HGBM 1/144 Planets System PFF-X7II+ "Core Gundam II Plus" + Planets System Armour Unit PFF-X7II+/P9 "Plutine Gundam"
The core system is back! Now that I have a little extra money and space, I'm trying to collect every full set that comes with a unique Core Gundam (ignoring the small sets that just contain a single Core Gundam II recolour, or the Jupitive, which has the same Core Gundam as the Earthree). So far I have the original Core Gundam from the Earthree, the real type colour in clear from the Marsfour, and the Alus Core from the Alus Earthree.
I'm building these a little out of order. The Core II Plus and the Pluto Armour are from the short Build Metaverse OVA, and represent Hiroto Kuga's final development of the Planets system, building on the Uraven and Core II from the end of the Divers Re:Rise series (and ignoring for a second that Pluto isn't really a full planet). The Core II Plus has some minor facial design changes from the Core II (with a more insectoid faceplate) and to the Core Defenser (giving it forward swept wings rather than the simple delta wing of the original). It's a more melee-focused design, with the full Plutine Gundam only having melee focused weaponry.
This kit recieved my standard approach with a matte topcoat (satin for the armour and flat for the inner frame), a thorough panel lining, and some weathering on the grey frame parts. The Plutine features a lot of black armour pieces as well, and to appropriately detail them I used the Tamiya Grey enamel liner rather than a black, and added a small amount of dark gunmetal drybrushing, giving it a really cool worn look and helping it to look just as detailed as the rest of the kit. The green parts have an almost semi-metallic look to them in real life, although I'm unsure if that's due to the topcoat or an intended feature of the colour.
The Core II Plus uses pretty much all of the same parts as the original Core II, and is just as poseable as the Earthree and Marsfour's Core II. It's a little taller in both the thighs and torso, and has a little more detailing, but uses a lot of the same internal frame parts as the Core Gundam (and shares the entire C runner).
The Core Gundam II Plus uses the same smaller beam saber effects and small beam rifle as the Core Gundam (although it has re-designed beam saber hilts, which due to a cross-shaped hole can be attached to the backpack at an angle).
The Core Defenser shield can be attached to the backpack as a flight system, or with a small flip-out handle be used as a large Zeta-esque shield.
Just like the Wing Gundam, the shield forms the main aspect of the transformation into the Core Flyer mode. By rotating the legs and head, the Core Gundam folds underneath the "nose cone" of the Core Defenser, with the beam rifle slotting into the tip to create a small plane mode.
Just like the Wing Gundam and some of the similar SEED Freedom transformable mobile suits, it's considerably uglier from beneath. It pairs really nicely with the re-designed armour carrier unit however. This armour carrier is a redesign from the "inner planets" carriers seen with Earthree and Marsfour. It has a much wider look with armour sections on separated "arms", looking more like an alien spacecraft rather than the plane-like "inner planets" carriers.
The real star of the show is the fully assembled Plutine Gundam. It re-uses almost all its armour parts from the Uraven, however it focuses on sharp spikes and fins for its detailing, giving it a super menacing look. I've been using my new lightbox for these photos, and they really make the metallic eye-stickers pop and let me pull off some amazing photos.
Unfortunately, I'm very much not a fan of the stability of the Core II design. The polycap parts feel inadequate to support the weight of the "Breaklow Feather" components on the shoulders, and the waist seems very fragile as well. The weight of the Core Defenser part is also annoying, as it feels like it constantly wants to fall off, and the forward-swept wings get in the way of posing (hence its absence in a lot of these more dynamic poses).
The kit comes with quite a few weapons and hands. There are two sets of open fists, one from the original Core Gundam C runner for holding beam sabers and the small beam rifle, and one slightly tighter pre-built set that can firmly hold the "Infortune Scyzer" scythe weapon without any slipping. There's also a single left handed open hand. Unfortunately there are only two Pluto Armour hand backings so you have to swap between the hands you're using, but thankfully the surplus hands can all be stored in the included stand for the Pluto Armour's carrier.
The Breaklow Feathers can hinge and pose on the shoulders, or be displayed separately as a spinning bladed weapon like a set of oversized shurikens.
The kit includes a set of larger beam saber effects for the Plutine's full-sized mode, but the star of the show is absolutely the Infortune Scyzer. The scythe blade can fold backwards for stowage or to create a more spear-like weapon, or fold out into the scythe format. The OVA showed it glowing with blue beam effects, although unfortunately there's no included effects parts or attempt to replicate that with this kit.
Overall I really enjoyed building this kit, and I think it looks incredible displayed along my other Planets System kits. It of course is compatible with any other Core Gundams, and I'd love to try out the Pluto Armour on the Alus Core at some point. However it just doesn't seem to have been designed with the constraints of polycaps in mind, and it can feel incredibly fragile and difficult to pose at times. I definitely had to work for a lot of these shots.
I still reccomend it as part of a completion of the Core collection, however I think a lot of the criticisms it has recieved are completely warranted.
I currently have the Veetwo and Uraven in my backlog, and am hoping to get a rather rare Core Gundam kit in the future, so keep an eye out!
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