MSiA GAT-X102 Duel 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 light gray, dark gray, and transparent pink (Beam Sabers). Painted blue, red-orange, dark gray, light gray, and green.

Accessories: Beam Rifle with removable grenade, Shield, Beam Sabers x2, Extra Hands x4.

Author: RAC

Synopsis:

The Gundam SEED MSiA line continues with the addition of the Duel Gundam, pretty much the least specialized of the initial five Gundams. Thanks to a tip from ExVeeBrawn, I was able to get the Hong Kong version of Duel Gundam well before the US version was available. Near as I'm able to tell, there's no difference between this Duel and the US release outside of packaging, though I cannot say that for certain.

The Figure:

Duel is pretty typical of the SEED line's excellent articulation. The neck has a good range of movement on both axes. The shoulders are hinged and the shoulder armor seems to be set out from the torso just a little further than Strike and Buster Gundams, and gives the shoulders a minor amount of additional flexibility. The blue panels on the shoulder armor are ball-jointed, which does a pretty good job of keeping the armor out of the way of the shield. The elbows are double-jointed as usual and you could easily bend the arm into a tight "U" if not for the shape of the front panel of the shoulder armor.

The knees have the standard joint and ball-joint combination unique to the SEED figures, and the ankles are separate pieces with ball-joints on each end. The advantage that Duel has over its SEED brethren is the lack of front skirt armor. You can acheive pretty much any pose you wish without any trouble, and of course no worries of warping the skirt. The only place where Duel Gundam is even slightly inferior to the other SEED figures is in the waist joint. The high sides to Duel's skirt armor minimize the side-to-side movement, and also limit the forward-to-back tilt.

I don't like to criticize a figure on its paint job that much, because they vary widely from figure to figure, and flaws unique to my copy of the figure really shouldn't count for much in a review. That having been said, there's a paint gap on my Duel's torso between the torso vent and the cockpit hatch which should have been blue. It's not a large gap, but the fact that it's smack dead-center in the torso draws a lot of attention to it. As always, take a good look at an MSiA's paint before you buy, if you can.

The Accessories:

Beam Rifle with Grenade Launcher- a pretty basic Beam Rifle with a removable grenade under the barrel. The design has no secondary handgrip, but fits pretty securely into the provided "trigger-finger" hands, and tucks under the arm neatly.

Beam Sabers with removeable blades- The Beam Saber is pretty standard, but nice. The blades are good and firm- so firm in fact, that you have to be careful inserting them into the Saber grip so as not to bend the blade- and a grip which fits the intended hand just as well as the rifle does. The Sabers store on Duel's back, in swiveling sockets on the sides of the backpack.

Shield- Indentical to the Strike Gundam's shield in every way except color, this shield features the excellent mounting bracket and sliding handle combination that makes this the best-fitting shield I've ever seen on a Gundam figure. Good thing, since in addition to all the various Strikes and this figure, it'll be used again for the Astrays...

Extra Hands- There are three pair in all- hands for the Rifle with trigger-finger extended, open hands for the Beam Sabers and shield, and a pair of fists. All fit well, and have the ball-wrist and socketed-hand combination that is still the best hand type yet to be seen on an MSiA.

Display Value:

Despite a paint error on my figure, Duel is pretty sharp-looking- the paint is otherwise quite good and its skirt armor makes for dynamic posing.

Play Value:

Duel Gundam is a Basic figure, and its equipment is, naturally, pretty basic. There's not a lot of "Action Features" as compared to the Deluxe and Deluxe with Vehicle Strike variations. Parents of small children may want to be wary of the smallish hands and the Beam Saber grips, but there's nothing here that's really delicate outside of the overly-tight of the Saber blades.

Dollar Value:

Again, Duel is a Basic. That extra $2 for Deluxes does buy a fair amount of extra equipment in most cases. And there is an upcoming Deluxe Duel with the Assault Shroud options package- however, that figure is still a ways off. If you feel as though you're spending $6 for an "incomplete" figure, though, it's probably best to wait.

Conclusion:

Duel Gundam is a solid figure with good articulation, solid accessories and minimal flaws. It is a little low on accessories compared to the Deluxe SEED figures, but everything it does it does right.

Score: 8/10. Another excellent SEED figure that's a little light on accessories.

Afterword

Duel still holds up pretty well, especially for a toy of its particular era. The only things that really separate it from the best of the non-Extended MSiA would be a second knee hinge and hard-plastic Beam Saber blades. It's a pity the Duel Assault Shroud- like most of the US SEED line -failed to materialize- "a ways off" indeed! I called it Excellent at the time, and taking it into the context of the time it was produced I think that's a fair rating on the IF! Scale. You can do better within the MSiA line now, but it doesn't show its age half as badly as the US figures that preceded it.

-RAC, 2/15/2010