Review: Gundam 0083 Assault Carrier Albion from Bandai

[Update] Added a few desktop ready composite pictures

The Albion is a flight III assault carrier prominently featured in Gundam 0083, it's main...seriously, you don't really need me to describe what the Albion is, right?

All I can tell you is that it is my favorite of all Pegasus class carriers, even holding a slight edge over the White Base.

I found this beauty may be 7 or 8 years ago, give or take, at Walmart in all places. It was a shock to come across it, and my first thought was, Bandai actually made this awesome toy?...then I looked at the price...are they crazy only charging $30 bucks???

It was a time when Bandai just started to push Gundam into the North American market, and the MSIA action figure line was the major driving force to complement the TV series. There were several other special finds that I will be reviewing in the future.

Unbeknownst to me, the Albion actually has a lot of features (I would be happy even if it just sits there...). It has rotating wings to recreate the landing scene from episode 1/2 of the series. It comes with a launch pad to simulate the launch sequence in the opening theme (not sure where I've put it so it's not shown in the picture). One of the coolest features is the secret storage compartment - Ah, the clever engineering! You don't see any seams, but the ship opens up to reveal a storage area or hangar for the mobile suits that came in the package, one GP01fb and four GMs. It's just awesome!

The Albion basically is made of the same material used in the MSIA line, it measures 10 inches long. I estimated that it should be in the 1/1800 scale or there about, and the mini MS that came with it are terribly out of scale (note that the GP02 does not come with the Albion). There is a custom display stand that comes in the package, but I throw it out because it makes the Albion look too toyish.

It's been a lot of fun taking the composite pictures above, I hope to do more mixing and matching in the future to create more variety. I supposed I could photoshop in some special effects too, but it sort of takes something away from the photography...

If you came across the Albion, I strongly recommend you pick it up, you will not be disappointed.