Like most of you, I went berserk trying to get my hands on the new Gundam Assemble models, currently only available as little tokens to use in the Gundam card game – whose full legal name is, creatively, Gundam Card Game – where they have no purpose. Since Gundam Assemble isn’t fully releasing until some nebulous time in 2026, the models are only currently only available as pack-ins with a deck of Gundam Card Game decks – and “available” is a stretch, unless you’re willing to pay a third-party markup.
I ended up resorting to a proxy buyer in Japan, who picked up a few sets and mailed them to me at grotesque expense. Because of that, my cards are all in Japanese, a language I do not know how to read. The art on them is nice, to be fair, but since I don’t know the rules and can’t read the cards anyway, we’re just going to talk about the models. I picked up three of the four starter sets – the one from Gundam Wing and both the Federation and Zeon mobile suits from 0079 – but I refuse to acknowledge or support Gundam SEED so someone else will have to review those.
General Thoughts
The first impression of these models is usually that it’s “gundam warhammer,” which is pretty much the gist of it. Can’t really argue with that one. What I would say is that it feels more like Underworlds – each model represents a character, with a unique and fixed loadout. There’s little if any room for customization and every instance will look the same, beyond the paint scheme. Less class-based and more hero-based – think of Overwatch, not Team Fortress.
In typical Bandai fashion, the quality of the plastic is fantastic. Unlike a Games Workshop sprue, there’s plenty of room to fit a pair of nippers in, and each part averages three to four connection points that need clipping, instead of the 8-12 that modern GW kits seem to use. The plastic itself is thicker, but a bit softer, compared to GW’s blend, which means it cuts more easily but the details aren’t quite as crisp, though it’s not so soft that it feels unstable or that mold lines can’t be shaved off. That is, we aren’t talking about poly caps here, but you aren’t going to break your Godhands on it either.
On that point, the mold lines are something of a problem – not a big one, but still something that will need to be cleaned up. I wouldn’t compare this favorably to the latest in 40k technology, but the sculpts are nicely detailed, with sharp panel lines and excellent fitment, and the poses are (other than the questionable idea for the Guncannon, the execution is still good), nicely dynamic.
Just to confirm what I think we all knew, unlike Gunpla but like Warhammer, you will have to glue these. I think some parts of some models might fit with just tension, but I wouldn’t rely on that. It’s possible this is covered in the instructions but, again: I can’t read them. Fortunately I was able to read the pictures, and just following the build order there worked fine. Things slot together so well that after the first two models I stopped dry-fitting. This is partly because it was too hard to separate them again for actual assembly, due to how tight the tolerances were, but also because I didn’t feel like I needed to: the castings were so accurate, and the alignment so simple, that I could apply glue on there sight-unseen and just trust that it would all click in, and I was right.
The downside here is that re-posing these models – again I will refer to Guncannon humping an integral hero rock – is going to be a huge pain in the ass. That’s probably fine, because I don’t get the impression that they intend (or even allow) for a game to have multiple of the same model, where repeating the same JoJo stand would start to look offputting. An “army” probably ends up looking more like Battletech or Crisis Protocol than 40k.
These are on 50mm round bases, with a single peg hole to keep the model attached. A flying stand is included for all of them, even though only the Space Leo is modeled to use it. I should note that the Gundam Assemble press images show hex bases, so they might need rebasing sometimes in 2026 when the proper game launches. Frankly I doubt anyone will care, and that’s a problem for people in the future anyway, so let them worry about it.
Size-wise things vary depending on the model, but generally speaking they’re bigger than an Intercessor, roughly the size of one of the new Terminators, and noticeably less bulky than a Crisis suit. If you need to proxy them into a 40k game, maybe Wraithguard would work best, but I don’t think you really should. They’re about a third the size of a High Grade (1/144) Gunpla – the Leo here measures up at an inch and a half, and the model kit is around 4.5 – making them roughly 1/450. A comparison between the 120mm Zaku machine gun and a 1/350 127mm naval gun I have handy bears this out; the Zaku gun is a bit chunkier in proportions, but in the right range.
Building all nine of these guys took about an hour. I settled into a pretty quick process: clip out all the parts (usually 5 or 6, but one model only has 3 and another has over a dozen), trim all the nubs and mold lines, and start assembling. The plastic joints are so solid that you don’t really need to let the glue set between steps, so the nub-trimming ends up being by far the most time-consuming part.
Wings of Advance
OZ-00MS Tallgeese, OZ-06MS Leo, OZ-06MS Leo Space Type
These boxes all have the same mix of one hero or ace unit and two lower-tier grunts, though in this case the grunts being Leos makes them disposable to a superlative degree. It also has the strangest mix of model kits. The Tallgeese kit is by far the most complex in the three boxes, with a double-size sprue and more parts than any two of the other models combined, though it also (this is likely related) ends up being the coolest sculpt in the coolest pose. On the other end we have the Leo, which comes in a whopping three parts, so on average this has about as much plastic as the other two boxes when you factor that in.
The Space Leo is the only one that uses the included flying stand, which makes sense since it’s from outer space. The pose – flying backwards from beam bazooka recoil – is great, and pairs well with the base-model Leo just walking around with a machine gun. That Leo has one of the only weird sculpting artifacts I’ve seen on these models, with one bizarrely wide arm to hide an undercut between the arm and the torso, which unfortunately I think will be pretty noticeable unless you drill it like a bolter barrel or at least paint it black.
