HG RGM-89D Piko Altidore’s Jegan Type-D - A Review
If you know me from elsewhere, you might know that I have a thing for black and/or dark-colored kits. I also have a soft spot for Grunt Suits and the “Mass Production" types. Especially the normally underrated machines that, in the right hands, can become something far cooler than the cannon fodder that they get to be in their main series entries.
It was all of that (and a little pre-planning) that lead me to get this P-Bandai kit. It’s a Jegan running a dark, almost Jesta styled color scheme that seems to have been piloted by someone willing to push their machine (in the pics posted to sell the toy to sucker--er… "Builders" like myself).
Here’s my review of the P-Bandai kit; the HG Piko Altidore’s Jegan Type-D
Like all P-Bandai stories, this one starts WAY Back in August of 2025. I’ve been trying to cut back on kits ‘till I put a bigger dent in my Backlog Shelf (of Shame). Then the big online Gundam event that Bandai has been doing since the Lockdowns hit and this dark colored kit caught my eye. I even made jokes about it being “Jesta” solid looking kit until I realized that it wasn’t.
It was a Jegan.
Needless to say, I did the math and put in an order. I knew it would ship in late February/early March. I also knew there was a safe bet my bank account wouldn’t be good for much beyond bills as sales of my comic have been thin recently. This kit would be a “Last Hurrah" of sorts while my funds recover. I even saved it ‘till April before I started this build.
So! How did it go? Well… it's a recolor of the Jegan Type-D. It’s a fairly easy kit to snap up and shouldn’t take much time for a straight build. The nubs are going to be the worst part as it’s dark plastic and some parts are the more brittle formula. There are some swirls on mine but nothing terrible.
It's running polycaps – something I honestly don’t mind – so things are fairly solid. It shouldn’t sag over time but I’ve always been more interested in the overall flexibility and poseability in the short term. The P-Bandai listing had some pretty great action poses and, in that respect, this kit delivers. Although it doesn’t have the now common full elbow bend, it does have a fairly mobile knee bend. Same thing goes for the ankles.
They are pretty flexible in their own right. The only downside is the same issue with Many a kit from the later UC Era: The bell-bottom legs get in the way of the feet. It’s a neat look and give a place to add thruster details but they stop the ankles from flexing as far as they can by preventing the feet from going as forward and as far to the sides as it looks like they should.
That said… it’s not that much of an issue. It also rocks a solid core and yet you can get some solid bends entirely from the legs and hips. The very mobile shoulders and their ability to flex forward like the sniper-style kits compensate a lot for the lack of mobility in the elbows. This Jegan contains multitudes.
The loadout of this kit is interesting. It has two beam saber blades but only one hilt. It has two beam rifles as well as a left hand to go with it as that’s part of this particular kit’s gimmick. The shield is a fun piece in that it has two Massive color-correcting stickers. In fact, that’s the bulk of the stickers. Again… it’s a fairly simple kit.
There Are parts for the other Jegan head types on the runner but they’re not terrible different from what we get. They are Nice-to-Haves for the Modders out there, though.
So, what’s the verdict? I can't say that this was a bad buy. I love the look of blue armor so dark it reads as black with touches of white and dark grey. It’s very well balanced and holds poses like champ. If you have the chance, I’d say pick one up. If you don’t but want the kit it’s based on, snag a RGM-89De Jegan (Ecoas Type). It’s a solid addition to a Grunt Suit collection.
Like many a person online, I’ve gotten those ads for Temu showing random junk and bootleg kits. Surfing the ‘Net on my phone without my standard assortment of ad blockers can be a minefield in general but, after a miss click that sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole, I figured I’d dig out an old cash card with a couple of bucks left on it and give the casino that is Temu a shot.
Here’s my review of the simplest thing I was willing to drop cash on – a Mobile Suit Gantry Stand… thing. o.O
First: How We Got Here…
I was going scrolling through my Tumblr feed on my phone and had a miss click. A big ol’ Temu ad popped up and, instead of catching below it to scroll on past it, I ended up catching enough of the image of a bootleg Gundam Aerial that it started a whole Process.
A while back, I grabbed the Temu app and made an account as I have relatives that tell me they’ve found something there that they want for a birthday or a holiday. I figured it’d be a smart idea to at least have the thing just in case I couldn't find what they wanted through a legit place. A nice backup plan that I’d forgotten about that sat lurking on my phone like a casino ready to pounce and waste my time.
So! I accidentally clicked the ad. This launched the app and started… The Process. Temu likes to use casino-style flashy graphics and "Crazy Limited Time Deals” to get folks to buy from them. I knew this from before. I just never knew how long sitting through all of it was. Just a barrage of spinning graphics and literal casino-style stuff - “Click to Spin!" or "Pull the Handle!” on a fake table games that have fine print telling you you're going to get the best outcome regardless of what you do - that made me question what did I unleash and how the hell I could get out of it before it takes out my phone.
Once it was all over & it’d let me shop, I got to actually looking at what they had. I saw the knockoff Aerial – an iridescent clear kit – and thought about it. It was a fun build but I already had a P-Bandai one I snapped up a bit back. I figured I’d go with the cheapest thing that looked neat and I wanted to get a proper version from elsewhere: A MS Gantry-styled display. I’ve seen a few of these and they look great but they were either sold out or coming in packs with multiple stands. I just wanted the one.
So I did the dance, got a display kit (with a couple of pins for good measure) and sent it. It came in about a week or two in a non-descript bag. No issues. Nothing busted or missing. Not a terrible experience aside from the hard sell on the app to buy a bunch of stuff to meet some arbitrary sales total for credits or whatever thing it was trying to upsell me on.
