HGCosmic Era

ZGMF-X56S Impulse Gundam SAGAN TOSU Ver.

The well engineered Revive-era Impulse mold wearing a J2 football kit instead of its Cosmic Era colors.

MechaGrade Score

3.4/5

Impulse Gundam SAGAN TOSU Ver. · 1/144 · 2020

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2020

Runnersn/a

Check price on Amazon

Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

The verdict

I like this kit more for what it is built on than for what it actually is in the box.

Underneath the Sagan Tosu blue and yellow you are getting the 2016 Revive tooling for the Impulse Gundam, which is genuinely one of the better engineered HGs of its era, with a real Core Splendor separation gimmick and shoulder joints that were redesigned specifically so the arms would not sag once you split the suit into its three flight units. As a standalone build for someone who just wants a good HG, though, it is a strange one to recommend at full price when the same engineering is easier to find under its normal colorway.

Best for: Cosmic Era completionists and J.League crossover collectors who already know what they are buying

The full review

What it is

This is the base ZGMF-X56S Impulse Gundam, not the winged Force Impulse loadout, recolored into Sagan Tosu's blue, yellow, and white kit as part of Bandai's 2020 collaboration with Japan's J.League football clubs. It ships with the Core Splendor, the docking adapters for the Chest Flyer and Leg Flyer units, a beam rifle, and a shield that includes a separate collapsed-state piece so you can display it open or folded. Building it feels exactly like building the well regarded Revive Force Impulse mold, because that is what it is. The shoulders use actual frame parts instead of simple poly-caps, so the arms hold their pose through the transformation sequence instead of drooping, and that alone tells you this tooling had real thought put into it.

The catch

The team colors are the whole point and also the biggest limiter. You lose the Cosmic Era red, white, and blue that makes the Impulse recognizable, and in exchange you get a lot of the suit's detail carried by large stickers rather than molded color, the same sticker-heavy backpack and trim work builders flagged on the standard release. Because this is a base-body box, you do not get the Force Silhouette wings that make the Force Impulse a more dynamic build, so the kit reads a little plain in hand compared to its sibling releases. It was also an event and retail exclusive tied to J.League promotions, so pricing and availability outside Japan are inconsistent and it shows up used more than new.

Who it's for

If you collect Cosmic Era HGs and want the full spread of Impulse variants, or you are a Sagan Tosu supporter who wants a genuinely unusual crossover piece on the shelf, this earns its spot. If you just want the best version of the Impulse Gundam to build once, buy the standard HGCE Revive release or the Force Impulse instead and get the same shoulder engineering and Core Splendor gimmick in the colors the design was actually made for. This kit is a novelty variant of a good mold, not an upgrade on it, and it is worth treating that way going in.

The build story

What the build is actually like, and the engineering worth knowing about.

The assembly experience is the Revive-era Impulse build start to finish: clean gate placement on the Cosmic Era runners, straightforward limb and torso subassemblies, and the Core Splendor unit that pops free from the leg and chest units for the transformation gimmick. Nub cleanup is typical HG level, nothing fussy, and the parts fit snugly enough that the docking joints for the Chest Flyer and Leg Flyer adapters stay snug rather than loose.

The standout is still the shoulder engineering carried over from the base mold, frame parts instead of simple poly-caps so the arms do not sag once the suit splits into its flight configuration, something the original 2004 HG Force Impulse could not do. Weapon loadout here is modest, a beam rifle and the shield with its swappable collapsed piece, since this box skips the Force Impulse's expanded arsenal. Articulation carries over cleanly too, a double ball-joint neck, double-jointed elbows and knees, and a waist that rotates a full 360 degrees.

Lore & trivia

01This release is part of Bandai's 2020 collaboration with Japan's J.League football association, which reskinned several HG kits, including the Impulse, Strike, 00 Gundam, Exia, and Barbatos, into individual club team colors.
02Sagan Tosu is a J.League club based in Tosu, Saga Prefecture, and this kit's blue, yellow, and white scheme matches the team's home colors and crest placement on the decal sheet.
03The mold underneath is the 2016 HGCE Revive tooling for the Impulse Gundam, which redesigned the shoulder joints specifically so the arms would not sag during the suit's three-way Core Splendor separation, a problem the original 2004 HG version had.
04Unlike the Force Impulse HG release built from the same generation of tooling, this SAGAN TOSU box is the base Impulse body, so it ships without the Force Silhouette flight unit and its wings.