SD Gashapon Warrior NEXT Osaka Art of Gundam Exhibition Limited

The Art of Gundam exhibition suite in the summer of 2014 commemorated the 35th Anniversary of the Mobile Suit Gundam phenomenon. The exhibits included a lot of original artwork and even crept into some public areas like nearby subway stations. Exhibits were held in Tokyo and later Osaka (or was it the other way around, I can't remember...) and of course Bandai took the opportunity to market a lot of "limited" crap during these events. This usually translates to special color variations of existing releases and is thankfully centered on larger scale model kits rather than Gashapon or Shokugan figures although the odd special will show up even there (we have reviewed two Converge sets for Art of Gundam 2014 and 2015 respectively already).

 

I don't know the exact specifics for this particular Gashapon set. Based on the fact that figures are packaged in pairs with a booklet to share between them I get the feeling these were only sold as a complete set, probably as a cheaper exclusive for those who would like an exhibition keepsake without splurging a lot of money on Pearl Color or Transparent colour HG and MG model kits. I purchased this set from Mandarake (of course) and it cost me ¥5000 which is quite a lot of money for a Gashapon set. Let's see if it can live up to the hype.

 

 

RX-78-2 Gundam (clear color ver.)

 

All the figures in this set hail from the Mobile Suit Gundam U.C. 0079 television series and contains five different mobile suits, some in different variations, all of which have appeared as regular retail Gashapons through the Gashapon Warrior NEXT era. There is a heavy slant towards Zeon and the Earth Federation only gets two mobile suits to go up against them. First one out is the RX-78 of course.

 

While I am not a huge fan of these transparent clear figures I have to admit the Gundam looks pretty good. The yellow detail is all but drowned by the stronger reds and blues. The shield can be attached to the left arm or stored on the backpack.

 

The Gundam gets a couple of interchangeable accessories. Notice how the handles on both weapons are transparent. Not exactly sure why this decision was made for the beam rifle, but we do see it crop up on Gashapon and Shokugan figures time and again.

 

Comparison shot with one of the similar RX-78's from NEXT although this particular machine is decked out a little differently. I still have massive gaps in the NEXT inventory which is proving difficult to collect from abroad, I assume it would be easier if one were able to browse the Gashapon shops locally. Ah yes, that old fancy. :)

 

MSM-07S Z'Gok (Char's Custom) (clear color ver.)

 

Since there is no GM in this set for the red comet and his Z'Gok to mess up, Char has been paired with the Gundam instead. The GM was actually absent in SD form for quite some time. After multiple appearances in the SD Full Color and Full Color Custom lines it disappeared from the format for thirteen years until finding its way back in with the recent Senshi Forte volume 11, so no NEXT GM's for us.

 

The colour red is well suited for the transparent makeover and this figure has a great colour mix with the bright claws and dark arms and legs.

 

With no special accessories to its name, the Z'Gok does come with two differently bent arms so you can choose a couple of different poses for it. Most of the figures seen in this set were originally released in the NEXT 16 wave in 2013 but I don't have the original colour version available for comparison.

 

 

MS-06S Zaku II (Char's Custom) (clear color ver.)

 

Char again? Yep, we are storming on into the next twin pack which is a pure Zaku II team. Led by the Red Comet then of course.

 

The Zaku II has a nice mix of different red tones which is the result of both parts colouring and the effect of stacking multiple components on top of each other. The monoeye can do a little bit of a swivel although I didn't bother with it in this review format, you can see its limited range of vision from the parts view below.

 

Char's machine is equipped with a Heat Hawk axe-style weapon only which is perhaps a bit on the light side but it mimics the original release from NEXT volume 01. You can steal a machine gun from a mass production type but there are no bazookas about which is a little sad.

 

 

MS-06F Zaku II (clear color ver.)

 

And here of course, we have the mass production type Zaku II. The only figure in this set with the attractive green colour palette. Transparent SD figures usually seem to be red, blue or black which gets really samey - the smaller single-colour figures from the Full Color sets are a pain to tell apart.

 

Nice multi-layer colour style here as well, perhaps the most attractive figure in this set in my own opinion. Notice the head sculpt without a commander antenna.

 

As previously mentioned we find a Zaku Machine Gun with this figure, again with a handlebar that has not been painted up black.

