MSiA TMF/A-802 BuCUE

Solid figure that's long overdue. Lack of accessories makes the dollar value questionable. Overall Rating: Very Good.

MSiA TMF/A-802 BuCUE

Height: 7.5cm to top of turret, standing

Articulation: 25 points total: 2 ball joints in neck; hinged wings; 3 points in turret - swivel joint base, ball joint cannon barrels; 4 points per front leg - ball joint shoulder, hinge elbow, hinge/ball joint combination wrist; 5 points per rear leg - ball joint hip, double joint knee, hinge/ball joint combination ankle.

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

Accessories: Beam blades x2

Release Data: Released in Japan on May 19th, 2006 at a price of ¥1500. This figure is still readily available as of May 27th, 2006.

Gallery: 25 images.

Author: ExVee


As one of the most non-traditional designs in the various Gundam series, the BuCUE holds an uneasy position in some respects. Generally the fandom either loves it for being different, or hates it for believing it a rip off from Zoids. In truth, with Zoids having existed for some twenty years now - and animalistic robots in general even before that - it's probably unfair to assume a ripoff from anything and that Gundam has finally adopted what has been a part of many giant robot based series from a very early point. With that said, I'm a big fan of the BuCUE, a good part of that favor from the fact that it is innovative among Gundam. In the show, the BuCUE was shown to be highly effective in desert combat, with land mobility perhaps even better than its possible UC counterpart the Dom, the TMF/A designation standing for Terrestrial Maneuver Fighter/Attacker.

The BuCUE was originally to be produced for the US Gundam SEED line back in 2004, along with a number of other ZAFT designs. But the quickly failing state of Gundam merchandise in North America spelled the death of that, and anyone looking for a BuCUE of their very own were limited to the No-Grade 1/144 model kit. At the end of 2004 was released the Gaia, a descendant of the BuCUE design which many hoped would fulfill some of the desire for a figure of the quadroped Mobile Suit. The Gaia turned out to be a major disappointment, as can be noted in our review. When the BuCUE was announced for the Japanese MSiA series, thoughts of the Gaia's problems began to creep around in my head. But no matter what concerns, I couldn't pass up the BuCUE MSiA I'd wanted for so long!

Since this figure is mostly legs, the format of the review will be a bit different from normal.


The Figure

The head shape is dead on to the animation, of course sporting the "late type" fixed beam sabres on either side. In reality, I'm not sure anything but this sort appeared in animation. The neck is molded to simulate the segmented jointing style the design uses, but the only actual joints are behind the head and at the base of the neck. The neck is molded in a permanent curve, made to either look more dynamic, or to suggest it needs a chiropractor. At any rate, the range of articulation is much more limited than I'd like it to be, and in some cases ends up with the head appearing to point down depending how the rest of the figure is posed. The ears/antennae are sadly soft plastic and easily bent. Warping is a clear concern, especially with the railguns swinging around over the head.

The central body is just a solid chunk of plastic. It's debatable whether the presence of some mid-body joint would help or hurt the figure overall, but it does feel slightly on the stiff side with an inflexible body as it has. The wings are separate pieces and are packed removed from the body. They attach by way of hinges, allowing them to angle up some before smacking into the cannons. The turret is removeable as well, attaching by way of a single ball joint. The joint is restricted down to being a swivel, though. The cannons themselves are also ball jointed, with slightly more range than the base joint. They can swivel up, and down somewhat, but also have some space to angle in and out. I was very happy to find both the wings and the cannons are made of hard plastic. It was not so long ago that both parts would have been soft plastic and themselves prone to warping, possibly even right out of the package. That no such danger exists now is a sure indication of Bandai-Namco taking a better approach to MSiA these days, and a much appreciated step forward.

The legs are somewhat similar in structure to Gaia, but much simpler. Only the rear legs have a traditional double joint, with their double hinge knees. The rest are single joints or combinations of different single joints. Basic stability here is good, but you will spend some time finding just the right placement of each leg to get everything level. All the joints are strong, in contrast to the floppy mess of Gaia's legs. The wonders of not transforming, huh? The transformation the BuCUE does feature is exceedingly basic. Straightening the treads, and folding and stretching the legs to effect a sort of "tank mode." As basic as it is, I find it a bit tricky to get all the treads to sit right without the whole body angling down in front. As with a basic stance, this seems to mostly be a matter of practice in determining where each limb needs to go. I do think some extra articulation could have been utilized in the legs, at least as far as an application of the normal double shoulder joints to open up some range of posing. Regardless, the body structure is quite sound, and the call for some extra joints is a minor thing.


Paint and Deco

There is some instance of Mono-Eye Disease, as the dark red eye could have been done a bit better. The edges are messy, and the shape is uneven, odd really when all the other paint looks so good. Not that there is much paint to start with. Aside from yellow stripes and some red highlights, the only color present is the plastic blue. There is some poor edging with areas of the yellow, but on the whole those applications are clean, as is the red. There's also a good bit of flat grey that sort of breaks up the blue, except that the shade of blue is such that it tends to blend together in low light. The black mono-eye track looks great, though. It's so clean it might as well be a piece of black plastic with the head wrapped around it.

Paint and Deco gets 8/10


Accessories

The only thing I'm willing to call an accessory are the beam blades. The turret is on the body as packaged, and the wings are integral body components, in my view disqualifying them as accessories. Effectively standard, these blades are shorter than average, and a bit darker. They're of course the standard hard plastic, and fit smoothly into the emitters on the head.

You'll understand if I omit the accessory rating, under the circumstances.


Closing Remarks

Though I'll call the BuCUE physically just fine, there are issues that don't exactly fall into the categories laid out above. For one thing, as a ¥1500 figure, one expects a certain something to justify the price these days. Whether an extent of articulation, or a range of accessories, or even extensive paint. The BuCUE shows none of these factors. Indeed, it possibly has the fewest accessories of any release of this price. A flooring situation especially when the BuCUE has an optional missile launcher unit that could have just as easily been included to pad things out. As partly noted in the review of the figure itself, additional articulation could have been enacted. Paint couldn't be helped, probably, short of going to the full Extended MSiA treatment. As there doesn't seem to be any areas actually missile color, I'm inclined not to push that matter much anyway.

The question still remains: what are we paying ¥1500 for? Two years ago, I wouldn't have given this a second thought. But in that time we've gained remarkable things at that price, which has served to change the standard by which such things are judged. The last such case that comes to mind is the Abyss, which still had standard articulation and slightly more in the way of accessories. For a figure that has no real transformation, it's just plain baffling. I can but hope that this does not mark a new trend being set, and instead reflects the somewhat odd nature of the figure. One presumes July's LaGOWE will have a similar problem. As well, September's Gaza-C will probably have a low accessory count, but be offset by transformation. Plus that design never had much equipment in the first place and is likely not to actually omit established equipment.

Don't misunderstand me - mechanically this is a perfectly good figure. But for dollar value, you'll probably notice something missing in addition to the missile rack. I'm very content with this figure, even if I can't see this as being improved over what we might have gotten with the US release in 2004 as I feel happened with other figures Japan released after they were shelved for sale in North America. Anybody who's been looking for a good representation of the BuCUE will be well satisfied by this figure. I'm giving the BuCUE an overall rating of Very Good.

-ExVeeBrawn, 05/27/2006