ephemeral builds

Like I mentioned up top - this is an intimidatingly-large box. It's easily on-par with an MG. But there really isn't all that much plastic in the box? Much of the bulk comes from the size of the kit, not its complexity. It's still very much an HG build.

Weirdly, the instructions aren't the typical fold-out pamphlet style. There's enough to document that we've actually got a stapled booklet.

Since this is a Unicorn HG kit we've got some stickers for the Sleeves markings. I was pretty happy with how the stickers turned out on that Geara Zulu, so I fully intended to use those stickers on this build... But that plan fell apart almost instantly.

The very first sticker was for the elaborate crest in the center of the chest. I didn't get it lined-up right on my first try, tried to remove and reposition it, and the sticker tore apart.

So, instead, I wound up painting all those Sleeves details.

I'm not a great painter. I don't have the steadiest hands, my eyes are bad, and I've got no patience for the process. I used some Gundam Markers to paint the details. Tried to clean up the overpaint the best I could. And then I topcoated the painted parts with some Tamiya semi-gloss to try to match the finish of the unpainted plastic.

Honestly, I don't think they turned out too horrible. It actually looks halfway-decent up on my shelf.

I also painted the monoeye with my favorite metallic pink Gundam Marker, which just looks so much better than the stickers ever do.

This is where the build really got kind of repetitive and grind-y.

You've got the four massive wing binders to build... They're pretty simple. The bulk of the structure is just two large pieces sandwiched together. But then you've also got the thruster details and the articulated arm things. And you're doing the same thing four times.

After that there's 24 of the little funnels. There's nothing to really "build" there - they just have to be snipped off the runners. But each funnel has three gates on it that'll need to be cleaned-up. And they're relatively small parts to work with. Those were just annoying.

This kit is super, super light on accessories. You've got the mobile suit itself, two beam sabers, and that's it. Absolutely nothing else. No alternate hands or anything. Nada.

Most frustratingly - there's no stand included in this kit, and it could really use one. The Kshatriya is clearly designed for use in space and it really ought to be posed up on a stand. Worse still, this kit doesn't have a standard 3mm hole... There's a stand adapter included that really wants to be used with a Bandai Action Base 1.

Since I didn't have an ACB1 handy, these pictures are all going to be on the ground. I wrestled with the stands I had available for a bit, but there was just no way to get it to work. The adapter really, really needs an ACB1.

While this kit is fairly sturdy and does manage to stand on its own two feet... Just the basic design means that your posing options are going to be somewhat limited without a stand. It's hard to do anything too dynamic when you have to worry about the thing toppling over.

The wing binders look pretty simple from the front, but the underside looks great. It's really kind of a shame to have all that detail hidden.

And I'm again wishing this thing came with a stand because I'd love to display some of those funnels in-flight.

The little arms inside the binders are pretty neat... But they don't work nearly as well as I want them to.

The joints aren't quite tight enough to actually support the weight/leverage in all positions. This means they like to flop and sag rather than hold a nice, dynamic pose.

The claw at the end isn't at all articulated, nor are there any fixed-pose alternate claws. So it's just kind of always in that mid-grab pose. It doesn't even hold the beam saber well. Both of these pictures required some strategic application of blu-tac to accomplish.

For the most part, however, the kit is pretty nicely posable. The wing binders are nicely articulated, move well, and hold well in any position. The arms are fine... But the shoulders are a little weird. The binder connections kind of get in the way a bit. There's not a ton of articulation in the head or chest. You get a bit of a torso twist, some neck twist, but that's about it.

I did notice that the legs felt a little soft during posing. This is another reason why I'd really like to get it up on a stand. I'm not convinced these legs are going to support the kit over the long-run.

I don't want to complain too much... This is HGUC099 and it's kind of amazing that a kit this old, this unique, and this large turned out as well as it did. But there's definitely some room for improvement.

The lack of a stand is a huge, glaring omission.

But I also wish we had some way to store the beam sabers when they aren't in use. And I wish we had some alternate hands, too. A couple open hands would've been very nice.

I ordered this kit off AliExpress a little while back... It's a set of three little quadrupedal spiderbots.

The box contains three identical sets of runners. Each set has all three weapon options - so you can build any variations you want. You don't have to do one of each.

There's also a weird stat card thing? And a sheet of waterslide decals that I didn't use.

