MSiA ZGMF-X56S/β Sword Impulse

Height: 10.5 cm to top of head

Articulation: 26 total points of articulation. Ball jointed neck; 6 points in each arm - double jointed shoulder, pre-elbow swivel, double jointed elbow, ball joint wrist; Offset ball joint waist; 6 points in each leg - ball joint hips, triple jointed knee, double jointed ankle.

Accessories: Shield; "Folding Razor" combat knives x2; Transformable Core Splendor; Silhouette Flyer; Sword Silhouette (Backpack module; Excalibur Laser Anti-Ship Sword x2 with removeable beam blades; Flash-Edge Beam Boomerang x2 with removeable beam blades); Extra hands x2

Colors: Molded white, red, black, blue, and grey, plus clear pink. Painted red, black, white, grey, silver, yellow, green, and blue.

Release Data: Released October 9th in Japan at a price of ¥1500. This item is still in production as of this review (November 28nd, 2004).

Gallery: 18 images.

Author: ExVee

The Figure

As I sit to write this review, I find myself somewhat at a loss. Attempting to gather my thoughts, I find nothing coming to mind with which to fill this largely blank text file. Then I remember something that I learned some years ago: It's alot easier to write out bad things about something than it is to write about how good something is and be equally satisfied with how you've presented your opinions. This may give you some idea about how I feel about this figure before you even get to the actual body of the review.

Being the sequel to Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny is expected to follow a certain basic pattern. One part of this pattern is that the main character's mobile suit will have three modes with different equipment. The Impulse follows this well. However, unlike Strike, Impulse is a different color with each mode, so there's no possibility of any type of "weapon system" set as was often done with different incarnations of Strike. Instead, three different Impulse figures are being released. I tend to prefer avoiding multiples of unique suits, but I guess I'm a bit stuck this time...

Just like Strike, three basic concepts are maintained with Impulse's forms. High maneuverability, ranged fire support, and what this review focuses on, close combat in the form of Sword Impulse. Anyway, enough stalling, let's get on with this!

Head

I would say that this is easily one of the best, most accurate head sculpts we've had in a long time. Maybe even one of the best ever. It is a great visual match to the Impulse animation model. Molded details come across wonderfully, and the edges are nice and sharp. There's also a wonderful range of motion in the ball jointed neck, allowing the head to point up, down, and all around!

Arms

For the most part, the arms remain in line with the standard established by a number of previous figures, with an important exception. By some occurence, the shoulder sockets are molded just differently enough from most other figures so that the arms can raise out to the sides and be just about paralell with the surface the figure is standing on. That is a big improvement over most of the previous generation of figures. It may seem comparatively minor, but the ability to move the arms those extra few degrees can make all the difference in posing. The shoulders are also double jointed, as many recent MSiA have been, and the shoulder armor offers only minimal restriction to their movement. This, combined with the slightly more free range of motion in the elbows offers the ability to pull off a vareity of great poses with the arms. Even now, my Force Impulse is currently posed imitating Strike's first SEED eye-catch with its Folding Razors. It works very well.

Torso

If nothing else can be said about Impulse, it's rather thin. Moreso than its closest SEED relatives, Strike and Duel. The torso is not disproportionate, though, because the arms and legs are equally slight. But it can be a bit jarring if you should compare Impulse to some of your other figures. Not too much to say about the torso, outside of the Core Splendor, which I'll cover further down. There is a new type of waist joint employed as a result of the Core Block. It's just a normal ball and socket, but the joint is placed far forward of center. While this reduces the side-to-side rotation, it opens up the range where the torso can bend. It can bend forward a respectable distance, and do well to the back and sides. It's a lateral move. Not necessarily better, but no worse. It's a good alternate to the traditional waist joints.

Plus, the skirt armor, while being attached in the standard way, doesn't really get in the way of posing in the least. You do still have to be careful about warping, but it's not nearly such a major concern as on other figures.

