Exia, Setsuna F. Seiei: eliminating the enemy!

At of the end of my mini HCM Pro Gundam 00 countdown we find the Gundam Exia. Said to be the symbol of the entire series, Exia represents a blend of the familiar Gundam motif with a unique styling and some awesome weapons. This palm-sized figure is ready to lead your own group of tiny Gundams!

The Exia figure meets all standards for an HCM Pro toy. It is small, highly detailed, and sturdy. Being the first Gundam 00 figure in the HCM Pro line, Exia is fortunate enough to have had no further developments in terms of weapons so everything it has ever used in the show is present on this toy.

Exia is known as the Gundam with Seven Swords. From the rear you can clearly see its four beam sabers, one long sword, one short sword, and Exia's signature GN Sword or as I like to call it, the giant switchblade. The beam sabers are easy enough to plug in and remove but the small swords take some extra parts. Exia is meant to have a pair of mounting points on its hip that extend out to holster the swords. On this figure Bandai went with two sets of out thigh pieces, one with the mounts extended and one with the mounts retracted. I would suggest plugging the swords into the mount before attach the thigh parts to the leg as it can be difficult to do so with the thigh part already attached.

When not in use, the GN Sword has a small beam gun under the hilt.

As you can see, the figure has no problems hefting its gigantic blade over its head. The GN Sword is secured via a forearm bracket and the handle of the beam gun which are connected together with the shield structure on the exterior of the blade. Once its attached, the GN Sword is rock solid.

Both the handle and forearm bracket are meant to allow the GN Sword to tilt upward for a little more finesse. Exercise some caution when moving the gun handle. The Exia I received had a defective handle that was fixed in place. I had to wait for a replacement because the handle almost broke off when I tried to move it. The Exia itself is a well articulated figure, featuring all the standard joints plus a few extras like extending shoulder blocks and hinged toes.

One complaint I do have about the accessories is that Exia only comes with one saber in sword mode and one in dagger mode. Why couldn't they just include at least two of each? I suppose if you own Exia, they expect that you are just going to buy the other three Gundams so you should have no shortage of beam sabers.

Exia's twin swords are both nicely detailed weapons and fit snugly in the figure's hands.

I must admit I wasn't too sure how to pose Exia with its twin blades.

Probably the most notable inclusion in this set is the special display base. Looking very much like a K'Nex set, this base comes with several connector pieces and extension bars to allow you to display your HCM Pro figures as if they were flying. The level of foresight on Bandai's part is amazing since while not all HCM Pros can use this stand, a large number of first run figures are compatible. These include the RX-78-2 Gundam, the Zaku IIs, the Gelgoogs, and many others. Strangely, Gundam Dynames is not compatible with this stand.

Together the four Gundams make an impressive display. The main stand coupled with the parts from Kyrios allow the Gundams to huddle together, each doing what they do best. At the end of this journey, if you're a fan of Gundam 00 or if you like HCM Pro figures in general, these guys are the way to go.

Dynames, Lockon Stratos: Sniping the target!

Gundam Dynames is easily the most straightforward of the four Gundams in Gundam 00. Piloted by the expert marksman, Lockon Stratos, it uses a simple beam sniper rifle to peg targets hundreds of kilometers away. Likewise the HCM Pro Dynames is an equally straightforward toy. While it doesn't have all of Dynames's gear, this toy is sturdy and well articulated.

The basic gimmick of Dynames is a set of movable mounting points which can used to attach either its sniper rifle or one of its many shield parts. The rifle itself requires a small adapter piece in order to fit on the shoulder mount, however this piece is so unobtrusive you'll end up just leaving it on.

This figure also comes with Dynames signature shroud. These parts fold over the front of Dynames for defense. They are made of three hinged panels and do not impede the figure's motion. In the series, these are controlled by Lockon's copilot the orange Haro.

In addition to the usual set of optional hands, Dynames come with an optional head to represent the hidden scope under its V-fun. The rifle also comes with two foregrip; one extended and one folded.

Dynames is the most flexible of the the first season Gundams. With its double jointed knees and extra wide feet, Dynames is super stable.

Dynames's rifle also comes with two bipods, both folded and extended. One complaint I do have is that the figure's neck is not flexible enough to have Dynames peering through the scope while prone. Also notice the twin butt thrusters. They are simply threaded on a pair of pegs sticking out of Dynames's rear and can pivot up and down. There is also an unlit beam saber attach to each thruster. The toy comes with one long saber and one short saber. Unfortunately the toy omits the Gundam's akimbo pistols.

Overall Dynames is another winner in the HCM Pro line. Despite the omission of some accessories, Dynames still feels complete just with its sniper rifle. One thing I have noticed is Dynames is downright cheap. Very few stores are selling it as its original price so if you're looking for a cheap thrill with Lockon Stratos, get this toy.

