EMIA RX-178 Gundam Mk II (AEUG Colors)

Height: 11cm to top of head, 11.5cm to top of backpack.

Articulation: 36 total points of articulation: double-jointed neck; 7 points in arms- double jointed shoulder, ball-jointed shoulder armor, pre-elbow swivel, double jointed elbow, ball-jointed wrist; mid-torso ball-joint; ball-jointed waist; 9 points in each leg- ball jointed hip, thigh swivel, triple-jointed knee, double-jointed ankle, ball-jointed pistons, hinged toe.

Accessories: Beam Sabers x2; Beam Rifle with extra E-pack x2; Hyper Bazooka; Vulcan Pod; Shield; Extra Hands x4; Shield Connector.

Colors: Painted light grey, dark blue, yellow, green, red, grey, black, olive (panel highlights); molded grey, clear pink.

Release Data: Released in Japan on February 11th, 2005, at a price of ¥1800. This item is currently in production.

Gallery: 26 images.

Author: ExVee

The Figure

This is number two out of four versions of the EMIA Mk II mold. Can we say "milking it"? Personally, I kind of take some issue with only having two completely new molds out of seven known figures. To me, it seems to set a bad precedent. And how long before we see such things as EMIA RX-78, GM, Dom, and/or Rick Dom, instead of fully new molds of older figures that desperately need this form of updating? Where is my Hyaku Shiki, or my Gelgoog? Those are the sorts of things Bandai should be focusing on with a line like this. Let's move on...

Despite the innovation of the Movable Frame construction method, the Gundam Mk II really isn't anything ground breaking. But even being a Gundam retread, the Mk II holds up well for much of Zeta Gundam, and manages to keep up with the evolving MS technologies with the G-Defenser support unit. Maybe it shows that the simple design concept has merit, if not originality.

The Head

Y'know, this double jointed neck seems kind of ...oh, what's the word I'm looking for? Useless. That's it. Okay, here's the deal, it's two ball joints, one end goes into the body, the other end goes in the head, and the grand benefit of this is that the head can rock backward and forward approximately three-quarters of a centimeter. There's no difference in range of motion otherwise no matter if it's all the way forward or all the way back. Considering that one of the big advertising points of this figure is the extreme amount of articulation, I can't help but see this is just a joint for the sake of raising the number a little.

Anyway, the sculpt of the head is the excellent job that should be expected from the Extended line, and is especially improved from the original Gundam Mk II MSiA. The only blemish is one of necessity, which is the small slots cut into the sides of the head to allow the Vulcan Pod to attach. But everything else is great. Sharp edges, nice narrow panel lines, and good proportions.

The only problem I have is that the shape of the head restricts movement a bit. Mostly in the back, where it makes trouble pointing the head up. In fact, about the best it can do is a little higher than looking straight forward. If they were going to add an extra joint to the neck, you'd think it could have been something to free up some movement.

The Torso

Now, somewhere here, there's supposed to be a mid-torso joint. ...ah, there it is. yes, it's more than a little disguised, which also seems to result in restriction in how well it can move. Once you can actually find it and then figure out where to apply pressure to get it to move without moving about a dozen other bits, you'll find a grand total of about three degrees of movement maximum in any direction. Back and forth is really bad, for a combination of the backpack hitting the rear skirt plate, and the cockpit hatch hitting the front. It'll do okay for side to side, but I think I'd be generally happier with an opening cockpit hatch instead.

Now, as for the backpack, it's attached to the body with a single ball joint. I don't actually like this idea much, since it results in the backpack being set out from the body, and the lets the backpack rotate and tilt. There's also a mysterious slot up toward the top which serves no apparent function right now, and is theorized to be a plan ahead for a later G-Defenser addon. If this is so, the ball jointed backpack is an even worse idea. Consider, you're adding a presumably heavy piece of accessory supported only by one tab. So naturally you want to have that tab supporting this big heavy thing on the one piece of the figure that's the least stable, so the big heavy accessory can just flop all over, and alternately the figure will flop around under the big heavy accessory in G-Flyer mode. So, yeah, this seems like a great idea.

Otherwise, the backpack is fine, more or less. Each of the four thruster nozzles is ball jointed and have a great range of motion. The binders up on top of the backpack are also ball jointed, and can move a fair bit. On the other hand, the "cables" running between them and the backpack do restict a lot of movement. I've seen a simple modification that appears to work, involving just trimming off a little bit from the end of the cables. Right now, it doesn't really bother me enough to go that far, but maybe later.

The waist joint, sadly, doesn't seem to be anything but a swivel. Kinda disappointing, considering the really cool waist joints we've been having lately.