The instructions are really, really simple. The build is super-quick. I don't think it took me much more than an hour to knock these things out.

The fit was pretty good. A few tight parts, but nothing I really needed to force or fix or anything.

The plastic felt a little off...? All of the packaging/labeling just says "plastic", so I guess I don't know what the actual material is, but it feels kind of like ABS. It took my painting and panel-lining just fine though.

These little guys turned out surprisingly well.

Note that they have been panel-lined... And I also painted those little camera eye things on the front... But that's it. That's all the extra work I put into these little guys. They really look pretty terrific given their simplicity and price.

These aren't really tied to any specific franchise or lore or anything - they're just neat-looking spiderbots. But they're labeled 1/144 scale, so they ought to fit in with HG gunpla kits pretty well. And there's some very obvious opportunities for customization.

This feels like a pretty solid contrast to the last RG I built. Where that Z'Gok was strangely light on parts despite its fantastic detail - this one is very parts-dense. Good, hefty box. Lots of runners. Lots to build.

I've been hearing good things about the RG Force Impulse Gundam for a while now and I was really looking forward to this build.

This is RG #33 which makes it the newest RG I've built so far... And I can very clearly see how Bandai has moved away from that Advanced MS Joint B-runner. We've still got the B-runner, but there's just two parts on it. A little piece for the core fighter splendor and a little piece for the chest. That's it. Everything else is going to be assembled from individual parts.

Of course there's a sheet of sticker-style decals, which I won't be using. I picked up some waterslide decals from DelpiDecal which we'll see later.

The build of this kit feels a little weird due to its nature as a combiner. The chest is very hollow to leave room for the core splendor.

The core splendor itself is pretty decent. Nicely detailed. It comes with landing gear and a couple weapon pods - so it can actually be displayed by itself if you want. (There's a clear canopy that we'll see later, but I had it off here for the decals and topcoat.)

Then the waist section has a weird bit sticking out of the top so that it can attach to the core splendor and the chest.

The arms honestly feel a little simple by RG standards. There's great articulation here... Some nice surface detail and color variations... But there's not a lot of sliding armor gimmicks. The elbow does something neat, but that's about it.

The level of detail on the inner-frame is shown off very nicely here in the legs. And since it's all PS plastic I was able to panel-line it all. Again, however, the legs are a little simple for an RG. Again, not a lot of moving armor gimmicks. The knees do a little, but that's it.

And I guess I'll mention it here - but there's a somewhat-annoying amount of undergating going on without any real obvious purpose. I guess it was probably done in anticipation of some sort of plated/coated kit? But it's not really doing much for this kit and it makes gate cleanup a lot more annoying.

As I mentioned up top - I grabbed some waterslide decals from DelpiDecal. These are basically the same as the official Bandai stickers/waterslides, but there's a couple extra bits for the backpack.

This is really a pretty accessory-rich kit.

We get four sets of hands - open/expressive, closed fists, and two variations on weapon-holding hands. We get the two armor schneiders, the beam rifle, shield, the beam sabers. Then there's the backpack and its silhouette.

It's maybe worth noting that those terrible semi-articulated hands I hated so much in the earlier RG kits are completely absent. These are all nice, solid fixed-pose hands.

The only thing I'd really say is "missing" would be a full Action Base with maybe a few extra arms for displaying all these bits.

So... I honestly do not understand why you would design a combining mobile suit like this. It feels unnecessarily complex. Why would you want to launch four separate components that need to combine on the battlefield instead of just launching a single mobile suit?

Sure, yeah, I understand the versatility of swapping the backpack/loadout... But we were doing that without separate chest/leg flyers with the Strike Gundam.

It just seems kind of silly. Especially this particular version. The ZZ at least looked like combining aircraft of some sort... The Impulse Gundam just has legs flying around on their own.

Once it's all combined, however, this is a pretty good-looking kit.

As usual with RGs - we've got an opening cockpit hatch, but no seated pilot. Which is a little more noticeable in the core splendor.

We've got a separate silhouette flyer to carry the backpack into battle. It's nicely molded, nicely detailed, but the whole gimmick feels kind of like an afterthought. It doesn't connect well to the backpack and I would not trust it for longterm display.

I like the opening/closing shield gimmick. It looks good and it's very well-executed. Feels solid. Substantial. Completely unlike the flimsy thing we get with the RG Unicorn, for example.