 

Here we have the original Zaku II figure next to the caramel version. I should also point out that there is a 35th Anniversary Real Color Type set which features the exact same eight figures included in this set, although with solid colours. I'd love to tell more about them but I only own a meager Zaku II from that lot. That figure is also green but it is a darker green akin to what a military might reasonably select to use.

 

 

RX-77-2 Guncannon (clear color ver.)

 

The second E.F.S.F. machine is next, the iconic fire support-machine with the ridiculous name of Guncannon. Sadly there was no Guntank made in the NEXT line. Its fate is even worse than the GM's; the machine was last seen in SD Full Color Custom 08 in 2007 with an appearance in that oddball Build Model Gundam series in 2015 and since then it has been AWOL.

 

The Guncannon is really broad-shouldered since emphasis has been placed on making the cannons aimable. I don't mind this at all, it fits the figure quite well although as a result the boosters on the back almost disappear completely. Nice bright colours but once again the yellow air intakes on the chest are difficult to do because of the stronger red background colour.

 

The Guncannon comes with its traditional Beam Rifle (which for some reason I placed upside down in this shot, maybe to highlight the unpainted handlebar one more time..? :)

 

Here we have a regular color Guncannon figure, or at least I think it is. The red colour looks almost faded but since I have no less than four of these in the same colours I expect this is actually how it is supposed to look. This could potentially be real type color version figures - until I manage to score a full figure set of either volume I don't really know.

 

 

MS-09 Dom (Heat Saber) (clear color ver.)

 

From now on it is Zeon all the way. We start with one of two Dom figures, which are just one short of creating a Black Tri-Stars arrangement which is a little bit of a missed opportunity since it will be very difficult to find a third figure without buying a full second lot and even I am not crazy enough to do that.

 

There is something odd going on with the head of this Dom figure. The monoeye seems to be located a tad bit too high on its rotating cylinder and as a result it is hard to get good poses without having the machine staring wistfully at the nightsky. The Heat Saber is dead on though, and looks great both in hand and on the figure's back. Great use of an expressive left hand adds to its posh style.

 

This version of the Dom comes with said Heat Saber and a special little connector piece which attaches to the figure's back, enabling the figure to store the saber when not in use. If you are shopping for second hand figures and come across this figure, check to see that this piece is still there.

 

The colours on the regular figure are pretty much dead on perfect, if only that eye was in a better spot this would have been a really amazing miniature. After having taken this photo I noticed that the Dom to the left has a traditional weapon holding hand. This is probably because I bought mine second hand in a Gashapon store. I actually have some more Doms one of which does come with the expressive hand so the hands should indeed be similar between these two.

 

 

MS-09 Dom (Bazooka) (clear color ver.)

 

Second man in the Dom team is up next, pretty much the same story as the previous figure. While it may seem a bit lazy to give up one spot that could have contained another clear figure this is exactly how Bandai did it with the other NEXT waves that featured the Dom. they always appear in pairs. Also, you don't have to fret about losing another potential U.C. 0079 figure; NEXT wasn't very deep into this series and so other possible candidates would have been limited to a Realtype Color Gundam, the RB-79 Ball or a Magella Attack Tank (I suppose you could add the Gouf Custom into this group as well with a bit of good will).

 

Yup, it is the same Dom but armed with a Mega Bazooka. Notice also the differently sculpted hand on this figure.

 

Apart from the different weapon and hand notice also that this figure does not include the connector piece needed to store a Heat Saber on the back. If you don't mind stripping the weapons from its buddy you could of course field a Dom with both weapon choices which is neat touch.

 

Here we have a regular coloured retail Dom figure, again with the weapon holding left-hand, which is where it is supposed to be. This figure also manages to strike a pose where the eye seems properly centered.

 

 

MSM-07 Z'Gok (clear color ver.)

 

The last figure in this set brings the colour blue to the mix. it is a mass production type Z'Gok which is a simple colour variation of the red figure we saw before.

 

An interesting difference between Char's Z'Gok and this mass production type is that the tanks on the back are painted red on the former and black on the latter, which I think is a more interesting look. You could of course steal the tanks from this figure and put black tanks on Char's machine if you like.

 

Not a whole lot going on here, we have the same straight and curved arm options that you can use to create a couple of different variations in the pose.

 

The original colour figure has some really attractive paint details but there is something strange in the whole shape of the torso. I can't quite put my finger on it but it is as if there are no shoulders on this thing and it looks a little awkward. The new Senshi Forte figure is leaps and bounds better.

