Here’s you’re first look at the Master Grade Banshee! Honestly, without the MG badge in the top left of the page, it’s hard to differentiate it from its High Grade counterparts. I haven’t yet purchased the HG kits because I was waiting to see this come out, though I had no idea it would be out in March! For some more yummy pictures, head past the jump!

Okay so it’s not THAT exciting. There’s not really any higher detail from the High Grades (that I can tell) apart from the increase in size. Though Bandai actually found a way to make that Psycho frame more ugly. I think any sane person would paint it gold, because that looks kind of frikkin’ awesome. That is unless:

…It lights up! Now in all likelihood, it doesn’t light up at all. Since this is more or less a carbon copy of the Unicorn Gundam, it would take a wizard to work a way to make this thing light up AND transform. It you be cool if it did! =D

Now the MG Banshee comes in three forms. The normal, boring version with the sickly orange parts. And a special edition with gold-plated parts to be sold on the Bandai Hobby online shop only.

And the third version is a limited production run of the “Final Battle” Version of the Banshee.

What I like about this is that it lacks both of the arm attachments of the OVA version of the Banshee (The original doesn’t have those). AND it looks like it has gold-plated pieces to boot! This one is a touch more expensive than the original, but hey, its “Limited Edition”.

The Master Grade Unicorn Gundam 02 “Banshee” will be out this March (2012) for ¥5,500 or about $70.00.

Pre-order the MG Banshee from GGInfinite and HLJ, and you can pre-order the Limited Edition version from GGInfinite also!

Images from around Gundam Guy!

The very first part of the four-part Build/review of the MG Full Armor Unicorn Gundam! Sadly I can’t say that this will be too much of an exciting post, with it being only half of the build and all. So if you’re ready to see some hard-core model building, click past the jump

_Out of the Box_

THREE PAGES OF DECALS!? The Perfect Grade Strike Freedom Gundam didn’t have as many decals as this does! And that’s not at all an exaggeration.

The size of theses scans are very misleading. The two main decal sheets (the rub-on and tetron sheets) are MASSIVE. If you want to see them at large, click ‘em!

There are 14 runners for the Gundam. The runners for the rest of the kit are gonna be with the second half of the build.

_The Build_

Body_

38 pieces total for the upper body! No poly caps though. There’s actually not one in the entire kit, but then again, the MG Sinanju didn’t have any either!

Basic work for the body. Or at least however ‘basic’ this kit is. Which isn’t very.

And that’s the upper body! Nothing’s really too bad with the construction here, but this is definitely a kit where you have to follow the manual pretty closely. No skipping ahead a step or two here!

Head_

16 pieces for the head. I painted everything in this kit that needed a sticker on it (well, the foil stickers). I wasn’t at all impressed with the stickers for the V-fin, so that’s now an awesome shade of gold. Same for the eyes, I recommend that you paint the eyes on at least ONE of your Master Grade kits some time. You’ll never use stickers again! =D

And that’s the head! It has a really clever design to it to allow for the transformation.

Arms_

About 41 pieces to each arm, counting the shoulder which has 12 pieces on it’s own.

The arms are just about as simple as the rest of the build, but again: pay attention to the manual! Or things can get much more complex than need be.

I can also recommend that if you plan of top coating this (like I did), that you remove the two clear green pieces in the shoulders before you do. The top half of the shoulder doesn’t come down all the way, and leaves enough of a gap for some top coat to get through. Not much else to worry about in top coat regards (yet).

Waist_

40 pieces to the waist!

And that’s the waist! Wait, no. I already used that line. Dammit. Ah well. Again, if you’re top coating, I would recommend removing the psycho frame parts from the front and rear skirt armors. Especially the back skirt armors, since they’re kind of two layered.

Legs_

Feet first! Because there’s 25 pieces to ONE foot, so there would be too many pieces to fit into one picture… ^^:

Feet are done! If you’re top coating: I would recommend just not putting together the feet until you’re done with the top coat process. There’s so many angles and layers to the feet that just leaving the main gray section together and top coating all the white and dark blue parts is probably the best idea.

39 pieces to each leg. I might also add that if you’re a person who likes to cut out the pieces to an entire section (like both legs) before you do anything, don’t do that here. Like I said before, really follow the manual on this one. Because you don’t really want to have to take anything apart here.

And after you combine everything here, we’re done!

Oh, wait. No, no. I lied. Sorry. The backpack is still here. sorry.

Okay. NOW we’re done:

So my original plan was to have two builds, and two reviews. One each for the Gundam, and it’s weapons. But after thinking about it for a while, A review of the Gundam alone, as it is now, would be very VERY boring. I mean, it has no weapons! So I think there’ll be just one final review. That makes more sense to me.

