I don’t like this kit, but my taste aside it’s nearly flawless.
I bought this kit on a whim, I didn’t know the show or the Mobile Suit itself.
The baby blue details, the weird jutting articulated top hatch (the purpose of which is ONLY to slightly hide the face while in split-apart-flying-mode!), the white cover on the rifle scope, the shield that ‘opens up’ but doesn’t do anything besides revealing its internals, the weird top and bottom “flyer” parts (which is a nostalgic reference to the original Gundam show) and the absolute ton of extra bits all rub me the wrong way.
But, I can’t give it a lower score when there isn’t anything wrong with it and you essentially get more for your money.
Can I just say though, how stupid it is for the core block fighter (the center of the suit that transforms into a jet) to have missiles that need to be dumped before it merges with the other parts? It does this in the show too! It’s so bizzarre... it’s like having convenient fuel canisters on your car, but in order to drive it you have to detach them first. Why!?
Anyway, this thing is as solid as they come, the articulation is top notch and you can have it with or without the massive jetpack.
An important feature to highlight is how the whole thing comes together, because a few earlier kits, like the ‘Full Burnern’ Zephyrantes RG kit, are fragile due to the top half of the machine being stuck onto the middle transforming jet, on top of the waist and legs.
This one is solid due to the way the jet folds into and locks into place with the waist and eliminates that problem.
For this kit to have been perfect, they should’ve included a non-transforming center piece, so you could display the jet besides the Gundam, which the first RG kit actually has.
Luckily there’s an entirely separate jet, the purpose of which is only to deliver the jetpack to the Gundam. If only there was a handy core jet that could do this instead! Or if at the very least it could carry the missiles the other one has to dump??
Joking complaints aside, there is one issue with the kit you should be aware of; When assembling the jetpack, there are white sections that hold the bottom fins, which have a little flap that fold out and reveal a tiny thruster. The fit is so tight, that it takes significant force to pop this flap into place. One of mine popped off during assembly and disappeared under my table. It took months before I found it again, to finally complete the kit.
The kit comes with the fairly standard two beam sabers with effect parts, a beam gun, a (weird) shield, a mini pilot figure and two little switchblade knives that fit neatly into the side skirts and are perfect for back alley Gundam mugging.
I suppose it can hold the left over missiles and throw them like darts, I haven’t tried.
This kit and mobile suit makes very little sense, but it looks good doing it!
I recommend a base to put this on, so it can have a flying pose.
If you like this, there’s a Premium Bandai version which has a ‘sword impulse’ pack instead of the jetpack and the Mobile Suit has nice looking red colors and no god awful baby blue.
:)
