MG 1/100 Strike Freedom - Full Burst Mode

Finally I was able to finish off my MG 1/100 Strike Freedom after I have it for 2 years!!! The reason for such a long wait is because I wanted to get an airbrush compressor so that I could start to do some serious work with it. I'm quite please with the result, although there I'd occasionally yelling because of frustration over certain detailing works.

The finishing product is what it looks like in the following pictures. I must say that the proportion of this kit is well done and it's way far better than it's 1/100 Seed Destiny counterpart.


This is how it looks like from the back. As you can see the wings on displayed without the Dragoons units. The wings come with a very nice mechanical gimick that by moving the back wings upward, the wings' branches would move together, so you could get a very nice proportion layout like how it looks like in the picture after the following picture.



And here's an upclose shot from on the head. I was thrilled by this kit because it looks nice!!!

And here's another picture that displaying it in the full burst mode.


This is a full burst mode version, so it comes with the action base and effect parts to display the Dragoon units. It is such a killer and I couldn't describe how much joy that I have when I finally finished making this kit. The airbrush is really handy and it gives me the freedom to mix and match the color that I desired. The color that I used are listed below.

• White: Mr Color White + Mr Color Metallic Blue (extremely little)
• Blue: Mr Color Cobalt Blue + Mr Color Fluorescent Pink (little)
• Black: Mr Color Navy Blue
• Red: Mr Color Metallic Red
  
• Gray: Mr Color Intermediate Blue + Mr Color White (little)
• Gold: Tamiya Titanium Gold + Tamiya Clear Yellow

I must say that in comparison to Tamiya color, Mr Color gives a smoother surface and it's not sticky. I used Tamiya color before and I found that it's very sticky. But in this case, I'm using a Tamiya for the Gold instead because I couldn't find Mr Color Gold, and it's a good thing because I did try to use Mr Metal Color Gold when I was painting my MG 1/100 Hi-Nu Gundam, and the color could not give the desired effect as compare to the Tamiya Titanium Gold. Surprisingly though, the Tamiya Titanium Gold doesn't give me the sticky feeling like the spray can, so it's a good thing.

Also, this is the first time that I applied decal for my Gunpla. I got the decal from HLJ after waiting for about 2 years? It was previously discontinued by Bandai. So it is advisable to grab the decal together with the Gunpla when it was launched because you might have to wait for about a year or 2 or it will never be produced again if there are no demand for it. A kit without a decal might be great enough, but a kit with a decal is even better and it's such a killer!!!

The weakness in this kit? I just don't know why Bandai don't want to make the head of this kit like the F-91, that divided from the center line, making it less hassle to hide the parting line. It's such a pain to deal with the parting line on the head, and I don't dare to do modification because I don't know what the outcome is like, so I have to do it the way that I used to do - color the face, assemble the head, mask the face, deal with the parting line, and color the head. It's a long and tedious procedures.

Anyway, like most of the Gunpla expert has said, it's not easy to do modification on the latest MG Gunpla series like this one because of the complex design, so it has to be done carefully. So should I do modification on my next kit? I did actually, and it's a 99% success rate on my MG 1/100 Hi-Nu Gundam (job done) but it's a 70% on my MG 1/100 Strike Noir because it's harder to modify the head with my lack of experience.

Lastly, I must give the credit to how stable it is when it's holding the beam rifle because unlike the previous MG 1/100 F-91 and the MG 1/100 Crossbone X-1, this kit surprisingly could hold the beam rifle steadily. Although the F-91 and the Crossbone X-1 do have connector on their palm that could connect with the beam rifle, but this Strike Freedom seems to be able to connect and hold the beam rifle with no sign of dropping.

Non-Gunpla: Revoltech - Laevatein

Revoltech is a series created by Kaiyodo, another Japan toy maker. It is a famous line-up because the Revoltech toys are able to be posed with a lot of action thanks to its Revolver joint. I'm not really a big fan of Revoltech because it's small(comparable to a 1/144 Gunpla) and the design is not really my kind of taste. But, I still have to give it credit because the Revoltech design resembles closely to the anime design and it's able to perform variety of poses that's almost reminiscene the actions seen in the anime. The cost is about RM 90++ each. Since it was released, it has come out with a lot of sub lineup like Fraulein Revoltech series, which is specifically for Bishojo (beautiful lady), Street Fighter, and Fist of the North Star.

The Revoltech that I got is ARX-8 Laevatein (No. 59) from the series Full Metal Panic. Although I never watch any of the Full Metal Panic episodes, I do remember that I didn't see this in action at all. From what I could understand from the box, this ARX-8 does appear in the serialized novel. It is considered as a deluxe Revoltech because it comes with a lot of extra parts that you could choose from, and the box is 2 times bigger than the normal Revoltech but surprisingly it cost the same.


