SD Gundam Full Color Stage 29

Let's do another Gashapon SD Full Color set. I love giving some attention to these little guys and it is a welcome break from having to assemble stuff which seems to be the norm for Gashapons in the year 2020. This particular set is Stage 29 which was released in November 2001 and contains seven different figures in total. This goes back to the good ol' days when a gashapon figure cost just ¥100.

Although I owned most of these figures before I picked up a full set from Mandarake just to secure the stragglers and get hold of some booklets. The full set cost me ¥1200 which is a little bit pricier than I would have expected but still quite affordable. As you can see, not a whole lot of assembly going on here so we can dive right in.
   

162 : RX-78-2 Gundam (Ver.11.0)

The RX-78 is the most popular of the Gashapon SD figures, at least that is what Bandai thought so they went ahead and created a multitude of variations. You can pretty much find it equipped with every weapon ever devised for it. By Stage 29 we had reached figure version eleven so it must have been getting more of a challenge for the designers to come up with something new.

The RX-78-11 (ahem...) comes equipped with the Hyper Bazooka and a shield. The shield can be pegged either into a slot on the left arm or attached to the backpack. The figure is leaning forward slightly and has a very clear blue colour tone on its torso. the sculpt is very crisp although it is missing the red marking underneath its cockpit hatch.

I just grabbed a couple of alternate RX-78s armed with Bazookas for a simple comparison. Here we have a significantly larger figure from 1998's Stage 4 armed with two Hyper Bazookas (generally referred to as the Last Decisive Battle version) and a machine with both Beam Rifle and Hyper Bazooka from Stage 19 released in August 2000.
   

163 : MS-06S Zaku II (Char's Custom) (Ver.5.0)

The Zaku II is another mobile suit that saw a lot of releases especially in the early days of Gashapon Full Color series. Char's personal red suit had reached its fifth version once we hit Stage 29, and this is the first time it gets to go for a bit of flying.

This figure draws its inspiration from the early battles between Char and Amuro where Char would quite literally beat up the Gundam and give it a swift kicking. The head can swivel left and right and so can look in the direction of the foot as well.

Bringing the pain to the RX-78. One interesting thing about this set is that the accompanying Gundam figure is not compatible with the standard action base so it gets kind of pointless to have the Zaku deliver a swift kicking to the RX-78 when it cannot sit next to it at the same level. I guess you can attach an action base to the figure's backpack but I just went ahead and posed it with a more dynamic looking Gundam from Stage 33.

There seems to be some debate on what colour is actually Char's Custom colour. Isn't there a hobby colour manufacturer out there that can give Bandai a helping hand? :)
   

164 : Char's Musai (Falmel)

I always enjoy it when Bandai sprinkles their figure sets with vehicles and spaceships and so here comes an iconic Musai-class Light Cruiser of Zeon origin. You know, the type of cruiser that Amuro cuts down twenty at a time whenever the authors want to hammer home just how powerful a mobile suit is. Yet somehow 100 enemy mobile suits never manage to cut down the White Base for some plot armour reason...

While this figure is actually labelled as Char's Musai in the booklet (which makes it the CC-102 Falmel) it is actually up to you if you want to display it as a regular Musai-class vessel or let it don the helmet like superstructure which must have cost a fortune at the Side 3 shipyards. Gee, you'd think a metal crest or something would have done the job just as well. The figure you see here sits on a generic Gashapon Full Color base although none is actually included with the figure itself.

Here you see a regular Musai-class figure next to the CC-102 Falmel. It is a neat gimmick that rewards army building.
   

165 : FA-78-1 Full Armor Gundam (Ver.2.0)

I find it fascinating that the blue colour Full Armor Gundam crops up from time to time in figure form even though it is a really obscure design. It originally hails from concept sketches drawn up for a planned 1984 Mobile Suit Gundam side story that never got made. Several of the designs however survive under the MS-X collection name. You can think of them as another set of Mobile Suit Variations basically.

Everywhere it appears in figure form, the blue FA-78-1 is typically a standard FA-78 with alternate colours. Sometimes the blue version is referred to as "E.F.S.F. Space Type" and there is also the rather similar looking Full Armor Gundam from the Plamo Kyoshiro series. I can never really get my head around this mobile suit. This particular figure is however easy to source back to the MS-X line because it appears here together with the Burstliner which is also an MS-X design.