Now… The Display Stand!
So! The stand itself was dirt simple. It came with no instructions that I could find but it really didn't need them. It was all of five pieces: Base, Backplate, Two Sides, and Front Bar. The only extra was a random sticker sheet with a bunch of warning decals on it. I guess this is so you can make your very plain industrial looking stand look a bit more like it belongs somewhere.
The plastics are decent. Since you don’t have to snip anything, I can't tell you if it’s kinda’ brittle or anything. I do know that one of the sides was a little bent but it shaped up once I clicked it into the base and backplate. It did have a little bit of flash on it but I’ve bought official kits from longtime model companies with the same. It's a perfectly fine little display.
The backplate is a neat bit of kit. Where the side have a couple of holes for hanging things and the base has a few spots for posts and things that you could mistake for decoration, the backplate is different. It has a whole line of very obvious posts and one with holes that scream "Do Something With These”. This along with the little spaceship-styled loading bay details makes for a nice looking display for your HG and smaller kits.
One thing I will say is that this doesn’t have a lot of room. It’s great for simpler kits and smaller/thinner toys. You’re not going to be able to use the front bar on the thicker builds and stuff with wide bits or bulky backpacks are going to have a bad time assuming they fit in it at all. Not a downside for my needs (I’m going to use it for displaying kits I want to put extra work in to) but something to make note of.
Another year, another review of a stand being the first post for said year. I know, I know… but I'll try not to make a habit of it.
Although I doubt I’ll get another display stand thingie, this small test of Temu has me wondering if I should drop some funds on a knockoff kit. The last time I logged in, it popped up with a pink and white version of the Gundam 00 Shia Qan[T] that honestly looked cute. Can’t go wrong with cat ears on the 00 and it being in pink just kinda’ screams Hello Kitty to me.
When the latest Gundam series – GQuuuuuuX (or G-Quacks as I like to write it) – dropped earlier this year, you bet I was here for it. Absolutely unique designs from former Gainax folks and current stewards of the EVA franchise combined with a story based in an alternate universe version of the original Universal Century storyline? Please... you had me at "Studio Khara". = )
After the dust settled and stuff started to come out, one kit had my eye and it wasn’t one of the main Hero suits. It was this universe’s version of the classic Gelgoog. Instead of it being a chonky Zeon suit with a mono eye and bellbottoms, this was a GM-inspired design with slim fit and an interesting gimmick. Thanks to a recent Holiday gift, I got my hands on the blue one (‘cause of course I had to get the blue one).
Here’s my review of the gMS-01 Bocata’s Gelgoog.
Before we get too deep into things, I want to say that this kit really impressed me. In universe, this would’ve been a Grunt Suit and it’s priced as such. It's not too terribly expensive even though it has a pilot's name attached to it. If you're looking to get a design from G-Quacks and the Neon Genesis Evangelion looking designs just are not your thing, this would be an excellent choice.
Now for the rest of this review. = )
Bocata’s Gelgoog and this universe’s take on the classic Gelgoog in general are strange for folks like myself who know that unit from the various versions it has from other series. In the mainline UC, it’s a classic Zeon design – all bellbottoms and big feet with an imposing look. The upper body lacks the trademark energy pipes of the Zaku and Gouf but expands on the blocky shape language with a permanently puffed out chest and an almost cockatiel-esque squared up crest on the back of the typical mono eye head unit. The shoulders are these big bulky sideways teardrops with the tail turned up ‘cause it’s Gotta' have spikes somewhere, right?
The Gelgoog from G-Quacks is... not that.
Aside from the more industrial look Studio Khara gave to the mechs, this universe’s Gelgoog is more akin to the mainline UC’s GM in its looks. The more human proportions and the Splinter Cell-ques triple eye setup instantly make it a completely different beast than the linebacker looking Gelgoog of old. With Bocata’s unit sporting a color scheme that feels like the ones from Gundam Thunderbolt but with a touch of crimson on the feet, it was definitely fairly eye-catching.
I’m a sucker for a good looking GM (even if it’s under a different name) so I knew this would be the one I’d want to build first.
The build went well enough. I took my time on it as the shoulder of my drawing arm was doing that “Burn with the heat of a Thousand Suns” thing that happens when I don’t stretch for a while.
The plastic quality of the kit is… interesting. It has a very slight soft rubbery feel to it despite looking like it’ll be that very sharp brittle plastic found in some of Bandai’s Figure-rise kits. The nubs are relatively easy to miss as the white hides them well. Most of the rest are easy to clean up or not terribly noticeable save for the red, which has them on the back of the heels. That said, the color separation on this is excellent and Bandai is really showing off what it can do on their more budget-friendly lines lately as the only stickers for the entire kit are the few yellow marking on the legs.
Oddly enough, there was only a single piece not used on the runners. In this case, it was a duplicate of one of the white torso pieces in the same red as the feet. I’m Kinda’ tempted to swap it to see how it looks but Hey! Great to see a fully functional backup just in case something happens to the other piece.
The weapons on this kit are few but important. This Gelgoog gets a sparse load out - a single beam saber and a pair of short barrel beam spray guns. This version doesn’t get a large shield like the original UC version. Instead, it has two thin buckler-styled attachments on the arms that can move freely. The beam saber also has a throwback trick in that it’s a dual bladed unit like the classic’s beam naginata and, like that one, it stores on the Gelgoog's back along with the twin spray guns in a rig on the lower back.