Here's a picture on how it looks like. This set comes with a display stand as well so you could display the ARX-8 in the air like in the following pictures. I must say that it looks quite nice and cool and overall it looks pretty anime.



The ARX-8 comes with a long rifle that could be detached to become a short assault rifle. I don't really know what's the name for the weapon although a couple of googling could help, but I just don't bother to do it. The rifle would look something like the following picture. This rifle reminds me of the rifle used by the Gespent MK II Kai in Super Robot War Orignal Generation Gaiden.



So it looks nice & cool and it's able to pose a lot of difficult action, so it's great!!! Not exactly though because like Gunpla that could break easily, I'd see that Revoltech has a weakness too. Although the Revolver joint is great, but it's very hard to get it into the desired position. Sometime you may have to take out the joint, twist it to your desired position, then put it back again. For a toy like this that made of durable plastic, I'd enjoy it if I could just twist and turn the joint wherever I want without the needs to take it out, twist, and put it back. The maker surely have their reason behind this, so I won't give any further comment on this.

On another note, like the GFF series, this comes with a lot of spare parts that could render useless because you can't use all of them at the same time, so you might considering to get another one. Also, it's very hard to get this Revoltech to stand still because of it's small feet under full equipment load, so the display stand will have to be used to make it stable.

Conclusion? I still prefer 1/100 Gunpla. Revoltech is very innovative, but it's just not my cup of tea.

Soul of Chogokin - Godmars

Previously, I may have posted about Godmars from the Bandai Soul of Chogokin line-up. I've finally decided to buy this toy for nostalgic reason as well because I still remember how I love this show when I was a kid, especially the scramble sequence, the combination sequence, and finally the finishing move.

Godmars is a story about a teenager who was sent from another planet to observe and to destroy planet earth. Of course, the teenager was sent when he was a baby, so he doesn't know much about his pass until his older twin brother transfer/unlock the memory to him. In fact, much like Superman, the teenager was from a race that possesses phsychic power. Then it evolves around the teenager on how he discovered that he's not an earthling, being rejected by the people that he's being protecting, discouraged, overcoming these obstacle and save the earth, being cursed by the main villain of the show, and finally defeating the main villain and finally, the time has come for him to embark on a journey to save the universe alone(together with his first and only lover of the show as shown in the final scene). Frankly, I only dwell into the story after I got the DVD set like 5 months ago. When I was a kid, I could understand none of these.

Godmars is the giant robot that created by the father of this teenager(whose name is Mars) to protected Mars from harm. When Mars is in trouble, his protector Gaia will appear to get him out from the situation. And, when Mars itself can't handle the enemy, Mars will be able to summon the other 5 robots - Shin, Ra, Sphinx, Uranus and Titan, to come and rescue him. Together with these 5 robots, they are able to combine into the ultimate and unstoppable, unscratchable, and heavy-duty giant robot Godmars. It is unstoppable because once Godmars is here, its opponent will only suffer defeat, and it's 100% guarantee.

Design wise, Godmars is very boxy. Yet, despite of this boxiness, it looks cool and it suits well because it gives the unstoppable impression. I used to have the old format toy that produce by some company in the 80's, and I love it. With this new release, it's even better because it resembles more closely to the anime and at least the legs and amrs can be moved. That's a job well done for Bandai.

This toy costs me RM798. I regretted for not buying it from XL-Shop because if I do, I'll be able to get a lot of points for this because it costs the same. I bought this one from Fantasy in Low Yat Plaza, KL. The price shown is after charged with 3% credit card transaction fee.

The following picture shows the content of the box when it's opened.


The picture above shows all the robots that serve as parts for Godmars. The following picture shows the extra goodies for this toy, of which it has a replica of the Cosmo Squad, or whatever squad that is(goole it) fighter craft that can be divided into 3 smaller craft. In the anime it is shown that this fighter craft can penetrate the atmosphere and travel in space with ease. Of course, it shows the sword of Godmars - God Flash, which is a big improvement from the previous toy.


Due to the limitation of picture size, I can't really post much pictures over here, so I'll just concentrate on uploading the picture of the necessary one instead. First off, the 6 robots with the pose that it can do.

Next up, the combined Godmars from the back side. The reason to show the backside is because in the old toy, the back of Godmars is not as smooth as this one because the arms of Sphinx, Uranus, and Titans are exposed due to the combination gimmick limitation at that time. Unlike this one, where all the hands are hidden within the body.


And finally, here's something from the front with what it could do.


