Gashapon HG EX Mobile Armor Selection 2

This is Mobile Armor Week, Day 4. We will continue down the Gashapon route and look at the second of the two Mobile Armor Selection sets that this Gashapon HG MS sideline produced. MA Selection 2 was released in the year 2000 and the set contains five different figures, distributed through random boxes selling at 300 yen each.

Where Mobile Armor Selection volume one was a really homogenous lot volume two is all over the place. We have the G-Armor from Mobile Suit Gundam, the G-Defenser from Zeta and three monsters from Stardust Memory.

The Mobile Armor Selection figures are not to scale and volume two varies wildly from figure to figure, even more so than the figures in the first set did. This set also ties in more closely to the Gashapon HG Mobile Suit Selection line that it expands, even allowing some of the figures to combine with mobile suits from the MS line.
   

G-Armor

The box cover features the colourful and highly modular G-Armor hybrid design which has a whole family of useless vehicles that can be constructed out of it, just for the hell of it I guess. I wonder if anyone really cares that much about the G-System but Bandai sure seems to love dragging it out for most of their toy lines.

The G-Armor is the largest contraption to come out of the G-System and the figure appears to be size equivalent with the mobile suits of Gashapon HG MS which would put it somewhere in the 1:280 range. I don't really understand what the deal is with the tracks under its belly that don't connect with the ground because of the large wings on the booster section. It is possible that I assembled something incorrectly or that the designers didn't really think that you should keep the tracks on while flying around in space.

When I look at the components in this box I immediately think that the rear booster section should be able to attach to some Gundam figure's torso (to create the G-Parts type B / Gundam Sky) from the mobile suit figure line but there are no such instructions on the box that I can see, so perhaps there is no such option.

The G-Armor figure comes with a clear Core Fighter miniature to illustrate its scale. This gimmick was done throughout volume one but here Bandai actually took it a step further and decided to make it combinable with the G-Armor itself.

Yep, to no one's surprise you can pick the G-Armor apart and create both the G-Bull and the G-Sky options by making use of the clear Core Fighter as a nose section for the fighter.

The G-Bull looks alright, at least as far as G-Bulls do. At least I can't fault Bandai for the original design which looks like something made up out of leftover Lego bricks...

The G-Sky on the other hand looks awful. It was bad enough when Bandai designed the clear figures to go as scale comparisons for the figures in volume one but now that they want you to combine them with the actual coloured parts it just looks horrible. Would it have killed you to include a properly painted up Core Fighter in the box instead of this travesty?

Now that I think about it I wonder if it is possible to construct a G-Fighter from the parts in this box. The box art only illustrates the G-Armor coming apart to form the G-Bull and the G-Sky. I will have to look into this again but since it is not on the box my guess is the G-Fighter is a no go.
   

FXA-05D G-Defenser

Next up we have the G-Defenser from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam piloted by everyone's favourite character Katz Kobayashi. The Defenser is definitely to scale with the mobile suits in the HG MS line and is actually designed to integrate directly with the RX-178 Mk-II from HGMS volume 15.

The figure itself looks quite good but I it feels kinda flat. I would have appreciated some sort of build instructions as it wasn't immediately clear to me what part goes where and the tiny artwork on the side of the box isn't much of an indicator. The figure would of course also have benefitted from some sort of action base.

As you can see we have a pair of arms for the Gundam Mk-II included in the box. These are of course designed to work strictly with the Mk-II from the Gashapon set I just mentioned, which was released some time in mid-2000 as well.

There are several incarnations of the RX-178 present in the Gashapon HG MS line but only this figure will be suitable for transformation into the FXA-05D+RX-178 Super Gundam.

Converting the Mk-II into the Super Gundam was much easier than I expected. There are actually conversion instructions printed for this on the inside of the box although I didn't need to refer to them. Several components here make use of different size pegs or reverse designs where the peg and peg-hole switch places on the other side of the figure.

I have to say this Super Gundam is looking pretty great. I would definitely consider picking up a spare of each figure so that I can place all different combinations side by side.
   

RX-78GP03 Gundam GP03 "Dendrobium"

The Dendrobium mobile armor feels very different from the previous two figures that both had a chunky and cartoony feel about them. The Dendrobium seems to be a much more serious attempt at creating a super detailed figure and looks very busy and complicated.

I have to say, I'm not entirely sold on this figure. While the detail is quite good the whole body feels flimsy and it feels like the figure will fall apart just by me looking at it. It doesn't help that the whole thing is a dull white colour save for a few details painted in gray.