The one gimmick from the show that they added to this one was the little tether and grappling hook from the other Gelgoog - Shiiko Sugai's classic GM red colored unit. It’s a neat little addition as it was used for some effective scenes and, even though it was Technically only used by Sugai, it’s fun to see here. Plus who can turn down an extra hand in a regular kit that isn’t some sort of odd P-Bandai exclusive? = )
The flexibility of this kit is overall great but not perfect. The shoulder connections are fantastic, allowing for the shoulder to rise and fall and even swing the arm naturally across the body. The torso bends and flexes in such a way to give it plenty of poseability both with a decent crunch and side bend. The exposed tanks and thrusters on the back of the thighs not only move but can be moved out of the way for a surprising amount of leg bend. It also includes a nice toe bend and waist armor that lifts out of the way giving even more options for posing.
The issues I have are mostly minor and do kinda’ stop me from being 100% on this. The feet are neat… But the ankles suck. I’ve found the single post connection likes to work itself out when moving it around. It also lacks the ability to twist side to side. It’s So flexible otherwise but that one missing axis is messing with me.
The leg connections to the hips have a similarly strange lack of flexibility. It’s So Close to being able to do the splits but, thanks to their construction, it can’t fully extend the legs out that far. In both cases, a simple mod would help things move how they feel like they should. Same thing goes for the neck.
The neck has a simple ball-on-a-post connection to the chest. The head has a solid connection and can actually look up like in the show – something not normally seen on other Gunpla - but there's no real movement beyond that and the basic twist. It has no side tilt or forward/back movement. Again, an easy enough fix if you have the parts, time and desire to do so.
The one area that I’ve actively thought about rebuilding are the wing-like thrusters it has for a backpack. I like their design and all but the connection to the rest of the kit is aspirational at best. The ball and socket connection is extra sketchy and they Will fall off when you pose them. Or move them. Or think about them a little too hard. They are the one real bad mark against this kit.
All in all, I dig this kit. Bocata’s Gelgoog has all the GM feels in a design that's equal parts industrial and military. You can feel that this machine had a life and purpose beyond just the show's “Clan Battle" space dog fight style duels. It has the proportions and (almost) all the flexibility one needs for a cheap reference model.
Aside from my minor issues, it’s a fun little kit that I'm actually planning on messing with later. I'm thinking adding some paint to highlight some of the more mechanical bits and a warning decal or two. I’m even going to add most of the stickers it came with as I heard that these are more pliable than the usual foil stickers of the past.
HG RX-178 Gundam Mk-II (21st Century Real Type Vers.) – A Review
As you might guess from the kits here - both reviewed and listed in my Backlog – I have a thing for the later Gundam series and my dips into the Universal Century designs in High Grade and above are rare. Well, this seems to be the year where I beat that wrap as this is the second UC Era kit in as many builds.
Bonus: It’s in my colors so I didn’t have to paint a thing!
Without further ado, here’s my review of the HG RX-178 Gundam Mk-II (21st Century Real Type Vers.).
Like I mentioned earlier, I rarely dip into the UC Era suits. This is partly a design thing, as I like the more modern mobile suits more than most of their earlier counterparts. Another reason is many of the older mobile suits are very brightly colored. The OG Gundam is mostly white with bright reds, blues and a school bus yellow. I cut my modeling teeth with military planes and car models and Batman vehicles so… I kinda’ drift more toward stuff like the Deathscythe or the Over Flag – stuff with a lot of black and golds and accents of white – or the alternate colored stuff like the Gundam G-3 with it’s grays reminiscent of a battleship’s paint.
This version of the Mk.II, a design which I actually like better in the more classic Gundam White than the Titans Blue/Black from the series, hits Just right. It’s gray is a bit bluer than I was expecting but the dark blues, gloss black, and metallics are right up my alley and Very close to what I’d have picked for myself.
The build is fairly straightforward. It’s a modern print of the Mk.II so it has the range of motion one would expect for a gunpla model made in the last 10 years. It has a nice mix of both polycaps and plastic joints – a topic I have to do a write-up on later – so you get that ease of movement only polycaps can give in some areas and that stiffer plastic on plastic movement in others. This mix means it can absolutely hold a pose without too much sagging or snapping over time.
One word of caution: The Eyes are deceiving! It’s a little clear green piece all on its lonesome. The sticker sheet is super light (always a plus in my book) but it comes with an option – the good ol’ massive eye sticker you’d find in most Gundam kits OR! Two shiny chrome stickers to add the plastic behind the eyes. I guess the idea is the clear eyes would act as light tubes and the chrome would bounce it back out the front so they “Glow”.
The reality is the actual eyes are too small to pull it off properly and set back too far to catch enough light to make even the classic shiny eye sticker visible. I even painted black around the molded eyes to try and help the look. Needless to say, I ended up popping the whole head apart to remove the paint and add the classic eye sticker.
It's great for those with LED skills but something to watch out for if you're like me and don't wire their kits up like that (yet).
I enjoyed this build but I do have some reservations at recommending it to folks. At least… I don’t think I can recommend this version of the Mk.II to folks.
This is a fun kit, no doubt. It’s in a neat “Realistic” color scheme that, for me, made it a must buy. The thing I have to caution folks about are nub marks. The particular formulae of plastics used seem more brittle and prone to marking than the standard Gundam plastics. These are easily handled with a bit of touch up sanding but, unless you have the right tools, you’ll always see some of the nubs.
Same thing goes for the metallics used. They look great to me but it’s still a metallic flake filled plastic and you will see natural swirls that come from the injection molding process. This is a harder fix that would require paint.