Unless you're 80's anime lover, otherwise you would not appreciate this toy. This is more like a collector item instead of a toy to let your children to play with. Best of all, this toy is contructed with nearly 80% die-cast metal, so it's quite heavy. The only complain that I have is that Gaia supposed to be as tall as Uranus and Titans, of which they have to ommit it in order to allow the combination of Gaiai with Sphinx to work.

Non-Gunpla: GFF Metal Composit RX-78-2

Bandai, as we know is the company that presents us with the Gunpla. In fact, IMHO Bandai is the major working force behind promoting the Gundam. Beside the plastic model kit, Bandai did come out with a few other line-up for the Gundam series, i.e. Gundam Fix Figuration, MS in Action, and HCM-Pro. Yet, none these line-up really attract/persuade me to invest because i.e. HCM-Pro is too small for my taste, Gundam Fix Figuration is very nicely done but it's still too small for my taste and too many parts, and MS in Action is also too small although it's rigid.

However, I did make an exception because I did buy a Gundam Fix Figuration. Yes, the small size but very detail Gundam Fix Figuration(GFF), but unlike the normal GFF, this is a 1/100 scale GFF Metal Composite series, meaning it has die-cast metal part and it's 1/100 scale! My favourite range. The GFF Metal Composite that I bought is RX-78-2 Ver. Ka. I don't think I need to explain what it is since you can google it yourself, so let's see how this thing looks like.

Here we are we have the GFF placed nicely in a poly styrene box. I must say that this reminds me of the first ever Gundam RX-78-2 die-cast toy that I got from my dad when I was 8 years old, except this one doesn't come with the G Fighter and it looks very detailed.


Overall, this GFF feels very solid and obviously heavy because of the die-cast metal. However, I did notice that the legs are the only parts that uses die-cast metal; the rest are still plastic. What a shame, they could have put in more metal. As expected, the articulation is not a flexible as compare to the Gunpla, but at least the arms and the legs can bend.


As expected out of Katoki Hajime's design, this GFF looks great. Above is how it looks like from the front, and the picture below shows the back.


Below is another close-up picture from the front.


As I said previously that this kit can't really pose much action, so the best pose that I could think of would be something as shown in the following picture.

As with the GFF counterpart, the GFF Metal Composite line does come with numbering as well, and this one is GFF Metal Composite #04. GFF Metal Composite #01 is a combo of this Gundam together with the G Fighter. The price of ths GFF Metal Composite is about RM 298, whereas the GFF Metal Composite #01 is about RM450++. I bought mine from XL-Shop, and they are the only one so far that I noticed to brought in this GFF Metal Composite line-up.

Is it worthy to get this kit? I would say yes because of it is well designed despite the fact that it can't pose much. Yet, the main reason that I bought it is because of nostalgic reason that I mentioned earlier.

Why do I say 'Second Wave'?

In my earlier post of 1/100 Infinite Justice, I did mention about 'Second Wave'. The meaning of this is because after my last Gunpla - the PG 1/60 Strike Gundam, I tried to improve on my modeling making by acquiring more tools that's necessary to make a better kit. The following picture shows the collection within this 'wave'.

So what have I done? Firstly, I learned that there's actually different grade of Surface Primer. Surface primer is the underlying coating on the plastic surface before applying the main color. The degree of surface primer ranges from rough to fine, with the rough one having bigger particles that could granulate on the surface, making it necessary to sand it down to have a smooth surface before spraying the main coat.

Secondly, it is during this wave that I realized how important it is to have a underlying coating before spraying the main color. But in order to do so, I'll need a lot of paint for that purpose.

Thirdly, instead of having the parts arrange on a flat surface for spraying, I learned to stick the parts onto a stick. It is a lot more easire to do it this way.

Fourthly, I discovered that Mr Color has nicer finishing as compare to Tamiya color; but Mr Color finishes quicker as compare to Tamiya.

So that's all for now. I'll shall continue to talk somehing about toys thats' not based on Gundam as soon as possible.

Gundam 00 - 1/60 Gundam Exia

The latest Gundam series that is now showing and is nearing its climatic end is Gundam 00. Like all previous Gundam series, it has no exception here as well that Gundam is the main focus of war, or rather Gundam is the reason why there's a war. It is similar to Gundam W of which the Gundam is the one that ignitiated the war. The design of the Gundams in Gundam 00 took a major change, of which I'd say extreme because the Gundams look more slimmer and although it's still boxy, but it lacks the similarity with all the previous Gundams. Currently Season 2 is showing and it's going to be finishing soon.

