Gunpa #39 - HGUC Sinanju Stein (Narrative Version)

I've never been a big fan of the red Sinanju from Unicorn series. While it's really cool, I still prefer the 'fat' Sazabi than Sinanju. In my humble opinion, Sinanju is an over-designed mobile suit and lacks the war robot theme which is one of the aspects I like the most about gundam and real-robot genre. And then, comes the Sinanju Stein, which is basically the Sinanju, before 'stolen' and modified by Neo Zeon for Full Frontal, the second coming of Char. In almost every aspect, Sinanju Stein is very same with Sinanju. The difference lies on the aesthetics since the mobile suit was built by Anaheim Electronics, the main MS supplier of Earth Federation. Sinanju Stein appearance is just like a mixed of Nu Gundam and Sazabi. It has gundam face and eyes, sharp-angled design as typical EFSF mobile suits, while inheriting the body shape of Sazabi and proportion as well as color scheme of Nu Gundam. Anyway, what I like the most about Sinanju Stein is it looks much more like a war robot than a super robot as red Sinanju. Therefore, when Bandai announced that they will release Sinanju Stein in HGUC line, I was so hype for it.

I got the kit from コジマ (Kojima), one of the retail stores which has the most gunpla collection in the city, with the price of 1980 Yen (the original price is 2600 Yen). It has 11 runners, with one comes runner from HGUC Sinanju (D runner), and one comes from HGUC Neo Zeong (F runner). One may think it's just a retooling from Sinanju, but in fact, it mostly uses new design, in particular with the body armor parts.

After completed the assembly, one could easily tell that this kit actually a miniature version of MG Sinanju Stein. Aside from inner frame and several gimmicks, it almost looks identical with the MG version, especially the panel lines. If only it comes with proper decals, this HG kit will look exactly similar with its MG counterpart. The main differences between the original Stein and Narrative version are (of course) the Neo Zeon emblems on the chest and sleeves, grayish color scheme instead of white, longer fuel tanks and slightly different beam rifle. Cool thing of this kit is, it provides option parts for making shorter fuel tanks and extra parts (with different color) for the leg thrusters, which makes me quite sure that Bandai will likely released the original Sinanju Stein, probably as P-Bandai. Also, the fact that Stein's beam rifle is slightly retooled of Sinanju's is a big plus. At least the builder has option to choose between Stein or Sinanju beam rifle for customization.

Stein and Sazabi (with action base)

Now, lets talk about articulation. Stein narrative version has quite unique articulation on the shoulder parts which enables the arms to stretch out, to the front, back or upwards. Also, the elbow connection is quite stiff, hence holding such a huge beam rifle is not a problem at all. The legs/knee could bend quite far inside, which is really good. The hands, feet and (unfortunately) waist use ball joint connection which is typical for a HG kit. The leg and backpack thursters also have articulation gimmicks. All I can say is this kit has really good articulation and it's easy to make cool poses with it (just look at the pictures).

For accessories, this kit comes with a huge beam rifle, bazooka, two beam sabers, grenade launcher and shield. The bazooka has short and long barrels, and it could be attached to the beam rifle which makes the weapon totally badass!! Grenade launcher could also be attached to the beam rifle and shield. This is not in the manual, but few modification could enable the bazooka to be attached to the shield, as the red Sinanju does in the OVA. The beam saber use yellow clear effects, and the hilts could be stored in the arm. Unfortunately, it doesn't have beam tonfa gimmick as MG, which is I don't really complain about since it's a HG. This kit has 6 sets of hands: a pair of closed hand, a pair of open hand, 1 trigger right hand and open left hand. Anyway, there are only 5 sets of hand guards which is quite weird, but I also don't mind much about it since you could only use 2 hands at a time.

Now let's talk about the bad side. As other Sleeves HG, this kit only uses stickers for the Neo Zeon emblems. Also, the beam rifle lacks parts separation. If you don't like it, you can paint it of though. Lastly, it only comes with sticker, no marking decals at all. Those are the reasons which prompted me to apply custom decal and paint on it.

Badass!!

I used some spare waterslide decals of RG Sinanju and 1/144 HQParts decals to add some details to the kit. For the paint, I used black, grey and red gundam marker to add color separation to the beam rifle. Finally, I applied two layers of matte top coats with Mr. Top Coat for finisher. The final result is so amazing. For posing purpose, I used action base 5 and Kotobukiya red LED sword.

Finally, the verdict. I could say this kit is so great, probably one of the best HG I've ever built. The details are overwhelming, even though there are some areas it lacks but that's still reasonable. The articulation is fantastic with tons of accessories and extra parts, hence it's really fun to play with. Finally, with price tag of 2600 Yen, this kit is well worth of your money and I really recommend it for any gundam/gunpla fans.

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MSN-06S-2 Sinanju Stein (Narrative Version)

Pros:

• Beautiful aesthetics, a miniature version of MG Sinanju Stein
• Great articulation with wide range of movements
• Lots of accessories, with extra spare parts and options for custom
• Solid joints, really fun to play with
• Good price

Cons:

• No marking stickers
• Foil stickers for Neo Zeon markings on the collar and arms