Notice the tiny Gundam GP03S Dendrobium Stamen figure that goes in the center of the mobile armor. At least this time they had enough common sense to actually paint it up in white (it even has some additional detail) rather than plonking a transparent figure into the mobile armor. One wonders why the Core Fighter for the G-Armor couldn't be managed in the same way.

See what difference a nice stand will do. The Dendrobium no longer looks like a crash landed pile of junk but like the bird of prey that it is. Notice also the optional fuselage parts where the two claws have been retracted.
   

MA-06 Val Walo

The second mobile armor from Stardust Memory is the bizarre Val-Walo, fielded by the Principality of Zeon of course. This is the only figure in this set which feels like a spiritual successor to the mobile armors in volume one. The best thing about these oddly shaped machines is that you have no idea what to expect from it. It has a menacing and alien feel about it which I love.

Just like the Dendrobium however, the colour applications on the Val Walo leave a lot to be desired. A little bit of detail here and there would have been appreciated.

The Val Walo comes with a tiny RX-78GP01 Zephyranthes figure in clear plastic. Notice also that most of its coloured detail is on the underside of the body.

The figure has a gimmick which allows the Val Walo to deploy its two large claws by rotating them 180 degrees to the front, similar to the Grublo figure from volume one.
   

AMA-X2 Neue Ziel (AMX-002)

The last figure in the set is the Neue Ziel. This figure comes off as much more detailed than the Val Walo and features some different coloured components. This makes it the best painted figure of the three Stardust Memory machines in my opinion.

I also love how the figure comes with a proper stand that props it up from the ground but then again with such a weird body shape the designers kind of had to do something for it to be displayed properly. Still, I don't see why a similar set of bases and pegs was not developed also for the Val Walo and the Dendrobium figures. Mobile Armor Selection 2 is all over the place in this regard.

The Neue Ziel comes with what appears to be a MS-09R-2 Rick Dom II figure in clear plastic to illustrate its size. I have to wonder why Bandai decided to make an action base in white rather than black, which is the commonly used colour for other Gashapon figures that use this type of stand. It is a space only mobile armor after all.

Judging from the tiny Rick Dom and the Zephyranhtes figures it seems like the Neue Ziel figure is in a slightly larger scale than the Dendrobium. When looking at the two mobile armors next to each other however, I feel that the Dendrobium is the one that is too large.

Here you can see the Neue Ziel figure together with its counterpart from Converge and a Zaku II from the 1:400 Gundam Collection range. Although this Gashapon Neue Ziel is way smaller than the actual 1:400 figure that is out there I still think it is a decent figure to use together with the 1:400 figures.
   

Conclusion

Overall Gashapon HG EX Mobile Armor Selection 2 is a bit of a mixed bag, quite literally. While all the figures are engineered very well they lack something that binds them together. It doesn't make sense to display them next to each other for example, but the G-Armor and the G-Defenser would look great next to mobile suits from the 1:280 range. Even the three Stardust Memory figures could have been presented in a more standardised way to make them more similar to each other; i.e. in flying poses on action bases. Still, I like all the figures in this set (except maybe for the Dendrobium) and I would wager that most who enjoy the cheaper Gashapon Gundam figure ranges would too.

The latest Gundam Converge news...

We are interrupting Mobile Armor Week for a quick PSA from Bandai. After a very strong 2020 Converge line-up the latest preview comes as a bit of a ho-hum thing as far as I am concerned. Yes, it is one of those fancy paintjob reissues that pollutes the brand...

This twin-pack will see the MSN-04II Nightingale (Converge EX 14, released February 2017) and the RX-93-v2 Hi-Nu Gundam (Converge volume #05, January 2017) share box as CORE 020 and coming with metallic paintjobs and the usual CORE extra decal work for the sake of it. The set is priced at a modest ¥5280 with planned delivery in March 2020. Preorder is open and available here.

Mobile Suit Ensemble EX 11 : Apsalus II

Oh yeah, we're rolling now... Day three of the Mobile Armor Week sees the majestic Apsarus (or Apsaras or Apsalus or whatever spelling you prefer) II mobile armor from the anime The 08th MS Team, a show I still haven't had the fortune to view. As such, I can't claim much knowledge about the mobile armor itself other than what I have read up on about it in the Gundam Wiki. The figure itself was released in late July 2019 through the Premium Bandai program. The price was set at ¥4860.

The Apasalus is the eleventh EX figure in the Mobile Suit Ensemble Gashapon figure series and comes in a big box filled to the brim. Unlike some products where the box is intimidatingly large just for the heck of it this thing is crammed full of stuff. Incidentally, when you have finished building the figure you will notice that the box dimensions are just a few millimeters shy of actually fitting the completed figure. You can still get it in there if you put it at a quirky angle but it would have been so nice to be able to actually store it comfortably within.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. First we have to assemble the damned thing and just look at all these bags and components... hmm it all seems a bit complicated.

