| MSiA ZGMF-X56S/γ Blast Impulse Gundam
Series: Mobile Suit in Action!! (MSiA) Title: ZGMF-X56S/γ Blast Impulse Gundam Release Date: 10/2004 Suggested Price: ¥ 1500 No. of Parts: 1 Impulse Gundam figure + 15 parts Plastic colors: white, black, green, yellow, dark green, blue, red Gimmicks: Blast Silhouette pack, Core Splendor
Contributor: ShadowCell Date: August 28, 2005 Shinn's rarely-used Launcher Strike equivalent, the Blast Impulse is the most under-appreciated and underused version of the Impulse. Can its action figure make up for its dismal life? We shall see.
Nothing too special here. It's nicely detailed, and the head has a good thirty degrees of vertical movement. The design of the torso somewhat limits the horizontal range of motion, but with a little tilting of the head you can get the head to turn a full 360 degrees. The V-fin is molded in soft, bendable plastic that may be a bit if a nuisance if it ever gets bent out of shape.
The most noticeable feature about the torso is the empty space in the back, for the Core Splendor, which I'll get to later. The torso here is otherwise similar to the Strike's. The hip piece is mounted to the torso on a ball joint, and the Impulse's Folding Razor knives can be put into two little compartments on the hip armor. There's the appropriate holes to insert the Blast Silhouette pack in on the back. Again, nothing terribly exciting. Unfortunately, the waist is almost impossible to turn, unless you want to risk the Impulse coming apart. The best part here, though, is definitely the colors- the Black Impulse's black and green is definitely far cooler than that tired standard Gundam red, white, and blue fare.
The Impulse's arms are attached the torso via a shoulder ball joint, which doesn't have quite the same range of motion as the Strike's. The elbow is double-jointed, and at the ends of the forearms are pegs to insert into the holes on the hands. I've found this setup to be sturdier than having the pegs on the hands. The Blast Impulse comes with six hands: two gun hands for the Blast Silhouette, two closed fists, and two open hands for the beam javelins and knives. The arms really have to stretch to reach the Blast Silhouette beam cannons' handles, though, which makes poseability rather difficult.
Again, much like the Strike, the Impulse's legs are double-jointed at the knee. The front skirt armor somewhat hinders mobility, and the armor on the heels hinders the mobility of the feet. It's nothing terribly restrictive, though it is a bit of an annoyance.
"Kerberos" beam cannons- The Blast Impulse's main weapon, these suckers are pretty big. They fold up underneath the Impulse's arms and have retractable handles, and the black undersides open to reveal storage racks for the beam javelins. Unfortunately, the cannons are so wide that the Impulse has to stretch its arms up horizontally to reach over them, making it look rather awkward. The Blast Impulse's missile launchers are built into the backs of the beam cannons. "Folding Razor" knives- Whatever delighted or annoyed you about the Strike's Armor Schneiders will probably delight or annoy you here as well. The Impulse's knives are much more detailed than the Strike's, and fold up to store in the Impulse's hip armor compartments. They're a little bigger than the Strike's Armor Schneiders, but not by much, and will still probably get lost easily.
"Defiant" beam javelins- The beam javelins are essentially just really long beam saber handles with fancy pink blades. It's a pretty good-looking piece, but like the Sword Impulse's beam boomerangs, javelins work in ways that don't really apply themselves to action figures, so the javelins are naturally not as impressive. The Blast Impulse comes with two disconnected javelins and one long connected, double-ended javelin, and the two disconnected javelins can be stored inside the Blast Impulse's beam cannons. Kinda nifty. Shield- My favorite part of the Impulse figure has got to be the shield. In the show, the Impulse's shield is able to fold into a smaller configuration for its Sword and Blast configurations, and it can surprisingly do the same here. The shield features the main piece, molded in black with a yellow cross, and two red-and-white pieces on the top and bottom, which can be mounted via pegs and slots on either the ends of the shield or the surface itself, allowing you to have both configurations of the shield. The sides of the shield fold into the main piece to complete the effect, and there's a handle and peg on the opposite side. It all fits fairly snug, though I wouldn't expect it to stay together during heavy play. Either way, I was expecting the shield to come as one big chunk of plastic, so I am impressed.
Core Splendor- The Impulse's most distinctive feature is faithfully recreated for this release. The Core Splendor is surprisingly detailed, and held together via metal screws, something I haven't seen in an MSiA before. The Core Splendor can be folded up, folding the nosecone under the cockpit, and the cockpit down, then folding in the wings and the two fins, and the whole thing fits snugly into the large open cavity in Impulse's back. I was surprised at how detailed the Core Splendor was, and that it could fold up and fit into the Impulse's back at all. Unfortunately, though it is possible to separate the Impulse's torso and legs, they aren't set up to form the Chest and Leg Flyers. Having only the Core Splendor seems odd, since the Impulse forms around the Core Splendor, but it doesn't detract from anything overall.
Blast Silhouette- Unfortunately, not all can be perfect. The Blast Silhouette is enormous—the thing weighs about as much as the figure, meaning some creative posing is necessary to keep the Impulse from toppling over backwards. As already stated, the Blast Silhouette's cannons cause some awkwardness in the figure, and the fins are removable. The Silhouette Flyer itself is equally uncomplicated, and the Impulse thankfully comes with pictorial directions to help lost souls.
Like its Force and Sword Impulse brethren, the Blast Impulse is another good figure, though it too has its flaws. Of the three figures, I would say the Blast Impulse is the worst, in terms of poseability at least, but overall it's still a solid figure. Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars <<back to Gundam |