See you at the Build, Part 2!

Hey there! Hope everyone had a lovely new year, I myself have had a fairly busy one. What with starting one of the biggest Master Grade Builds I’ve ever done! Things are progressing fairly nicely, and I’ve already decided what I’m going to do for the review: It’s going to be a full, 4 part build and review. Build the Unicorn, review it. And then build all the extras (they take up half the manual, anyway!), and then do the final review. I’m also working on putting the decals on the parts I finish, I think that will also help keep things moving, as there’s not a lot of decals that go on one particular piece, there are just a lot of decals period.

I also ran out of Top Coat about half way through coating the MG Wing Gundam, just the way life works out, eh? I ordered some more, and I should be getting them later today, if not tomorrow. I ordered 3 cans, because I HATE to run out of things, and I know that this kit will use up quite a bit…

EDIT: I also updated the monthly release list! Check it out on it’s page: here!

EDIT 2: Just out the box art for the MG Heavyarms Gundam up, along with a better link to more pictures.

So I hope you all had a lovely… uh… whatever the hell celebrate this time of year! ^^’ I myself made out with awesome loot, the best of which is actually right now in my Wii! In the form of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword! One of the best games I’ve played this year!

But on to the important business! models! Above is my take for Christmas this year: The MG ReZEL, MG Delta Plus, MG Wing Ver. Ka, MG Shenlong Ver. Ka, and MG Unicorn Full Armor (Ver. Ka). A peek at all of them past the break!

First up, the MG Wing Gundam Ver. Ka! Because you can never have enough transforming mobile suits!

The decal sheets are kind of small for Ver Ka kits… =\

The only interesting bits out of the blue are the main pieces of the wings and the main chunk of the shield.

I like the new type of manual styles Bandai has going. Very nice and artsy!

The Shenlong! I’m not the biggest fan of the design, but the fire-breathing-dragon-arm part is kinda cool.

Decals are still kind of “meh”…

The only interesting bits on the Shenlong are the shield (it’s kind of big), and the fantastic detail of the Trident!

More manuals!

The Delta plus! This is a favorite of mine, mainly because it looks cool BOTH as a mobile suit and as a wave rider (Fun fact! Did you know the term “Wave Rider” is from a NASA prototype (and several others) of a rocket with a special design. It was meant to travel at hyper sonic speeds, gaining altitude by literally “riding” the sonic booms it creates. I’m kind of a science buff)

Nice small pack of decals. With some nice looking ones thrown in!

I’m running out of things to say about fairly basic pictures…

The Rezel! Another transforming mobile suit. I grew up with transformers, can you tell?

Some lovely red stickers for those lovely red parts!

Those red pieces look niiiice. A little faint in the red department though.

Yeah. Nothing.

And the Coup de gras! This is one massive box, as far as Master Grades go!

See what I mean? The Unicorn box is almost EXACTLY 6 inches thick! And there’s so many runners that the box is literally bulging.

I have never literally laughed out loud like I did when I saw these decals.There’s a LOT of them. I don’t know if I want to try my hand with these, or wait until the water slides come out.

This is the beam effect part of the Beam Javelin. It’s FOUR INCHES LONG.

Here’s the Psycho frame. It’s got a pleasant blue-green tint to it. Much better (I think) than the pink-ish stuff from before.

Here’s the struts for the fuel tanks. They’re kind of big. Large, even!

Here’s the largest pieces of the kit. The fuel tanks are about 8 inches long. Longer when all the end caps are on.

There’s a lot of info in this manual! That and it’s physically thick, and heavy.

Dammit I may have to put Epyon off and start this one! Still need to finish the MG Wing though…

At least I managed to finish it since we last visited the MG Wing Gundam! I still have almost all the kit to decal and top coat (and I’m running out!). All I have done so far is the Gun and Shield (Which so far look totes awesome.), and I don’t think I’ll be getting to this before next year (I plan on taking my time with relaxing a bit after Christmas!). But, oh well, maybe I’ll get some new top coat by then! =D

P.S. Like the plush Om Nom? He’s so adorable! =3

P.P.S. Sorry for using “totes”.

Okay, so how many of you SERIOUSLY think that this could be the Master Grade Sinanju, and I’m just joshing all of you? Hmmm. I thought so. Yes, I think this kit REALLY is that good. Though through shooting this review I found one major crutch that the Sinanju has sown into its design. Clack past the jump to see what I mean!

_Out of The Box_

9 runners of parts and 1 runner of Poly Caps. Some of those pictures just might be blurry. Sorry… =3

The Stickers here are of the same EXACT quality of the Master Grade Sinanju’s. So like the MG version, I didn’t use ‘em!

