#petitkapool

[argumentalist]

I wasn't a huge fan of Build Divers. The whole Build series is kind of an interesting premise... I mean, I'd absolutely love an actual game like that. But the stakes feel necessarily lower when they're basically just playing video games - not actually fighting wars. (Well, at least in Build Divers.)

But some of the suit designs are absolutely amazing. I love seeing these characters' customized gunpla. And the MomoKapool is just adorable.

I think this is my first HG Build Divers kit, and it's about what I expect from modern gunpla. There's a few polycaps, of course, but it's not excessive like some of the older kits. And there's no ABS inner-frame.

The head/eyes on this kit annoyed me.

There's a whole pile of stickers for various expressions, but only one head/eye section. So I can't really change the expression as I (re)pose the model. I would've really appreciated having a couple extra head/eye sections so I could do multiple expressions.

Also - it wasn't clear until after I'd applied the stickers, but there's a color-separated eye section. So I probably didn't actually need to use a sticker at all.

This whole kit is adorable from head to toe. Stubby little fingers. Big, ducky feet. Roly-poly, fat body.

One of the weird (?) things I like to do as I build a kit is kind of play with the parts as I assemble them. Examine the joints and construction and see how things move. Put a limb through its paces. Just kind of marveling at the engineering and design of the kit.

But this time around I found myself just kind of grinning at the cute little parts. It's just silly from start to finish.

So there aren't really any accessories to speak of... No weapons or shield or anything like that. But there is a cute little Petitkapool to ride around inside it.

And, again, there's a variety of different eye stickers for the Petitkapool... But you're basically stuck with just the one. There's no good way to swap eyes.

Scattered across the runners there's enough left-over parts to build another two arm segments. You could probably use these to make the arms longer - kind of like the extendable arms we see with the Acguy kit.

The MomoKapool is just adorable. I know I keep saying it, but that's just such a striking thing with gunpla. Usually they're big, scary weapons of war... And this thing looks like a penguin plushie.

There's basically no articulation on the PetitKapool - but that's fine. It's really just supposed to hide away inside the MomoKapool. I'm honestly kind of surprised that Bandai bothered to include the thing at all. Especially with its own eye stickers and display stand. Definitely shows some dedication.

The arms pop off and everything folds up into a cute little ball. Again - it's adorable.

The articulation isn't great. The legs are very short and stubby and stiff. The arms are actually surprisingly good, but the fingers barely move. There's some bend and flex at the waist, but not much. Surprisingly - the head/eyes can rotate some, independently of the body.

I'm really kind of surprised by how solid and satisfying this build was. I guess I kind of expected it to be almost a joke or a throw-away. Bandai clearly took this design seriously despite the fact that it looks almost like a joke.

[reversemoon255]

PEN-01M Momokapool

When you build a Gunpla, do you ever read the little quips in the instruction booklet? I normally do to get ideas for photos or to maybe find something for the little trivia bits I do here before the review proper, but this one in particular was a gem. Almost all the captions are about how Momoka had zero interest in the Momokapool’s offensive capabilities when building it (removing its chest missiles, dulling its claws) and Koichi literally had to step in and say “please leave the finger guns.” It’s rare in any of the Build Fighters lore to find a Gunpla that has weaker performance to its non-customized counterpart, but Momo found a way. It is faster and tankier, though.

The Good: This is a very solid and self-contained build. It has a smaller than normal parts count, but does a lot with it. It’s very posable despite its odd limbs. The knees are particularly cool, as you can pull them out (with a nice click) to give them even more range. It’s somewhat treated as an SD unit, which can be seen best with its sticker sheet:

It has a variety of eyes you can display it with, and matching ones for the Petitkapool. The Petitkappol itself only has Sentai mech levels of posability, and you’re required to pull off all its limbs to stick it inside the Momokapool, but it is capable of storing said limbs inside its body.

Which goes back to what I said about the unit being self-contained. Other than the tiny butt plug that allows it to attach to a stand, every piece has somewhere to go. It does come with a few extra parts, though, specifically an extra set of arm joints so they can have a third elbow, just like an actual Kapool. With the monoeye stickers, it makes it seem like either they’re promoting the idea of customizing an actual Kapool out of this unit (since this is an original kit, not a old one with new parts) or that there may eventually be an HG Kapool some time in the future.

The Bad: Its two biggest faults are its heels and its fingers. The heels are a single polycap ball joint, and lack a lot of range. The fingers are pretty loose. They’re all posable, but are kinda small. I would recommend not filing them down on the ball at all to try and give them a little more friction. That or floor polish.

The Details: I was originally going to go with white on the blue, but I think the yellow ended up looking better (and I already did white on blue on the 00 Diver). I lined the area around the beak with blue, did white on the feet, and added a few extra color details here and there. Oh, and for the stand, I did blue rivets with white tubing:

Overall, it’s a great little original kit within a line of old kits with new parts. Highly recommended.