TL;DR, Pleasantly high quality build, impressive shelf presence, unforgettable building experience on par with a PG or MGEX Alright, so, for immediate, important reference, I got this kit via another site, when the very first batch for the Sky Defender had come out to the West, back during August. That being said, I do feel like what I had experienced with this kit needs to be mentioned to help give an idea of what to expect with undertaking this kit. For those that have built perfect grade kits, they'll know that building one of those usually takes a while, usually with it becoming a multi-day affair. Sky Defender very much falls into that category, being for me personally, a build that took 40 hours total, from start to finish, and that's not even including the waterslide decals which will be applied at a later point. The plastic quality for the kit feels rather pleasant for something of its size. Not necessarily to the same level as Bandai's perfect grades, but... think a similar analogue to such would be the MGEX line. Most of the parts, if not all of them, are undergated, so cleanup is a cinch. The addition of metal etching stickers as well as actual metal parts was also a very welcoming addition, even though in the former, there were some rather tiny etches that did almost manage to disappear on me. Much like the Perfect Grade Unleashed or the MGEX Strike Freedom, the build is broken up into phases, giving you points to stop along the process to look over what you've done so far, and even at those steps, the kit is perfectly viable to display for a while, before continuing on. A finished build will net you a model that has a downright IMPRESSIVE shelf presence, coming in at over 13 inches tall and 20 inches wide, with the wings fully outstretched, something important to keep in mind. That being said... For $150, you end up with a kit that could very well become the centerpiece of your collection, and a build experience that rings rather similarly to a perfect grade build, but at a cost that makes it a fair bit more feasible. I wholeheartedly recommend this kit to those who are wanting to have just a little bit of a challenge, but also end up with something you can just take a step back from after each phase, and just marvel at this remarkable feat of model kit engineering. This genuinely is a model that one needs to be able to experience for themselves, with how potentially game-changing it is.

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