Kyrios, Allelujah Haptism: I have control.

The third member of the Gundam 00 team is the requisite transforming Gundam called Kyrios. The dual nature of the Gundam is reflected in the dual personalities of its pilot. The mysterious Allelujah Haptism hides a darker side that makes him the ultimate super soldier. Towards the end of the series, the character and mobile suit became so entwined that it made even skeptics of the design real fans, myself included.

Kyrios, like the other first seasons Gundams of 00 all share a similar aesthetic as they all share a central chest orb (GN Drive) with gray cables connecting each limb to the torso. These cables are represented by gray bars on the arms and legs. My Kyrios unfortunately has a defect on the right thigh. Other than that the paint apps are typical HCM Pro quality. Everything is sharp with little to no overspray or globbing.

Kyrios is a peculiar design to say the least. Its most obvious feature is its sheer depth. Thanks to its large wings, tail, and nose portions, you really wouldn't want to hug Kyrios.

Despite its numerous protrusions, Kyrios is well articulated. It has a full range of movement in its hips and shoulders and even has doubled jointed knees and elbows. The upper torso is mounted on a balljoint although out of the box its snapped down into its fixed position for flight mode. Kyrios comes equipped with one beam machine gun and two beam sabers although I don't recall them ever being used. It even comes with two unlit sabers for storage in the rear skirt armor. Now I have not detached these parts from the runner because on a 1/200 scale toy these are about the size of a grain of rice.

Kyrios's most visible accessory is its shield. This simply snaps onto the back of the arm and it fixed in place.

When Allelujah shifts to his alter ego, Hallelujah (the "H" is important) this defensive tool becomes a wicked claw. In the middle of the claw is a removable spike.

During combat, Hallelujah would run headlong into enemy formations in order to grab and impale his foes. The claw itself can rotate and hinge upward.

This way Kyrios stores its gun for fighter mode has always been weird. You have to attach this bracket to the right arm and detach the gun's handle. This is how its done in the show so I guess I can't complain too much. It's strangely toyetic.

Conversion to fighter mode is fairly easy and almost entirely self contained. You do have to remove the shield spike as there was no room for it to retract on a toy of this size. For the most part, Kyrios makes a pretty sleek space fighter. The included stand is for fighter mode only and can only display the figure horizontally. It doesn't have any built in weapons so it mostly relies on its beam machine gun. Often times during the show it was seen with a large weapons container used for carrying missiles and bombs. I'm not entirely sure why this was omitted from the toy, but I guess Bandai did not want include a hollow plastic box that's as big at the toy itself.

Kyrios's fighter mode has a nice and aggressive look, even from the front. I like the false green window and retractable antenna.

Kyrios looks absolutely ridiculous from the bottom. The sad thing is this is exactly how it looks in the show. Poor Kyrios looks very unhappy like that.

Overall the HCM Pro Kyrios is another real winner. If you're looking for a desktop defender or yet another entry in your HCM Pro army, Kyrios is a great toy right out of the box. My only real complaint is the price, 3000 yen MSRP. Kyrios is just a little too bare bones to really justify that price even with the transformation. I got this toy on sale and I'm quite satisfied with it.

Virtue, Tieria Erde: Commencing destruction.

Gundam 00 was a great many things to the franchise. For some, it was their first introduction to Gundam while for others it was another entry in the long list of Gundam Universes. Myself, I found it rather refreshing at times in terms of design. There were some familiar features, but I feel the Gundam designs in Gundam 00 had their own sense of style and brought something new to old gimmicks. As the first in my series of reviews of the HCM Pro Gundams from season 1 of Gundam 00 I'll be looking at perhaps the most unique of the quartet, Gundam Virtue.

Virtue's initially appearance was a stark contrast to its effeminate pilot, Tieria Erde. Serving as the group's heavy weapons unit, Virtue has three guns that all do the same thing.

This pudgy, palm-sized Gundam is well executed with sharp paint apps and fine detail as good as a plastic model.

One of Virtue's action features include four panels on its legs and shoulder cannons which can be pulled out to represent its force field mode.

Taking advantage of its small size, this toy is incredible stable even when hefting its large bazooka into position. The shoulder cannons are mounted on swivel joints via ball joints and can move freely into firing position. The bazooka opens up and extends for maximum firepower.

In this mode, Virtue grips its bazooka via two movable handles. The back of the gun plugs into a flap which sits over the toys chest orb (or GN Drive for the picky).

Virtue's biggest surprise comes with the removal of a whopping 21 separate parts (coupled with a head swap) that reveals the inner Gundam Nadle (pronounced Nad-leh).