Thankfully we have some solid step by step assembly instructions included with the box that take you through the process one thing at a time. Many of the crucial components are branded not only on the runners but on the parts themselves which is extra helpful. I encountered no difficulties in assembling this armoured egg; the designers have done a really good job as far as I am concerned.

The Apsalus II is mainly assembled from parts coloured in dark gray and medium gray. There are a few pieces in yellow and the mega particle cannon is painted with a nice metallic effect. Most of the components are made from hard and rigid plastic while a few of the details such as the yellow piping is made from bendy soft material.

The figure can stand upright by resting on the belly and its four extremities. The latter feature double joints which enable the Apsalus to extend or retract them as needed and they also open up forming what resembles claws but might actually be intended as some sort of landing gear. I actually have no clue how this mobile armor is intended to stand on the ground. Thankfully Bandai have supplied us with a sturdy cross-shaped base. As always I would have preferred it if the base was manufactured in the same clear material used for the regular figures but, oh well...

Even the underside of the mobile armor has a lot of nice detail and a generous amount of yellow pipes. This could easily have been omitted in favour of some simple sculpt detail on the base plate but they went the extra mile and the result looks great.

The Apsalus II figure comes with an option part that can be used to cover up the gargantuan mega particle gun. This is Bandai's way of saying "hey, your Apsalus II figure is now the Apsalus I, cool beans!".

The artwork above shows the Apsalus in its version one and two configurations. The first form of the Apsalus was a testbed prototype only and was unarmed. I think it takes a little bit more effort to do the Apsalus I design justice than just slapping a piece on top of the cannon. I kind of entertain the idea of purchasing a second figure and having it repainted but... we'll see about that.

While the Apsalus II is a cool looking figure it doesn't have a whole lot of playability going on with it. The extremities wobble in and out a bit and you can put a cover in front of the cannon. So, the developers decided to have a little fun by making the figure open up and hold an entire mobile suit within. The mobile suit whose head is seen peeking out from the top is actually held firmly in place by two pegs in the top lid that slot into the mobile suit's backpack. An extra connector piece is also inserted between the torso and the head to make its neck longer, ensuring the lid will close nicely above the mobile suit.

The High Mobility Test Type Zaku figure included with the Apsalus II is a simple recolouring of the figure from Ensemble vol. 9. It even gets both a Zaku Machine Gun and a Heat Hawk even though the Heat Hawk was only available in the volume nine equipment set.

"Hey man, quit screwing around!"

You can mess around with your Ensemble figures to see if you can find any other suitable candidates to pilot the Apsalus II. It is going to require a suit with proportions that aren't too outrageous though.

We'll finish off with a couple of size comparison shots to see the thing in action. Although it is a large figure I wouldn't really call the Apsalus II collection centerpiece material; it works better in the background. Here we see it with a Ground Type Gundam and a Hover Truck from the Ensemble line itself.

Is the Apasalus II figure suitable for Gundam Converge collectors? Well i would say yes. The Zaku head peeking out isn't all that large compared to the Converge figures and the overall size and deformation level seems pretty compatible with Converge. Still, I wouldn't put it past Bandai to pump out a Converge EX figure of the Apsalus II as well, now that they have got around to doing the Big Zam.

I think the size and feel of the Apsalus II is also quite suitable for posing with larger Gashapon SD figures such as those from the NEXT, DASH and Senshi Forte collections. The heads on SD figures tend to be larger but overall I still think it works quite nicely.

As far as actual Apsalus II figures go it is a pretty barren world out there. There are some outrageously expensive garage kits in short supply. Other than that I only know of a handful of candidates. Two of them are tiny figures from the Mini Figure Selection and the SD Gundam Full Color series and those are as small as the mobile suits of those figure series. The gold standard Gashapon Apsalus II figure instead comes from the Gashapon HG EX Mecha Selection series, and it is quite hard to find (and when you do find it you'll probably do a double take once you see the asking price...). Your best bet is probably a flea market lucky find or as in my case finding a complete set of used Mecha Selection 7 figures.

In closing I find the new Mobile Suit Ensemble Apsalus II figure a really nice and worthy addition to the Ensemble collection. The price tag will probably start somewhere around ¥5000 and who knows where the price will be a few years from now. The figure also seems to be in rather short supply so it will probably take a bit of effort to dig one up.