Your Bag

TECHNICALLY this is a retooling of the Unicorn Type-13 G.K. but there are only four out of a dozen runners for a few areas like the biceps and thighs that are actually reused (and even then less than half of the parts on those runners are actually used) and the amount of completely new parts is over 90%, even with both in hand it's really hard to tell where they share 10%. Pretty much every single issue that the Type-13 had is fixed by the 00 including the wrist and joint connections (all polycaps have been replaced with PS parts to match the new standard of HGs) and weak spots in the parts, as well as revamping the silhouette to match the stylized version of the Hathaway movies. All of the stickers are also 100% optional and there's even an etching into the gray part behind and under the clear pink visor with a combination mono-eye/sensor band (like in the Jegan/Jesta and Dijeh, which makes sense as it's developed from the Jegan to fill an equivalent role to the Dijeh as a limited production heavyweight & high-mobility MS) as well as a reflective silver and pink sticker that adds color to those details, there's also blue stickers for the dark lines that run around the calves but that detail is already color-separated into the black inner parts which matches the in-movie design better so it's ultimately redundant. Surprisingly, the Beam Rifle and Bazooka are completely new tooling, despite technically being the same models as the ones included in the ECOAS Jegan the proportions are subtly different but they could've just reused the older versions or even used the Type-13's beam rifle, but they really went all-in on the revamp and the new weapons feel much better to clean up and hold without popping out of the model's hands. The plastic is the new formula first used in the WFM HGs and it's much easier to work with in terms of cutting out cleanly with minimal gate marks and maintaining a pose, with even a decent pair of nippers you can almost completely remove most of the gate marks or any scratches without sanding the parts at all. The total amount of plastic is comparable to a lower-weight MG like the RX-78, GM, or Zaku 2.0s or middleweight RGs like the God & Shining Gundams, Grandpa 2.0, or the newly released Wing Zero TV and honestly I feel like Bandai could've easily gotten away with a $5 higher price tag. The 3D models used in both Hathaway movies (and the future third part) are identical bar a few tweaks on the backend, so despite being labeled as new to the sequel, this model is also the version seen in the first movie and is meant to pair nicely with the 2021 Messer F-01 to recreate the legendary nighttime battle at Davao (seriously, go watch it if you haven't seen it yet regardless of watching the full movie, there's a 4:32-long clip on Youtube but FYI it's not the full thing so if you want the complete version you'll have to dig a bit or just skip to the part on Netflix; it's also the scene that the song 'Tracer' that's used in all of those Gogg memes originates from if I remember correctly) or with the Xi and Penelope for the climax. In summary: WHAT IS BANDAI ON, are we sure this is the same company that put out the HG Tristan or makes all of their good stuff P-Bandai exclusive at a ridiculous price? Like, do we need to check on their designers? How did this even make it into production without someone saying 'hey maybe we shouldn't be raising the bar this much' ... well, I guess that answers why they reused some parts, they had to save what little money they could to actually make a profit off of this because it feels like they'd be selling it at a loss otherwise. Perfect 10/10 I'll stop rambling but I was only partially joking about checking on their designers, it's almost a little concerning at this point

I remember when this guy first came from Japan, I had pre-ordered it a few months prior and was relatively excited, but when I actually built it I was completely blown away by how phenomenal this model was. It's really like not much else that Bandai has ever done, in the best possible way. I knew that when the TV series didn't do well it would probably be a matter of time until the line was discontinued, but I still didn't think it would be so soon, after all they had been releasing new kits in the series this spring. I really only wish that it could have stuck around a little longer, maybe have gotten some more of the phenomenal Full mechanics kits, but that's not going to happen now. If you are even slightly interested in the Kyoukai Senki HGs or the series, please do yourself a favor and pick up this guy, he and the rest of these kits are too good to go out with just a whimper. Pick up some of the option sets if you can as well, the white parts in #1 are the same shade of white as this kit so you can have an upgraded version, and #5 has supplemental armor specifically designed for this kit.