In fact, you could fix both problems with paint.
At that point, you could save your money on this special edition P-Bandai kit and repaint a standard Mk.II to match it. To go this route – getting a P-Bandai limited edition kit that tends to sell out quickly Just for the color scheme – is one of those things you Really have to want to do. Even the neat Real Type waterslide decals that this comes with are something I’m sure you could source if you were so inclined.
For me, this kit was totally worth the P-Bandai Tax. I’m not sure When I’ll add the extra markings but I’d like to add those on in the future. When I do, you know I'll post a little photo shoot here.
At the moment, I’m just digging how nice this came out and trying not to dwell on the mistake with the eyes again.
HG RX-78-2 Gundam [Beyond Global] Gundam Base Colors - A Review
It’s rare that I actually go for the OG Gundam kits. It's not that I don't like the classic design; it's more that the more accessible High Grades are rather stiff. This has gotten better over the years and HG kits in general have become easier to pose. This means builders like me – folks who also use his toys as drawing reference – can get both that fun easier build and that extra poseability generally found in the larger Master Grades and the more complicated Real Grades.
With that in mind, let’s jump right into the HG RX-78 Beyond Global. Bandai's answer to how flexible can they make a HG without breaking the bank.
Back when I ordered the White Base Hanger set from P-Bandai, I dropped this little kit into the order along with it. As you might have guessed from the colors on the site, my icon or the M1A Astray I use for the banner here but I have a thing for mobile suits in a blue and white color scheme. When it comes to Bandai, they seem to have similar tastes as they use Really nice blues on their Gundam Base edition kits.
I’ve wanted to check out the Beyond Global kit anyway so getting the Gundam Base version just seemed like the right way to go. = )
The build itself was nice. Nothing too terrible came up save for I apparently put the cuffs on wrong. I clocked them so the design was one off from how it was supposed to be. Not a kit breaking mistake by any means but it does bring up something about this kit that is very different from past OG Gundam I’ve built. This one has an extra ball joint in the forearm to give the wrist the ability to flex more than the standard set of hands that it comes with will allow. It’s not a fantastic amount, either, so things stay remarkably tight and stable.
A similar gimmick is built in the shoulders. Not unlike the HG GBN-Guard Frame from the Build Divers line, it has a pivot to allow the arms to move forward. This combined with the extra motion built to allow the shoulder to rise up lets the kit do things like grab the Beam Sabers on the backpack or cross the arms in front of the body.
Instead of doing a bunch of drawn out paragraphs about the various neat tricks in this, I’m going to do a rundown instead. It’ll be faster, I promise.
The feet have an interesting ankle system. There’s a plastic not-polycap that allows the foot to flex down and remain planted despite not having a proper toe bend.
Ankle armor has a solid connection into the ankle instead of the general ball joint coming off either foot or leg.
The knee armor acts like a kneecap and separates independently from the shin and thigh.
Drop down hips are on a full pivot for extra distance and flex in the legs.
Torso has a significant crunch. Not the greatest by current standards but you can see where those newer kits got it.
Waist armor is fully flexible! No petrified butt flap! = D
Only one sticker for the eyes. Aside from some extra Gundam Base exclusive stickers, this is completely color separated.
As much as I can sing the praises of this kit and how it feels like a turning point for where many current HGs have gone, it’s not without its issues. The plastic on plastic joints can be more than a bit tight at times. When posing the legs, you can really feel it. It’s also fairly loose where it connects to the hips. I’ve actually taken to popping the body from the legs to get things posed up right. On the legs, there is One thing stopping them from being perfect and that’s the front skirt armor. The kit could absolutely do a full crunch if the front skirt armor wasn’t stopping it. Not a terrible thing but one to be aware of. I could force it if I tried but I’m worried about stressing the plastics beyond their natural amount of flex.
This next part is very much a Gundam Base version issue but the nice dark blue is a pain with the stress and nub marks. Same with the brighter white plastics. It comes down to them being a harder material than the usual Gunpla plastic. It’s not quite Figure-rise hard where a side glance will cause some of their plastic parts to shatter but Ho Boy! Was I feeling the stress clipping the thinner parts off.
The question now becomes “Would I recommend this kit?”
The short answer: Yes.
The long answer: If you’re confident enough in your building skills and you want a nice kit that's HG sized but not RG complicated, then I would buy this. If you’re looking for a starter kit, you should hold off on this one for a bit.
The Beyond Global is one of those great ideas that I’d love to see Bandai walk across to the grunt suits and the Zeon kits. You know… at least give us a Char’s Zaku to go up against the classic Gundam. If you’re a fan of Bandai's blues and you either have a chance to hit up a Gundam Base store live or during their annual online sales, scoop this. If you’re an artist who likes to use their desk toys for pose reference, take the plunge and grab one. The stuff I’ve been able to pull off while it stays stable is incredible. It has the balance and the right amount of friction in the many joints to not only stand in goofy poses but also not sag while doing them.
Although I do worry about wearing things out with use as I have a feeling this little kit will get quite the workout. Like the SDCS Gundam I built before it, I think this will end up a part of my ever-growing army of helpers. = )
Yes. That’s exactly what it is. In fact, it’s More than just a stand! It's also Less than a stand. It's... complicated.
Join me in my confusion as I snap up the White Base MS Hanger set! A Gundam Base exclusive kit for some unknown reason. O.o
“Hey Proph," I can hear you say, “Why are you reviewing a stand? You have a whole list of stuff on the page you haven’t gotten to yet. Don’t you have better kits to build?”
