The Gashapon Senshi Forte line really hasn't been getting much love here on the blog for a while now. It seems every time I try to catch up in one end someone else is bound to suffer and in this case I have really been slipping behind on the Forte figures. It doesn't help that they are hard to come by from my main source in Japan. In general I prefer to pick them up from sellers in Thailand or Hong Kong which is from where this particular set also originates. I was however lucky to pick up an extra Zaku II and another equipment set from Mandarake and the fact that the Zaku II is already going for ¥600 whereas the equipment set fetched ¥200 we can already see that there will be supply issues.
Gashapon Senshi Forte was busy reinventing itself with volume eleven when Covid-19 hit the marketplace and I don't really know what happened during this time. I think that part eleven was already manufactured at the time Bandai's production got hit but volume 12 seems to have been released more or less on schedule in August 2020, I believe it was originally intended for July? I am also curious to know what happened to the Shodai Shou Gundam premium figure that was slated for delivery in March. It appears to have been released but I haven't yet seen it on the secondary market.
F077 : RX-78-2 Gundam
Well, it took twelve volumes for Senshi Forte to return to the roots and the granddaddy Gundam itself, but now he's here and looking really good. It was definitely worth the wait. While I happen to enjoy it when the Gundam toy lines go into the more exotic realms and not just rehash the same old suits constantly it is hard not to be impressed by this little figure.
Bandai really decided to outdo themselves with this figure. The proportions are on point and seem to take a couple of nods both from recent Ensemble and MicroWars designs. Notice also the two-coloured backpack with white beam saber handles. From a functionality perspective the figure has a peg hole on the back skirt to carry a hyper bazooka (part of the equipment set) and a peg on the backpack to carry the shield on the back.
Senshi Forte now uses a modified Mobile Suit Ensemble frame which has really simplified assembly a great deal compared to the older figures. The best part is that the shoulder joints even improve on Ensemble placing a ball-joint at the tip which allows for even better articulation. Now that the two pairs of hands are standardized we no longer get unique sculpts for each suit and the colour must match the inner frame, meaning they will almost always be black.
This picture really says all you need to know about the rapid development in the super-deformed figure series. From left to right we see the RX-78 as it appears in Gashapon Warrior NEXT (2010), Gashapon Warrior DASH (2015) and Gashapon Senshi Forte (2020).
F078 : MS-06F Zaku II
Next up we have a mass production suit every bit as legendary as the Gundam itself. I don't know exactly how the figures are distributed if you buy the boxed variety (which I believe is 10 pieces) but in the old era of Senshi Forte you could expect colour variations such as the two Zakus in this set to actually be produced in lesser numbers than the other figures in a set. If this is indeed the case also for the Zaku II it is going to mean squad building this little bugger is going to be really painful.
Again I see a lot of MicroWars in the Senshi Forte figure and I can't help but think that the two figure series have been developed using the same schematics at least partially. While the colour separation is nice also on this figure you can immediately spot a corner cut on the Zaku II as the tubes that reach from the backpack to the front have not been painted in bright green on the backside. It is not a big deal but definitely a bit cheap.
The Zaku II figure comes with a Zaku machine Gun as its only gear choice, but you will find some more gear in the equipment pack. Missing completely is the option of having an optional commander antenna headpiece which we sometimes see in Shokugan figures.
The Zaku II figures have a modular head and the eye sits on a disc that can be rotated to change the facing of the monoeye, a classic gimmick that is common to many Zaku II figures.
There was no green Zaku II in the Gashapon Warrior DASH series (a bit off-putting since they made the red one) but we can at least compare the Senshi forte figure to its counterpart from Gashapon Warrior NEXT. Just as with the Gundam the new figure is a massive improvement over the older design.
F079 : MS-06S Zaku II (Char's Custom)
Got to milk that nice Zaku II sculpt you've got going there so here is the spiffy red counterpart with a large and bendy plastic commander antenna. Other than that the two figures are perfectly similar.
I really like the strong red colours that Bandai selected for this figure, especially wen you compare it to the older more pinkish variants from DASH and NEXT. However Char gets no more love than the mass production type Zaku in that the tubes on the backpack are again missing the brighter colour detail.
Sometimes Bandai will ship Char's Zaku II with a gear choice that differs from the mass production type but here they both get the Zaku Machine Gun which I think is the preferred accessory all things considered.
Again we have the line-up of Char's Zaku II as seen in Gashapon Warrior NEXT, DASH and Senshi Forte respectively. Apart from the improved likeness in the sculpt, notice also how the shoulder and elbow joints are less conspicuous on the new figure.
I would really love to have a larger squad of Zaku II's but so far I consider myself lucky to even stumble on a single extra figure. I've moaned about it constantly ever since Senshi Forte hit the Gashapon machines; if you really want us to buy more figures why don't you make it easier to army-build?
Team Zeon now has a nice selection of mobile suits in the Forte line but here's hoping tat we will get a couple more. I'd be very surprised if the Gouf and Dom don't make an appearance and perhaps the Acguy as well.
F080 : RX-77-2 Guncannon
The last of the four figures from U.C. 0079 is another classic and it is looking more stylish than ever. The sculpts in Senshi Forte have really improved overall and they look more and more like tiny versions of Converge at this point.
While looking rather good in general the Forte version of the Guncannon has a really weird thing going on with its shoulder cannons. Presumably because they are not attached to the shoulders, or even the suit proper. Instead they have been allowed to attach directly to the boosters on the backpack which looks odd to say the least but I get where the designers are coming from now that they have to deal with the Senshi Forte anatomy.