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

All in all, this set is nothing more than a novelty item. I know that some people really like to collect these transparent colour figures but to me they have always been a bit meh. And when you consider the asking prices for this particular set you can certainly put that money to better use elsewhere, expanding on the core of your collection.

 

SD Gundam Full Color Stage 14

With daylight in short supply this season I have resorted to digging in the archives so here comes another Gashapon SD set back from the good ol' days of ¥100 figurines. Stage 14 focuses exclusively on Mobile Suit ZZ Gundam and was originally released in February 2000.

 

This is one of those really straightforward sets where you can count assembly in seconds after having forced your way through the plastic bags that is. None of the figures in this set are terribly rare, the Gundam seems to be harder to find than the others which is not surprising. I actually had all the other figures already when I decided to pick up a full set from Mandarake, the price was only ¥1000 after all. The downside to order from there is that the Gashapon SD sets rarely show up in their webshop, presumably because they aren't worth that much in Japan.

 

 

 

074 : FA-010S Full Armor ZZ Gundam

The Full Armor ZZ Gundam figure is a little bit surprising in that it is the only super deformed Gashapon representation available of this mobile suit. You'd think it was fairly common like the MSZ-010 ZZ Gundam which has at least half a dozen versions out there (the last one seen in Senshi Forte in 2018). There is of course no FAZZ available at all.

 

Excellent detail on this figure, as you can see. It comes armed with the Double Zeta's twin beam rifle rather than the ginormous launcher we usually see it equip but I guess technology and economy just wasn't there so I'll give it a pass.

 

Posing together with the regular ZZ Gundam as seen in Stage 34 (left) and Stage 13 (right) respectively. There were no further versions of the ZZ's in the original Full Color series.

 

 

075 : AMX-004G Qubeley Mass Production Type

The Gashapon figure range is really huge yet for some reason Bandai skipped over two really obvious suit choices. I am talking of course about the Mk-II Qubeleys from ZZ piloted by the Ple clones. However, they did go ahead and offer a Mass Production Type instead, and since it is my favourite Qubeley variant I am happy to find it included here.

 

The Mass Production Type machine has a colour very similar to the Ple Custom Mk-II but they have a number of differences in the body. The most easy to recognize differences are found in the head sculpt (which now looks more like a mosquito) as well as the two Beam Cannons stowed on the back. It would be fun to source a couple more of this figure and repaint them in gray for the early production colours.

 

The AMX-004G is quite small compared to the base Qubeley figures. The Qubeley with the beam saber comes from Stage 44 (released October 2003) and a green-eyed machine from Stage 8 (April 1999).

 

 

076 : AMA-01X Jamru Fin

The Jamru Fin is an odd mobile armor-type machine pretty much built around a huge Hyper Mega Cannon. The machine was rushed out in a half-completed form in the latest stage of the ZZ storyline much like the Zeong in the original Mobile Suit Gundam series. Since there were three prototypes a total of three machines were built and decked out with pilots whose names all begin with a D (as in dumb...) and I guess they are a humorous nod to the original Black Tri-Stars which does the suit no favours but such was the ZZ storyline.

 

As usual with the Gashapon Full Color figures they aren't really full color at all, normally on the side facing forward. Not that it matters a great deal with this particular figure. I wish Bandai would have made it a bit larger. This is supposed to be a huge and intimidating machine yet it is actually smaller than the other mobile suits in this set.

 

 

 

077 : AMX-011S Zaku III Custom

The Zaku III is another enormous machine that stands several meters taller than the average mobile suit, yet here the figure is rather short when compared to your average SD Gashapon. I guess it has something to do with the fact that these machines are bulky and Bandai were somehow unable to make them both tall and wide at the same time, so something had to go. Still, the Qubeley in this set obviously had no problems so not sure what the root cause for this is.

 

Still the Zaku III in general is a rare figure and the Custom perhaps even more so. These two mobile suits would make perfect candidates for the new Converge #plus size figures, let's hope Bandai and FusionWorks agree with that sentiment. :)

 

The regular AMX-011 Zaku III finally made it into the SD Full Color series at Stage 51 in August 2004 and is a considerable larger figure and armed with both a beam rifle and a saber.

 

 

078 : AMX-014 Döven Wolf

Stage 14 is interesting in that all the machines selected for this set are considerably larger than your average mobile suit, yet at the same time several of them are disappointingly tiny. I'm afraid that the powerful Döven Wolf is double afflicted since it is not only tiny but flat as a pancake.

