Finished to write the Review of the HGUC Unicorn Gundam (Destroy mode).
What I learned from this - now I know how much effort dalong puts into his work. (And why there's just one post a day - max!)
Well - I hope you enjoy the review - c&c is welcome.
yup - that's me!
I'll cover the weapons first - since I find weapons far more important for a model than the posing.
not that much included
What you'll get:
1 Beam Magnum
1 spare magazin for the Beam Magnum for the rear skirt armor
1 shield (can't transform, obviously)
2 different peg's to connect the shield with the backpack and arm
4 Beam Sabre handles (2 for the Backpack and 2 for the forearms)
The shield is just a handful of parts and it is assembled quickly, however, the back of the shield is all white - I decided to paint it gray using a gray Gundam Marker.
There's also a Polycap on the back for the pegs - sind the polycap is circular, you can rotate the shield, but you can't tilt it in any direction.
The BPP - BackPackPeg
Basically, one end is a cylinder, which goes into the shield's polycap, whereas the other end is a cuboid, which goes into a slit on the Backpack.
slit located...
shield connected
Mounting the shield on the back can be fun, if you want your Unicorn Gundam to be heavily armed, but usually, you'll want to pop the shield onto the arm.
Well, this isn't complicated - you just have to find the slit(s) on the arm, which are located near the beam sabre - since those have the same measures like the slit on the backpack, you can mount the shield on the back of the arm as well (using the 'BPP'), but I prefere the shield to be placed on the side of the arm.
(right next to the gray elbow joint)
(the peg plugged into the shield's polycap...)
(... or clipped onto the arm)
I love the clear pink and therefore
the pink shades on the Unicorn Gundam
Now that the Unicorn Gundam can defend himself - he still needs something to blast some Neo Zeon's - we all know that attack is the best form of defense.
Introducing - the Beam Magnum!
(I have to admit, I was tempted to do a stupid joke with a Magnum)
At the rear of the Beam Magnum - you can pull out a peg in order to attach the Beam Magnum onto the Backpack.
>>PullOut>>
Attach!
But you can attach it on the back of the arm aswell - but this peg can't be pushed in in order to disguise it.
(the peg and....
...the slit - the same as for the Shield)
et voila!
A standart for all new Mastergrade Kits is to have a peg on the palm to securely hold the weapons and such - I don't know when Bandai decided to introduce a similar system for HGUC Kits (I know that the Hi-v has this kind of peg aswell),... anyways.
While the MG kits have the peg itself on the hand, and the slits on the weapons, the HGUC hands have this swapped - here, the peg is on the weapon and the slit on the hand!
OMG!
OMFG!
Well, at least it securely holds the Beam Magnum
- and it doesn't wiggle
What I dislike somewhat - which is an issue almost all HG kits have - you don't have a trigger-finger manipulator for the left arm - no going akimbo sadly.
Well, instead of double firepower, you can have the double amount of ammo - or at least an spare ammo pack.
The Ammo Pack and mounted onto the rear skirt
If you want to change the mag of the Beam Magnum - forget it: the Beam Magnum is just 4 parts (2 for the barrel - and 2 for the entire 'body' of the Beam Magnum(just 2 halves snapped together))
What I found to be a nice gimmick - some Beam Sabres from other kits, like the Beam Sabre from the HG Seraphim Gundam (Gundam 00) fit into the barrel and work like an beam effect part for the magnum!
*zapp*
Speaking of Beam Sabres from other kits - if you have the Unicorn Gundam (Unicorn Mode), or an other HG kit with the correct beam-sabre-effect-part-runner, you can attach this Beam Sabre effect part onto the Beam Sabres of the Unicorn Gundam (like I did with a Beam Sabre from the HGUC RX-79(G) Ground Gundam, which is, besides the color, exactly the same like the Unicorn Gundam (Unicorn Mode) kit has included).
This Beam-Sabre doesn't have a joint - you can just remove the entire sabre+handle or tilt it like it has a joint - it fits nicely,... but for how long? (see my final notes).
well - just attach the Beam Sabre effect to the Beam Sabre and you're done!
Now with the weapons done - lets go into detail for the parts themself.
The Unicorn Gundam seperated
The shoulder has 2 axis which allows the peg to be moved up and down, and forward an back - plenty of articulation for a HGUC, which is far better than older MG kits, like the GM-C, but still far inferior to nowadays MG shoulder joints, like the GM 2.0.
The neck can move up and down - and the head can rotate 360 - thanks to the ball joint and that the head doesn't have any ridiculous chin and side-vents, like the v(nu)-Gundam has.
The arm - if you watched rrobberts184's review on the MG Unicorn Gundam, you might know that the elbow is just able to bend to a 90 degree angle - let's see how far the HGUC can bend.
More than 90 degree obviously - I'd say about 100 - and how far can it bend backwards?
not much - but who wants to bend his arm that way? This gotta be hurting!
The shoulder on the Arm part can bend... well, that far - but it now collides with the Beam sabre - It can bend a bit more with the Beam sabre removed, but not much - because the shoulder armor will block eventually.
where's my waist?
Skirt Armors - comparing how far the skirt armor can move.
Gimmick Alert!
The cover for the thrusters on the
However, the rear skirt itself can't move!
I forgot to take a photo to show the waist movability - it can turn 360 - something the new MG Unicorn (OVA ver.) claims to be able, compared to his ver. Ka counterpart.
The leg connects to the waist with a balljoint - this means you can split the legs a little bit, by far not as far as the Zaku 2.0.
Note: the top of the leg is painted gray - it is white by default
The legs are as well, in terms of posability, superior to their Master Grade brothers - the MG Unicorn (ver. Ka) can bend about 80 degree, the improved OVA ver. MG Unicorn can bend about 90 degree, and the HGUC can bend about 100!
Ankle Movement
What shall I say - again, the HGUC wins against his MG counterpart.
The leg's can go that much forward but just that much backwards - 'thanks' to the immobile rear skirt!
recreation of Box-Art
(which I find to be the best pose)
Last - but not least, I turned on my LED inside my Lightning Box.
Final thoughts:
It's a great kit, and for the price of 1800 yen, you will get alot of playability and a lot of time putting this together.
Since it can't transform, like the MG version, it has a much more solid feel while posing the Unicorn Gundam - rrobbert184 claimed that with the MG Unicorn Gundam, you don't really want to pose it in Destroy mode, because some parts might want to 'detransform', pop out etc.
Well, my only complaint is, that there's no ABS plastic
I somewhat have the feeling, that pulling the wrist mounted beam Sabres out and in too often will loosen the mounting location (or how to call this) eventually, for example.
I have the same problem with the neck of the 1/48 scale Unicorn Gundam Head - it got loose, and now, the posability is decreased, unless I'd clue it.
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