I was mildly worried about the Tallgeese in its leaping pose with only one toe on the ground, but between the solid construction and the peg in the base, it avoids the common problem to all Tallsgeese of constantly tipping over if you look at it wrong. You’ll probably want to paint this one in subassemblies. I didn’t, because I’m not a coward, but you might be.
It’s a disappointment that this doesn’t include any of the Gundams from Gundam Wing, but we can assume those are arriving sooner or later, and I will purchase every single one of them.
My hope for Gundam Assemble is that either the Leo can be bought by itself and I can run a dozen of that sad little idiot marching to his death.
Zeon’s Rush
MS-06S Zaku II Commander Type, MS-06 Zaku II, another MS-06 Zaku II
The sprues don’t mention what model the non-Char Zakus are. I assume they’re meant to be standard model F-types, but the lack of leg verniers could make them J-types (ground units) – it’s unclear to me if that’s a modeling limitation or deliberate decision, and the sprues just say “ZAKU II” on them. Most people won’t care and I doubt most of you even made sense of this paragraph, but real Zakuheads will know what I’m on about.
Otherwise there’s not much going on here compared to even the Tallgeese And Sons collection. You get three of what are almost exactly the same robot, just with different weapons – a machine gun, a bazooka, or a big axe – though the work they put into posing them keeps it from looking too bland. I love the Zaku. It’s a classic bad guy mech design, and even more so in this context: it looks the most like something you might see in the Space Marine range.
The only interesting piece of the construction is the heads. The top of the dome is a separate piece from the bottom – what you could consider the “hat” and “jaw”. This makes them one of the fiddlier parts to assemble – I hit on the idea of clipping off the hat, then gluing it to the jaw, and only then cutting the jaw off the sprue. But what it also allows for is moving the antenna hat, which is the only external difference between the Commander S-Type and the regular one. I didn’t test this, but I suspect you could make the machine gunner a regular Zaku and swap your commander horn to the bazookateer or axe-haver.
If my Nothing But Leos plan doesn’t work, the second-best outcome for this game would be to get a few more of these boxes, clip off the single horn, and draft a big bag of Zakus into the Chump Army.
Heroic Beginnings
RX-78-2 Gundam, RX-77-2 Guncannon, RX-75 Guntank
Interestingly, considering the name of the product line, the RX-78-2 in this box is the only one of these nine models that is actually a Gundam. The SEED box has another two, but that’s still only 3 out of 12 proper Gundam models in the Gundam game.
This is exactly what you’d expect. In a break from the composition of the other two, where you might have found an RX-78 and two GMs, you get the full Operation V roster, the core mobile suit triad from the show. This was always going to be one of the boxes – it’s just too iconic of a team for this not to have happened – and if they’re smart they’re already planning a future release with the Gundam Mk 2, Zeta, and Hyaku Shiki, the Zeta Gundam equivalent.
The Guncannon is, uh. A choice was made here, to model it after a shot from Mobile Suit Gundam where it lays down on the lip of a crater to peek over and shell some losers. I don’t fully hate it, and to be honest the highlight reel from Guncannon is on the thin side so there wasn’t much else to go with, but it’s goofy in a way that will probably wear thin after you see it on the table one time too many.
The Gundam itself has a great pose, but the V fin is another tiny part, like the Zaku hat, where you might want to glue the head subassembly together before you clip it off the sprue.
I also think it’s a bit small. It’s about the same height as the Zakus, which I think is about right, but it should be taller than the Leo and Tallgeese, since After Colony mobile suits tend to run small. This isn’t something that most people are going to care about, but the scale for Assemble seems to be a little off.
I love Guntank. He’s perfect. No notes.
All in all this is the least-exciting of the three, though in terms of pure game stats it’s a stacked roster – Amuro in the Gundam has canonically soloed that Zeon’s Rush box multiple times, and the Leos sure as hell aren’t going to fare any better. The Gundam was always going to be here, and I love that model, but the Guncannon is weird and as much as I love Guntank there’s only so much you can do with making an interesting and dynamic model of a mech with tank feet and gun arms. This is a problem that even the gunpla kits have had to reckon with – there just isn’t a lot of posability in that design.
It’s a fine assortment of little robots, but as a 90s Toonami sicko I think I have to give the edge to the Wings of Advance set. That Tallgeese is the standout kit of the entire range, and no matter my feelings as regards the other mobile suits, it keeps bubbling to the top of my to-do list for painting.
This is, on the whole, a small range of models to review. Including the ones I didn’t look at here, it’s twelve models, and if you lump together the Leos, Zakus, and Strikes that differ only in their weaponry, it’s actually only eight (to put that number in perspective, there are 500 different High Grade kits). Still, I’m optimistic. If Bandai can sort out their stock issues, and the global economy doesn’t collapse in the next few years, I can see myself buying entirely too many of these things.
Either you got something useful out of this and are now hyped to buy a Gundam, or you decided that this looks stupid and you don’t want to pay scalpers for the models, and in either event this was Helpful to you. Regardless, we’ll be back in the future with more guides for painting them – the Zaku in particular has a ridiculous range of canonical color schemes.
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