Series: Mobile Suit in Action!! (MSiA)
Title: RGM-89 Jegan & Base Jabber
Release Date: 12/2002 (US)
Suggested Price: $10.99
No. of Parts: 1 Jegan figure + 1 Base Jabber + 11 parts
Plastic colors: Jegan: dark blue/green, yellow, black, brown, pink, red, blue. Base Jabber: white, baby blue, yellow, black.
Gimmicks: beam rifle, beam saber, grenades (3), shield, detachable backpack, spare hands (3), Base Jabber

Introduction

Contributor: Chris Guanche
Date: November 28, 2003

Yutaka Izubuchi strikes again with yet another great design from the 1988 feature film Char's Counterattack. This time, it's the Jegan, the designated cannon fodder mobile suit for this Gundam story. Oh, but what great cannon fodder it is though.

Head

Given that this is an Izubuchi design, the head not surprisingly bears a resemblance to the Ingram mecha from Mobile Police Patlabor. The head has good left to right motion, but it can't move much in the up and down directions. Unlike most cannon fodder mass production suits, the Jegan also features an antenna mounted on the left side of the head.

Torso

Thanks to the Jegan's simple design, the torso has a nice range of movement to make various poses. There's panel lines for the exhaust vents that need some painting. The backpack securely connects to the torso via two square pegs on the back. Once it's in place, it won't come out unless you take the time to pull it out. The torso also features ball sockets to connect the arms and legs.

Arms

The arms have some pluses and minuses. By themselves, they have a great range of movement. However, the stiff shoulder armor limits their ability to move considerably. One of the pluses of the Jegan is that the hands connect to the arm via a ball socket rather than the peg in a hole system. This gives the hands a wide range of movement and makes swapping them out very simple. All MSiA's should use this system for the hands. The forearms also feature two holes to mount the shield on. Unlike Gundams or other mobile suits, the Jegan has no front or rear skirt armor. The hip racks serve two purposes. The left one holds three grenades which can be detached and held in the hands. The right one features a beam saber hilt, which can also be detached and held with the spare sword hand.

Legs

The legs are pretty basic. They seem to be made of a harder plastic, especially on the fat calves this design has. Above the feet, each leg features a thruster on the backside. Thanks to the lack of skirt armor, the legs are free to move about in almost any direction you wish to pose them.

Weapons and Accessories

Since this is a cannon fodder suit, it doesn't come with as many nice accessories as a fancy Gundam would. Of course there's a beam rifle, which fits very securely into the hand that's designed to hold it. There's also a beam saber, which shouldn't be used with the beam rifle hand. The three grenades fit well in the open left hand. Also included are two closed fist hands. The shield is a solid hunk of plastic and can be mounted on either arm. Also, the peg it has to connect to the arm can move up and down along a track. Moving on, we have the Base Jabber. The Base Jabber is a subflight system, and basically it's a big hunk of baby blue plastic. However, it's got some good detail. Both sides of the Jabber feature hand grips you can attach the Jegan to and pose it the proper way as seen in the anime.

Conclusion

This is a great non-Gundam figure. Aside from the stiff shoulders, there's nothing I don't like about this figure. It's got some of the best articulation I've seen and is very poseable. Also, it's yet another great design by Yutaka Izubuchi. By itself this figure is great, but the Base Jabber is a nice extra to have thrown in. For any fans of the MSiA series, this is highly recommended.

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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