Well, dear reader… you’re not wrong. I Do have a list of kits – some half finished and others simply not built yet – that I could’ve chosen to make on this last day of the year. Instead, I pulled from the top of the pile and snapped up what I thought was going to be a stand for my HG’s based on the little transport thingies in the White Base’s hanger bay. Before I get into the Why, let’s get into how the build went.
It’s a simple runner’s worth of parts with a single page of instructions. Not really any different from the other stands I’ve made in the past. This one has the neat gimmick of being able to recline the object on it so as it’s leaning back - not unlike the stored position seen in shots of the anime and other artwork from the original Gundam series. Having a bunch of kits, I figured this would be the perfect geeky thing to have on my shelves for my displayed HG kits.
I was Mostly right.
The Hanger Set is as the name suggests: It’s a set of three stands. When I tossed the kit into the cart during the annual P-Bandai sale, I didn’t think much of the “Set" part. I figured it’d be a single stand with some extras. I was pleasantly surprised when I found it was three of them and I didn’t have to pay for the others when I would eventually need them. Where things get sticky is the build of the little beds.
Simply put: These are made for early UC kits. If you try to put anything with a backpack bigger than a Guncannon’s, you’re going to have trouble. And these are not Technically stands. Not in the classic sense, anyhow. They are straight up props that would fit in nicely with the White Base Catapult deck or the other full on Hanger sets that were released. At least… they Would be if they also didn't have a flat chunk of platform that they connect to instead of the larger platforms of those other sets. They have no way of holding the kits placed on them. They just sorta’ lay on them without any extra supports or pegs to place stuff on. Any easy fix but a curious one to have to do, ya’ know?
So what can I say about these? Well… if you’re like me and you want to have something fun or funny to place your kits on, this is an okay buy. Despite my previous paragraphs of mild complaining, I like this little not-quite-a-stand and I think it’ll be the perfect thing to display my simpler HGs on my shelves. If I use it on my desk, it’ll have to have something like double-sided tape on the feet to keep things stable and prevent stuff from falling over but that’s not a terrible issue for me.
The one thing I can say that’s confusing to me is that age-old question, “Why was this a P-Bandai and Gundam Base exclusive?" aside from getting three in the box. Nothing about it really screams “Exclusive!" It’s a stand alone (Ha!) set that wouldn’t really work with other White Base displays. It’s great for rolling your own but the other sets don’t require the extra little plate on the bottom with bits of the hinge built into it.
Kind of a weird way to end the year but Hey! Making that stand leads into what I’m hoping will be the first build of 2025 – the Gundam Base colored HG RX-78-2 Beyond Global kit that I got at the same time as those "Stands”. = )
It’s the end of the year and I’m feeling talkative. So! Let’s look back at the last few kits and whatnot I’ve done here, take a look at what’s next and maybe make some plans on what gets done.
Now… On with the Show!
The “first” build of the year was making my ‘Totally Pro Spray Booth Mk2’. A simple cardboard box stuffed with spray booth filters powered by a simple desktop fume extractor. The unit works surprisingly well despite not seeing much action this year. Although my booth was shockingly solid, my airbrush mix was not. In the coming months, I’m going to give it a better test of air sucking power and use my rattle can paints. It’s not how I wanted the setup used (Never been a big fan of spray painting indoors) but it’s the option I have left if I want to get my mods done without waiting ‘till the weather is both warm and not windy. -.-
The next build was one of the two HG Catsith kits I got during my test of the Buyee proxy service. As I stated back then, this was my Dream Gets – an Unobtainium kit that rarely ever popped up Stateside for anywhere close to retail price – and I had somehow found a listing for Two of them. The kit is still shockingly tight despite using it to help figure out poses for artwork. I also have not given up on my plans to build a modded version using the other copy I got. I’m still working out the details but I’m leaning toward a cold weather kit styled after some of the concept artwork with a few extras tossed in for good measure. These things 100% look like I could make a bear out of it and I Think that’s what I’m going to do.
The last build was me Finally finishing off the MGSD Freedom kit. That thing kinda’ killed me, honestly. The results of a hurt shoulder and my back disliking life, I got a very solid little kit. The MGSD Freedom has some seriously tight joints that are… worrisome. Say what you will about polycaps and how sloppy they are, the sheer amount of plastic on plastic friction in this kit makes me think I’m going to have to just put it in a pose and just sorta’ leave it like that. Or use a dab of grease and hope that doesn’t send things All the way in the other direction.
Now, you Might have noticed that – on the Spray Booth – I said it was the “First” build. Well… not exactly. Turns out I did a write-up for the HG Gundvolva that never made it up here. I’ve corrected that mistake and I'm going to see if I can somehow fudge it with the dates here to get it in the right order at some point.
So what’s the future look like for the ol’ Build Blog?
That’s the question, honestly. While cleaning things the past week, I kept on running into the same thing: I have a backlog that Needs to be burnt through yet I just got in a new RX-78, a whole set of stands and the MG Freedom as an Xmas gift. It keeps filling up. I also just went through and consolidated a bunch of my Backlog shelf to see just what and how much I actually have left to build. I have five active mod projects in with all the Straight Builds that I need to paint up and finish out in some way/shape/form.
I’m thinking about making a plan to get at least six Straight Builds done this year. It’s not much by any means but it’s two more kits than I finished off this year. I'm not going to count any Mods I complete as those are very much dependent on me finding the time to put in work beyond clipping the parts and snapping things up.