Now since this is a 1/200 scale figure (roughly 10 centimeters tall), you don't want to keep track of all those tiny parts right? Thankfully, this set includes a clear skeleton that can be used to store all of the extra parts. Applying the parts to the Nadle figure is somewhat fiddly. The larger parts like the leg and arms parts go on without any problem, but the chest parts are the most difficult because they have to be put on in a certain order. The hardest parts have to be the two chest pieces that clamp around the chest orb. There is a collar piece that has to plug into those and the front red torso piece. I don't recommend this toy for the impatient (or the ham handed, sorry Josh) because even if you wanted to just display this toy as Virtue, the armor comes equipped on the skeleton so you have to perform the procedure at least once.

Regardless of these issues, Gundam Nadle is one of the most unique Gundams. Its a strange combination of a cut down design mixed with some feminine touches like its PVC hair which are actually cables that connect the face parts in the show. Nadle is incredibly flexible with the notable exception of its head. The PVC hair is just too hard to flex out of the way so the head is mostly locked in place by its own locks.

While Nadle is a great figure, it is a bit lacking in accessories. You can give it two beam sabers.

You may also give it Virtue's shoulder cannons. Each cannon has a fold out handle which the figure grips like a pair of tonfas. Sadly this toy was released before Nadle received its beam rifle and shield in the show.

My final word on the HCM Pro Virtue is its an interesting figure with all its details and the transformation to Nadle. While the equipping procedure is fiddly, the results are pleasing to fans of the HCM Pro line. So far this is the only toy of the Virtue that execute this Gundam's unique cast off gimmick. Overall, a great execution for such a small size toy.

It ain't easy being green.

I personally have no love for Gundam: 08th MS Team. Its gritty take on the One Year War is marred by shoddy writing and bland characters. The Retcon-tastic Ground Gundams do not excite me either. However, I have found this series's obligatory GMs to be far more endearing than their red chinned cousins. I find them to be very practical in terms of design, without going too far off the base of the original GM or Gundam. I really feel like these guys should have been the star of the show.

The RGM-79[G] GM Sniper makes it appearance throughout the course of 08th MS Team, first just as background filler and later as fire support for the Kojima Battalion's Big Tray class ship. Its most notable difference from the standard GM[G] is its olive drab paint job and ridiculously large beam sniper rifle.

For the fiftieth HCM-Pro release, Bandai put out two GM[G] toys. One was the standard tan and orange colored unit and the other was the Sniper variant. Both are physically identical, with the only difference being the accessories included in each set. The toy is cast almost entirely in olive drab plastic, with a few bits of gray. It has numerous markings, including several areas with tiny text.

Like almost all HCM Pros, the GM Sniper has a surprising amount of articulation in its small frame. The knees are double-jointed and the elbows are designed to mimic the range of motion present in a human arm. The waist can be pulled upward to allow the torso to dip to the side. Combined with ball jointed toes, the GM Sniper is really flexible hand candy. The only unfortunate thing is that the shape of the ankles does not allow the feet to be pointed downward which can be annoying when it comes time to do some laying down poses.

Like most HCM Pros, the GM Sniper has removable panels that reveal select bits of inner detail. Unfortunately, the panels on the GM Sniper are prone to falling off. Especially the center chest piece.

The armor over the backpack can also be removed. It does not fall off as easily as the front panels. The backpack itself can be removed and replaced with the carrying rack from the Ground Gundam

Accessory wise, the GM Sniper comes with the standard spread of Gundam weapons which includes two beam sabers, one 100mm machine gun (w/ three spare magazines), a shield, and the beam sniper rifle. It comes with a pair of saber holding hands, a pair of gun wielding hands, a pair of open palm hands, one hand specifically for the sniper rifle, and one for holding the spare magazines. The shield's notable feature is the mounting arm, which allows it to swing out over the GM Sniper's hands.

Here you can see the machine gun's folding stock and the removable magazine. Each hip armor mounts a spare magazine.

The GM Sniper's most recognizable weapon is of course, the sniper rifle. It measures 9 centimeters in length, which is pretty impressive considering the GM itself is only about 11 centimeters tall. It features a movable fore grip and a movable gunsight. The gun sight itself has a small set of crosshairs painted on the front lense. The few times this weapon is featured in the OVA, it was tethered to some kind of support system. These tubes are present on Master Grade kit but not on this toy as it is meant to represent the GM Sniper that struck out on its own in order to destroy the Apsalus III.

Overall, this is one of most solid HCM Pro toys. Easily one of my favorites.

-Andrew

The Gundam Heavyarms was my trusty Mobile Suit in the game Another Century's Episode and it is because of that game I have this awesome toy.

