Megahouse Character Studio Yzak Joule

"Commander, your uniform is ..."
"URUSAI!!"
A review on another very special Gundam-related item in my collection: Character Studio Yzak Joule from Megahouse.


It's special to me because I got it from a toy sales in Singapore when I went there last July. The discounted price was SGD $5 to be exact, which was a great bargain. ^^ To be honest, the price was the biggest factor for me to get this item really, no offense to Yzak. ^^; Personally, I like the mecha portion of the Gundam world more than the characters, hence model kits most of the time but no figurines (not that we have many of that anyway). On top of that, if I do want to own a character item from a Gundam series, it would usually be a female character that I like from the show, Gundam Heroine History Special: Relena Peacecraft for example. ^o^

So for Gundam pilots, who are usually guys, even the really great ones, no thanks. ^^

I did mentioned in the review for 1/100 Duel Gundam Assault Shroud that I like the character for how well he did in surviving the war, defeating two newer enemy Gundams on the way by the end of "Gundam SEED". There's more character development for Yzak in that series than in "Gundam SEED Destiny", by then he is just an hot-tempered ZAFT commander who for some reason, still treats Athrun as a rival even though they are on different sides at the beginning of the show. ^^; It's still very much the same Yzak from "Gundam SEED" with just a change of the color of his uniform, essentially. ^^; His performance with a blue Slash Zaku Phantom at the beginning of the show is very awesome, when he upgrades to his personal white Gouf Ignited, most of his fight scenes with that MS are just stock footages, so no comment on that. ^^;

The Character Studio series from Megahouse is quite an old product series by today's standard, and it was only for the two series of "Gundam SEED" and "Gundam SEED Destiny". A search on Hobby Search reveals 9 releases from this series. Apart from Yzak, there were Kira, Lunamaria, Stella, Cagalli, Lacus, Athrun, Meer and Frey. In deformed scale, each character comes with 2 interchangeable body units in different costume and different fixed poses. The only gimmick incorporated is the ability to swap the body units to get the characters in different costumes for display. ^^

It's pretty much a large gashapon I would say. ^^ Priced at about 1,500 Yen each, it's not really my cup of tea, but at a sales price of SGD $5, I would get one. ^^





Drawing of the figure's design can be seen on the back of the box.
The casual wear (business suit) version is a little bit different as compared to the actual outcome of the figure. Can you spot the difference? ^^


Display of Yzak in his "forced" combo costume XD
Two other releases of Meer and Frey are also shown.


Instruction on how to combine the different parts for the figure.


Made in 2006. ^^
Condition of the packaging sort of reveals the age of the merchandise as well, even though it's sealed nicely.


Box open


The full image of the backdrop.


All 3 items in the whole package: Yzak in military attire, option body unit in casual wear and display base.



Manufacturer information molded on the back of the hair is ugly -_-


Option body unit.


Display base, which is obviously designed after Lacus's Haro. ^^


Yzak's name can be seen at the bottom of the base.
Seems like each character will have a different display base then I suppose.



Attaching the figure to the base.












Yzak is military attire ("Gundam SEED Destiny" ver.)


Peg joint for the neck allows the head to turn.
The only articulation point for the figure, which make more sense when applied to him in casual wear version I think XD


Just swap the head unit onto the alternate body unit to change Yzak into another costume. ^^











Yzak in casual wear.


Each body unit can be separated at waist level for 2 crazy and funny costume combos. ^^
The nicely painted belt on the casual wear version is a great touch in my opinion. It's always hidden behind the suit or military uniform, but the details are there. ^^


Like this. ^^


Yzak going out investigating something while disguising as a civilian. ^^


Nobody will find out he's undercover right? I mean, the military boots are so not obvious. ^^;
Still not too ridiculous as compared to the version shown on the back of the box, the one with the skirt portion of the uniform under the suit.



It's been raining heavily in PLANT these few days and the pants just didn't dry in time for the next meeting...




With the regular scale version of himself from HGIF Gundam Character 3 Vol. Gundam SEED Destiny, one of the few sets of gashapon I bought in Singapore along with Character Studio Yzak.



Size comparison with Nendoroid Haruhi



With 1/100 Duel Gundam Assault Shroud, even though the costume doesn't accurately represent Yzak's rank when he pilots that Gundam. ^^;
Quite a fun little figure to have I would say. Being a figure with fixed poses, it's just meant for display, which turns out great as complementary to my 1/100 Duel Gundam Assault Shroud ^^

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Megahouse Character Studio Yzak Joule