I also want to review some more extras. I still haven’t done anything with the 30 Minute Missions Hand set I got. Mostly ‘cause I never finished the mods on the Gundvolva – one of the main reasons I got them. I also never did a write-up for the Builder Parts Blade kit. Again, another one I got for the Gundvolva mod with plans to do a review after I got the mod finished. The one I can do immediately is the White Base MS Hanger set. I might even set that as the last “Build" for this year.
In a way, I also want to get that Gundvolva done. It’s not a terribly complicated mod by any means. It needs paint. That’s the whole “Use my rattle cans” comment earlier. I have some parts that need to be primed and get a coat of either black or something dark. I might even try some Gundam markers if I can find a set at a decent price.
So that’s about it on this “State of the Blog” post. Here’s hoping I can get through more of my Backlog without adding Too much to it next year. = )
This is a kit review that’s been a long time coming. This was Technically started all the way back in the June of 2023. Not unlike the previous Master Grade – the MG Astray Blue Frame D – this was started and stopped and moved all over the place around my room. Its box taking up a fair amount of space where ever it landed. Smash cut to a few nights ago. I’m buried under art supplies and old empty boxes. And while I’m moving things around… I come across this old chestnut.
Without further ado, here’s my review of the MGSD Freedom Gundam.
If you follow me elsewhere or have seen my other posts or just look at the kits in the pic at the top of this very post, you might know that I've become a fan of the SD Cross Silhouette line of Gundam kits. When I heard about what’s effectively the Master Grade version of their SD kits, I was confused but happy. I figured the SDCS line was the "Master Grade" version of their SD kits. After seeing the gimmicks and seeing how it's more of a build up than the kits I dig, I knew I had to try for one.
I get it in May of 2023. I polish off my long standing MG Astray build. Instead of doing the Smart thing of doing a smaller and/or less involved kit from my backlog, I crack this one open and start it. I shortly pack it all back up and set it aside because my shoulder was on fire from working on it. The “Fun” of a lifetime of drawing and a good couple of decades of not properly taking care of myself is things like my arm hurting after a night’s worth of work - be it hobby stuff or Art stuff.
Months go by and so do other builds. This one just kept moving from place to place with a promise that I’d get to it "Someday".
That Someday finally came a few night’s ago. I needed the room and it needed to be finished ‘cause, apparently, the Finished Kit is Smaller than The Box it Come In.
Enough yappin! Here’s the Build!
This was a bit of an interesting build. The kit itself snaps up very well but everything was Tight. The lenses for the eyes? Awesome but Tight. The tiny opening cockpit? An incredible detail for such a small and different shaped kit… that’s Tight. The little separate feather-type bits on the backpack? You get the idea.
There were times where I had to bust out my pliers and wrap the jaws in a cloth to help force parts together in that last little millimeter to get them together without putting marks on it. Although this was a pain (and almost wished they’d have chosen to use polycaps on some of the movable parts), this isn’t a bad thing now that it’s built.
The Freedom is a plastic on plastic build. With how tight the joints are, I don’t think I'll have to worry about it coming loose any time soon. If anything, I’ll have to worry about the joints bonding over time and the thing locking up or some parts possibly flexing themselves into breakage. The backpack is nearly as heavy as the Freedom itself making it want to lean back on its wings when not supported by a stand.
That said, this little guy is every bit a Master Grade as its 1/100th scale counterparts. I Love that it had a metric ton of hidden details no one will ever see once it was built. There’s detailing on the inside of the armor pieces, there’s details on parts of the frame that you’d never seen if unless you just keep everything separate. I know folks like to talk up the reflector bits in the wings but the eyes? The detailing on the eyes is next level. You can make out the camera bits in them without the need for lighting (Which I Wish this could’ve had all the same).
The other fantastic thing that this little kit has that’s directly attributable to the Absolute Tightness of the bits is it can take and hold a pose like no one’s business. It takes a minute to find the sweet spot for balancing it but, when you do, it looks so cool doing it. That’s thanks mostly to the scale. With everything either squished or exaggerated in some way, all the details are accentuated. It uses the MG style ball jointed poseable hands. But of course, it does. It is still a Master Grade, after all.
Some of the selling points for MGs are the extra bits and details color separation that you don't see in the standard HGs with an added size. This MGSD is much the same way. There’s a ton of nice color separation and moving gimmicks. It’s also almost as tall as an HG. Kinda’ funny considering it’s Technically part of the Super Deformed lineup. A line famous for its small cute size.
Ultimately, I really enjoyed this kit. Sure it was a bit of a pain at times to build and actively hurt me (Seriously. Kids, take care of your arms and shoulders Before issues arise.) but I can’t complain about the outcome.
I Can complain about the absolute Mountain of [Forbidden Sprinkles] it leaves behind, though. I’m going to be cleaning those little plastic bit out of my gear for weeks.
After my little Test of Buyee and Finally getting my grubby little paws on not one but Two(!) HG Catsith kits - essentially a double dose of personal Unobtainium - you know I had to build one eventually.
Well… this one left me with more than a few questions when I was done.
So sit back, relax and join me as I enjoy my rare recent win. Here’s my review of 2015’s G-Reco grunt suit from the Capitol Army, the HG CAMS-2 Catsith.
So… what can I say about a kit that, at the time of writing/building, is almost a decade old?
Well, the Catsith has all the earmarks of a classic Grunt Suit. The back has the now fairly standard two-peg system for the High Grade backpacks. It also has a little long square hole above those that looks to be another type of mounting point (not the blocky one of some of the old SEED kits but possibly another locking point?). Aside from the big ‘ol flight pack that it almost always had in the show, it comes with that very basic load out of a shield, a gun and swords - a staple of a number of Gunpla but the hallmark of a basic grunt unit.
