EMIA ZGMF-X10A Freedom

Height: 11cm to top of head

Articulation: 32 points total in main body, plus 12 in wings, plus 4 per railgun: double jointed neck; mid-torso ball joint; 7 points per arm - double preshoulder joint, ball joint shoulder, upper arm swivel, double hinge elbow, ball joint wrist; ball joint waist; 7 points per leg: ball joint hip, mid-thigh swivel, triple jointed knee, ball joint ankle, mid-foot hinge.

Colors: Painted white, blue, black, red, yellow, grey; Molded grey, clear pink.

Accessories: Beam rifle; shield; beam sabre x2 with removeable blades; double beam sabre grip; extra hands x6

Release Data: Released in Japan on April 27th, 2006 at a price of ¥2000. This item is still available as of May 16, 2006.

Gallery: 27 images.

Author: ExVee


A year after the Gundam Fix Figuration styled Cosmic Region Freedom, a year and a half after the MSiA, and nearly three years after the original AMIA, Bandai once again revisits the original Freedom design in figure form. A speed of turnaround from MSiA to EMIA comparable to that of the Zeta Gundam, I'll be the first to admit that the previous MSiA attempt at this design had shortcomings that really should have been addressed by that time anyway (see my review of the original Freedom). The big deal difference is really just the correct execution of a single gimmick, as well as some agreeable change of materials. But being redone as an Extended MSiA, it naturally had to be generally brought up to spec. The outcome of that isn't quite so certain as some of those more specific changes...


The Head

The proportions of the face have been tweaked some to be more in keeping with the lineart, and resemble some of the better drawn bits from the actual animation. What's really changed is the neck. Now a double joint, it makes the head sit much higher, but gives a much expanded range of motion, hindered only in back by the flared out bit on the bottom of the head. Being so elevated above the "collar", there's no interference at all turning to either side. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about the neck appearing as long as it does, but functionally the change is positive.

Torso

Despite having the standard mid-torso joint common to all EMIAs, there's really not any added poseability to be had. The design of this torso interferes at essentially every point. You can *see* the seam where the upper and lower halves come together, but neither side can be moved relative to the other. Um, oops? This is even worse than the failure of the joint on the Gundam Mk II. Really, considering how poorly this joint executes on Gundam type bodies, I think I'd be more satisfied with some alternate torso gimmick. I'm not sure that something like an opening cockpit hatch would be applicable in the case of Freedom, but it wouldn't be any less useful than what it has already. But then, that's not the important part anyway.

The important part is the Deca Wings, the big fancy gimmick that makes Freedom special. First off, having seen many pictures of terribly warped wings from the original Freedom, I was happy when it was learned the EMIA's wings would be made from a harder plastic that wouldn't bend. This is still good in practice, but it did bring about an unexpected, but apparently not unprecedented problem. I've been told the AMIA Freedom's wings had a tendancy to come apart when being posed, and some of that legacy lives on. I suppose because of the type of plastic used, the wings are held together with a simple peg in hole system. Generally they stay together pretty well, but with movement into and out of Hi-MAT configuration, they sort of wiggle loose and the back panels can just drop off. Easily replaced, but it's one of those things you wonder about being done differently to be more secure. Plus, since it's hard plastic on hard plastic, I have a genuine concern about what might happen as time goes on and this connection might wear out. A loose-winged Freedom is arguably worse than a bent wing Freedom.

Last year, my main complain about the MSiA Freedom was being unable to put the figure into the Hi-MAT Full Burst pose as done in the TV show, which at that time was a function limited to larger model kits. The CR Freedom released later in 2005 introduced the necessary hinge to the figure world, and then was done again for the EMIA. Indeed, that was the biggest question when the EMIA Freedom was announced, and was the make or break point as far as selling me on the figure. So while having a functionally complete figure is nice, there are some issues which are probably due more to the design itself rather than necessarily being a fault of translation to the figure. It's a really fiddly process to get the cannons swung out to begin with, due to differences in joint tightness. Once they are out, it takes some work to get everything to align the way it seems like it should. Balancing the position of the wings and cannons is a tricky proposal at best, and you're pretty much guaranteed to think some part of it looks wrong no matter what you do to try and fix it. Initially, it's even a trick to not make the cannons rest against the antennae structure on the head. It's not exactly what you'd expect for what's realistically the main thing that's supposed to make this figure appealing. Given this, I sort of cringe at what might get screwed up if Bandai-Namco redoes Strike Freedom next year.