I normally don't do third party kits very often, but I'm a sucker for 00 and just couldn't resist. The kit is molded primarily in ABS plastic with a little bit of PET (no polycaps) and has a nice semigloss finish right out of the box. Like the pictures show, the shade of red used is much brighter than in the series, but I personally think it looks really great; it's much more of a cherry red like on the Sazabi than the dark maroon used in the show. The few orange parts are also much more yellow (almost gold), which I also think is an improvement and looks phenomenal on the katanas. Almost every part on the kit is undergated, which is very nice especially when working with black plastic. The joints vary from being really tight to a bit too loose, but it can stand up mostly fine and keeps a pose well. It uses three sets of interchangeable hands like Re/100 and HG kits, and the wrists on the closed fists and open hands are a bit loose but fortunately the ball joints on the sword hands are very solid even compared to a lot of modern MGs and you even get a little swivel at the base of the palm for extra range of motion. It also includes an action base adapter, one of the square peg ones. Really the only issue is that some of the parts just do not want to fit together (the worst offenders being the clavicle antennae and skirt joints) but by sanding the parts and using pliers you can get everything together in the end. The kit does include almost all of the parts to make the Susanowo: The alternate skirts, GN Condenser, Physical Swords, and gauntlet for the left wrist, with all of those stated parts being molded color-accurately. Despite not appearing on the Masurao, the Tri-Punisher cannons are included and fully functional. However, it does not include replacements for all of the red parts, so you'd need to hand paint it should you choose to build the Susanowo; it also lacks the modified head crest so you may need to do some custom sculpting or wait for an official Susanowo remold if you care about that. I was going to make a mysterious comment here about how cool the ancestry of this suit is because it's a spoiler in the show, but the description literally states it so yeah this is an incredibly souped-up Over Flag from Season 1, specifically the late Daryl's. It's so cool that Graham actually kept his promise and continued to fight Celestial Being with a Flag even after the introduction of the GNX and GNZ series, and in the end it paid off because the Braves from AwoTB are directly descended from the Masurao/Susanowo and by extension Flag. Imagine being so stubborn that you end up upgrading an obsolete machine to such a ridiculous degree it becomes the prototype for the next generation of high-performance units and completely leapfrogs the model that made it obsolete to begin with. PS: Remember that Graham... sorry, Mr. Bushido (man that name is stupid) is left-handed, so the longer blade goes in his left and the shorter in his right.

A phenomenal kit all around, it doesn't even really feel like 30MM but rather a full-fledged HG, the level of detail and plastic quality is insane for the price, it uses the new softer plastic for the dark gray that a lot of the WFM kits implemented so it's super easy to clean up gate marks and there are no polycaps at all (Everything is PS). It's also molded in the same colors as the Melander and soon-to-be-released VE-40A so you can swap parts between them without worrying about color matching. If you want to recreate the starter AC build, 'Loader 4', you'll need this kit and the right hand Turner rifle and left hand BU-TT/A sword from parts set 5, and the right shoulder 4-Cell missile launcher from parts set 4. If you want to recreate the loadouts of Loaders 1-3 from the Story Trailer, you can check the Armored Core wiki for full details (the only unavailable part is the right-shoulder Morley for Loader 1 which will be releasing next year with LOCKSMITH and probably the unrevealed parts set 7). Now all we need is a Spring Chicken remold and for that SMP Balteus kit that was just revealed to get a US release (please Bandai I beg of you, I will sacrifice my firstborn if it means I get to have the tactical hula hoop). PS: There's no official sizes for any of the AC6 mecha, but based on previous games and context clues this kit and the other Bandai kits are somewhere between 1/100 and 1/72 and can be displayed with both scales

I was pleasantly surprised by how big it was, especially compared to other MechaColle Yamato kits, it's around the same length from bow to stern as your average Gundam HG is tall (maybe a little taller, like the Zeta but not quite the Nu) and comes with a single large runner broken into four smaller sections to fit in the box, all sections of which are molded in the same shade of gray. The detail is outstanding for the size, and although there are some very minor seam lines they fade into the panel lining already present on the model. The instructions are printed onto the underside of the box which is a little annoying to work with but not really a big deal (Most other small Yamato kits and Star Wars minis do the same so it's no like it came out of nowhere). If you're a Yamato/Star Blazers fan but don't have the budget or shelf space for the 1/1000 models, I'd highly recommend this one and the others in the series (the 2199 ones can be a little rough but the 2202 and 2205 ones are top notch). P.S: None of the kits in this series are scaled with one another, so don't worry about trying to display it with others in the same scale if you're someone like me who does that. (If I had to ballpark it this one is around the 1/4000 to 1/5000 scale, depending on which version of the series you're going by)

Genuinely one of the best MGs of all time, if not Gunpla in general. It's rock solid pretty much everywhere except the ankles, which are still pretty solid. All of the details are finely molded and the overall quality of the model is insanely good. Probably my favorite gimmick is that the main camera actually extends from behind the V-fin like in the series without any parts replacement. The only area that's a bit tricky are the pieces of iridescent plastic that make up the exposed GN cables and some detailing on the head, torso, and weapons; they're a bit of a pain to work with but once you get them assembled you won't need to worry about them coming off and they do look very nice on the finished product. I have all of the S1 00 MGs and I can confidently say that this is the best one, it was so good they used the internal frame for both Kyrios and Virtue with only minor adjustments as necessary. Also, the cockpit actually includes a pilot figure of Lockon with the rifle apparatus he uses to aim deployed, which they really didn't need to do for something you probably wouldn't even notice was missing, but I guess that just shows the level of quality and appreciation for the design we're dealing with.

