Series: Mobile Suit in Action!! (MSiA)
Title: ZGMF-X23S Saviour Gundam
Release Date: 10/2004
Suggested Price: ¥ 1500
No. of Parts: 1 Saviour Gundam figure + 8 parts
Plastic colors: red, black, white, yellow, gray, dark gray
Gimmicks: transformation

Introduction

Contributor: ShadowCell
Date: August 28, 2005

Athrun's ill-used gift from Chairman Dullindal, the Saviour Gundam had a dismal life until Kira put it out of its misery with some chop-chop here and a chop-chop there from the Freedom Gundam's beam sabers. Personally, I liked the Saviour, so here's to the Saviour MSiA being a bright spot in the Saviour's sorry existence.

Head

As the third Gundam of Athrun's to bear that distinctive blue-and-white headgear, the Saviour's head isn't terribly exciting. It lacks the folding V-fin that DESTINY's first opening takes care to point out, but I suppose it's too small to be doing that anyway. The head can move about twenty decrees vertically and 360 horizontally, without much difficulty.

Torso

In addition to its snazzy red-and-black colors, the Saviour's chest and rear skirt armor have holes to connect the shield to when you transform it to its mobile armor mode. The back sports the Saviour's beam cannons and wings, which can fold up for the mobile armor mode. The cannons can also be folded over the Saviour's shoulders, or under its arms, as needed. Attached to the back is a piece that slides over the head in mobile armor mode, as well as a, for lack of a better term, tail that becomes the fin in mobile armor mode. Waist range of motion is abnormally good, though that's mostly because there's nothing to get in the way.

Arms

The Saviour's arms are adequate for their purpose. The beam saber handles fit into the shoulders snugly, and the arms are double jointed. The hands are ball-jointed in the Saviour's arms, making them awesome. The Saviour comes with six hands: two closed fists, two hands for the beam sabers, and two gun hands. There's a hole on either arm for the peg on the shield.

Legs

Nothing exciting still. Double-jointed knees and articulated feet make the poseability pretty good, though the angle guards over the feet seem to have acquired a nasty habit of falling out. But hey, this thing's been out of its protective plastic box since Christmas, so I guess age has something to do with it too. The legs don't have too much trouble supporting the Saviour's weight, but only if the beam cannons are folded close to the body. Stick them out and the Saviour's going to have trouble balancing.

Weapons and Accessories

Beam rifle- It's a beam rifle. They don't get terribly exciting. This one has a peg on the right side to attach to the left shoulder in mobile armor mode. It fits snugly into its intended hand. It's a nice looking piece, though it doesn't really do anything.

Beam saber- And this is a beam saber, which also don't get terribly exciting. The Saviour can hold them fairly snugly, though it takes a little positioning to get it as such. The beam saber blades are longer than I would like, but they're molded in hard plastic, so I can't complain, and as the philosopher Jagger said, "you can't always get what you want."

Shield- The Saviour's shield features a rather unusual peg-and-handle assembly that is difficult to describe, as is its correct usage. I only got it to work after a lot of frustrated experimentation and unprintable words, but once I did, it looked nice enough. The shield also has pegs for its mobile armor mode application, to which it isn't so great because the arm peg keeps getting in the way of the head and knocking the shield off kilter. But it's still a distinct possibility that I'm not doing it right either.

Mobile armor mode- The transformation to get to this thing is confusing and frightening, but the fine folks at Bandai mercifully provided instructions, with pictures for us Gaijin who look at all the Japanese and go "Huh?", so I won't describe how to transform this thing here. The only problems I've encountered with it are the shield's arm peg running into the head and knocking the shield loose, and the shoulder armor not folding back all the way, thus making the beam rifle more difficult to connect. But a little inventiveness and care alleviated these problems soon enough, leaving me with a pretty nice Saviour mobile armor.

Conclusion

A solid suit, a solid action figure. Not much more to be said. The Saviour's got its flaws, of course, but it's a good figure. It just makes me hate Athrun for wasting it. Fans of Athrun should pick it up, fans of the Justice should pick it up, fans of the color red might even want to pick it up.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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