 

This figure just makes me disappointed. It is really tiny, has a strange overall flat appearance and colour applications are really limited. It doesn't help that this particular figure is kind of bent out of shape on top of it all. A shameful display, as the old saying goes...

 

 

079 : NZ-000 Queen Mansa

The last figure in this wave is a gargantuan mobile armor, a figure that is surprisingly common and has representations in several Gashapon and Shokugan figure series. Ironically I don't mind its diminutive size that much as I do the mobile suits we saw above, those at least had a chance to look intimidating while a figure like the Queen Mansa is pretty much doomed from the get go.

 

This figure is also a little bland in the colouring department, but the sculpt is great and even includes a little Neo Zeonic logo on the back skirt. If you want a more intimidating Queen Mansa for the SD display consider picking up the Senshi Forte iteration although it is a bit large to pose comfortably next to SD Full Color figures, especially the tiny Neo Zeon ones.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Stage 14 is par for the course when it comes to the early SD figure sets. It contains a really nice unit mix which makes it especially collectable from that point of view, although most of them could have benefitted from a slight size increase, say 25 to 50 percent or so.

 

Gundam Ace February 2004 promo pack

Time for a little novelty item review. Do we have any Gundam War fans here? If you are into the collectible card game aspect of Mobile Suit Gundam you will probably be familiar with Bandai's Magic-clone Gundam War, which saw multiple card sets during its run between 1999 and 2011. Apart from the common releases you can of course expect to find crossover promotion where cards are inserted into other product lines or with partner companies here and there. Gundam Ace Magazine routinely features promotional items like these and this here is a little bonus item accompanying the February 2004 issue of the Gundam monthly.

 

This pack features an exclusive promo card for the game (well... not really) and a little postcard set. The promo might seem like an interesting rarity but holds no real value. I think I paid ¥100 for the pack (sans the magazine) so it is not like it was a massive investment. :)

 

Let's take a look at the postcards first. They feature random illustrations by various artists (some signatures I can read and others not...) and feature motives mainly from the early Universal Century era. All the cards are attached together like a little mini-booklet from which they can be separated. First up we have a pretty nice drawing of my man Char Aznable himself, followed by a really artsy Haro collage which looks like scribbles made by someone in a notebook during a meeting that has dragged on for too long.

 

Haro again, this time with some freaky partner balls that I don't know what they are imitating. This is the only card in the set that has a horizontal alignment.

 

Here are two of the better ones. First we have a young Haman Karn the way she was styled in the comic Char's Deleted Affair released by Kadokawa (there are even some nice mini-figures that I will eventually get around to posting up here). She appears to be saying some random thing about a year of excellence, Google Translate doesn't do handwritten text very well. Next we have a character completely unknown to me. I'd wager she's a supporting character from one of the many Gundam-themed console games or perhaps another Manga. The insignia should be a dead giveaway except I don't recognize that either. Definitely Zeon though.

 

Here's another really cool illustration. A war is hell-type of illustration with a non-descript soldier up front. Next we slide into caricature territory with an angry Gihren Zabi giving a speech in front of a whole army of cheering chibi-style Zakus. He is probably screaming about a happy new year or something to that effect...

 

Another Zeon girl and another player aid character from a game I'd wager. At the top we have New Year's greetings but the app is drawing a blank regarding the scribbles at the bottom I'm afraid, with highlights such as "Good in the Universe" and "Space T 90"... The next card appears to be more of the same, except this operator is with the E.F.S.F. instead. Here the translate app at least figured out that she is sending well wishes for 2004.

 

The last two illustrations are portrait studies from the Cosmic Era. First we have Lowe Guele from SEED Astray, perhaps better known as the pilot of the ever popular Astray Red Frame. He is followed by a very violet-eye colour Kira Yamato who is of course the pilot of the Freedom Gundam although here he is still wearing the O.M.N.I. recruit uniform.

 

Finally, here we have the promo card itself. Card SPGA-1 belongs to the purple neutral faction and features a combination of several cropped in illustrations with art-styles all over the place. The card's special effect allows you to purchase a new Gundam Ace Magazine on the 26th of every month. Yes, that's correct, the effect even carries over to the real world. Meant as a dry joke of course, the card features a custom backside to avoid anyone from actually trying to add it to the game itself.