This has to be one of my favorite kits, ever, and that's saying a lot. Unlike most Wave kits, you really get your money's worth here with over 20 runners and a build somewhere between a Re/100 and an MG with fine details to match (seriously it's crazy what they pulled off, like an RG almost). It's about 90% color accurate, with the 10% being the sensors (molded in clear), and the pilot figure (uncolored like the ones in old MGs), but the former can be remedied with included waterslides. It does require glue in some parts, such as some of the armor plates (wrist and waist) and the figure of Ypsilon, so you're going to want to have some cement ready. It does feel a little more fragile than a modern MG, with some fine details like the antennae or main camera being molded incredibly thinly making them warp or come loose easily (the former end in a pretty sharp point that has a tendency to warp easily when grazing the bazooka or even the backpack). Despite what the manual tells you, you don't need to glue part I-12 as it slides right in and out and you can just store it in place if you want to close the visor. One thing the promotional pictures don't tell you is that it also includes parts to recreate a broken forearm like in the series, so if you don't like the regular or claw arm you don't need to display it, and it also comes with parts to make the generic back attachment points if you don't want to display the bulky backpack. The bazooka is probably the weakest part of the kit, as it's molded so solidly that it's hard to fiddle with without bumping into the antennae or sliding off the shoulder and can only be put over the shoulder, but it's not horrible overall and in no way a dealbreaker, plus the model fortunately looks great without it (Ypsilon barely used it anyways). One area I was really impressed with was the size, it's a lot bigger than the 1/24 Wave/Takara kits and scales better with the older and equally great Bandai 1/20 Scopedog, so you could definitely get away with displaying the two together (the Strike dog has subtly different proportions anyways due to it being redesigned in-universe so you can chalk any difference in scale up to that). It also seems like this is going to be far from the last Votoms kit from Max Factory, as we'll be getting a 1/24 Blood Sucker next year and a Diving Beetle and Rabidly Dog at some point in the future (this kit's runners are already laid out so they can be reused for the latter), not to mention the rest of the back catalog of Max Factory soft vinyl kits (Berserga WP and DT, Fatty, Zwerg, & more). One last nitpick is that the kit doesn't use undergates which makes the gate marks on the metallic parts stand out a bit, but you can angle the noticeable ones so you can't see them without having to bust out paint. Overall 8.5/10, really looking forward to what PLAMAX has in store! PS: Be very careful with the main camera, every other time I touch mine it falls off and I'm too scared to glue it lol

It's funny how when I finally finish this guy after putting it off exactly one calendar year, it looks like bandai is reprinting more. As for the model itself, it's OLD. The mold originated with Char's Zaku in 1981, and this one is a 1982 recolor. The proportions are incredibly wonky and very off from modern depictions, which I kind of like because you can see the evolution of the design. Basically has the posability of an old action figure: neck, shoulders, forearms, wrists, hips (only forward and back), ankles, and feet (also only forward and back); it also lack polycaps due to polycaps not having been invented yet when it was made. You're definitely going to need some plastic cement for this guy, but you won't need paint for this one since it's the only original model to be color accurate (the Guncannon, Gogg, and Z'gok are all pretty close though). The end result might not be as pretty as a modern MG but it's nice to have a piece of history in your collection, and for incredibly cheap too (I got mine for $20 at a brick-and-mortar store). Overall 8.5/10, not perfect but what would you expect from a 42-year-old model? I've since picked up other original 1/100s, but this guy is still my favorite by far.

