A little of Hathaway's Flash bite-sized treat!
Another Converge EX that joined my collection due to my interest with Hathaway's Flash series and I decided to put up the review now as Bandai is back on track again for this one. I have always took interest with the series ever since my exposure to it from SD Gundam G Generation more than a decade ago. However it was not until recent times that some viable collectibles for Hathaway's Flash are starting to pop out when the series became Bandai's newest milking target for Universal Century Gundam series.
In Gundamverse, Hathaway's Flash is a short episode of late Universal Century timeline that serves to tie up the loose ends from Char's Counterattack. The main stars of this mini series are two experimental Gundams; Penelope and Xi which supposedly serve as the pinnacle of Late UC period Mobile Suits tech before it shifted to F91 and V Gundam era. I took interest with Xi and Penelope mainly because it was a gundam design made by Zeorymer mecha designer. Few years ago i have been eyeing for Robot Damashii Xi but it was unreachable, then HGUC Penelope came out last year but it was too cumbersome. So in the end i pick Converge version of Penelope when it was available for pre-order as i feel it has the best compromise when it comes to value for money.
RX-104FF Penelope is an experimental New-Type Gundam unit equipped featuring Miniature Minovsky Drive attached on the Fixed Flight Unit as its centerpiece, allowing the mobile suit to be capable of operating on atmospheric flight unassisted. This is supposed to be a big deal because most preceding Universal Century mobile suit never truly capable of operating effectively on Aerial battle without support platform like Base Jabber or Mobile Armor mode which reduce the combat potential of the Mobile suit. So the technology that Penelope represents paves the way for Mobile Suit Air superiority. Penelope also equipped with several top of the line armaments to help its role as deep striking unit with Funnel Missile being the prominent feature which makes the already deadly Newtype exclusive weapon become even more deadlier.
On the normal loadout Penelope looks really bulky Mobile suit but it was a heavily armored Mobile Suit with a Gundam at its core called Gundam Odysseus. In terms of loadout, Gundam Odysseus is rather standard as it relies on the Penelope Unit for the heavy firepower.
Usually i am a big fan of any Mecha with Armor purge gimmicks which Penelope qualified to be one. However the Converge EX version of this guy is rather lackluster compared to its peer. While it is bulkier than the standard Converge unit, it doesn't really match up to Mobile Armor converge which worth about the same value. Basically Penelope is 2000 Yen worth of Gundam Converge which is sold for almost double the price. Which is why i am not too particularly hyped with the upcoming Converge version of Xi Gundam.
Overall Converge EX Penelope is a buyer's remorse for me, but i still managed to get some good shots for this guy. The only selling point for this version of Penelope is its bulk and nothing else. If Xi Gundam ever got released in Ensemble it would be a steal and chances is quite likely since it has appeared in Gundam Forte before. Though the probability of the Ensemble version ending up as P-Bandai is quite high as well
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