_First Look_

It’s the Sinanju. It looks REALLY good. As the Sinanju always does. It would be nice though, to have little 1/144 scale decals to put on it. That’s really the only thing separating it from the MG version, at least in terms of looks.

_In the Details_

The Details on this kit are exactly like the MG. In almost EVERY way. Now the overall design (in general) doesn’t have too many eye-catching details besides the gold trim. But that’s kind of what I like about it. It doesn’t devote itself to little panel lines or vents, etc. So the rest of the body is free to have so many luscious curves to it.

_And… Action!_

And here’s where my problems start with the Sinanju. Not necessarily the kit itself, oh no! It handles itself just fine! No joints sagging, it’s not even back heavy! No, my problem lies within the design of the Sinanju:

It’s bad ass. It is SO bad ass that it looks perfectly fine just standing there. So ‘action’ poses aren’t necessary. They’re even counter productive! Those flaps hanging off of the shoulders? Useless! All they do is get in the way, time and again. The hip armor does nothing but wrestle with the legs, and the shield is perfectly good for almost nothing.

Okay, I said ALMOST. And while there definitely ARE plenty of good poses for this thing to be in (all of them perfectly worthy of being your desktop wallpaper for forever), I like it standing up. And that’s it. Something inside me says that I should be angry with this, that the design of the suit itself limits its movement from the very start, but I’m not!

For example: See that pose above? It sucks. Utterly. But because it’s the SINANJU, it’s perfectly acceptable! Oh, and yes, it has to hold the beam sabers, there’s no snazzy forearm thing. I don’t think it would be that much trouble to find a way to work it in, but I’m fine with it.

Wallpaper. Of. The. Year.  I usually try to have most of my pictures (at least the action shots) be a perfect example of something you want to turn your computer on to. And I really like that one!

PRO TIP: Top coat this model in a matte finish. God will thank you.

_Final Thoughts_

See what I mean? What is he doing? Nothing! He’s standing there, with his arms semi crossed. And he looks AWESOME doing it.

Articulation: 6/10 – It really is very poor. LOTS of pieces getting in the way of LOTS more pieces. I can see it being much better if all the joints had double points in them, but at that point, it’s a 1/144 scale MG kit!

Aesthetics: 10/10 – If you don’t think this thing looks nice, I really think you should see a doctor.

Playablilty: 9/10 – All of the joints are solid as a rock. I don’t think there are a lot of possibilities to pose the Sinanju with, but whatever you come up with, it’ll match you one for one!

Build-ability: 8/10 (5/10) – That low score is for the painting, it’s almost necessary. While the stickers are all well and good, I think that painting would be a better use of the time dealing with them. The rest of the kit is very simple and straight forward, though! And in some parts, even clever!

Detail: 10/10 – The only kit I’ve ever built that rivals Master Grade quality is the Real Grade Gundam. And now this, too.

Overall: 10/10 – The only reason I will solidly say for NOT buying this is that you already have the Master Grade. If that’s the case, I can never really say you should buy this. Don’t get me wrong, this kit is more than fantastic! The looks are amazing! The details are superb! but the only reason you SHOULD buy this is if you’ve always wanted the Sinanju, but was never ready to shell over the almost $90.00 price tag. The High Grade version is much more affordable, at the price of ¥2,600 (~$33.00)! So if you haven’t got a Sinanju, get this (or the Master Grade). And if you DO have the Master Grade, well you could always use another, right? ;3

If none of you guys know about this yet, here it is: It’s the Humble Bundle! What it is a pack of games you buy, and the money goes to charity (The Red Cross and Child’s Play). You can also pay whatever you want for it. And you get the soundtracks. And they just added more games. AND it’s for a great cause! This is their fourth run of it, and there’s only four days left. So act fast!

Also, if you pay above the average, which right now is $5.23 (USD), you get some EXTRA games. Why are you still here? humblebundle.com

4 Days Until Christmas! =0

The MG Epyon is my next intended build project. I still have to finish the MG Wing Gundam before I even consider this though. And I’d like to get up a couple more reviews before I commit to another build. Chores-chores-chores-chores-chores!

5 days until Christmas! O.M.G.

Last minute decision: The red color on the HG Sinanju is VERY bright and reflective. Kind of too bright for my lighting. So I’m top coating it! Also it’ll help the paint to not scratch/flake. AND it’ll look much better. Too bad I didn’t get any teensy 1/144 decals for it… =3

Yes. This is Han Solo. In carbonite. Made out of chocolate. It’s just as awesome as you might think, and just as delicious (if you like Dark chocolate).

You can buy them from Think Geek, and you’re welcome.