HGUC 1/144 E.F.F. Prototype Transformable Mobile Suit NRX-044 "Asshimar" (XW Knockoff)
The Asshimar!!! This is one of my favorite transformable mobile suits, and one of my favorite suits from Zeta overall. Its design is loosely based on the G1 design for the transformer "Cosmos", with a circular Mobile Armour mode and a chunky Mobile Suit mode standing at over 23 meters (making it a very large kit).
This kit is actually a bootleg, made by the company XW and sold under the dubious title of "Pumpkin Pie Warrior". The Bandai HGUC Asshimar isn't all that hard to get but I had to pick up this bootleg for the funky box art alone.
Surprisingly for a bootleg, the quality wasn't all that bad. It's a fairly good clone of the Bandai mould, with the same level of colour separation and detail. There's a little bit of flashing that needs to be trimmed, but the mould lines were no worse than most Bandai kits - better in some places. The clear piece that goes over the eye-sensor was a little warped but it's not noticeable once the kit is assembled. One issue I did find was that the tolerances weren't quite as precise as with Bandai kits, with some pegs being too big for their holes and certain pieces refusing to stay flush. If you assemble this kit be prepared to spend a little extra time widening holes and gluing parts down to get it to work.
In terms of the kit itself, the colour separation and level of detail is impressive. Unlike some other HG transformable kits, this one doesn't require any parts removal or replacement to transform, and there's some really impressive internal engineering to achieve this, especially with the way the legs fold in on themselves. The kit is completely colour separated, apart from a little red for the thrusters and some grey vents and minor details around the suit.
I also cribbed some of the Titans stickers from my unbuilt GM-II as well as a few other spare stickers, and added a bit of custom graffiti and markings in white, as well as some light weathering. The graffiti was a little hard to come up with given the Titans position as a fascist allegory, so I kept it limited to some kill markings and a message on the gun. The unit number is almost entirely a result of what stickers I had to hand.
The graffiti and markings were difficult to plan out, as several panels change orientation in Mobile Armour mode and I wanted to avoid parts appearing upside down.
I made sure to include a little homage to the knockoff kit's name with a custom suit name and logo!
The kit comes with very limited extra parts, including its Large Beam Rifle, two closed fists hand options, and two pistol grip hand options.
A neat bonus with this kit is that it includes an extra Large Beam Rifle, so you can pose it with two guns at once! The second rifle can be attached to the top of the suit in Mobile Armour mode, but I found this threw of the balance a little so I didn't take any photos.
Overall this was a really fun build and I'm pleasantly surprised at the quality of the knockoff. It's not as good as my XFS knockoff GM Spartan, but it's certainty commendable especially at the lower price.
Definitely recommend checking it out! Next up is another knockoff kit for AoZ April - the XFS HGUC Woundwort, if I get to it!