The Arms

First, these are probably the best double shoulder joints we're likely to ever get. Remember the whole Movable Frame thing? Here's one of the spots where you get to see the frame. The sections of the shoulders attached directly to the torso are supposed to be representative of areas of frame that don't have armor applied. As RAC correctly noted in his review of the Titans colors Unit 03, the shoulders use the same concept as the Gundam Astrays. However, the openness of the Mk II's design actually makes it possible to put this to use correctly. Not just back and forth, but up and down as well. Depending how you position the ball jointed shoulder armor, you can get some respectable range of motion.

Beyond that, articulation is basically standard. The double elbow moves just as far as you'd expect, and of course there's no post elbow swivel. Now, come on. If you're adding articulation all over, how can you not take the obvious opportunity for that? Despite being ball jointed, the shape of the forearms and hands essentially restricts articulation to swivel only, which I can't help but be a little disappointed by.

Legs And Feet

Now, here's one joint I'm happy to see added: Thigh swivel. Incidentally, also seemingly one of the visible parts of the frame. It's interesting how much added poseability you can get out of a simple swivel joint. Plus it's better than on the original where the hip ball is molded as part of the leg but doesn't offer any extra movement.

Backing up for a bit, the skirt armor is sadly standard. Maybe I just expect too much from a line calling itself Extended, but it really doesn't seem right that the front skirt armor can't be jointed in some way to allow for extra poses without risk of major warping of those pieces. The side panels have hardpoints for mounting some of the accessories, and the fit is actually quite good. The rear skirt panel has a built in rack to store the bazooka, but I don't quite like it. Thing is, the bazooka is supposed to be attached to a little tab on the rack, but the tab is soft plastic, and I just have horrible visions of the bazooka not seating quite right, and the little tab kind of breaking off. It's nice to have it bult in, but it just makes me too uncomfortable.

Anyway, I particularly like the knee joints. Unlike usual, these are molded special to look like part of the frame, so there's not the typical space in the middle you find on almost every other knee joint. It really makes me wonder why they couldn't do the same with the elbow joints. The back of the knee has cable detailing molded in, but despite this, there's no impact on the range of the knee joint, especially with the ball joint at the base. The heel could easily touch the backpack, if not for some of the lower leg hitting stuff first. Regardless, it's a great looking joint that also manages to be totally functional.

Now, the lower legs have been redesigned somewhat. Mostly just adjusted proportions. Originally, the thrusters on the legs were pretty big, looking like parts added on to the legs, which I think was suitable since the thrusters were supposed to be powerful enough to have the suit hover along under gravity. Now they've been streamlined, made smaller to integrate with the leg contours better. I don't know, it just kind of weakens the appearance.

The ankles are double jointed, and move pretty well. The feet can stay flat on a surface even with a very wide stance. Plus, more frame detailing around the ankles! The feet themselves also have a joint, but there's no use at all for posing. Instead, it's a hinge in the middle of the foot that allows the "toe" end to point down. I can see little purpose for this other than the G-Flyer mode of the Super Gundam. And you might wanna be careful with the feet, by the way. I wound up popping the front of one foot out of the joint and had to take the whole foot apart to fix it. Not an especially difficult job, but avoidance is best.

Paint and Deco

As usual, the entire figure is painted, with exception of the joints, and it looks just wonderful. The panel highlights are clean, and nicely thin. The airbrushed shading seems to be almost exclusively on the lower half of the body, and is just on the right side of subtle. Very well done. The only area of complaint I have with the paint work is in the face. The black "mask" extends down too far into the part under the eyes that's supposed to be grey, and this makes the face look wrong. This isn't an isolated problem, either. Every picture I've seen of the Mk II's face shows this paint error. Sad that the EMIA can't be painted correctly here when the original managed to be.

Sculpt and Articulation gets 9/10

Paint and Deco gets 9/10

Accessories

-Beam Rifle

The Mk II's beam rifle was really the first step away from the "retro" (easy to call it that now, those designs were practically modern in 1979) styling used for the weapons in Mobile Suit Gundam. The rifle is more streamlines, but at the same time made to look like a heavier weapon than the RX-78's beam rifle. This representation is even more sleek than usual, so much so that the folding grip on the side almost looks out of place for how much it stands out from the slim lines of the rest of the rifle.

The E-pack is removeable, but holds securely enough, and there's two extras to choose from in case the first one doesn't hold all that well. The rifle's grip fits pretty snugly in either trigger finger hand, and while it's a bit of a task to do a two handed pose using the forward grip, you can manage okay when you get the angle right. And when you don't want the figure using the rifle, it can store on the hardpoint on either of the side skirt panels very snugly.