Another Century's Episode (ACE) for the PS2 is a collaboration between game publisher Banpresto and developer From Software. It combined the awesome crossover battles of Super Robot Wars with the 3d robot fighting action of Armored Core. Fairly early in the game, the player is given access to the XXX-01H Gundam Heavyarms from Gundam Wing. Using its arsenal of missiles, gattling guns, and that sweet knife I must have completed a good 30% of the total game using the Heavyarms. I honestly don't have any strong feelings about Gundam Wing, but because of ACE I jumped at the chance to get a HCM Pro Heavyarms.

The HCM Pro Gundam line represents a spiritual successor to the original High Complete Model line of the 80's. Now with twenty years worth of Gunpla design and modern manufacturing techniques, Bandai has created a satisfying line of miniature Gundam toys that often surpass their model counterparts.

Heavyarms is expertly detailed for its small size. All of the appropriate markings are present with a minimal amount of the "race-striping" that plagued the early HCM Pro toys. Everything from the chest doors to the eyes and little head vulcans is nicely painted with little to no excess paint. One complaint I have is that the torso was molded in red, with the midsection painted white and this tends to chip off as you pose the toy.

All of the joints are tight and offer a wide range of poses. It even features double jointed knees and a toe joint on each foot. The toy comes with four hands: two fists and two open palms. It also comes with a set of ABS antenna to replace the PVC ones that come already attached.

This toy is fully capable of emulating Heavyarm's signature "Full burst" attack where it reveals its chest vulcans and extra missile launchers.

Here is a closeup of the chest vulcans. You can see they are pretty detailed. Also you can see the shoulder missiles. Unfortunately, the doors do not swing completely open like in the show.

The box calls this feature a "dramatic effect." You're supposed to wedge the tip of these things into the upper corners of the chest cavity and make a VARRRRRRRR sound in order to emulate the firing of the chest vulcans. Unfortunately, it looks more like Heavyarms's nipples are on fire.

And in case you think Heavyarms needs to stabilize its beam gattling gun, the support arm fits snugly into the other hand.

Heavyarms can also store the beam gattling gun on its back. I don't recall this from the show, but it's a cool feature nonetheless.

Don't let the size of the knife fool you, this thing is downright deadly in ACE. Trowa uses it to great effect in the show.

Heavyarms also comes with a clear display base with the number III on it. Since Trowa's name is derived from "Trois" (French for three) Heavyarms in the third Gundam. Each foot can connect to the wedge shaped mount on the stand and allows you to recreate some dashing poses. The base also links up to the other HCM Pro Gundam Wing bases.

Now this gimmick is straight out of the show. In episode 16, Heero replaces one lower arm of Heavyarms with a beam saber holder. Despite the fact this toy was advertised with a lit beam saber, you actually need one from the HCM Pro Wing Gundam to complete the effect. Bad Bandai.

Lastly, at 1:200 scale the Heavyarms stands a head shorter than most One Year War Gundams. It's a cool effect when you get different Gundams from different shows in the same scale.

Overall, The HCM Pro Heavyarms is the definitive Heavyarms toy. Despite its small size, it is detailed, flexible, and well armed. It is a little on the expensive side at 2800 yen MSRP, but shop around and you might find a good deal. No Gundam Wing team is complete without it.

While smaller than a MSiA figure, it is of substantially better quality.

The NRX-044 Asshimar is a transformable mobile armor from the anime series Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam which aired from 1985 – 1986. The toy was released as part of the HCM Pro line. HCM Pro stands for

Hi-Complete Model Progressive.

The toy is made out of hard ABS plastic with some select PVC details. Asshimar in robot mode is not that tall, about 3.5 inches. While smaller than a MSiA figure, it is of substantially better quality.

The construction of the toy is meant to mimic the style of the old High Complete Model line, only smaller. It feels like it is a completed model kit – all you have to do is take it out of the package and play with it.

The most notable feature of the Asshimar is its ability to transform into three modes. For a figure this small, the transformation is complex and effective. My only complaint about the transformation is that the hands need to be removed to transform from Mobile Suit mode to Mobile Armor mode.

Asshimar comes equipped with two weapons: A Beam Rifle and a standard rifle. The Beam Rifle can be stored underneath the Asshimar when in Mobile Armor mode. Also included is an additional hand, spare antenna and a display stand. The display stand can hold the Asshimar in any mode.

This is my first purchase in the HCM Pro line and I was really impressed by the quality. I doubt I will get more though, due to the fact that I am not that big of a Gundam fan anymore. The unique design and transformation drew me to this figure, but the rest of the line does not appeal to me. If the HCM Pro line branches off into toys form other series, I would be interested in checking it out again.