Before I get too deep into that rabbit hole, let me talk up the build a bit.
The build went really smoothly. It’s a 2015 kit so it relies on polycaps for stuff that’d be better served with a plastic-on-plastic connection but it’s still an amazing solid kit. It's even disturbingly well balanced. The Catsith even has one of my fave gimmicks – leg based beam sabers! I mean, I love the when a mobile suit has beam weaponry in places that isn’t just the backpack. I Really love when it’s someplace that can be used defensively – a hole in the palms, a spot on the forearms, etc.
The Catsith one-ups other suits by hiding them in a moving flap on the front of the shins. The toes move down, the handle of the saber flips out from behind the moving flap and it lays in a groove along the front of the foot. It’s absolutely a neat gimmick and I love it.
So here’s my final thought on the kit before I get back into the rambling from the beginning…
The Pros:
It’s a simple kit. Not super complicated to stick together. Not a lot of stickers that you couldn't just paint in or ignore.
You have options for the optics. You can place them over the clear lens or use the smaller one on the head directly and have it behind the “glass".
It can balance like nobody’s business. I didn't have to do much to get my goofy pics. It’s a tad back heavy with the full flight pack installed but it's Super stable.
The Cons:
There’s flexibility just left on the table. This tends to be a thing with certain G-Reco kits. The designs are unique and I love them but they’re a pain in plastics. The knees could bend more with a few tweaks and the arms could have a better range in the elbow. Same with the waist.
It’s an HG so it suffers from a lack of hands. I love that it comes with three hands (and hand backs) for stuff but it lacks a basic holding hand. It’s two open hands and a trigger finger. I get that the leg-mounted sabers are Technically a part of the suit but they’re still beam sabers. They’re even used in the hand in the show. A bummer not to have a set as they are molded in a very nice pink color. Hard to just grab a Hand kit and replace them without work.
Overall, this is a fun kit. There’s just one issue that confuses me about it… why is it not one of those kits that gets reprints and alternate versions?
This thing has all he trappings of a GM style suit. It’s simple but not so much that a builder couldn't do something with it. It's got a gimmick, sure, but it’s an easy enough fix if you didn’t want to deal with the flip out sabers. It even has a bunch of artwork for alternate versions and You Know how Bandai likes to take a kit, mold it in a new set of colors and drop it on P-Bandai. The Catsith doesn’t even get that.
The G-Self is the Hero suit of G-Reco. It makes sense that it’s going to hang around a bit despite the series not being that popular. But it’s not the only one to get a different version. The Grimoire – the Zaku to the Catsith’s GM in this universe – got a nice modded version in the third Build series, Gundam Build Divers. It makes no sense.
Instead of going off too much on stuff that no one can use, how about I wrap this up.
Overall, the Catsith is a fun little build. It’s a solid kit that has a good range of motion in the hips and neck. A nice little base kit to mod into the mech of your dreams…
How I Found a Pair of Unobtainium Kits and used a Proxy Service to Increase My Backlog by Two
First and foremost, this is not sponsored. I don’t even take sponsors for my comic – the thing that is effectively my career – so there’s no way I’d do so for the thing I do as a fun hobby. This is all me and my personal experience using a proxy service to buy stuff from Japan.
Anyhoo! What follows is my experience using the proxy buying service called Buyee to purchase a pair of Catsith kits on the Japanese version of the Mercari website. I went into this knowing that many a Retro Tech and Gunpla YouTuber I’ve watched has used it to get stuff. Figured I’d give it shot.
I have had on my old “Kits to Buy” list the HG Catsith – a cute looking grunt suit from the series Mobile Suit Gundam: Reconguista in G (G-Reco for short) – for a while now. It's been sitting on one of my Amazon Wish Lists for so long it’s kind of become a marker for old stuff that never really comes up for a decent price. I say “Decent" because the lowest price it’s ever popped up at was around like $40? It usually runs around $60 or more if it ever pops up for sale.
This is a kit that's Supposed to be priced between $15 to $24 give or take where it's coming from.
Unlike the Hero suit, the G-Self, the Catsith is stuck in relative obscurity thanks to Bandai never reprinting the thing. It may be a Grunt suit but it’s not like a GM or a Zaku. Most of the other characters ended up with fancier mechs that got their own kits. That and G-Reco isn’t all that popular compared to some other Gundam series so you don’t end up with random reprints for the toy hungry fanbase.
Time passed and I’d recently found that it’s harder to find neat stuff for my various family members and myself for the holidays and whatnot. My getting the younger folks into Anime and video games is proving to be double-edged sword. Now… I've known about proxy services like Buyee for a while now. They tend to be talked up in Retro Tech and Gunpla videos as a place through which the various YouTubers have purchased stuff. Having seen their results so many times, I figured it was time to give it a try.
Setting up an account was easy enough. Nothing really too different from setting one up at any other online shop. The one thing that’s really different is it's more akin to the old Metacrawler search engine. You can select the shop you want to search but I kinda’ just winged it and tried out Mercari. No rhyme or reason to it. Just the one I though might have something neat that wasn’t a straight up auction site.
At first, I just kinda’ popped in “Gundam" and saw what dropped. Then I remembered something important: It's searching Japanese sites. It makes more sense to use the language of the folks who post things there. So I took a leap and looked up the Catsith’s Japanese name and BAM! I got a whole bunch of hits. Not just the usual “This is a Gundam Kit” results that I normally get searching English language sites but actual kits – both prebuilt and unbuilt kits. It was here I found a listing for two unbuilt kits.