The traditional green version of the FA-78 appeared in Full Color Stage 20 in October 2000 and is just as inadequately painted as the blue version omitting all white sections of the body which is a bit disappointing. The green version reappears in the SD Full Color Custom line in 2007 but this is the only blue version out there. The next closest thing will be the substantially larger figure out in the MicroWars 5 set this autumn.
   

166 : Burstliner

The Burstliner (or Bus Trainer as Google Earth suggests I refer to it...) is a companion to the Full Armor Gundam, or actually, the blue Full Armor Gundam is more of a companion to the Burstliner I guess. Hailing from the same MS-X design series we discussed above there is a Burstliner design with a white body piloted by the green Full Armor Gundam and then there is this alternate colour version for which the blue colour FA-78 was designed.

The Burstliner is a gargantuan Beam Cannon on its own propulsion unit but meant to be crewed by a mobile suit, specifically the Full-Armor Gundam. A similar concept developed by the Principality of Zeon is the Skiure which is also available in the SD Full Color figure line. These are the only appearances of these two figures to my knowledge. the only exception is a really holy grail release by FusionWorks that appeared in 2005 around the time they were busying themselves with the Ultimate Operation figure line. I have never seen it for sale.

Just like the Musai-class cruiser the Burstliner is compatible with the standard Gashapon Full Color bases but no base is included with the figure itself. it can also accommodate a mobile suit on the platform behind the mega cannon, most of the smaller SD figures should be able to ride it without problem.

   

167 : XXXG-01W Wing Gundam

A figure from New Mobile Report Gundam Wing has managed to infiltrate this set and it is actually the Wing Gundam itself, in its basic appearance from the original television series. I always have to go back to my notes to make sure that i get it right because I cannot remember which version is which for the life of me.

This is actually a rather pretty figure with lots of nice colours on the front side while the back is more of an all-white thing but that is to be generally expected from the SD figures. It comes armed with a single Buster Rifle and a shield a head that swivels so you can make it look down the gunbarrel. The wings on my figure are just tall enough to propel the figure's left foot off the ground which is perhaps not that successful, but not really that noticeable.

The Stage 29 Wing Gundam compared to some other variants; a dual Buster Rifle-wielding Wing Zero from Stage 31, the Endless Waltz Wing Zero Custom from Stage 50 (which is a reissue of the figure from Stage 19) and a flying translucent variant of the latter from Stage 63. In total there are 8 different Wing Gundams in the SD Full Color series.

Here the Wing Gundam is hanging out with some of its friends from both the original New Mobile Report Gundam Wing and the Endless Waltz design sets.
   

168 : LM314V21 Victory 2 Gundam

The last figure in this set is another sneaky insert - this time from the Victory Gundam television series. The Victory 2 is a refinement of the original Victory Gundam design and works with a colour palette more centered around an attractive blue and yellow combination.

I like that the Victory 2 has a lot of colour also on the flipside. The fact that the backpack is a different component certainly helps otherwise we might have ended up with an all-white thing with couple of blue stripes on the front side just like how Bandai usually paints the v-fins on these figures. A beam shield sure would have been nice even if it was just plain pink rather than translucent but what can you do.

The Victory 2 next to two of its more advanced successor designs, the LM314V23 Victory 2 Buster Gundam from Stage 49 and the LM314V24 Victory 2 Assault Gundam from Stage 48.
   

Conclusion

SD Gashapon Full Color Stage 29 is a nice looking set with a really good mix of suits and vehicles although I wish Bandai would have included some more action bases with the set. There isn't really any point in buying multiple sets unless you are out hunting for the Musai-class figure here.

Gundam Converge #19

Today we are examining the most recent of the good old Converge retail figure sets. Volume #19 is comprised of a rather ecclectic lot, there is only one "classical" Universal Century-era figure in the team while the rest hail from later eras which usually do not attract as much attention. In addition, only one of these mobile suits has been seen in Converge before so this set has the potential to be great out of the get go.

Bandai continues the trend of stuffing more and more Converge figures into two separate plastic bags. Care is obviously being taken to avoid bent or paint scraped parts as much as possible, a practice we could do to see more of when it comes to figure such as Mobile Suit Ensemble.
   

230 : EMS-TC02 Phantom Gundam

When is the last time we saw a green mobile suit as the poster boy for a Converge figure set? Has it even happened before? A bold attempt especially when the identity of the Gundam will have many fans scratching their heads a bit, I certainly never heard of the Phantom Gundam before.