The railguns are effectively identical to the last ones, though maybe with slightly tighter joints. The beam sabre racks have a bit different fit, too, and though the fit for the grips feels tight at one end, the other end makes it seem very much like you could easily flip them out without knowing you did anything. If you didn't notice right away, it could be very possible for them to be just plain lost by the time you notice they aren't there anymore. The skirt still isn't properly articulated, and seriously if one thing was to be added to EMIAs, I'd want jointed skirt armor universally. There is no circumstance where a properly executed skirt armor joint would not be good.


The Arms

Okay. In October, the Gabthley came out, and it had these new joints above its proper shoulder joints which among other purposes, increased poseability by letting the arms swing up some. This was then replicated on the EMIA Gundam to okay effect. This was done once more now on Freedom. I have to say, though, each time I see this reused, the less I like it. In the case of Gabthley, it fit into the existing design very well, seeming very natural. In the Gundam, it looked a bit more out of place, but they at least colored the tops of the joints blue so they'd blend some with the torso. On Freedom, that isn't even done, leaving the joint to obviously stand out. But that's not even the real problem I have with it. I find that once you start getting a large collection of joints within a small space, you're really just destabilizing the overall structure. On Freedom, and to a bit lesser extent the Gundam, when I try to move the regular shoulder joint, I end up pushing around all the extra pre-shoulder joints, and ending up not getting where I really wanted to go. Honestly, I never really felt the need for such a joint just for the sole purpose of raising the arms over the head, and in the experiences I've had it just hurts the rest of the related jointing.

As part of this also, the shoulder armor is now attached by a special piece between the torso and shoulder, rather than sliding over the shoulder joint as in previous examples, and is hinged to clear space. But this hinge is on the weak side, and after a while the shoulder covers just sag under their own weight and look rather bad in doing. This to me is truly one situation where the simpler design should have been kept to. One might say that it just needs a stronger hinge, but I think given the wild variances that can exist, that's not a viable solution. In fact, I don't even understand why the shoulder cover needs to be hinged. As far as I can tell, the armor wouldn't get in the way of the arm or shoulder jointing anyway. The arms can't raise any higher with the armor flipped up than they can with it down, nor are the pre-shoulder joints affected by the position of the covers. So what's up?

Otherwise, it's a standard arm setup. Which is actually kind of bad. See, for much of the EMIA series, the figures have been having some manner of forearm swivel, usually as part of the elbow joint. In some cases it seems completely superfluous, others it's really helpful. But no matter what, it hasn't been a bad thing at all. But the Freedom does not have the swivel. And having a shield hardpoint on the forearm, it really could call for such a thing to be useful, even with the dual position shield mount. I just can't figure why this would be left off here, but be present on, say, a Zaku.


Legs and Feet

Very little of note down here. A newly added mid-thing swivel makes for extra psoeability, though I tend to forget it's even there. The little thruster covers on the calves are now hinged, which I guess is a nice detail, but I didn't exactly miss it on the previous MSiA. Unlike the last time, the ankles are almost immovable. The armor around the joint is so close fitting that I can't tell from the movement whether there's a second joint hidden in there, or move the armor enough to be able to look! Adding to the troubles, there's a hinge in the foot which presumably is supposed to let the toe end point vaguely down. What ends up happening more is that the foot gets pushed apart slightly and that messes up the figure's ability to balance, especially if you don't have the wings sitting almost directly against the back of the shoulders. It's just another case where the figure would be better off for not having so many joints.


Paint and Deco

Going by photos of other's figures, the paint app quality can be very hit and miss. I seem to have gotten one of the better ones, I'm happy to say, and overall it seems to be done rather well. You should just be aware that it's probably more of a gamble than usual what you'll find in your mail if you order one of these. I do find the lack of shading around edges to be pretty notceable, but maybe forgivable, since Freedom does have the special armor and so should probably have a different appearance. On the more positive side, this figure of course has panel lines inked, something the regular MSiA sorely lacked for contrast. On the one hand, it sure brings out the lines better, but it also betrays how little surface detail there is in general. Finally, the paint around the lower torso isn't quite so good, with visible blue plastic bleeding through the white paint on the sides. A thicker or maybe second coat would have been well put here.