Needless to say, I bought it as soon as I could.
Now things get fun.
Whenever I do something like this (buy something through a site I’m personally unsure of), I use my PayPal account. It acts as a buffer between my personal bank account and the site if things get squirrelly and, if it works, acts as a buffer between my personal bank account and the site if I decide to go on a spending spree. The more steps I put between myself and buying things, the better I am at not putting myself into debt.
I say this because I’m kinda’ to blame for the added time on getting these into my grubby little hands. It took a bit to transfer funds into my PayPal account to use on both buying the items and paying for shipping. -.-
The price for the two kit bundle came out to 4300 Yen or $30.50 at the time of purchase. That’s 3800 Yen for the item, 300 Yen to Buyee to buy the item, 500 Yen for their in-house checking and a 300 Yen coupon to save a Little bit of money on the whole dealie. This all gets the package to Buyee’s warehouse. They can hold stuff there free of charge for 30 days. You can also buy more and consolidate it later… but this time I did a single package.
After some doing and some waiting on money transfers on my end, we get to the hardest part of any international buying: Shipping!
Buyee gives a Bunch of options for shipping. Everything from fairly quick choices to ocean shipping that will take months. Needless to say, I took them up on their Buyee Air service that would take around a week to get here. It cost me 5188 Yen or $37.05 for the one package. Again, Proxy Services (or just international shops that let you consolidate items) tend to work best when you buy multiple items. That’s when shipping gets low enough to not be more than the original item.
All in all, I’m in $67.55 for two kits that would’ve run me about $7 less if I could find and buy just the one on a site like Amazon. The time from start to finish was a little under two weeks. I ended up with not one but Two unobtainium kits and a way for me to shop for the Holidays when my nieces and nephews ask for items that just never come to or came stateside. = )
It’s been a joke with me that my gear is “Totally Pro". My dollar store brushes? Totally Pro. My craft store acrylics? Totally Pro. My makeshift SDCS box filled with cardboard scraps I use to hold my parts? Totally Pro.
All of it is just me doing what I can with what I got.
One area where this doesn’t really work well is my spray booth. It's a cardboard box that I used in the summer months to spray parts outside. It was - at best - a glorified windscreen. It is currently holding a bunch of random stuff as it’s too cold to do anything outside what with it being the middle of Winter where I'm at.
This left me with one option…
I needed to make a new Totally Pro Spray Booth.
The idea was simple: I needed an actual spray booth that I could use indoors with my acrylics. It had to have all the parts of a proper desktop booth without being big or expensive. I have been searching for something to fill this spot in my equipment for Years. My Art Desk has little to no room so most commercial booths are out of the question.
Even if it did, I needed something that could be packed up and put away no problem as I have little space to store things. Again, this knocks out most commercial booths out there.
Then there's the price. Small-ish desktop booths cost over $100 for the cheapest entries. You are getting $100+ worth of equipment for some of these but it's still too pricey for a bit of kit I'll use once in a great while.
On the Maker side of things, I’ve seen Plenty of DIY booths made from storage bins and bathroom vent fans and LED strips for lighting. Same with ones built from plastic foamboard. They're too big for my needs or needlessly expensive at some point in the process - usually the fan as it needs to be able to handle possibly flammable vapor.
Again, my biggest worry is Space – both packed and in-use. Those fans eat up the bulk of it. That particular way of building a booth was scrapped, too.
I needed a better solution.
Enter the Solder Fume Fan.
Although rare that I do electronics, I do love watching folks make stuff. I was going through some repair videos while writing one night and I noticed that the person was using a little boxy desktop fan – a 140mm computer fan in a little blue box with a filter - to pull the smoke away from them as they worked. It was a commercial product, too. Unlike a homemade piece, I could actually buy that.
This gave me an idea.
Find a cheap and super basic solder fume fan with a speed control. I toss that into a box big enough to hold a replacement booth filter. It's small enough to fit on the desk and I could use the fan elsewhere if I needed to.
And thus the Totally Pro Spray Booth Mk.2 was born! = D
I had a small 12 inch by 8 inch by 4 inch box from the last batch of parts I’d bought from Gundam Planet. It's shorter than most spray booth filters but a pair of scissors made the filter fit.
The fan unit I bought has a little wire base so I planned that into the design. It keeps the box from sliding around. The unit has bump out on the front and back with one holding the thin charcoal filter. That’s the side that pulls air and the side I had to cut a hole in the box to fit. A little slice and dice later and I can stick the whole box onto the fan with a good mechanical fit. It acts as another air seal, too. The filter just goes right into the box and the thing is ready to rock.
The easiest part was holding the flaps open so I could use the thing. I just unbent some paperclips and slid them in-between the layers of the cardboard to make everything both stay open and easily removable when it’s time to pack it away.
Now… you might wonder if this was a good idea. Well, the suction from the fan is more than enough at 2/3rds speed to draw the paint spray from my little airbrush. The filters catch any particulate that’s at risk of making my Art Desk a pain to clean (I placed a bit of paper behind it to check if it was doing the job I needed it to). The fan is theoretically Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Safe so that should make it less of a fire risk.
The whole thing cost me like $50. Only extra thing I didn’t need to do was bring a different box to this project. You could literally buy the stuff and just use the box it shipped in.
Overall, I’m happy with this. It works like I need it to. I can now use my airbrush on stuff and in the comfort of my own home, no less!
