Gunpla #32 - HGUC GM Ground Type Review

Finally got this guy on its release day (which is really a good thing if you stay in Japan). While the normal price on the box shows 1500 Yen, the kit was sold with much cheaper price at retail shops such as Yodobashi Camera or Biccamera. I only paid around 1200 Yen this time.

What a cool box art

Similar with the previous 08MS Team's kits, the box art was gorgeous, showing three GMs in the battle field, holding different machine gun, bazooka and net gun while Zakus flying in the background. The box also shows description, history and features of the kit in Japanese and ENGLISH. Nice!

Now let's do the unboxing. The box contains 8 runners in total, with 6 PS runners (they're rather soft plastics), 1 clear runner for beam saber and 1 polycaps runner. The others are a manual, foil sticker, transparent sticker (numbers only) and an enquete paper? I barely read Kanji, but I suppose the runners are completely new, not reused from previous kits.

Unfortunately, the net gun, which was shown with light grey color on the boxart and previous release images in fact, only has the the same color with bazooka, which is dark grey.

The building itself was simple and straightforward. There are lots of panel lines, so I suggest it's better to do panel lining for each part from the beginning. One of the most interesting things about this kit is the ball joint on the chest armor which provides articulation for the torso to move back and forth, as well as for side-to-side movement, which is quite similar with HG Gundam Revive. Another cool gimmick is the beam saber rack which is stored at the calves of the legs instead of on the backpack as typical feddies mobile suits.

The orange colors look nice with the blending of brownish white. Unfortunately, the white part of chest vents are stickers, but I suppose painting them is not so difficult. There are also tiny stickers for the chest, legs and calves which store the beam sabers. The backpack is assembled by two parts and unfortunately, there are no holes for custom parts (why Bandai, why ??).

    

The finished body looks really great. as well as the accessories which come with this kit. You'll get a machine gun, bazooka, net gun, two beam sabers, and an open left hand. There are no trigger hands needed because the weapons could just slide into the standard close hands, which means the GM could freely grab the weapons on the right or left hand. There's also nice part separation on the machine gun. Pretty cool and quite much for a HG kit with price less than 1.5k Yen.

 Anyway, how about the articulation?? It's amazing!! Just look at these pictures.

The joints are rock solid with wide range of movements. No wonder it could make many cool poses. In term of articulation, this guy probably in par with the Gundam Revive. It's really fun playing with it.

Some extra pictures.

So here's the verdict. This kit probably is the best GM ever released in 1/144 scale. It just excels in many aspects: great details, bunch of accessories, amazing articulation and cheap price. I couldn't say anything more. I truly recommend this kit, especially for the GM or HGUC fans.

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RGM-79[G] GM Ground Type

Pros:

• Great details with many panel lines and nice color scheme.
• Amazing articulation. Probably one of the best in HG line.
• Bunch of accessories for a relatively cheap kit.

Cons:

• Some parts still use sticker for color separation, especially the chest vents.
• No color separation for the net gun.
• No custom connectors on the backpack (for custom builder parts).   

Gunpla #31 - HGUC Zeta Plus A1 (Unicorn version) Review

I was thinking, while building HGUC Zeta Plus C1 (C1) last month, that it would be probably great to have its brother unit, the A1, posing together with it. That's why I decided to build the A1. 

Well, since ZPA1 is actually the normal release kit and it's basically the same unit with ZPC1, Nevertheless, It probably looks funny to review a limited kit before the normal release kit, thus I didn't expect anything special from it. Anyway, I finally realized more differences other than I mentioned on previous post about the ZPC1. I noticed the blue on the sides of the head and feet is darker than ZPC1. Other than that, the eyes and sensors on the head and shield have red color instead of blue of course. The weapon of ZPA1 is also a standard ReZEL beam rifle which is almost similar with HGUC Delta Plus, except for a special peg at the end of the rifle. I suppose, the main purpose of the peg is to connect the beam rifle on the top of waverider mode, as mentioned by many reviews out there. 

But tell the truth, compared to C1, the A1 looks much more menacing with those red eyes ... 

I don't have much time to write the review this time, but I notice that A1 has less articulation compared to the C1 due to its beam cannon design. While A1's beam cannons look cooler than C1, the front armor of the beam cannons greatly limiting the leg movement of the kit. If we move the legs forward, they will bring the beam cannon forward as well. Of course, there's trick to avoid it, but I still think its troublesome.

The A1 also comes with less transparent stickers, with only ZPlus and EFF marking available, compared to the C1, and unfortunately, there are no unit number markings which are usually provided for HGUC mass production kits. Therefore, I put the spared unit number sticker from C1 for this kit. On the other hand, accessories for this kit is basically the same with C1, with only trigger right hand for the extra hand and a pair of beam sabers.

Due to my preparation study for the exam, I haven't tried to transform this kit into waverider mode, hence I can't say anything about it now. But I think it should be awesome as C1 and Delta Plus. For now, I just put the three on my desk, in their mobile suit mode. Standing together, they look totally awesome!

