Robot Damashii 0-Raiser

(and 00-Raiser notes)

Length: 12cm

Articulation: N/A

Colors: Molded white, blue, clear amber, translucent pink, grey; Painted blue, grey.

Accessories: Stand, GN Sword II blades w/ Beam blades

Release Data: Released in  Japan in December 2008 at a price of ¥1300

Author: ExVee

(more...)

It's the first time I've had to buy an upgrade vehicle separately. Still, for me the 00-Raiser was the thing that sold me on the 00 itself, which up to that point had been the only Gundam from the show's second season that I didn't really care for. While I didn't break and get one of the horribly overpriced second-hand 0-Raisers from Ebay or otherwise, I have to admit to some irritation at having to buy the support fighter as its own toy. For me the 00 was not a complete figure without the 0-Raiser. And yet I could easily (and pretty cheaply) buy a first-version 00 at any time I wanted. Not doing me much good if I have to wait literally months for the remaining parts to go back into production, now is it?


0-Raiser

As with most support fighters, the 0-Raiser doesn't do a lot on its own. Unlike support fighters that MSiA fans may be used to, this lack of things to do is made all the more apparent by it being sold all by itself. Well, aside from the Trans-Am colored 00-Raiser set based around the first version Gundam 00 which to this day basically nobody wants. In design terms this is more of a G-Defenser than G-Fighter, which is probably a part of what drew my interest when I first saw it.

Since the 0-Raiser has to separate into a few parts for docking with 00, the toy naturally goes to pieces. The binder wings won't just fall out, but they're not near as solidly connected as I'd prefer. Actually, working with the 0-Raiser by itself, it's hard to find a good place to hold it. If the binders don't come out, the tail end is folding in or the hinged panels on the binders are getting out of whack. The fuselage isn't even 100% safe, since the small sliding elements can pop away from the body as well.

Though the execution may be a little lacking, the actual realization of the design worked out well, I think. For a Gundam's support unit, it's designed with unusual sanity. The fuselage looks like a viable aircraft, and if the wing binders could be exchanged with normal wings, there'd be no particular reason that this couldn't just be a slightly futuristic aircraft. Of course, I'm sure that even the absolutely non-lifting design of the 0-Raiser is just fine since it has Magic Particles to keep it going if it's ever needing to fly around in Not-Space.


00-Raiser

The 00-Raiser combination is what led me to like the 00 itself. I think I've mentioned before, but the 00 Gundam is a pretty boring design on its own. The Super Gundam was always high on the list for favorite Gundam + upgrade module gimmicks, and this instantly struck me like a Super-er Gundam, even if it doesn't let 00 imitate transforming Mobile Suits. The docking is simple and identical for either version of 00, as the fuselage just connects by one peg into the Gundam's backpack, and the binders tab in around the GN Drives. The heaviest parts of the 0-Raiser are the binders, so there's not any balance issues introduced in combining. The big chunk of 0-Raiser hanging from the back has no real impact at all except to increase the amount of space the figure will occupy on a shelf.

Functionally, of course this doesn't do anything for the figures, but visually it does serve to make the basic 00 look "complete". I'm sure that the 00-Raiser was how 00 was designed from the start and they just subtracted elements for the pre-upgrade version which is why the 00 on its own always looks so unfinished and uninteresting. While the combination works with either 00, the Seven Sword has had specific redesigns to work better with the 0-Raiser. If you get the 00-Raiser Trans-Am set, that's gonna be the first 00 body. I'm pretty sure the Seven Sword body 00 and 0-Raiser were never paired in a set that wasn't a now long-gone limited exclusive of some type or another.


Accessories


-Stand

The best thing this could come with. This is a unique type of stand, not related to Tamashii Stage at all. The base is two pieces of colorless clear plastic that easy assemble into a solid flight stand. There's a movable hinge at the top which one of two connectors plug into. First is the connector piece of the 0-Raiser. Not only does it hold firmly to the underside of the 0-Raiser, but it does not want to let go ever. It's a struggle to remove this piece, and the flexible, dismemberable nature of the 0-Raiser does little to help the situation, what with not being able to get hold of much solid body mass to leverage against. The other connector is to fit 00, so the 00-Raiser can be floating. This one comes off a bit easier than the first connector, but as a result doesn't hold the figure quite as solidly either.

My only real problem with this is that the design basically prevents you from pointing either the 0-Raiser itself or the 00-Raiser downward no matter what you do. It can a tiny bit, but not nearly enough to keep from just looking slightly lopsided. For the 00-Raiser, it means not having the possibility for a decent forward flying pose, and for 0-Raiser it must be kind of inconvenient to never be able to fly [relatively] downward. I'm sure there are badly programmed video games out there with similar faults. But hey, for the fact that the 0-Raiser is not at all suited to sitting directly on any given surface, tossing a stand in at all was a nice move.

-GN Sword II Blades

I prefer to think of them as the GN Tuning Forks, though. Among the myriad special abilities of 00 is to use the GN Swords II as giant beam swords through the power of - you guessed it - Particle Magic. Later instances of this would result in truly ridiculously gigantic beam swords, but the initial application was actually fairly reasonable. So with the 0-Raiser you get a pair of extra blades for either 00 to use as well as the beam blades to attach. Nothing too special about it, the blades and beams fit together adequately, and the blades plug just as solidly into either Gundam's hilts as any other blade.


Closing Remarks

The sad thing is that for a while, an 0-Raiser could not be had for under $30-$40 and only on the secondary market. Even when a subsequent production run fired up, these sold through a lot quicker than the accompanying runs of 00's. Running lower numbers of the support vehicle that gives a figure what I consider basic completion is kinda crappy, even for Bandai. I definitely wouldn't advise paying any higher than retail for 0-Raiser. If that's not possible, the Trans-Am set is your next best stop. It's Trans-Am colors and the inferior version of the 00, but the upshot is that it's not very expensive anymore - certainly not compared to what off-season 0-Raisers go for.

The 0-Raiser is Good but even aside from the reasons in the previous paragraph shouldn't have been sold on its own. This isn't the time or place to get into a thing about Bandai Japan's business practices, but by all rights this should have been a paired set with the first 00 in regular colors. There's no reason other than a money grab to have ever sold these as separate units.

-ExVee