In this post, I'm going to talk about the 1/60 Gundam Exia from the first season, the Gundam that plays the leading role. Among the 4 Gundams(Dynames, Kyrios, Virtue), I'd say that Exia is the best looking, although I still like the other 3 Gundams. Exia is considered as the trump card because of its GN Sword that could pierce through the GN field. If you're confused with the word GN, try google it. Pilot of Exia is a young man called Setsuna F. Seie, who is of middle-eastern origin. Here are the pictures showing the front and back with full equipment.




Much like the anime, this kit has all the melee weapons, ranging from the GN Sword(Convertible to GN Rifle), GN Blade(Long & Short), GN Beam Saber(2), and GN Beam Dagger(2) plus a GN Shield of which Exia hardly uses it to dodge the enemies' attack. Although this kit is 1/60 scale, but it lacks the ability to pose as compare to it's 1/100 scale, and it looks 'fatter' as compare to the 1/100 scale. In example, the foot is totally 1 piece as compare to 2 pieces in the 1/100 scale, making it not able to bend down; the arm is like the 1/60 scale Strike Gundam, wich is without the double joint, meaning it can only be bended until 90 degree; the body is another one that I really dissapointed with because if they are able to make the 1/100 scale to at least lean to left and right, why can't they make this one to be like that as well? Since it's bigger in scale? It is the same though with the 1/60 Strike Gundam; big scale but yet can't pose much.

Anyway, I got this kit because it's a gift. I don't think I would personally wanting to buy this kit, and it doesn't really stir me to 'buy me! buy me!'. In conclusion, here's another picture showing it wielding the GN Sword and the GN Blade(Long).


1 thing I do hope for is that Bandai could at least come out with a MG for this kit or rather a PG. But if they could only make one PG from this 00 universe, then I'd rather to have them made the 00 Raiser(Gundam 00 & O Riser) instead.

MG 1/100 Crossbone Gundam X-1

Last post I've put up the MG 1/100 F-91 Gundam & it's variation, the F-91 Harrison's Suit. In this post, I put up some pictures of the Crossbone Gundam X-1. The following picture shows how it looks like.

A brief history about the Crossbone Gundam. It is the continuation of Gundam F-91 that has never been made into an anime. Instead, it is told in the form of Manga and it is set 10 years after the event in F-91, with Seabork Arnold and Cecilia as the Crossbone Vanguard Space Pirates that trying to fend off the Jupiter Empire from destroying earth. But Seabork Arnold(called Kinkid in the manga) is not the main protagonist, but it's a young man called Tobia Arranox.

Crossbone Gundam is made by the same organisation that made the F-91, code name F-97, and it was secretly delivered to the hand of Kinkid for the war. There are 3 Crossbone Gundam being made - X1, X2, and X3. Among all these, only X1 survives the war and subsequently being modified into X1 Kai Skull Heart, of which Bandai has came out with another MG 1/100 for this kit. Crossbone Gundam is designed to deal with the high gravity field of Jupiter, thus making it capable of maneuver at high speed. It also one of the Gundam that has a core fighter as it's main block in the chest. The significant features of Crossbone is the X-shape thrusters at the back, and it's appealing pirate signature. In constrast with F-91, Crossbone X-1 has a lot of melee attack weapons but bear only a Beam Samber as it's main beam projectile weapon, unlike the F-91 that wields a pair of VSBR. Here's a picture of the back side showing the X-shape thrusthers.


This kit is designed by Mr Katoki, so the box art is just plain white with the Gundam standing straight and is very beautifully done. Unfortunately, it can't pose as much as F-91, although it uses the same parts as F-91. This kit can't squat like F-91 because of the front armored skirt. Then, the main weapon, the Beam Zanber, can't hardly be fitted to the hand because of the handle. The Beam Rifle part of the Beam Zanber supposingly be able to be held by the hand, and it's also very unfortunate because the handle is too big for it to grab. Then what's the point of having this kit? Well, the purpose of this kit, IMHO, is to include as much feature as possible, especially the melee attack weapons. All these weapons are hiding all over the body - knife from the leg, some chain like weapon from the armor skirt(front & back), beam knuckle from the arm, and the cloaking pirate cloak. I'm not an engineer so I'm not sure if it's possible to do so, but I do appreciate Katoki's effort of making this kit as detailed as it can be without sacrificing much on the possibility. In fact, I do find that this kit is much more sturdier as compare to the F-91 kits. Below is another picture that I've taken to show the beam knuckle activated on the left hand.


So why would you want to get this kit? Firstly, I bought this because it's Katoki who designed it. Second, the pirates feature of this kit is cool. Thirdly, there is something that looks nicer as compare to the Manga version. Lastly, it's another protagonist's Gundam along the UC time line. I got this kit at about RM130.

One other fact: the Crossbone Gundam X-1 is produced during the time line where all mobile suits are being made smaller to cut cost, so like the F-91, this kit is only 15cm tall.