Green is one of those colours that can look very plastic and unrealistic if not handled properly. The designers at FusionWorks have done a commendable job here though, managing to find colour tone which is both bright and regal looking at the same time. I didn't think this figure would turn out this well so my hat is off to FW for another job executed well.

The Phantom Gundam comes armed with its "Butterfly Buster B" (seriously, who comes up with these names anyway?) which is a transforming weapon which acts both as a beam saber and a rifle. It looks mostly like a sawed off shotgun though, which is an interesting touch for a weapon if a bit gimmicky perhaps.

The lore surrounding the Gundams of Crossbone Ghost appears to be rather complex and I am not even at te beginner level here. I do know however that the V-fin on this figure is made up of something the authors call Phantom Light and so FW has included an option part where it is switch off. You also get an empty right hand as an extra option part. The rest of the Phantom Light components will be released together with the XM-XX Ghost Gundam which is a Converge: CORE release which has supposedly been delivered this June as well. I guess we will see what other tricks this figure has up its sleeve when I eventually manage to get my hands on that figure.

   

231 : LM312V04 Victory Gundam

The Victory Gundam is the only returning face of early Converge that we will see in this set. It follows on volume #18's Victory Two which has a more spectacular appearance than this fairly basic looking machine. Perhaps that is why I have a secret crush for the League Militaire's early Gundam type machines and their low-key appearances (something that goes completely out the door when you begin introducing Assault Busters and the like...).

The Victory design is very functional looking which is a welcome change from all the Gundam showboating. The colour apps are pretty good as well although a lot of the sculpt detail disappears in the all white areas of the suit.

The Victory comes with the traditional gear setup of a beam rifle and a shield. All its gear is completely modular with the Victory Gundam Hexa figure that can also be found also in this set, and this will introduce a couple of extra options. The recently revealed Converge CORE: Shrike Team box set will introduce even more options in the form of two different looking beam sabers.

The updated Converge Victory and Victory 2 posing next to their original versions from 2011. While the old figures were quite nice they cannot really keep up with the new designs. Still, they will get a nod of approval for having painted vulcan guns unlike their younger brethren. Two steps forward and one steps back, just like how reissues always tend to disappoint in some regard. :)

   

232 : LM312V04+SD-VB03A V-Dash Gundam

In the early days of Converge, the Victory Dash Gundam may well have been a secret figure version of the basic Victory Gundam figure. Now that FusionWorks have done away with this practice (good riddance) the V-Dash is allowed to occupy a slot of its own in the Converge catalogue. For all intents and purposes, it is however a Victory Gundam with a couple of different components.

The Victory Dash is an upgraded version of the Victory itself. The figure is as you can see also a spitting image of the Victory figure although the few differences between them are instantly apparent at the briefest of inspection.

The V-Dash figure replaces the main armament and backpack of the basic Victory Gundam, and also loses its beautiful deployed beam shield. The Overhang backpack adds both firepower and speed upgrades since it contains not only two powerful beam cannons but also additional boosters improving maneuverability and range and speed. The standard beam rifle has been traded in for a Mega Beam Rifle (a.k.a. Beam Smart Gun) which is a really tight fit for the figure.

The Victory and the V-Dash figures are fully compatible so you can switch around the primary weapon, the standard or Overhang Pack and trade the enabled Beam Shield between either figure. Together with the upcoming Shrike Team boxset the variations will really hit a new standard for Converge which you normally do not see in regular figures such as these.

Line up together with the Gunblaster and the Victory 2 from Converge #18. Side by side the Victory 2 looks much smaller than the Victory which is a bit off-putting since it is supposed to be at least the same size (in fact some 30 centimeters taller than the Victory according to the Gundam Wiki).

   

233 : ZMT-S37S Zanspine

Almost ten years after Converge was launched we finally get to see a Zanscare Empire mobile suit in the figure line, better late than never I guess. Even more interesting is the choice of doing the Zanspine itself. Not only is this a Victory Gundam MSV design, but this is also the premiere for the mobile suit in figure form, period. The Zanscare faction is in fact woefully underrepresented and I can only think of half a dozen different figures released through the last fifteen or so years. Hopefully FusionWorks will not turn away from Victory now, just because they have dug up all the main variations of the League Militaire Gundams.

The Zanspine is a good deal taller than the Victory but fairly average sized when compare to early U.C. machines, so the scale seems fair enough (it is pretty much the Victory that is oversized rather than the other way around). Just like the green Phantom Gundam, purple plastic is a bit of a challenge but I think FW have done a good job making the machine look rather formidable. The oversized bug-style eyes also look great and lend an aura of evil to the design.