Zeta Plus A1 (right) with Zeta Plus C1 (left)

With A1 and Delta Plus

I will make more detail review with more pictures soon. Anyway, I could say that, similar to ZPC1, this kit is pretty expensive for a HG. If you check the price, it's just 600 yen less then MG ZPA1. Of course, the HG version provides more stability since it's a partsformer. In the end, it will depend on you whether to buy this kit or not. If you like a smaller-solid-partsformer Zeta Plus kit than bigger-transformable one, than this kit is for you.  

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MSZ-006A1 Zeta Plus A1 (Unicorn version)

Pros:

• Amazing design, nice detail and cool color schemes
• Solid kit with pretty good articulation

Cons:

• Less marking sticker than ZPC1. No number marking.
• Expensive HG compared to MG of the same kit.

   

Gaijin Story #6 - How to Transfer Money from JP Bank ATM to Rakuten Account

What I would like to write this time is about the procedure to transfer money from JP Bank account to a Rakuten account (e.g. for online shopping) by JP Bank ATM. Of course, it could also be applied for money transfer to any other Japanese bank accounts, with slight modifications. 

Please keep in mind, that the deposit type I will mention is an ordinary deposit, and you should already have JP Bank account. Therefore, prepare your passbook or cash card beforehand. Another important thing to remember, the money transfer have to be done by using Japanese menu on the ATM. It may sound ridiculous, but the ATM doesn't provide remittance to other bank account other than JP by English menu. Why? I don't know.

Oh, one more funny thing. Most ATM in Japan don't operate 24-hours. They're usually only available during weekdays (Monday-Friday) and work hours (9 AM-5 PM). Some ATM may be available overtime, or even during weekends or holidays at crowded places, for example train stations or convenient stores, but mostly are not. In regards with the remittance on this post, the transferred money will arrive at the destination account only on weekdays. That means, for example, if you transfer money on Saturday, the money will be received by the Rakuten account on Monday. The same thing applies for holidays. So, consider your timing before transferring money.

Without further ado, lets start.

1. Firstly, select Remittance (Gosoukin ご送金) on the menu of the ATM. It's the button on the left third row of the screen. The next screen will show you the warning of fraud (in Japanese), just proceed.

2. Select remittance to another bank account (Takou kouza e no go soukin 他行口座へのご送金). It's on the last row button.

3. Insert your passbook or cash card, and type the PIN number.

4. You'll see bunch of bank names on the screen. Select show next (Tsugi o hyouji 次を表示). It's on the low right corner of the screen.

5. On the next screen, select other (So no hoka その他). It's on the last row button. 

6. The next screen will ask you to enter the first letter of the bank name in Katakana. In this case, select "Ra" (Katakana: ラ) for Rakuten. As soon as you choose the katakana, the screen will show a button with the name of Rakuten Bank (Rakuten Ginkou 楽天銀行). Proceed by selecting the button.

You will be asked again to enter the first Katakana of the name of Rakuten branch. Select "Ra" again as previous step.

7. The next screen will ask you to select the Rakuten branch. For example, if you want to pay for Rakuten online shop, select Rakuten market branch (Rakutenshijou Shiten 楽天市場支店). It's on the right hand side of the screen. Important: this is just an example, please check your own destination Rakuten branch.

8. Select ordinary deposit (Futsuu Yokin 普通預金). It's on the uppermost button showed on the screen.

9. Type the destination account number. If it's correct, proceed by confirm by pressing the green button (Kakunin 確認). If you want for correction, press the orange button (Teisei 訂正).

10. Type the amount of money you want to transfer. For example: 1661, then press the green button (Yen 円). The ATM will ask you again if you sure with the money amount. If yes, select green button. If not, select the orange one and you will be asked to retype the amount of money again.

11. If you transfer money on weekdays, proceed to step 12. Otherwise, as I mentioned above, if you transfer the money on weekends or holidays, the ATM will inform you that the transferred will be completed on the closest weekday. You can proceed by pressing the green button or cancel (by pressing the top right corner button with "X" sign).

12. The next screen will ask if you want to use your registered name at JP account. If you agree, select Yes on the green button (Hai はい). If you want to add another information on your name, select No on the orange button (Iie いいえ).

13. The next screen will ask you to enter your phone number (without hypen "-"), for example: 07011112222. Select green button to confirm or orange button for correction.

14. The next screen will ask you to check again the destination account information (which will be shown next) before confirming the money transfer. The remittance could be failed if you put wrong account number (in which the transfer fee would not be refunded). Select green button to proceed.

15. The next screen will show the transfer information including the name of destination bank, the branch, destination account number and its name, the amount of money will be transferred, as well as your account information. Check again very carefully. You can correct the information by selecting orange button next to each information. For transfer amount below ￥50,000, the transfer fee is ￥216, higher than that the transfer fee is ￥432. If you agree, proceed by selecting green button.

16. The next screens is just optional. It informs you if you want to save the destination account (for future transfer, hence you don't need to reenter same information next time). It can save up to 10 accounts. Another screen will also inform about the importance of passbook update you if you use cash card for money transfer).

Save your transaction destination?

Passbook update request

17. It's finished. Take your card/passbook and receipt.