-Hyper Bazooka

Like the beam rifle, this seems a bit on the small side, mostly for being narrow. The grip is ball jointed, in order to give a little extra freedom of posing with it. As with the original Mk II, the bazooka fits nicely over the shoulder when held. I mentioned earlier that the bazooka mounts on the rear skirt plate in a special rack, and to fit the little tab, there's a small slot just behind the grip. And just as I have fear of breaking off the tab while placing the bazooka, I have equal fear of the tab being torn off the storage rack when removing the bazooka. All considered, it just seems like a bad set up.

The bazooka's ammo clip is removeable, but there's no spare. This is kinda strange, since there is storage possible for an extra clip, on the same skirt armor hardpoint that the beam rifle can store on. Well, I guess if you have a Titans Mk II, you can take the bazooka clip from that. It looks like they're the same color between versions. Also, on my Mk II, the clip doesn't hold as securely in the bazooka as I'd really prefer.

-Beam Sabres

The blades are the current standard harder plastic, which is a good thing since they're very thin. It's actually good, though. The blades are thin along the edge, rather than being rounded, which makes for a really nice liik, one that's different from other Zeta MSiAs. Even though they're harder plastic, they'll still bend a good bit along the last third or so of their length if pressed, but they certainly won't be sagging under their own weight.

Now, there's one major flaw here: The grips. Or more accurately, the storage for them. The Mk II stores the sabre grips on the front of the binders on the backpack. But where the old MSiA had pegs to keep its grips in place, there are none here. Instead, there's small tabs and shallow grooves cut into the binders which apparently were intended to match up with detailing on the grips. But for whatever reason, this doesn't actually happen, leaving the grips to fall out of the holders with little more than a misplaced breath. This can be partly countered by putting the grips in backward, where the detailing faces out. They sit more snugly in the little square holders that way, but are still extremely likely to fall out with little provocation.

At least they fit snugly in the hands, so you at least have the option of leaving the grips in the open hands if all else fails.

-Shield

Now, this hasn't changed much. It's still a two part shield, with the shield able to open or close by way of changing what tab goes into what slot. Of course, it's more secure when collapsed than the previous figure's shield.

The shield attaches to the back of either forearm, and for accuracy has no means by which to face to the side like many modern MSiA shields. But if you've played Gundam vs Zeta Gundam on PS2, you may have noticed a convenient workaround...

The extra E-packs for the beam rifle store on the shield. Right over the eye slot. Oh well, not like those are ever actually used anyway. It seems like even if one or more E-packs won't sit snug on the rifle, they'll fit just fine on the shield, so you can select for best fit on the rifle and not worry about the extras.

There's also a special piece related to the shield that's exclusive to the AEUG colors Mk II. In one of the final episodes of Zeta Gundam, the Mk II's left arm gets shot off. Unwilling to wait for full repairs, pilot Emma Sheen told the repair crew to just attach a shield directly to the frame. And so a special piece comes with the AEUG Mk II to recreate that hasty patch job.

You actually have to remove the whole left (or right, if you choose) arm and shoulder to use this, which can be a little uncomfortable, since the fit is a little tight. Once you get it all switched, you have... a shield attached to the shoulder. There's a little bit of movement possible, but honestly, this isn't really made for posing. It's a nice extra detail, though.

-Vulcan Pod

Just plugs into the slots on the sides of the head. it fits securely, though it does interfere somewhat with the poseability of the head. Not much to it. It's an okay accessory, though mine seems to be a little crooked.

-Extra Hands

Standard sets. Fists, open hands, and trigger finger hands. They switch easily, and fit securely. There's no problem holding any of the accessories, either. Really, the only thing I can say is that as usual, I might have liked some special, non-standard hands. Something like the Asshimar's rifle supporting hand.

Accessories get 9/10

Closing Remarks

Aside from some little annoyances, there's very little wrong with this figure. I'm not saying there's not things that could be added to make it better, but I'm still plenty happy with it the way it is.

The choice of whether to get this or one of the Titans color versions is mostly just a matter of personal preference, since the only physical difference is the lack of the shoulder connector for the shield. I will say that the Titans 01 and 02 will probably be a little bit cheaper, since those are totally going to sit around forever. But that's just something you'll have to work out for yourself.

I paid about $26 for my Mk II, and I'm fine with that for an ¥1800 figure. At this point, you'd probably spend the same money and likely much more time trying to get the original AEUG Mk II. So if you're set on getting a Gundam Mk II, save some time and take advantage of the technologically superior figure readily available.

I give the EMIA AEUG Gundam Mk II an overall score of Excellent.

-ExVeeBrawn, The Zeta Project - 08/17/2005