Cutting straight to the chase, this is the best Macross model kit on the market. You might think of the removal of a proper transformation as a downgrade, but rather it's a very smart choice by Bandai. Every previous variable fighter model with a proper transformation has suffered from extreme fragility and relied on metal parts or costed an arm and a leg ($90 in some recent cases). Additionally, most of the models on the market are from Hasegawa and therefore basically conventional airplane models without color, snap fit, or features, and are also molded in worse quality plastic. Additionally, none can convert and cost upwards of $30 in each form, so if you want all three modes of the VF-1 for instance you're probably going to have to spend at least $100 on the kits alone (excluding glue, paint, decal softener which you very much need). I quite sincerely despise my VF-1 battroid model, and he has been relegated to the bin of shame for constantly falling apart and being a general disappointment. Even if you just want a converting action figure, the cheapest ones are $60 and even smaller than this kit, so if you want one that'll actually look good you'd have to buy one of the Hi-Metal figures by trading in your firstborn child (Newtype does have good discounts on them though). While the YF-19 is a bit small for a 1/100 model (which is accurate to the design and Macross in general), it has very high quality and good color separation, with all of the grays being molded unlike almost every Hasegawa kit, and the canopy does actually have a nice tint to it like in the pictures. The battroid mode needs almost no stickers to be color-accurate, with most of the color correction being for the black stripes on the wings, the intakes, and of course the little markings and logos. If you build it straight the plane mode looks a little... plain but it still looks very nice and could be easily rationalized as a mass-production version. It also does come with swappable landing gear, which is very nice. The reason why it's probably so expensive for what it is is because of Harmony Gold, which holds the distribution rights for the franchise in the west.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_Gold_USA#Legal_issues_regarding_Macross_copyright). Fortunately, this flagship model was enough of a success that we're at least getting two more in the line, both variants of the YF-29 (Alto Saotome's standard type and Max Jenius's Super pack) which should be coming out in the next few months. Overall, what you see is what you get, which immediately makes it better than almost every other one on the market. If you want something a bit bigger and cheaper that doesn't transform and is of decent quality, I'd recommend the Hasegawa VF-0 battroid, which does have some molded gray and holds together decently well (If you REALLY want a VF-1, get the Max Factory model, it's not snapfit but has that style of guiding connections). PS/Fun Fact: In the English dub, Isamu Dyson - the pilot of this unit - was voiced by Bryan Cranston (I just thought that was cool)

Like the title suggests, it's basically a modern MG kit. Full internal frame excluding some parts like the head, hands, and feet, but just about everything else can have external plating removed. If you don't have the original, its size is closer to a large MG like the Sazabi Ver. Ka (the two have similar head heights) than any of the IBO Full Mechanics models. It re-uses some areas from the original, like the cockpit, hands, the elbow/wrist joint, and basically anything that looks visually identical to the original. However, the legs and forearms are brand new and considerably longer than the original ones, making the Zan taller and lankier than the regular Kenbu (which makes it look fantastic). The red is actually a very beautiful shade of maroon and the yellow is a bit more orangey (the whites and grey/blacks areas are different shades than the original too). The sword is in two halves due to its side, so there is a very faint seam line running down the blade, but that's excusable considering the rest. The arm cannon is not compatible with the original Kenbu's arms, but the claw arm included in the latter can be used on the Zan due to reuse of joint parts (the weapon rack is exactly identical to the original so it can hold the katana and machine gun perfectly fine). Overall, I'd say this is the better FM Kenbu, and I'd recommend getting it ASAP if you're interested since the series unfortunately flopped, so these amazing kits might not be getting reprints a few years down the line. 10/10

Right now funnily enough

Right now!

Unfortunately no alternately colored parts are included in this kit. It does include a painting guide for the green/tan version (Thomas Kurtz's) though. The black areas of the biceps, thighs, and feet on Johnny Ridden's version will also need to be painted (the only black piece is the upper chest; as well as all of the accessories. To be fair, this kit was released in 1997 as a color variant of the original 1996 Gelgoog, which at the time was only the third unique MG mold ever created, and at the very least it actually has waist articulation and a slight ab crunch unlike the earlier Zaku and Grandpa MGs.

They should, as these effect parts don't actually attach to the beam/blade parts and instead are held up by the included stands in a position that makes it look like it's attached.

This is in fact a screen-accurate purple version! (I think that's the reason why they didn't just chuck this version to the P-Bandai pile, if it was just the new arms they probably would have but the color inaccuracy was so atrocious on the first go-around that they needed to make this guy standard retail). It also includes the parts to build the original version's shield and arm as well so there's really not much of a reason to go for the original brown version.

Not really; although the manual references using AB #7, any of the other ones should still be fine (except maybe #6 which is a bit too flimsy for an HG-size model)

It's approximately 1/400 like the other Kotobukiya Eva models

Unfortunately no, while Bandai is able to offer specific dates for Japanese stores a few weeks ahead of release for most model kits, the time it takes to ship products to the US is constantly in flux so they can't really give anything specific. A general rule of thumb is that for new releases (like guy) it'll take until around a month later than the Japanese dates for US and international retailers to begin to receive stock; this particular model released on April 11th in Japan so the second week of May is likely the earliest we'd see it stateside (with about a two week margin of error due to current global shipping disruptions), and the first batch can also come across multiple shipments so even if the first one sells out immediately it's reasonable to keep your finger on the metaphorical trigger for a few days or weeks before writing it off entirely.

The manual and images recommend #7, but you should be fine with 4/5 or even #8 if you want screws for extra stability

These should work just fine with both versions, the only reason to not use these for the original besides wasting the decals for the added parts would be the price difference which isn't much anyways.