I can definitely see why this is a popular kit. It's a very solid build without a lot of gotchas. The minimal B-runner eliminates a lot of the frustrations we see in earlier RG kits. I'm definitely missing some of the sliding armor gimmicks we've seen in some other kits... But I have to acknowledge that this does make for a simpler build.

I still think the combining design is stupid... But the full/combined mecha is very cool.

I haven't build a lot of 30 Minutes Missions kits. There was that big Provedel kit last year, but that's it. So this was still kind of a novel experience for me.

The instructions for this kit were a little unique... While it's still got the normal fold-out booklet fully detailing every step of the build, it also had this quick one-sheet version too. That's basically the entire build right there.

It's not immediately obvious but there's several shades of pink palstic here. There's the super-pale stuff, obviously... But then there's also several darker shades of pink. It really looks pretty good once the thing is built. There's some subtleties there that I don't normally expect from HG-ish kits.

I dunno... It's maybe not accurate to call this an "HG-ish" kit? I'm not sure what to compare it to. I guess 30MM is its own thing. Maybe making comparisons at all isn't fair. There's some weird bits of complexity here that make it feel more like a human figure than a robot. Like the torso, for example, has a surprising bit of flex and articulation.

I think this Acerby, specifically, lives in kind of a weird place. It's very clearly a hybrid of the 30MM and 30MS lines. More mecha than musume, and I genuinely appreciated that. The one real girlpla kit I built felt vaguely creepy the whole time I was building it.

So here's what we get... The Acerby herself; a couple open hands, a couple holding hands, and one angled holding right hand; a gun with a barrel extension; a knife; some multipurpose armor parts; and a whole pile of extra bits.

A lot of the extra bits - like the bicep and thigh connectors - remind me a lot of the 30MS line.

It's maybe worth noting that there weren't any stickers in this kit at all. I painted that little bit of blue on the gun. It just looked too plain without anything there.

It's neat how that visor on the head is adjustable. With it fully-down the kit looks genuinely robotic. I mean, clearly a very feminine robot... But a robot nontheless. With it fully-up, however, the kit looks more like some kind of character. An alien or human or something. I guess it's just the eyes making that happen?

The kit is pretty nicely posable. There's some good rotation in both the thighs and biceps. It winds up feeling pretty expressive without too much effort.

Overall, it's a pretty solid kit.

It's a very quick build. The whole thing only took me a couple hours to put together - and that's including the time to panel-line. I like it a lot more than the Figure-Rise Standard kit I built a couple years back... But I'm still not sold on all of the extra sockets for customization everywhere. All the holes look a little weird.

Still... I find myself wanting to try a straight-up 30MS kit now. See if that'd be as unsettling as the Figure-Rise Standard was. Or if I'd enjoy it more.

I'm finding it interesting how much the availability of these HGIBO kits varies. I'm not sure if it comes down to the volume of the reprint or the popularity of the kit or what... But some of these things are much harder to find than others. And it's not obvious to me which is going to be which.

This Gundam Gusion, for example, was much harder to get my hands on than McGillis's Graze.

Since this is an HGIBO kit we've got some foil stickers. There's a few color-correcting stickers, but it's mostly kind of marking/decal sort of stickers. Well, and the eyes.

I know that this thing is a Gundam frame... But there's no way you could know that from this kit. There is absolutely nothing in here with any resemblance to the other Gundam frame kits out there.

The whole design is absurdly chonky. Very big, bulky, rounded armor everywhere. And the incredible volume of the torso makes everything else seem very short and stubby.

So, this is what we get... That giant hammer, a gun, and an open left hand. Not a lot of accessories here. I mean, I guess it's about what I'd expect from its appearance in the anime...? But it still seems kind of light. I guess I would've liked at least an open right hand too?

I'm going on record saying that this is maybe the worst stand connection I've seen in a gunpla kit. Seriously.

We've got a polycap plugged into a seam between two parts. But it's one of those weird L-shaped (?) polycaps too. This means that it's not even remotely secure. The polycap immediately wanted to pop out of its socket, and the two parts kept separating. I'm not even sure that cementing the parts together would help because of that polycap there.

You'll see some pictures of this thing up on a stand... But I really didn't trust it to stay up there for long. I've got it standing on its own two feet on my shelf.

