Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan, we’ve been sent a toy from Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn to review. Specifically, the new Full Armor Unicorn Gundam from the Gundam Fix Figuration Next Generation range. This is also meant as a companion review to the Metal Composite Unicorn Gundam article.
Around the time of the Robot Damashii announcement, the fairly long running Gundam Fix Figuration range of toys also got a facelift. Dubbed the “Next Generation” these new toys would supposedly eradicate the issues seen in the older figures. Specifically, the lack of articulation and overall poor build quality when it came to various interconnecting parts (Deep Striker, we’re looking at you).
Following on from the wondrous Metal Composite version of the Unicorn Gundam, Bandai have decided to release its Full Armor variant as shown from the end of the novels. Unlike the normal Unicorn Gundam, the Full Armor’s internal psycho-frame is coloured green rather than pink. This is down to resonance between the Unicorn and Banshee when they get within close proximity of one another, a similar phenomena to the events at the end of Char’s Counterattack when the RX-93 Nu Gundam and MSN-04 Sazabi entered into protracted combat.
In addition, the “full armor” variant of the Unicorn is very much one created in haste, as the frame itself hasn’t undergone much modification and instead has just strapped a few hyper bazookas to its back. That said, the design is an imposing one and merges elements of Hajime Katoki’s earlier and grittier designs from Gundam Sentinel (Deep Striker, we’re looking at you).
Compared to the Metal Composite toy, the base figure is now closer to 1/144 scale, doesn’t have any diecast joints and doesn’t offer the ability to transform between Unicorn and Destroy modes. So that sounds like this is a waste of time then? Not so, the “Next Generation” suffix is one to take stock of as the base Unicorn Gundam figure has a wonderful sculpt and articulation that is equatable to its Robot Damashii brethren.
Toy: GFF Next Generation Full Armor Unicorn Gundam
Price: 8000 yen
Size/Weight: 26.8 x 31.5 x 9.3 cm / 690g
The base figure is arguably worth the price of the toy alone, as its decals and sculpt are practically flawless and eclipse the Robot Damashii toy in the same scale. It even comes close to ousting the Super HCM-Pro version too. The articulation is also very solid in the arms and legs, even the torso is jointed. The feet are slightly difficult to position but this is not on account of the ankle joint but instead down to the design itself, as the ankle guards limit movement somewhat. The base figure can also equip all the various weapons and shields, so you’re definitely getting an excellent foundation to attach all the crazy weapons onto its back.
Admittedly, attaching all the various parts is quite difficult (with the aft beam gatlings being particulraly awkward) and this is what the Gundam Fix Figuration lineage has brought to the design. Once the mechanical regalia has been attached, with all six beam gatlings and a variety of missile pods as well as hyper bazookas being pretty impressive in and of itself, that’s basically the end of the toy’s life as something that can be handled and played with.
Thankfully, the figure comes with a very serviceable stand that allows for a fair few poses but it’s clearly meant for display by this point. Whilst that’s by no means a bad thing and compared to the old Gundam Fix Figuration figures, which could only act as display pieces, having a good toy based “core” so to speak does make this set really worth getting. It’s also worth pointing out that once in Full Armor mode, the stand is the only way to display the toy as it will fall backward (though to be fair the design is only meant to be used in space in the novels – so I doubt they would have suffered this issue).
Put simply, if you want to get the ultimate incarnation of the Unicorn Gundam then this is pretty much the toy to get. The base figure will give you a lot of fun and once fully decked out it works as a very nice display piece. Considering it’s half the price of the Metal Composite toy, the Full Armor variant is definitely value for money (even without the transformation, as it makes up for that – and then some – with the multitude of weapons its packaged with).
Overall then the core toy of the Unicorn Gundam is excellent and worth the price of admission. Having the Full Armor option is basically a really cool extra and allows the figure to be displayed to pretty impressive effect.
Quality of the toy aside, this is one hilariously random piled of junk slapped onto an otherwise great original design.
I think its fine that they took out the transformation. It adds a lot to the price and takes forever to actually do. I’d rather just have two models, one in each mode.
Or really, honestly, just the original mode, since its slick as can be, and the flame on mode is kind of harsh.
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who thinks this Full Armor Unicorn is ugly and obnoxiously random!
I’ve always been a fan of the absurd Full Armor designs. This…might be a bit much, but no one has ever lost a battle because they carried too much ammunition. This Gundam has lots of shooty-things and lots of glowy-bits, so you KNOW it has to be powerful.
When I was a kid, we had one beam rifle, and that was it. Sometimes we got 8 shots out of it. Now Jimmy, he said you could get 9 if you held the button and shook the e-cap just right, but later on we had to call him Half-Head Jimmy, when he tried too hard for a 10th. We had head vulcans too, but we never actually hurt anybody with those. We fired them to look impressive and because we liked the sound they made, but we always envied Fred, who replaced them with fireworks shooters. That was pretty awesome. Now Tim, he didn’t even carry a rifle, he said a beam saber was enough for him. That worked pretty well until he discovered, much to his surprise, that e-caps in beam sabers have that old “battery memory” problem. He killed one last Dom after that by headbutting into its chest, which was so totally metal, but you can hit something that big at ten Gs and expect to be okay. Tiim’s GM was okay, mostly, but when he got liquified we could never get the smell of hamburger out. We never told Ben why his mech’s smell made him so hungry all the time, would have ruined the joke.
Dang, that’s pretty funny.
Gundam: Tales from the front lines.
I saved that! damn funny.
Don’t ever change, TOLL.
Whoa! This is awesome! The only version I have is this: http://gundam.i.ph/blogs/gundam/2011/03/03/unicorn-gundam/ ?
Is that even out in the market?