Runners
Speaking
about runners for this MG kit, you are going to have 11 runners, a polycap
infested runner, the manipulators, and a runner with two pink beam sabers on
it. I have no idea whether this is a bit less compared to other master grades
but compared to a normal HG, it’s of course a lot more. In addition to the
familiar runners, we also get a sheet of normal sticker, a sheet of decals, and
a manual.
Starting alphabetically with the A runner, it is a
multicolored runner with an addition of yellow-ish clear parts for the gun
special effect; new addition of the MG line in terms of accessories, if I’m not
mistaken—except for some P-Bandai stuff for the Ver. Ka Sazabi and RE
Nightingale. The yellow parts will go smoothly when you put it on, so you don’t
have to really spend too much time smoothing and removing the nubs from the
part. Similar thing goes for the blue parts, even though there will be some
nubs on the armpits, or the sides of the torso—yet you will not notice them
very often anyway. You will have to be careful in terms of cutting and
smoothing the clear parts for the lens as it will be loose if you sanded it too
much. A cut with a nipper and a cleanup with a hobby knife is already enough to
be honest.
Moving
on towards the B plate, you will be getting two of these as it will become
parts for the inner frame, some for the thrusters, and a bit of which will
become ammo packs for your bazooka. As most of the parts will be covered by the
external armor anyway, smoothing the parts is not really necessary in terms of
visual problems but you will need to smooth them up in order to make them
easier to build; you will find less gap between the parts and will need less
strength to put them together if you smooth them well enough—not too much as
well though.
Similar thing goes for the C plate as most of the parts there
are going to be a part of the inner frame as well.
Moving
towards the white, though off-white, D1 plate, you do need to soften your touch
a bit more when smoothing this parts as we are starting to get the parts for
the outer armor. The legs are not much of a problem compared to the arm and
forearm parts in terms of smoothing the nubs away. The nubs on the legs are
going to be covered quite well by the overall design of the kit, yet the arms
do need a bit more care as you will see some ugly gauge marks if you did not
remove the nub smooth enough.
The
D2 plate is just a partial copy for the D1 plate so same approach should be
applied as most of the parts that it has will be building your kit’s legs,
biceps and shoulders.
Moving
on towards the E plate, most of the parts are going to be parts for your
forearms and head. In addition, this will become a part for your awesome
shield, waist and tiny Amuro Ray figures; one that is sitting for the cockpit
part, and one that is standing just for kicks. Be careful in smoothing the
forearm parts and the head as it will become one of the most noticeable part
for the kit itself. I got some gauge mark on my kit’s forearms, and those are
not pretty.
Adding a new addition of color for the overall runners, the F
plate will cover all the red parts for the kit as a whole; from the shield to
its toes. Apply much care in smoothing the parts, even though the gauge mark
will not be as bad as the ones on the white part. In addition, pay attention to
the small red pieces for the face and head—I won’t be held responsible if say
you guys lost the part as it flew into the abyss unnoticed.
The
G1 plate will be making most of the weapon; from the shoulder canon to the
majority of parts for the bazooka. Do not force your way in smoothing the parts
as it will leave quite the nu marks if you keep insisting on smoothing the nubs
away with hobby knife. It would be better for you to sand them down, and
perhaps, with some additional budget, repaint the part with cool gun metal
color to hide the nubs away.
Similar to the G1 plate, most of the parts from this H plate
will become your new Origin Beam Rifle, and some will go to your Gundam’s
simple yet efficient backpack. Similar approach is also recommended in as these
parts will leave some annoying nub marks unless you do have the intention to
repaint it all gun metal style.
The
ABS plastic I plate will become your additional inner frame part, with quite
the leftovers. As it is a rehash from the old MG 2.0 kit frame, there are 6
parts that you will not be using. Smooth the parts only to help you put them
together better as it will be covered by the outer armor in the end.
In terms of the manipulators, you do have to be careful in
cutting the section well. Do leave some distance between the actual runner and
the hand parts so that you will be able to clean them up easily without
actually damaging the manipulators. It is not really that confusing to cut and
assemble yet you do have to be patient and gentle in moving the knuckle and
finger joints for the first time. Just follow the given instruction on the
manual and you will be fine.
Nothing
to really talk about these polycaps really. You will be using your nipper to
cut them off the plate though—I usually just twirl the polycap around until it
falls off when I was building my HG kits.
Pretty straightforward runner for them beam sabers. Cut,
clean, done.
Most
of the stickers will be used to cover the lens and the eye of the kit. Nothing
too difficult beside the fact of it being small and you will be needing a
tweezer or a really small hands to put them quite well.
Here comes trouble…the decals. They do look nice when you put
it on your kit, and put it well, but man…as a person who is building his first
MG, these decals are hard to put on. You may need some help from them mark
softer to soft your way in applying the decals to be honest. There are a total
of 66 decals that you can put on the kit—maybe more—but I didn’t have the
patience and time to do all of them so what I put are only the ones that looks
cool enough without causing too much trouble for me to apply.
Parts and
Gimmicks
After hours of building, you will be getting these parts:
A
head, two beam saber hilts, a torso, a backpack (I apologize for not including
a picture in which you can see the backpack). In building the head you will be
given the option in putting an actually yellow-colored parts or a clear part
with yellow stickers for the eyes. I decided to put the clear one in because of
reasons.
