MSiA GAT-X103 Buster Gundam

Fifth Anniversary Special!

Height: 11cm to top of head.

Articulation: 22 points total- ball-jointed neck; 5 points each arm: double-jointed shoulder, double-jointed elbow, ball-joint wrist; ball-jointed waist; 5 points each leg: ball-joint hip, double-joint knee, double-joint ankle.

Colors: Molded tan, gray, blue-gray, and dark green. Painted orange, gray, blue-gray, tan, and green (eyes.)

Accessories: High Energy Rifle and Gun Launcher with Missile, Extra Hands x4.

Author: RAC

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Buster Gundam was one of only a couple Gundam SEED figures I managed to find at first-string US retail- everything else I had to get online in one way or another. Bandai's distribution was always wobbly, and the Gundam line had burned a lot of bridges with bad sales by then. I'm actually pretty pleased how readable this review is 6+ years later- my style has changed a bit, but the biggest embarrassment- one I've corrected here -is that apparently I couldn't be bothered at the time to look up how exactly you spell "armature."


Synopsis:

The heavily-armed Buster Gundam is the only Deluxe figure in the first wave that isn't a Strike Gundam. After sitting down with the Launcher Strike, I wanted to see if Buster would be up to the same standards even though it wouldn't be re-used as frequently.

The Figure:

Buster Gundam's articulation is nearly identical to that of the Strike Gundam. It boasts the same supremely flexible double-jointed elbows, which could probably double up the arm except for the shoulder armor. Buster's shoulder armor is fairly large, both to give a more bulky, powerful appearance and to allow for the missile pods in the front. You can lift the orange panels to see six bright red missiles underneath. The hinges work well and the hatches shouldn't pop off unless forced. While a neat gimmick, this means shoulder movement is restricted somewhat under normal circumstances and quite severely when the weapons are stored on the backpack. Fortunately, Buster has shoulder hinges which allow for some forward movement. Head movement is restricted a little by head shape, meaning Buster can't look up terribly well.

The waist is ball-jointed, and moves easily in any direction- especially impressive considering the hinged arms which run from the front of Buster's skirt to the backpack. Leg movement is good, though the skirt armor is thick and somewhat restrictive. The knee joint is the same style as the Strike Gundam's: a single hinge-joint, with the lower half attached to a ball-joint in the calf. Because of the shape of the calves, this lets you get as much range of movement as the double hinge-joints on the Version 2 RX-78 Gundam. The ankles are double ball-jointed, and are quite flexible.

Painting is quite sharp, with no flaws that I can see, even in areas such as the red of thrusters where Gundam figures often have uneven paint.

The Accessories:

High Energy Rifle and Gun Launcher with Missile - except for hands, the two massive guns on Buster's back (and the corresponding missile) are the only accessories you get. They attach to arms which, when disconnected from the backpack, swing forward to allow Buster to use its weapons. I feel this is too gimmicky for its own good. Personal feelings aside, it's also extremely fidgety. In attempting to swing the guns around and position them, the gun pops off the ball joint, and the end of the armature pops out of its socket. The best way to arrange them is to have Buster hold the guns the way you want them and then worry about attaching the arms.

But frustrating reviewers is not all the guns do - far from it. The two weapons can combine into one of two very imposing super-weapons by plugging the back of one into the barrel of the other and moving the green parts, which slide for this purpose. Amusingly, it's actually easier to get a decent pose with the combined weapons. However, don't even think of trying to move the waist once the gun is in Buster's grasp, or it's back to Fun with Armatures. The other problem is that Buster has to use one specific combination to fire to its left and one to fire to its right.

There is one last gimmick, one far more practical: the Gun Launcher over Buster's right shoulder is a spring-loaded missile launcher. The trigger isn't as well-hidden as the Launcher Strike Gundam's, but it doesn't really hurt the look of the weapon. Be warned that the first few times I used it, the missile didn't even clear the end of the Gun Launcher, but after a few tries, it fired respectably and reliably. The downside to this gimmick is that it only works in combined mode when the Gun Launcher is the front half of the weapon, and thus Buster is firing to its right.

Extra Hands - Three sets in all: Closed, Open, and Open with trigger finger extended. They're the newest style, with ball-joints in the wrist, and attach and detach nicely. Honestly, they probably could have just included the closed and trigger hands, since if Buster's holding anything it's going to be a rifle.

Display Value:

Buster Gundam is a great-looking, flexible figure, and once you arrange the weapons the way you like them they'll pretty much stay that way. It's an excellent display piece.

Play Value:

Even though he's very poseable, Buster's only accessories are frustrating in the extreme. There's really nothing small enough to be dangerous to small children, but they may need help arranging the rifles successfully.

Dollar Value:

Except for the missie-firing weapon, which seems to be the exclusive province of Deluxe figures, I don't see any reason why Buster Gundam couldn't have been a Basic figure, considering how few accessories he really comes with. Compared to some past Deluxe figures, Buster won't be the most you ever got for your $8.

Conclusion:

Buster Gundam's articulation is above-average, surpassing the Strike Gundam's own impressive articulation at the waist and knees, but the built-in accessories saddle an otherwise excellent figure with some problems it didn't need. The problem, though, is with the original design- I think this is the best MSiA representation of Buster Gundam possible.

Score: 7/10. An excellent figure, but flaws with the weaponry at the design level drag it down.

Afterword

In photographing Buster Gundam, I find that the opposite of one thing I said at the time was true- moving the waist while the weapons are combined is possible without screwing up the armatures.  But otherwise I think this is a pretty accurate picture of the figure. The strongest- in fact, only -memory of Buster I had was the frustration derived from the weapons, and a fresh pass for photography hasn't replaced that impression. In calling Buster "excellent" at the time I think I was being generous- I'd call it Very Good or Good on the It Figures! scale, depending on how frustrating the guns were being that day.

-RAC, 02/19/2010