SD BB Senshi Gundaman

Release 1987.5

Price ¥300

SD Gundaman - Box art from the side (1/3)

Box art from the side

Group shot of BB Senshi #1–6 box art — the kits that kicked off the SD Gundam series

Runners

Parts diagram

Included alongside the assembly manual are a series guide sheet and a character card.

Manual

Straight build + Stickers

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Front view of straight build before stickers

SD Gundaman - After applying the seals (1/2)

SD Gundaman - After applying the seals (2/2)

After applying stickers

The body without weapons

A bazooka is included as the weapon.

28 blue BBs are included — you cock the trigger, then drop a BB into the hole on top of the bazooka.

Along with the main figure, a target Don is also included!

Target Don

When the upper body gets hit by a BB, it topples right over backwards.

A video I filmed myself showing the target-hit actions of all 6 early BB Senshi kits.

Bare-bones articulation — neck and shoulders rotate, and the legs swing back and forth

Some action poses

Shooting game pose using the target

--- General notes on the first 6 BB Senshi kits -----------------
Back in 1987, the very first 6 SD Gundam kits were released under the "BB Senshi" banner. They were part of the "BB Senshi Snivel Game" lineup — a shooting game where you fire BBs from a spring-loaded bazooka and try to hit the target. The proportions are that cute 3-head-tall SD style with nice round, chubby volume. There's no color separation — just single-color molding with a few seals thrown in, and the articulation is kept as simple as possible.

The lineup consists of 6 kits: Gundaman, Zetaman 2, Dorakun, Zakun, Zetaman, and Don — and while the designs are all different, they share exactly the same package contents and structural features. The BB-firing gimmick has a surprisingly decent kick to it — you can shoot in a straight line for about a meter with a satisfying "ping." On top of that, each kit comes with its own target that produces a different hit effect, so there's a real fun factor in trying to nail them with BBs. (See thevideo for reference.)

These 6 kits were later reused as the base bodies for the SD Gundam Musha 7-nin Shuu arc, and nowadays they've become top-tier rare items going for dozens of times their original price. They're practically impossible to track down anyway, so it's totally fine to just sit back and appreciate them as a piece of history — "oh wow, something like this existed back then" is more than enough. ^^
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This kit is the SD Gundaman, released as BB Senshi #1. It's based on the First Gundam, and the included target is a Don — hit the upper body with a BB and the top half flips backwards.

The body was later reused — minus the target parts — as the base for BB Senshi #30 Musha Kage Gundam. Being such an old-school kit, the look is pretty rough and the quality is just so-so, but as BB Senshi #1 — the kit that started it all for SD Gundam — it definitely holds a special place in history. :-)

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.