Legs and Feet

What we have here starts with the standard hip joints - no mid-thigh swivel, not that it really needs it. These have a great range to move, and can go all over the place without pushing the front skirt armor around much at all, which I find pretty impressive. What's really impressive is the knees. After making a new style of knee joint for SEED (the so-called joint-and-a-half hinge and ball joint combination), Impulse goes a step further with a triple jointed knee. Combining the double hinge, and the ball joint addition, you get a knee with unrivaled flexibility. It can kneel even better than the GINNs. The ball joint at the bottom of the knee gives just the right amount of extra bend that you need to hit it. Plus, the ball joint works as a limited lower leg swivel. It can't go very far, but it does help in some poses. After that, there's a pretty restricted double jointed ankle, which really doesn't contribute much, sadly. That's actually the only part that majorly upsets the extreme articulation of the figure, and is the only part I wish had been done some other way, since it stands out pretty glaringly, at least to me.

Paint and Detailing

Well, the panel lines are ...hey, waitasec... Where are the panel lines?!

As it turns out, Bandai Japan appears to be largely dropping panel inking from its MSiAs. The Destiny figures are the first to lack them entirely, but it's worth noting the GM second version, released after the Impulses, is also completely without them. In one way, it is better. The SEED figures had only minimal inking, and it looks bad that way. Also, it's one less thing an apathetic underpaid factory worker can mess up. On the other hand, inked panel lines kinda made the Japanese releases special over their US counterparts. Even in things that hadn't been released in both markets, it was neat to have the panel lines as a permanent reminder of that figure being slightly more special than the others on the shelf. But, this is a debate that could go on forever.

Aside from this, all the paint and molding details are pristine. Perhaps what was lost in one area is applied to make another better? Hmmm...

Articulation gets 9/10

Sculpt and Deco get 9/10

Accessories

-Folding Razors

These actually look like knives, unlike the Armor Schneiders. Much finer details, and even paint apps. Plus they have little plastic bars in the grips to stop the blades bending backwards when opened. It's hit or miss to get Impulse to hold them the way you want, though, because the normal open hands each Impulse came with had a little different width. These store in compartments in the side skirt armor. The storage compartments and knives are made so that the knives only fit one way, so be sure to look closely at the folded knives and the inside of the compartments before trying to put them in and close everything up. otherwise, you'll be launching Folding Razors all over the place, believe me...

-Shield

The shield is really cool. The "face" panels are removeable, with a pair of little tabs on each half, and they can peg into either of two places for open or closed mode on the back piece, which is what actually has the hardpoint for the arm and handgrip. For the open mode, there's a pair of side panels that slide out and catch on two little pegs on the upper face plate of the shield so they hold in place securely. Think of the sliding shield the Gundam Mk II, or either incarnation of GP01, but expanded with more moving parts. The best things is that it holds together good and strong in either configuration, as the backer piece is stiff, rigid plastic. Also, there's a little ring of emitters on the shield's backer piece, which if you haven't seen the show, emit some kind of energy barrier to deflect beam shots. It's sort of a combination of the Artemis Umbrella and Forbidden's beam bending trick. It's possible to have Impulse connect the shield with just the hardpoint, or hold it with only the handle, or using both. The whole thing is good and solid. I really really love it.

-Core Splendor

This is something I was really worried about before the figure was released. To have a small fighter craft transform without adding or removing any parts seemed a dubious concept, one which I was not expecting to be executed at all well.

I could not have been more wrong. The main transformation hinges use metal pins so the bits won't come apart, and the more minor hinges are all very strong, with no sign of coming loose. Additionally, the hinges are all quite stiff, so it stays securely in whichever mode you place it. it's like the G Gundam Core Landers taken to their furthest extreme.