The Zanspine figure comes armed with one of those "cheap" Converge old-school beam rifles which are both short and stumpy and with the right-hand molded directly onto the rifle. Being a psycommu machine the full loadout also includes bit weapons and large beam shields but of course no such extravaganzas can be expected from a 500 yen figure. All in all I am quite pleased with the machine and hope that we can get a few additional Zanscare mobile suits to team it up with.

The Zanspine with its 17.3 meter height can pose somewhat decently together with the two Zanscare Empire suits from Mobile Suits Ensemble; the ZMT-S29 Zanneck (19.4 m) and the ZM-S24G Gedlav (13.8 m).

   

234 : RGM-79SP GM Sniper II

The GM Sniper II is the only classic-era mobile suit selected for Converge #19 and follows in the recent line of War in the Pocket machines. Once volume 20 hits the shelves this autumn we can look forward to it being joined by the Mass Production Type Guncannon and a rival Rick Dom II but I have a feeling that will be the end of U.C. 0080 in Converge for quite some time. Then again, neither the Hy-Gogg nor the Z'Gok-E have been featured so perhaps there are still some untold secrets in FW's design lab awaiting release. I could certainly see an Alex in Chobham armor or my personal favourite the Gelgoog Jaeger fit for inclusion as well.

I really enjoy all the GM designs but the Sniper II sits among my favourites because of its simple but vibrant colour scheme. FusionWorks have already released it in their 1:220 STANDart line and it looked great back then so I knew this figure wouldn't be any letdown. However, I do have to dock points for the single-colour paintjob on the rifle; everything but the barrel and sights is supposed to be dark green.

The figure comes with the mentioned Franz EF-KAR98K 75mm Sniper Rifle as well as the typical combat shield used by the GM Command family of mobile suits of which the Sniper II is also a variant. Bandai sometimes offers alternate headsculpts for their Sniper figures with the visor down but there is no such feature on this figure.

The GM Sniper II is an evolution of the RGM-79G GM Command, seen here in its regular as well as GS Space Type versions, both from Converge #18. I guess if you are into customizing your Converge figures these machines have some useful weapons that you can swap around if you want the Sniper to sport a machine gun for example. The Sniper II also has several custom colour variations in the Gundam lore which makes it especially suitable for repainting.

The RGM-79SC GM Sniper Custom was one of the very first Converge and indeed Gundam figures that I purchased. While still an attractive figure it clearly shows its age compared to the latest generation of Converge designs. The Sniper Custom appeared in Converge volume 09 in December 2012.

   

235 : OZX-GU02A Gundam Geminass 02

Just like the V-Dash Gundam figure the last figure of volume 19 would most likely have ended up as a secret figure if it had been released in the early days of Converge. Because here comes Gundam Geminass 02, which is for all intents and purposes a repaint of the Geminass 01 figure from volume 18.

I dunno... I wasn't too enthused with the Geminass unit one figure and the same kind of goes for this one. Sure, it is a nice looking figure and it has a good alternate colour scheme but the whole mobile suit is just so derivative and uninteresting in general. I had the same feeling about the two LRX-077 Sisquiede figures; they look really good on their own but this whole white/blue colour scheme swap is getting a bit stale in my opinion.

The Geminass figures both come with the same type of Accelerate Rifle and one particularly nice looking G-Unit type shield. For me, what makes the Geminass design interesting and a bit unusual is the rather impressive High Mobility gear which is of course not available here. In H.M. mode the mobile suit has oversized shoulders with gigantic thrusters, additional leg armor with thrusters as well as a flight pack resembling those on Cosmic Era machines like the Aile Strike or the Windam. These figures would have worked great as CORE exclusives but now they come off as a bit plain.

The Geminass Unit 02 is later transformed into a behemoth known as the OZ-10VMSX Gundam Aesculapius. I kind of doubt we will ever see it in Converge form but it sure would be interesting as a CORE release, especially if it came with option parts for the base Geminass figure. I kind of doubt that the figures can drum up enough sales to make such an exclusive project viable though.

   

Conclusion

All in all I think Converge #19 is another successful release and I am curious to see how well a set with so many fringe designs will do on the market. It is really brave of Bandai and FW to continue to dive deeper into such obscure mobile suits and I hope that collectors will continue to support their work or we will be back to reissues of the same old U.C. stuff that has been done to death already.