Gunpla - #13 - HGUC Loto Twin Set Review

Loto, the smallest of HGUC kits. I wonder that's why Bandai gave us two in one box. I saw Loto for the first time while reading Gundam Unicorn manga, then the OVA,  and I was immediately interested with the design. At the first glance, it's obvious that Loto is a descendant of the classic Guntank of the original MSG. The main feature of Loto that's differentiates it from the previous ancestors is the transformation capability from tank mode to mobile suit mode. This is not only the smallest, but also my first transformable kit, hence I adore it very much. I like the blocky design of EFSF's mobile suit, the military looks and of course the ability to transform :-)

The box contains 6 runners (3 runners for each unit), a manual and a sticker sheet. For me, the big surprise was the kit did not contain any policaps which usually used for the joints. The building process itself was quite fast, around 3-4 hours for 1 unit. However, because the parts were so small, it took longer for me in order to finished the first unit. After that, I could finish the second unit much faster. I also added some remaining number stickers ("01" and "02") from my Jesta to add military theme to the kit. For the accessories, you'll get 2 cannons (for each unit), 2 machine cannons, two beam burners (for each unit), and 2 machine guns. These weapons, of course, could be exchangeable between the two units. Because this kit uses missile launcher instead of hands, there are no beam sabers included.

The transformation was quite simple and straight forward. The good thing was, there are no parts swapping. It's really fun to see these two units in the different mode together :-) 

As a small kit, Loto has quite good articulation, especially for hand and shoulder. However, the feet are not quite free enough to move. I supposed the main reason for this was the absence of the polycaps. Anyway, the kits still could have many cool poses. The main flaws of this kit are the weak joints, especially for the waist-lower body connection and knee joints.  The waist for example, tended to fall frequently when I lifted the kits. Fortunately, it's strong enough to withstand the impact with my room floor, hence there were no broken parts. On the other hand, the knee joints were very fragile. Sometimes, it just detached by itself from the feet. I read several review on internet that some modeler accidentally broke the knee joints during transformation. I have no problem so far for my kits though, but I decided not to transform it too many times to avoid the same accident. Therefore, I made the first unit in the tank mode, and the second in the MS mode :-)

Overall, despite the weak joints it possessed, Loto is a worthy unit to be collected, especially for the grunts and Feddie's MS lover as me. You just should be careful during the building and transforming the kit to avoid the accidents :-)

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D - 50C Loto

Pros :

• Cool blocky and militaristic design.
• It could transform between tank and MS. 
• You got 2 units in one box, and tons of accessories, with a reasonable market price.

Cons :

• The lower body part tends to fall due to weak connection with the waist. Glue should be a help.
• Fragile knee joints due the absence of policaps. Vulnerable to be broken, if you're not careful.
• Very small parts and very difficult to stand in MS mode due to small feet.

Gunpla - #12 - RG Freedom Gundam Review

Freedom, one of the coolest and the most over powered MS in the Gundam history. This was my second gunpla as well as the second kit I owned. Just like Justice (its sister unit), Freedom's signature feature are its wings. They are probably not as majestic as the angelic wings of Wing Zero Gundam, but in my opinion, Freedom's wings are much cooler with the distinctive blue and black color scheme. That's probably why the Freedom is one of the most favored kits, and RG line surely makes it way way better. The RG design of Freedom is really an eye candy. The proportion, color separation, panel lines, detail etc. are really beautiful.

I don't remember how many runners inside the box (8 or 9 runners, I guess). You'll get 6 sets of hand (2 close hands, 2 variable hands, 1 trigger right-hand and 1 opened left-hand). The accessories includes a beam rifle, 1 shield and 2 beam sabers. As another RG kits, the beam sabers are too long in my opinion. Looks simple, but Freedom's body actually hides to more weapons. The first are the machine guns attached on the right and left side of its waist. While not used, the machine guns are folded and forms like side skirts of a knight. They are really cool :-). The second are a pair of cannons hided inside the wings. While used, the cannon could be retracted over the wings and Freedom's head, especially for the famous Full Burst Mode.