This
kit includes a LED gimmick even though you have to buy the LED unit separately.
In
addition to that option, you will also be getting two different colored covers
for the small gun over his torso; one blue (the one that I put on just like the
picture) and the yellow one. Moreover, you will also be getting some effect
part for the gun and the launcher on the torso.
Never forget the cockpit gimmick as well. It is quite easy to
close and open the hatch without any help from hobby knife or a toothpick.
In
terms of the torso’s mobility, you will be able to turn the waist around, along
with some good tilting (I apologize for lack of images for the articulation).
You are going to be able to do some bend either forward or backwards. The back
bend is easier to conduct as for the forward ab crunch you do need to pull the
torso upward a little before actually bending it forward. The torso also has
flaps over its shoulders so that you can move the shoulder upwards more using the given flap.
The
arm and shoulder for this kit comes separately. The arms, as you can see, are
able to do the 180-degree bend with its double jointed elbow. The new
manipulators come handy with a lot of emotive poses along with a little tab to
be attached to the weapon.
In
addition to the articulation, you are also given the option to put awesome gun
on the kit’s forearms. The package gives you two “hand’ gun in total so that
you can put it on both hands and it comes with its own effect part, even though
it is only one of it. There is only one normal forearm available so you can’t
make your kit the normal RX 78-2 that we know.
Moving
on towards the legs, you are going to get a pair of them of course. Each can
bend easily with its two joints and a floating knee pad. The armor plate on its
thighs are going to move in conjunction with the whole bending mechanism as
well. The ankle armors are on separate ball joint sockets located on the front
of the ankle, and so far, it doesn’t hinder the movement of the foot as well.
The foot do have three separate joints with a bit of a bend on its front so
that you can do some nice dynamic poses with it.
In
addition to the already awesome articulation, we also get some nice thruster
gimmick on the legs. Even though you will need a bit of help from a toothpick
or a hobby knife to open the flaps, it is a nice gimmick overall.
Joined
with the waist unit, and its new waist mechanism, you are able to do some
decent or perhaps awesome kneeling poses with this kit. The flaps on the waist
armors are equipped with both a slide and a hinge mechanism so that you are
going to be able to get it out of your way when posing around with the kit. The
side ones are only equipped with simple hinges and swivel but it does the job
well in not hindering the legs articulation overall. The back skirt armor moves
just like the front ones so no problem there. You do have to be careful when
trying to access the new waist mechanism so that the joints won’t be stressed.
It pulls diagonally downward rather than the usual. In addition, it would be
better for you to turn the leg first before actually pulling it down so that
the joints won’t suffer too much.
In
terms of weapons, the new ones that you will be getting is the shoulder cannon
that attaches to the left side of the backpack through a ball joint and a
polycap. You do able to switch this weapon with another beam saber sheathe if
you do choose as you are given two of them to begin with along with the two
beam sabers. The shoulder cannon has an arm for you to position it over the
kit’s shoulder along with some swivel for posing purposes.
As
I said before, you will get two beam sabers with its two effect parts and it
holds well to the kit’s manipulators even though it stays more with the grip of
the fingers rather than actually using the tabs on them—maybe it’s just me.
The
bazooka fits well into the manipulators’ tab better than the beam rifle even
though it is quite difficult to position it well. It is quite hard to nail the
pose that I am showing you through the picture above.
You also get the regular beam rifle, a shield, along with the
new Origin style beam rifle (again, I apologize for the lack of pictures) for
this kit’s arsenal and the shield has a gimmick in which you can close and open
the eye-hole with just a slide of a tab.
The stability of the overall kit, without all of its armaments
of course, is quite remarkable as it is able to stand on one leg quite
well—without us trying to make it falls by shaking the table of course.
Conslusion
As this kit is indeed my first Master Grade, it is indeed
difficult for me in terms of determining the positives and negatives of this
kit compared to the other MGs. If you do want to hear some judgements for this
kit, you can look it up through YouTube to be honest and most of the reviewer
even said that this kit is THE BEST MG of 2015—I am not lying, I watched
Jabman025, ZakuAurelius and MechaGaikotsu’s reviews and all of them say the
same thing about the kit.
In terms of my honest comment of the kit, however, it is
indeed a lot of fun to build this kit, especially looking at its inner frame,
its small pistons on the joint and all, and it is clearly a different
experience from building HG kits. The articulation is awesome, of course, with
its new waist mechanics and complex, awesome, yet frustrating manipulators. The
selection of accessories along with the new effect parts are awesome as well,
if we do look back at the price of the kit that costs 4500 yen or around
$45-$50 or 500,000 rupiahs, if we do compare it with another MG kits that
ranges with the same price. It is fun to build, fun to play with, and it is
hard, yet again, to not be subjective and biased over the kit as it is my first
MG kit. Yet, it is also hard for me to not be disappointed and to not regret
the fact that I have bought and build this kit nonetheless. It is a good kit
for you to start get acquainted with the MG line, or even just gunpla in
general—if you do have the budget and time for it of course. What now we have
to do is just wait for the new MG Char’s Zaku II 3.0 or perhaps MG Char’s Zaku
II The Origin to complete the set.
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