Top Ten Robots #7...Unifive Banpresto Alteisen Review

The Alteisen is straight up a cool looking mech. Even if you discount gimmicks, die cast and any other features, the Alteisen is a mech that goes a long way on looks alone. It's a got a great design build and it's a fairly original overall. Originality is no small thing either. There are only about a thousand robot figures that look basically like a Gundam, several being SRW mecha, and many designs out there are merely modified clones of whatever.. This use of modified robot imitation is fine, but designs that are actually cool and original deserve a little extra credit. Alteisen falls very much into this category in my book.

I don't want to go too far into the Super Robot Wars (Taisen) game franchise, but Banpresto excels at producing cool looking mech designs, and Alteisen is right at the top. It was one of the first SRW mechs to have a figure and a model made from it, and in the case with the Alteisen figure, it was one of the first designs to be put into die cast.

Alteisen's die cast content is roughly 50%. He has multiple points of articulation in all the right places which includes his claymore missile bays being partially adjustable. Ratched joints are located in the arms and legs. Note that the degree of movement in the legs is somewhat limited because of the size and spacing between the joints, but it's still fairly substantial.


Alteisen's gimmicks are excellent! First, the claymore missile bays have springloaded doors with the release buttons on each side. The jump jets are also spring loaded and open by pushing the release buttons on the top of the missile bays. The revolver opens to reveal removable shells, which I have to say is a very cool detail that they could have easily left off. The spike on the revolver is also springloaded but sort of pointless because the spike doesn't actually shoot out, it only pops out maybe half a centimeter. My guess is that originally they were planning on having the spike shoot out, but then decided it was too dangerous. The spike is rather pointy I suppose. But as it is, the gimmick seems like a lot of work for very little results, unfortunately.

The accessories include a revolver reloader (for looks only), a docking bay, and the removable shells of course. Both the reloader and the docking bay are fine. Nothing particularly special, but useful for display purposes perhaps.

I do wish that Alteisen was bigger and I wish they had decided to use metallic paint instead of matte, or at least given him a glossy finish. His size is roughly six inches (maybe a little more), so not small by any means, just average and almost exactly the same height as the CM Patlabor. But regardless of size, and just like any great design, Alteisen still packs a lot of punch on the collection shelf. I should also mention that he is still relatively cheap. I've never seen him sell for more than about $70.00 and he's fairly easy to find currently, but I wouldn't wait around.

To wrap this up on a side note, now that SRW is getting some well deserved attention from the "big gun" of robot figure companies, Bandai, and in the Soul of Chogokin line no less(!), it's nice to finally know that Alteisen will not be the only die cast SRW figure on the shelf. Yes there were the Huckebeins.. granted, but Huckebeins were ever only marginal SRW figures, certainly not what makes the dozens of super cool and original SRW designs stand apart. And Huckebeins are sort of a "safe bet" from a sales point of view given that Huckebeins are as much a Gundam rip off as any design out there. But now that we have Dygenguar AND Aussenseiter coming, the rest of the toy shelf better look out because SRW means business!