Paint and Deco get 7/10


Accessories

-MA-M20 "Lupus" Beam Rifle

Slightly redesigned, I think. The proportions seem kind of off from the other Freedom I have. Anyway, it's still basically the same single piece accessory, plus the hinged fore-grip. It has a square peg to fit the hardpoint on the back skirt plate. It fits in there well enough, but you do get some interference with the wings which can result in knocking the rifle off.

-MA-M01 "Lacerta" Beam Sabres

Just like before, you get the separate grips, as well as a special combined grip. Also like before, you can't store the combined one anywhere. The double grip is still on the flimsy side, especially with the weight of the blades, and in my case it came out of the package bent. I don't know if it's just a problem specific to my example, but it was very difficult to get a blade into one of the grips. Upon closer inspection, the grip in question seemed to have a much smaller opening for the blade than the other one did. If this is common, it's a rather bizarre defect since there should technically be no difference at all between the grips to allow it to happen on a large scale. It'd probably open up with a blade left in for a while, though. As noted earlier, I have concerns about the grips staying in the racks above the railguns. As if to confirm my point, during the writing of this article one of the grips flipped out and very nearly became lost.

-Shield

This one is rather upsized from before. Not a good thing, I don't think. It really ends up running into the shoulder cover and the wings, and is just generally difficult to pose with - moreso than last time. In theory the gunport on the shield is now large enough for the beam rifle barrel to fit through, but it's not possible to pose the figure in such a way as to actually use this feature. The dual position shield mount makes it so the shield can attach to the grey blocks on the back of either forearm instead of a socket on the side of the arm for the ball joint used before. It can mount to the side or hypothetically the back by changing positions of the connector, but the latter doesn't seem like it could work very well at all in practice. Overall I believe the shield would work better if there was a forearm swivel in place to let the shield clear the shoulder and wings more effectively.

-Extra Hands

In addition to the typical extras, the sabre holding hands and gun hands, there's a pair of open hands. Their use is more vague, but I've seen then used effectively with the shield and beam rifle. I'm sure additional creative uses can be found as well. The switching is pretty smooth, though there's still a good chance of knocking all sort of stuff out of place in the process just for how many moving parts you have to deal with along the arm and in a line beyond it. I'll say one thing, though; the molding of the open hands is really good, plenty of small mechanical detail to be seen.

Accessories get 7/10


Closing Remarks

I kind of find myself at a loss for what to say here, but with an odd compulsion to play some TM Revolution songs. In some ways this is well improved over the 2005 model, but much of this improvement creates new problems that need addressing. In other ways this is inferior to what we already had. In the end we're left with an uncomfortable balancing act between what ended up working and what didn't, which may well result in this being equal to the figure it was supposed to supercede. Equal, but different.

With the trend being shown in these past two EMIAs, I grow more concerned for the state of the Justice which is to come in July. Maybe it will be better for not having a direct analogue. I just have to hope at this point that the Hyaku Shiki in October will benefit from not having any remotely recent figure to compare to. I think that is a major issue this Freedom suffers from: its predecessor hasn't even been around for eighteen months at this point, making very little of what we get here seem new or innovative. The really noteworthy EMIAs so far have been based on designs that either had no modern representations like the Mk IIs and Gouf, or had more modern figures that were just not up to par, like the Zakus and Zeta. One could argue the Gundam Second Version, old as it is, still held up today and wasn't really missing anything. The Freedom still was new, and this figure only came along to correct missing elements from the previous one. Making it EMIA and thus calling for additional changes to set it apart has done just as much, if not more harm than good, and hopefully will send a message to Bandai-Namco that revisiting so soon seems to be kind of a bad idea.

I cannot really recommend this figure if you have the first one. While it does have the complete mechanical function the other lacks, I think the other is a more solid figure. If this is your first Freedom, the EMIA or MSiA would be equally worth getting, but coming off the regular figure you'll end up disappointed. I'm forced to give the Freedom an overall score of Could Have Been Better. For the money, it doesn't seem like it should have turned out to have as much wrong as it does.

-ExVee, 05/16/2006