Full Burst Mode

The articulation, well, as I mentioned above, it's really amazing. This guy could do any awesome poses, especially with an action base. Of course, the most famous is the Full Burst Mode, when Freedom spread out the wings and reveals all its arsenals to attack multiple enemy targets. This is where the best design of RG is shown. Instead of 5 flaps of wing on each side (as MG/HG Freedom kits), the wings could split into 7 flaps !! Cool !!

Angelic walk ... this is my favorite pose of Freedom :-)

The details ? This kit has sooo many panel lines all over the body. And guess what ? You'll get 2 sheets of decals for one ofe the best building experience in Gunpla history. Truly, I spent almost one whole night only for applying the decals.

Justice and Freedom

Anyway, as other RG kits, this kit also has several flaws. Despite has great articulation, the joints are simply 'weaker' than MG/HG kits. Freedom's body is barely stand the weight of its wings in the folded position, while the problem is not exist for the spreading wings. One other thing, you must be very careful with the wings during Full Burst Mode pose. This pose really pushes the wings into their limits, where they are tends to loose or even break apart. I accidentally broke one of the cannons inside the wings, while the other one is becoming loose after doing Full Burst Mode pose several times.

Overall, Freedom is an awesome kit and it's one of my favorite Gundam designs of all time, and It is really worth to become one of your collection, especially for the RG lovers and SEED's fans :-)

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ZGMF - X10A Freedom Gundam

Pros :

• Great details, colors separation, and articulation of RG lines
• The coolest wings in Gundam history
• Tons of accessories and decals
• Very good price for a such great kit

Cons :

• Heavy wings (while folded)
• Joints are weak, and vulnerable to be broken, especially for the wings

Gunpla - #11 - HGUC GM Striker Review

This was my first repainted kit, and it took the longest time to be finished among my other kits. I saw this model from Dalong.net (one of the best gunpla review websites, in Korean though) for the first time, and I immediately "fell in love" with the design. First, the armor all over its body simply indicated that it IS a special type mobile suit. Based on Gundam wikia, RGM-79FP GM Striker is a ground close quarters mobile suit, and because of that, the mobile suit is mostly equipped with close range weapons and extraordinary armor. Really extra ordinary, where the thick armor covered almost its entire body. And the second, guess what ? Do you see what the guy holds in his right hand ? Yes, the weapon is not a common one in the history of GM. It's a twin beam spear, and it's badass ! Since GM Striker is a close range fighter, I decided to repaint it in a "proper way". Well,  in my opinion, a close range mobile suit should have scratches and damages from previous battles. Hence, I repainted it and give weathering effects to give the battle impressions to the kit.

It was not an easy task though, because this was my first time to repaint a model kit. I was really confused about what kind of paint to be used for painting, how to apply the paint and thinner, what painting technique I would use etc. I finally decided to use Enamel paint for the hand brush (because airbrush costed really really expensive -_-"). And again, I still don't have clear idea what I should do after I had all tools. I felt a little scared that I would ruin with the paint, but I've finally started to paint the model. I decide to build the model completely, then painted it.

GM Striker is actually an old kit (released in 2006 or 2007), thus it missed some of the features of the recent HGUC kits. There are only 7 runners inside the box, but there are 4 beam sabers given by Bandai (yay!), you could only used 3 of them though. You got 4 hands : 2 closed hands, 1 open hand (left only), and 1 trigger hand (right only). I decided not to use all the stickers because I hate too many sticker, especially for the head. For the weapons, you got a machine gun, a spiked shield and the sexy twin beam spear. The machine gun and shield reminded me with the ones used in 08 MS Team anime. The spikes of the shield could retracted, and the beam spear ... oh boy, it could transform into a scythe. I really love this weapon ! 

Twin saber action !

As I mentioned above, this kit lacks some of the features of recent HGUC kits. The shoulder for example, could not move upside much, because it did not use ball joint as newer kits. However, much to my surprise, this kit applies special articulation for one of its wrist, and I've never found something like this before. Despite the limitations, this GM still could do some several nice poses as you could see on this page ;-) 

Fire !!!

GM Kick !!!

Triple beam saber action !

