Finally. After waiting months following the release in Japan, I finally got my hands on Athrun Zahla's signature ride from the latter half of Gundam SEED, the series that first pulled me seriously into the Gundam franchise. Sure, I knew about earlier series, but Gundam Wing didn't grab me, and F91 was way too dark for my tastes. Gundam SEED, with it's exciting chase-through-space, gorgeous mecha designs and (in my opinion) perfect pacing just clicked, and I've been in love with the show ever since. Destiny I'm less fond of, admittedly.
I have to say, I'd always had my head turned by the hero-mecha of the show, whether it be the Strike Gundam or it's Freedom successor, its magnetism meant that I paid less attention to the other Gundams, which is a shame considering how varied and well-realised they all were. Playing Gundam SEED Federation Vs ZAFT on the PSP made me more appreciative of supporting mobile suits, but only recently have I come to love the Justice Gundam as much as its Freedom brother.
Only in physical form have I started to appreciate how lovely this design is.
The main feature of the Justice, aside from the unique and striking rouge colour scheme, is the Goblin-esque glider, aka Fatum-00, that stores on the back. This unit can be worn like a cloak, spread its wings to provide better flight capability (to Infinity and beyond!) or detach entirely to provide a platform which the Justice can ride. This is far more interesting than the "angel-wing" configuration of the Freedom's backpack, but visually less striking at first glance.
However, in its Metal Build form, I find myself far more intrigued by this design than with Kira's Freedom, which for a long time was my favourite Gundam design. It's still up there, but between the Metal Build Strike, the Fix Figuration Gundam Wing Zero and now the Metal Build Justice, I'm starting to broaden my tastes.
Out of the box, we have the Justice itself, a lean and heroically proportioned beast. Everything here is that bit more pointy than the Freedom, which lends it a knightly air - the feet, shoulders and even the hip skirts are all sharper and have more flare to them, and this helps a great deal in making the unit look more impressive without the Fatum-00 attached. Once that bad boy is plugged in though, a myriad of new display options present themselves.
With wings down and the backpack sat flush, the unit has the feel of a cloak, which makes it my favourite attached position. The impressive wingspan, when deployed, really gives the piece a lot of presence, but I'm not a massive fan of this look on the MB, which is curious because it's my favourite deployment on the Metal Robot Spirits version of this figure - here, the wings angle down just enough to make it look less dynamic than it should, and for that reason it's a touch disappointing.
We're not done though - using the connecting piece, which has a swivel, you can angle the whole Fatum platform behind the head, with the beam saber hilts sitting alongside the head. It's certainly one way to go, though I've never cared much for this look, as the main unit just sort of dangles from the platform by the shoulders. Better to detach the whole thing and ride it like a glider.
Which brings me neatly onto glider mode, and this is a LOT of fun. Firstly, the transformation makes it feel like a bat-gadget. Everything can be pulled out to increase the size of the platform, and it slides at the top, bottom and sides with a satisfying click. This increases the already impressive wingspan, and I just love how well thought-through this mode is. There's a clear plastic figma-style attachment piece in the box to secure the Gundam to its ride, and the flight stand can be reconfigured to support the extra girth. In practice, the lack of connection to the metal feet and the wobbly nature of the principle glider connection makes this less stable than is desirable, and for this reason I'd recommend only displaying it behind glass, as I can see it collapsing at the slightest brush. A shame, because it looks fantastic and only reinforces the Knight aesthetic as Justice rides its steed into battle!
Sure, it looks cool, but it's really not that stable!
I recently reviewed Jessie Rasberry, the Final Fantasy Play Arts Kai figure for the UK Anime Network, and while the figure looked pretty good (joints aside) the build quality was poor and it had some questionable design choices. I felt a 6/10 was suitably harsh, and having spent time with this Metal Build figure I'm convinced I was right. Every inch of this toy is top quality - the details are sharply picked out, with beautiful paint applications on the vents, rockets and turrets that require a serious amount of time to fully look over and appreciate, with a matte finish to the majority of the paint just making it sing on the shelf. It's nigh-on perfect at every angle. But aside from looks, the tolerances and feel of the Justice is absolutely premium - it's as much a spectacular success in feeling its money as the Play Arts Kai line is such a dismal failure. It's the benchmark against which I measure everything else, and I love it without reservation. Yes, even the wobbly Fatum.
If I have one criticism, it's that I can't display all the available options in one figure, but that's a nice problem to have. The box has multiple hands, a gun, a shield, beam sabers, combined beam sabers, additional crest, beam effects, shoulder boomerangs and stand adaptors to make almost any loadout or configuration possible. It also looks good standing on my desk, which it can do easily thanks to tight joints and the weighty metallic frame of the figure. In this case, the premium materials make all the difference.
I could nitpick a few things - for a start, the forward prongs of the Fatum-00 seem to be pretty anemic. Even the cheaper Metal Robot Spirits line had these scaled correctly, and the menacing bulk of the figure is weaker due to this design choice. The connector piece between the two units is nice and strong, but the secondary connection slips out too easily, and therefore requires a bit of a fiddle when posing. However, at no point does the Fatum threaten to detach, so it's more an annoyance than a problematic flaw. These are really petty grievances though and won't affect your enjoyment of the figure.
Thanks to the rouge colour, it Justice really pops on the shelf!
There's a lot to love here - the rouge/gold colour scheme really helps to break up the shelf, the unusual configurations available provide some much-needed variety to the standard Gundam hero poses, and the release has really given me newfound appreciation for a design that had hitherto been very much an "also ran" from the SEED stable. If you have the means and can find one, I'd heartily recommend this Metal Build for your collection. Mine has been sat next to my computer every day I've been in the office, in fact I almost hate to put it back in the cabinet. It's a stunning effort from Bandai.
The Metal Build Justice Gundam was purchased from Curibo.
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