Who, ultimately, can I blame for this?“This” is the Bandai Robot Spirits Mobile Suit Gundam RX-78-2 action figure, or, as I prefer to call it, Gunam: The Gundam From Gundam. It’s the main giant robot suit from the very first season of the Gundam show, called Gundam. Gundam.
But who’s FAULT is it that I have this? Who can I blame? The blame starts with BigBadToyStore, who was unable to provide a NECA Vincent Price in October, November, or December (also January and also so far in Feb - I’ve been checking their stock for data points).
This caused me to get Vincent Price from Best Buy, who also included 60 days of premium CruncyRoll with the purchase. Which brings us to Get Played, and Heather Anne Campbell.
For the holidays, they dropped a Get Anime’d podcast about Gundam: The 08th MS Team into the main feed that made me think “maybe I should watch some Gundam”. I could have followed their advice and used The 08th MS Team as an easy entry point into the universe, but then Campbell said something to the effect that you get all the references if you’ve watched the main series. Plus the main series is very 70’s. And was on CrunchRoll. So I started it.
And that made me want a Gundam figure. Worse, it made me want a GOOD Gundam figure. And since I will never, ever be a model kit guy, that meant Tamashii Nations, aka Robot Spirits, Bandai’s line of premium Gundam figures, which has a “project A.N.I.M.E.” subline that features these robots in their anime looks. And the Bandai website still sells (or sold) The Gundam From Gundam. And so I got one.
It’s a fiddly import figure and also it is GLORIOUS.
Let’s talk about fiddly import figures a bit. Lines like Robot Spirits, SH Figurarts, Mezco 1:12 Collective - all these Japanese figure lines have a few things in common. First, they run a little bit smaller than you’d expect. And second, they have a handful of features that are nominally cool and also a lot of hassle. They are fiddly.
For example, a couple years ago, I got the SH Figuarts MCU Loki, and he has a combination of faces, hair, and helmets that you can mix and match. Does it work? Yes. Is it easy to do? No. Do the parts stay where you put them as you pose and move the figure? Sometimes. The Gundam has three main areas of fiddliness.
First, the shoulder cover pieces pop off at the drop of a hat. Any hat. Maybe I’m doing something wrong or maybe I’m just a rowdy poseur but they do pop off and they do fly a couple of feet when they do.
Second, there are a few ways for the shield to be held/attached. The ideal one is a rectangular peg that slots into the arm on a bracket that wraps around the arm. Again, might be doing something wrong, but it’s a little too big and doesn’t slot in securely.
Third, there’s a swappable head piece - one normal, one with firing Vulcan cannons. The peg angle on this is weird and awkward. Once it’s in, it’s in secure, but finding the sweet spot is a challenge.
All that said, everything else about the figure is FUCKING PERFECT. All the other bits that might be fiddly are in fact very solid and secure, from the removable beam saber handles to the many effect pieces.
Posing this bad boy is a dream. Don’t get me wrong. I understand the detent joints of most Hasbro figures and what they do for longevity of the figure. But tight, smooth joints with a huge range of motion and the ability to balance damn near anywhere? That’s a lot more fun. Fuck knows what it’ll be like a year from now, but right now I couldn’t stop taking pictures of it.
And it comes with a ton of stuff. The five pics should showcase pretty much everything - the only thing it didn’t come with is that bazooka blast and missile above - that came with a Super Action Stuff effects pack I got cheap. It doesn’t slot in but there’s a lot of poster tac and Street Fighter effect stands involved to hold that up.
It wasn’t cheap, especially after tax and shipping. It’s a tier of figure I still can / should only dabble in on occasion. Luckily, a lot of Gundams look so much alike that I can write off most of them. And they haven’t made a Hyako-Shiki in ver. A.N.I.M.E. so I’m safe after my first two for a while. Did I say two? Whoops. Spoiler. Still haven’t opened the second one. Long story and this is already a long story.
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