was not released together with say the Heavygun as a regular figure, that would have opened up some interesting options to consider.

   
RGM-109 Heavygun

We are saving the best for last. Of course the Heavygun mobile suit is what most people will see as the real takeaway from this package and rightfully so. It is a beautiful sculpt and a brand new mobile suit for Converge. other than that there is nothing especially unusual about the figure and it has no option parts or gear choices, so it could easily have been sold as a standalone figure. Doing so would have allowed people to army build it as well. I think putting an updated sculpt of the XM-07 Vigna Ghina would have been a much better choice for the Rafflesia Option Set. Not only is it a unique Mobile Suit but also more thematic since the Heavygun has nothing to do with the Rafflesia in the movie.

Mobile Suit Gundam F91 is currently being featured also in the Gashapon figure series Mobile Suit Ensemble. Here you can see it side by side with a slightly modified Heavygun from Ensemble:

I really love all the attention that Bandai and FusionWorks have been paying to the F91 and Crossbone era as of late. Both the Federation and the Crossbone Vanguard line-ups are growing stronger and more numerous and we can look forward to even more reinforcements in the coming months.

F91-era Federation line-up: Gundam F91 (Converge #12, released October 2018), F91 Mass Production Type (the old F91 sculpt, released as secret figure in Converge 12 in October 2013), the Heavygun from the Rafflesia Option Set and the Gundam F90 (Converge #14, released April 2014).

All in all I think the Rafflesia Option Set is a fine product if a bit pricey for what it is. Still, with a couple of modifications, such as upping the number of Bugs included and swapping out the Heavygun for the Vigna Ghina, I would gladly have paid twice the amount for it.

The latest MS Ensemble news... (for real this time)

Hah! Seems we got suckered pretty hard here at Gundanium Gateway... falling for Bandai's Gashapon April Fools' joke. It turned out not everything repeated in the previous post was true, apologies for spreading any disinformation. Well played, Bandai! :)

First of all, the information about Ensemble Part 10 was apparently not done in jest, the line-up still stands. However, it would seem that not only where the supposed diorama sets completely bogus (the images were of dioramas made for a hobby show), but K Sawa is still in charge here. The Onizuka moniker is perhaps a reference to a character of questionable reliability of information...

Something that actually IS new however... is the following hint of up and coming Ensemble figures. It seems the After War theme in Gundam Converge is spilling over also into Ensemble:

Yes, the Gundam Virsago Chest Break, not a machine you see every day. This will apparently be a P-Bandai item and K Sawa comments something like they spared no expense on it because of that reason. Not sure if it is also a comment in jest but I have my suspicions it is all too true.. : )

And when you say After War... you of course have to finish the sentence with ...Gundam X, so unsurprisingly the GX-9900 will be making an appearance soon as well. I would expect this to be a regular retail figure, perhaps headlining volume Ensemble 11 or so. We shall see.

Also revealed at the end of the message is that Gashapon Senshi Forte f2.5 will be presented soon and is scheduled for shipping this April. It seems an odd choice of Senshi Forte set to reissue, considering the line-up:

There isn't a whole lot you can with this set as far as colour variations are concerned. Hopefully the Rick Dias will be coming out in black this time, but other than that I don't see anything likely to happen. I suppose they could do a Trans-Am colour version of the Qan[t] which would be great but my bet is it will be a simple reissue because many latecomers to the series may want to pick it up. And imagine how cool it would be if the Galbaldy-Beta would come out in a Titans colour scheme!

The latest MS Ensemble news...

The full reveal of Mobile Suit Ensemble Part 10 is here. The Unicorn and the Aile Strike had already been sneak peeked before but the final mobile suit reveal is certainly nothing to sneeze at. Not only is it an army builder but a pretty rare one at that; the Sleeves use Geara Zulu. At this point Ensemble has served up the Zaku II, Geara Doga and now also the Zulu - highly unusual for a figure series to accomplish and I am really looking forward to it.

063 : GAT-X105 Strike Gundam
064 : RX-0 Unicorn Gundam (Unicorn Mode)
065 : AMS-129 Geara Zulu
066 : FX-550 Skygrasper (with Aile Striker parts)
067 : Equipment set for wave 10

This time the equipment set looks more traditional so I guess we won't see as many Zulus as there were Geara Dogas in the boxes part 07. We have traditional gear here like the Armor Schneiders for the Strike, Heat Hawk and shoulder spikes for the Zulu and a Bazooka for the Unicorn. Ensemble Part 10 is scheduled for release in July.

EDIT 2019-04-05: Gundanium Gateway got suckered by the Bandai team... The below information turned out to be an April's fools joke... an updated news post has been created... : )

But hold on to your butts, we're not done yet. Remember the Advance of Zeta TR-6 [Inle] figure they supposedly released this February? (Still waiting to see it pop up on Mandarake but Bandai wanted ¥15000 for it...). Well if you thought that was insane, you are going to love this:

Presented this time by Onizuka, who is apparently the new lead designer after K Sawa, Ensemble is now completely going off the rails with two new diorama sets that will be released through the Premium Bandai service. First off we have a rather nice looking hangar deck display base which looks a bit like a cross section of a ship kind of like the White Base. I suppose it would be possible to combine multiples if you would like to build up your own Copernicus Base. Price starts at ¥39800... So, it is either that set or 80 Ensemble figures... have fun choosing.

The second diorama concept is even wilder. Here we are looking at an entire city block with battle damage. It looks a bit static for what it is, but hey, if you have ¥98000 lying around, here's your opportunity for something exclusive...

By the way, I spotted the Converge White Base box for the first time in a shop here in Bangkok last week. That thing is a real behemoth but it looks to be peanuts compared to what the Ensemble team is dreaming up here. If they have a budget for crazy projects like this I hope this means that the figure series is doing well and is staying well out of the red...