The Beam Rifle included with the Guncannon is of a respectable size unlike the pea-shooter that was bundled with the Gundam. I guess it would have been perfection if they also slapped some yellow paint on the respective sights of each rifle but you can always fix that yourself.
The Guncannon never made it to Gashapon Warrior DASH but I can compare it to my really pale figure from NEXT. I actually have an entire squad of these pale figures which look like they have been exposed to too much sunlight but they are like this all-over so I don't know what is going on there. Notice that the NEXT figure has cannons in proper mounts unlike the new Forte design.
Together with the GM from Senshi Forte 11 we now have the basic trio of mobile suits from U.C. 0079 (notice how tiny the Gundam in compared to the GM by the way...). I haven't seen any hints that Bandai will continue adding suits from this era into Senshi Forte, but it wouldn't be surprising to see the Guntank appear (even though Senshi Forte is very light on non-mobile suit craft) and after that the line-up is pretty much complete, save for a Ball and all that tedious G-Armor crap.
F081 : OZ-00MS2B Tallgeese III
The last mobile suit in this set breaks off from the Universal Century and is actually the very first entry from any of the After Colony designs of Gundam Wing and its extension Endless Waltz for Forte. I have to give Bandai endless praise for not just going down the tired route of the Wing Gundam tree and doing something bold (although the Wing Zero is slotted to make an appearance in Senshi Forte 13 together with the Serpent no less).
Looking pretty good there sir. A little on the white side of things perhaps but you cannot really fault the figure for this, since that is how it really looks.
Notice how the Tallgeese III gets an "inner frame", hands and base made from white plastic, to better suit the mobile suit itself. It will be interesting to see to which degree Senshi Forte will feature differently coloured bases like this. The last volume also had a gold-coloured variant for its Strike Freedom Gundam.
The Tallgeese III actually already saw a release in Gashapon Warrior NEXT 13 back in 2013 and although it was pretty impressive at the time the new figure sets the bar much higher. Now if only we could get a Tallgeese II as well I would be really happy.
F082 : Equipment set for wave 12
Taking a cue out of the recent Bandai playbook the Senshi Forte line now also comes with its own dedicated equipment packs in a desperate bid to pad sales and lower the costs of each individual figure and adding a layer of annoyance to the consumer's lives. I will never understand how figure lines such as Converge can seemingly prosper while Gashapon figures must stick to the ancient blind box-system designed to operate more like a lottery than anything else...
Wow, the equipment pack is full of stuff, but as it turns out it is mostly of the filler variety. Let's break it down in more detail:
I haven't mentioned the simple stands that come with each figure thus far. These are pretty basic and modular and in my opinion a rather huge step up from the annoying tripods that came with the figures up until wave 10. Each base is of somewhat semi-circular appearance and has multiple peg holes that give you a bit of creative freedom which is nice. Each figure then also features an L-shaped piece that slots into the base and a circular hole in the figure's leg connector piece. The base plates also have pegs on their own used to conjoin multiple plates with each other which adds to that nice Lego-type feeling.
Since the stands share sprue with the figure's optional hands they are molded in the same plastic colour as the mobile suit's hands meaning that the Tallgeese gets a bright white base which will of course look completely out of place, but at least it beats having black hands on all figures (like they do it in Mobile Suit Ensemble).
The components in the equipment set can be freestyled in similar fashion but are meant to make up a modular unit as presented above. These units can then be strung together both horizontally and vertically to build a massive display shelf. While a neat idea in theory the fact that you will get one such stand per every figures means it is not exactly going to be the method of choice to display your entire collection. I don't know what they were smoking when they came up with this system. Perhaps if Bandai would offer cheap accessory packs with ten such stands per box it would be something I could take seriously, at this point it is nothing but a technology demonstrator.
There are a couple of weapons thrown into the equipment pack which is the main benefit of getting one. The Gundam can enjoy two weapon options, a
really nice translucent beam saber complete with a white handle and a LARGE hyper bazooka (the figure wielding two in the image above wll require two equipment packs to complete). Both weapons are molded in soft plastic so expect to see bent bazookas and beam sabers, about 50% of the pieces I received were bent rather badly.
The two Zaku mobile suits also get two extra accessories to share between them, one Heat Hawk for close combat and the classic Zaku Bazooka for added firepower. This really gives you everything you need to build a nice looking Zaku platoon (now if only I could manage to pick up a few more Zaku figures...).
Even the Tallgeese gets an equipment option although it is pretty minor. Basically you get an optional look of its Mega Beam Cannon in its extended and opened up format. The basic figure has the shorter barrel option for when used in regular beam rifle mode. Again I was lucky to have found two equipment packs since one of the cannons was bent very badly. The only figure to miss out on a gear option is the Guncannon which is a bit stingy since the optional white missile launchers have been seen frequently on recent Guncannon figures. I would have preferred more weapons to these rather pointless display stands.
Conclusion
I was pleasantly surprised by the speed at which I was able to build the new figures, I completed waves eleven and twelve in one sitting. I used to dread building the Senshi Forte figures (well I still do for the older ones) because of their unwillingness to co-operate and my fingers would be damn sore after a session of brute forcing stubborn pegs into holes filled with flash. There is a reason the part 09 review isn't up yet you see...
The new figures are not only easier to assemble but the style of the new sculpts has also improved in proportions in my opinion. As far as the new action base systems goes, I guess I can say it is one small step forward compared to the old tripods. Below you can see what I was able to cobble together using components from six figures and an equipment pack, it is hardly presentable. And if you were hoping for something that allows for dynamic poses you will have to look elsewhere.