The Core Splendor plugs into two pegs in the back, and stays in place very nicely. The parts fit for this is just superb, and I really don't think they could have done it better. And when transformed into jet mode, you can barely tell at all that it transforms into anything else. I really cannot say enough good things about this. The single minor flaw is that it doesn't have the missiles that fit on the hardpoints on the wings. In the show, these are jettisoned during the transformation sequence, but it's the only thing missing from total design accuracy. Like I said, it's the most minor of complaints, but it does nag at me a bit.

-Silhouette Flyer

The final accessory common to all three Impulses, this is the unmanned delivery system for the Impulse's equipment add-ons, both during the initial docking sequence, and for mid-battle conversion. Like the Skygrasper before it, this is largely a static block of plastic, though this is smaller, and unfortunately has a much more questionable means of connectiong the option packs.

Where the Strike and Skygrasper shared a common connector style so the Striker Packs would attach to either in exactly the same way, this is not so for Impulse and the Silhouettes. The Flyer is a little small to use the same connectors, so instead it effectively wedges the Silhouette into a gap between the upper and lower thruster blocks on the back of the Silhouette Flyer. This seemed okay, until I got to my Force Impulse, which had a slightly mismolded Silhouette which was too thick to fit right, so be aware that this is way less of a sure method than before.

-Sword Silhouette

Silhouettes are smaller and much more self-contained than Striker Packs. All the equipment associated with this more is attached directly to the backpack unit, with no addon armor pieces. I suspect this is connected to the color change associated with each mode. Each Silhouette connects the same way, using a set of peg holes next to the pegholes the Core Splendor plugs into. Because of this, it's even possible to attach the Silhouette without the Core Splendor being in place.

The Sword Silhouette consists of a pair of anti-ship laser blade swords, which connect end to end into a stupidly giant double sword, and two beam boomerangs which store as a sort of wing on the packback.

This shows more great improvement over previous figures. The giant swords are made of stiff plastic, totally eliminating the potential of warped weapons right out of the package. Further, the beam blades are also made of a stiff plastic. This is good for ruling out the chance of permanently bent beams, however it makes me a bit nervous to insert the beams, since they don't have the give I'm used to. I doubt they'll break, but I can't quite get the idea out of the back of my mind yet. I'm sure it'll pass once I get more used to how they react.

The blades for the beam boomerangs are also the same stiff plastic. But since those plug in straight to the solid end, it's not nearly so worrying as having to fit a beam between two points. One of two problems I have with the boomerangs is that it's just not easy to get a decent looking pose with them. As good as the articulation is, one of the things most any action figure cannot do is bend the way it'd really need to in order to hit a "leaning-into-the-throw" pose. The other problem I have is that the boomerangs dislodge from the backpack a bit easier than I'd lke. I don't mean that the meant-to-be-removed pieces come off too easy. I mean the whole "wing" can get knocked off, which gets kind of irritating.

Additionally, the mounts for the swords are moveable, so they can be reoriented on the Silhouette Flyer. But this also makes them a little unstable, and they can even pop off, which bugs me. Past that, I find the backpack to stick out in back a little too far. It just gets looking weird sticking almost an inch out from the figure's back.

-Handsets

As Sword Impulse lacks firearms, it includes only a set of regular open hands in addition to the standard fists. The hands on my fgure were bent a bit far, so they almost were closed. It took some work, but I seem to have gotten them pretty much fixed, and it doesn't seem to be a common issue. While I understand it has no accessories that call for them, the lack of triggerfinger hands bothers me, since it makes Sword Impulse end up having the fewest accessories. If you ask me, Sword Impulse should have included the beam rifle and a pair of gun holding hands.

Accessories get 7/10

Closing remarks

Despite some little issues here and there, Impulse is an extremely good figure, overall possibly the best to come along so far. The figure alone sets the bar for what an MSiA should be yet another notch higher. Add in the accessories, and you've got a really fantastic package, well worth any price under $20.

You might not want to get all three versions, but I highly recommend getting at least one type. You absolutely will not be sorry that you did. I give this figure the highest rating we have, State Of The Art.

-ExVeeBrawn, 11/28/2004