Somewhat surprisingly - this thing can actually store all of its weapons when not in use. A little latch folds down from the butt-skirt for the gun, and there's an optional connector/mount for the hammer.

There's something vaguely goofy about this thing's head. It really does look frog-like. I'm well aware that the yellow things are the eyes, but I keep thinking those vulcans are the eyes. It's just kind of weird. Kind of cute? Which seems terribly wrong given its appearance in the anime.

Unfortunately this thing's posability is somewhat limited by its design. It's big and bulky with stubby little limbs... There's just not a ton you can do with this. It's hard to get poses that look super dynamic.

Having said that... It does look good. It's well-executed. Well-realized. And it's actually pretty sturdy on its own two feet. Weirdly, it's more sturdy on its own feet than up on a stand.

This was yet another really solid HGIBO kit. Its unique design means that I didn't have to deal with the typical Gundam frame issues we see in HGIBO builds. And while I'm not a real big fan of this design... It still looks pretty fantastic up on my shelf. I guess my only real complaint is that terrible stand connector.

This is my first kit in the HGGQX line and I really didn't know what to expect. Thankfully the engineering on this is all very modern. No polycaps. Lots of really good, crisp molding. Soft plastic that cuts nicely and doesn't mar too badly. The basic engineering reminds me a lot of the HGWFM kits.

Unfortunately we get plenty of stickers. A fairly large sheet of foil stickers as well as some of those RG-style sticker decals.

I figured I'd give the sticker decals a try... But they really don't work any better on this kit. They don't want to bend around curves, they don't want to stick, and the borders are plenty visible. If I really wanted all the markings on this kit I'd go out and buy some waterslide decals... But, as it is, I'm just going to be omitting them.

The build on this kit is kind of insane. Lots of really intricate details. Lots of color separated plastic. The head alone has 14 parts in it.

Somewhat surprisingly we get a whole separate head for the closed version. No part-swapping that big v-fin/crest thing - just swap the whole head. That's a very nice feature.

The whole design of the GQuuuuuuX is just weird. There's some very organic, Evangelion-y vibes going on... But also some very industrial aesthetics as well. The end result really doesn't feel much like the typical Gundam mobile suit.

We get a pretty extensive pile of accessories with this kit. There's the two beamsabers with really neat blade effect parts, a heat hawk, a shield, a really neat beam rifle, two sets of weapon-holding hands as well as two sets of open hands. There's the two heads. And then the backpack can detach and be set up as a core fighter.

This kit doesn't come with a stand... Which is really kind of a shame, since this mobile suit is almost never standing on the ground. So I picked up this ACB7 set with the GQuuuuuuX stickers. So I'm definitely going to have to build a few more of these HGGQX kits.

Like I said - the backpack can be configured as a core fighter. It's a really weird take on the core fighter, too. Unfortunately there's not a lot of color accuracy here... And no stickers included to fix that... It could definitely benefit from some paint.

And here we've got the GQuuuuuuX up on the stand. This thing looks really unique. It's just put together weird. The joints aren't anything like I've seen on any of my other kits. The feet are just bizarre.

This kit moves great. Poses great. And it really looks fantastic. I know I'm missing a lot of detail without those sticker decals... But it still looks amazing.

The beam saber is just neat. It's a really weird, unique beam effect part... Kind of hollow and more blade-shaped than normal... But it's also got some kind of glittery thing going inside the plastic. I keep saying - but this kit is just super unique.

I have genuinely not built anything quite like this before. The aesthetic and the engineering are just unique. Really enjoyable build. Seriously - even if you aren't a fan of the GQX designs you ought to build at least one of these kits to see what they're like.

I really like the Real Grade line. There's a level of detail and complexity that I'm just not seeing in other kits... Not even the Perfect Grade I built a little while back. There's just something about these little RGs that tickles by brain.

This build is fairly simple for an RG... We get eight runners in the box, but four of those are split runners and one of them is just simply the claws for the iron nail. This really feels more like four runners and the inner-frame. Comparable to a modern HG, really.

But even with so few runners we're already seeing that fantastic RG color variation. There's four different shades of red plastic - from a deep burgundy red all the way up to a salmon pink.

Of course we get our Advanced MS Joint B runner... And this one is kind of weird. Due to the nature of the Z'Gok we don't really have normal arms and legs on here... Nor is it a collection of ball-joints like you might expect. Instead we get a bunch of problematic little hinges.

