Series: Mobile Suit in Action!! (MSiA)
Title: GAT-X103 Buster Gundam
Release Date: 05/2004 (US)
Suggested Price: $8.99
No. of Parts: 1 Buster Gundam figure + 2 guns + 10 parts
Plastic colors: gray, green, orange, tan
Gimmicks: Combinable weapons, missile firing action, flipping missile pods

Introduction

Contributor: Derrick "tomduo" Lang
Date: May 6, 2004

The Buster Gundam is perhaps the least liked of the original 5 Gundams of SEED, and led to the director of SEED turning this 'bad guy' into a hero of the series in order to elevate its popularity. From first looks, this is kinda an ugly colored suit with rabbit ears and two big guns.

Head

While well proportioned and colored, the bulkiness of the shoulders causes it to look hidden. If it wasn't for the large rabbit-ear antennae, the head would seem to be too plain. It has a full range of movement, and a nice vertical range.

Torso

A rather plain torso, including 2.0 MSiA advancements such as hinged shoulder joints and a ball-in-socket waist joint. The torso also supports a pair of swinging side-arms, which are support for the large cannons that are the Buster's signature weapon. They are cumbersome and pop apart easily. Another problem are the skirt armor, which can interfere with the legs.

Arms

The elbow joints are double jointed, allowing for better articulation. The shoulders are quite large, and interfere with the movement when using the cannons. Especially annoying are the flaps that hang from the ends of the shoulders. On the shoulders, there are liftable flaps containing missile pods.

Legs

While not double jointed, the SEED line sports a very nicely articulated knee joint, which gives a much better poseability than the G Gundam MSiAs. This doesn't keep the stiffness down, as the skirt armour restricts thigh movement. The foot joints are also quite nice as well.

Weapons and Accessories

Hand Sets- Again, 3 separate hand sets come with this release. They are fists, saber hands, and gun hands. Oddly, the saber hands fit the cannons better than the gun hands do. The hands attach with a ball in socket to the wrist. This gives them a much better range of movement, and ease of exchange.

350mm gun launcher and 94mm high-energy rifle- These two are the main gimmick of this release. They feature sliding, foldout handles, and the Gun Launcher features a firing missile launcher type device, with 2 projectiles. A small button at the underside of the barrel spring-fires the projectile out.

Conclusion

Hardly a deluxe release, though Bandai found a way to charge an extra buck for this suit. Lacking many accessories and poor articulation, the Buster is really only good if you are a fan of this suit. While not my favorite release, it does have some good points: wonderful arms, a nice paint job and sculpting, and the missile launching gimmick.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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