While I was always more into the model kits, during Gundam’s short-lived heyday in America, I was actually a little more into the action figures. It was out of convenience, really. The American action figure line was very cheap, especially when compared to the models, and offered a huge variety. You could get stuff like the G-Armor, the GM Custom, the GM Cannon II, the classic Gelgoog… all suits that at the time, lacked high grades. Heck, you could even get mobile armors like Zakrello and Bigro! Those were some pretty cool times.
These days, those old Mobile Suit in Action!! figures have now been replaced with the much superior Robot Damashii, but a few weeks back, I was feeling a bit nostalgic, and decided to pick this guy up: Herbert von Kuspen’s custom Gelgoog.
This suit appeared in the CGI OVA MS Igloo, piloted by a Zeon officer who was totally a Nazi (seriously, you should see his damn coat…). By and large, it’s just a Gelgoog, painted in a rather nice gray-on-gray color scheme with some sharp brown panel lining—that’s something you don’t see too often.
The body for this figure was used several other times in the Extended MSiA line, including the mass production model, Char’s unit, Johnny Ridden’s High Mobility Type, the Gelgoog Cannon, and Thomas Kurtz’s Gelgoog cannon; so basically, every canon design save for Anavel Gato’s unit. Since I’m not sure about the order in which these kits all came out, I can’t account for anything like mold degradation, but something tells me the mold for this thing looks like Swiss Cheese at this point.
Since this is the only Extended MSiA I own, I have to say I was quite blown away by this figure’s articulation. It’s ridiculous! Almost everything on it has a double joint—the knees, the elbows, heck, even the shoulders! The only old MSiA that came anywhere close to this was the Gundam version 2.0, and while that one was awesome, it had its share of flaws.
That’s not to say this design isn’t flawed; far from it… when you include so many joints on such a small figure, they probably won’t hold up. This is especially true of the arms, which can’t hold the shield up to a certain height. Also, when you have so many joints, namely loose ones, when you try to move one joint, they all move. Oops.
There are some nice little details, however, like the positionable monoeye, and the adjustable thrusters in the skirt. The thrusters on the ankles don’t move, however.
The accessory compliment is quite good, including a High Mobility backpack, the traditional beam naginata, rifle, and shield; and the bazooka from Johnny Ridden’s Gelgoog. The beam rifle stores away on the backpack, and the bazooka has a second handle for the shield for some reason. The same handle can also be used to allow the suit to hold the gun with both hands. The naginata also has two sets of blades.
The hand compliment is quite awesome as well, even if I’m… not quite sure what most of them do… I can’t even get some of them on the joints…
So in spite of its flaws, the MSiA extended Gelgoog is a pretty cool toy. But would I recommend it over a Robot Damashii? Hell no. It’s a neat toy, but I sure wouldn’t give up my RDs to go back to the old MSiAs. Still, if you want one yourself, come into FPNYC for your own! We also have the HCM Pro release as well!