I decided to apply weathering effects of scratching metal all over the body by applying the silver paint with dry brushing technique. Because this was the first time, I messed up with the paints so many times. There were some parts which had much paints, where the others didn't. Anyway, I could finished the painting, and despite the mess up paints, well ... I was quite satisfied with my works :-)

Overall, GM Striker is a wonderful (old) kit, and if you are a fan of GM types, I recommend you to have this kit :-)

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RGM-79FP GM Striker

Pros :

• Wonderful body armor with many panel lines
• The twin beam spear and spike shield were badass !
• Special wrist articulation for a GM type

Cons :

• Limited articulation, especially for the shoulder and waist
• Typical GM feet and awkward orange color scheme

Gunpla - #10 - HGUC GM Sniper II Review

My first GM kit (if Jesta's not put into account, that is), as well as one of my favorite GM designs. As the name implies, this GM unit was designed solely for one main objective, long range sniping and killing, one shot one kill. According to the box art, this guy came from the anime "Mobile Suit Gundam 0080 : War in The Pocket". Honestly, I've never watched the series, hence I don't know what was GM Sniper II roles in the show. I just hope it's not just a cannon fodder as ordinary GMs of other series : the first one to get destroyed in battles LOL. I mean, look at the sleek design, the color scheme and weapons. It's not just an ordinary GM, is it ?

One of the coolest box arts in HGUC line ;-)

OK, I'll start from the box. It showed two GM Snipers and a DRAKEN-E mobile suits commencing in a battle, in the downtown, at night.  IMHO it's one of the coolest box arst in HGUC line. There were 10 runners inside. Wait, did I say the box art also showed a DRAKEN-E unit ? Yes, the kit also included one DRAKEN-E unit as bonus, as shown on the first picture of this review. Some people said that Bandai should gave another accessories instead of this little guy, but for myself, DRAKEN-E was not bad as a bonus. 

The scope looks bad ass and illuminates in the dark!

So, what differentiates the sniper GM with ordinary GMs (other than sniping purpose) ? Firstly, I would like to highlight the scope device on the head. It's totally cool, and could be used for sniping poses. If you pose the GM sniper under the right light setting, you could achieve cool effect where the scope looks glowing :-). Second, the hands. Usually, you got only one trigger hand, but GM sniper has two, and one of them was designed specially for handling the sniper rifle. The other trigger hand was used for the ordinary beam rifle. But the most special thing about this kit was the articulation. It was designed to hold sniper rifle on the kneeling position. IMHO, not so many HG kits have this feature.

This pose was one of the reason why I bought this kit :-D

As I mentioned above, this kit include a sniper rifle and a beam rifle. As for the close range weapons, It had 2 beam sabers which mounted on the rear skirt armor. There are 5 sets of hand: 2 close hands, 1 open hand (left only), and 2 trigger hands (right only). And now, the stickers. What irritated me the most was the sticker for the scope. It's so small and difficult to put inside the scope. Finally, I just took off the sticker from the scope because it looks ugly. I also dislike the original number "3" sticker on the left shoulder, and put the number sticker from Jesta on the shoulder and shield. IMHO it looks better than the original one :-)

From the beginning, I was imagining what it would be looked like if I provide this guy with bigger sniper rifle. Then I found this kit while wondering on a gunpla forum :

Hohoho .. I was so excited that I immediately went to the shop just after my office works finished. The assembling process took several hours, but finally, the rifle's finished. And this was what I got after combining GM Sniper II and the strong rifle (yes, it's the rifle's name) :

Lock on !!

Overall, GM sniper II a great kit and one of my favorites. The design, color scheme, articulation, and accessories were quite amazing, especially for a HG kit. In addition you'll get a DRAKEN-E, that IMHO is a nice bonus :-)

Beam saber and shield action

With beam rifle

GM Sniper II, Jesta and Jesta Cannon

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RGM - 79SP GM Sniper II

Pros :

• Specialized articulation for sniping poses
• Head scope FTW
• Nice accessories, and a DRAKEN-E unit as a bonus

Cons :

• Troublesome stickers, especially on the head and scope
• Plain detail, as expected from a HGUC GM design