The arms and legs both have a bunch of little hinges... Some bending left/right, others bending front/back. This will give the arms and legs that weird bendy-tube flexibility... But they're very soft. Very weak.

We get the usual sheet of RG-style stickers, which I won't be using. There's some metallic accents and a relatively small number of markings. I've got some waterslide decals that I'll be using instead.

The build for this kit is surprisingly simple for an RG. There's a few tiny little parts... But, mostly, it's a bunch of fairly large pieces. Many of the segments on the arms and legs are just two pieces sandwiched around the inner-frame.

I grabbed some waterslide decals from DelpiDecal and I'm again surprised by the difference between their decals and Bandai's. These release from the paper much easier, but they also stick to the plastic better. And they don't seem nearly as fragile during placement. Clearly just superior decals.

We don't really get weapons or accessories with the Z'Gok. There's the mobile suit itself, with the backpack... A tiny little Char Aznable figure... And that's it.

We get some alternate parts to build four-clawed versions of the iron nails. This just feels weird to me. I don't know if I've ever actually seen a four-clawed version on-screen. Certainly not in 0079.

And we don't get enough parts to make a full, swappable, alternate set of nails.

I don't generally bother painting these RG pilot figures. They're too small, and there's no seated version, so it feels kind of unnecessary. But I do like having them available to help set the scale. You get a good sense for just how big these things are.

And even though you don't get a seated pilot figure - there is an opening cockpit.

So, like I mentioned up top, this kit has some serious stability issues. That weird inner-frame just is not good. All those little joints are very soft and weak right out of the box. It was immediately difficult to get this thing to hold a pose.

And that's a genuine shame because this kit has some surprising articulation. There's some neat moving armor gimmicks in the knees and elbows. There's a good bit of flex and pivot in the waist. There's a leg-dropping mechanism, and good shoulder mobility, the monoeye is easy to move, and there's even a bit of flex in the upper torso/chest area.

And, as I expect from an RG, there's some fantastic details on this kit. We've got a couple shades of grey/black as well as all the different red tones. There's some great surface detail and panel lines. No real seam lines or mold lines visible.

It's just honestly a shame that this thing is so floppy right out of the box. And due to the nature of that Advanced MS Joint inner-frame there really isn't a good way to tighten these joints.

I'd normally suggest that you find a good pose and leave it on the shelf... But I'm not even sure that'll work. I would not be at all surprised to see this thing just collapse under its own weight.

If you can overlook the obvious stability issues, however, this kit might make a good introduction to the RG line.

I think I paid about $30 for this kit, which puts it on par with modern HGs. And it's a fairly simple build as far as RGs go. There's a relatively small number of pieces and they're on the larger side of things. There are some tiny pieces - but not as many as most RG kits. And the finished build really looks fantastic.

This is it. The last retail release in the HGWFM line. I've built them all. It's kind of a weirdly bittersweet feeling... I've thoroughly enjoyed building all of them. And it's terrific to see the collection complete. But that also means that I don't have any more to build.

Well, that's not strictly true... There's some P-Bandai kits. And the Full Mechanics Aerial. And the MGSD Aerial. But this is it for the regular retail kits.

Unsurprisingly, this is a very sticker-heavy kit. And I'm going to have to use most of these stickers since there's no way I'm going to try to paint all those shimmery rainbow lines. Especially without any raised details to follow.

We do get a couple very nice pre-painted parts. I really wish we'd gotten more of these.

The eyes are completely separate bits of green plastic, which would make them very easy to paint... But I haven't found any paints that catch the light like the stickers do. So, again, I'm going to use the stickers here. And we get a couple different sticker options - green or pink.

And then there's that terrific pre-painted rainbow v-fin. We also get a clear smoke-grey v-fin as well... But I really don't know why you'd want to use that.

Here we can see the second pre-painted part in the chest and it looks fantastic. There's also a sticker under there, with a bit of smoke-grey clear plastic over it, because this pre-painted part only covers part of the chest.

And, again, there's the option of a smoke-grey part instead... But, why?

Here we can see more of the stickers under smoke-grey clear plastic... And it's maybe worth noting that we also get black stickers to use instead. I guess for some kind of deactivated look? But, again, I don't know why you'd want to do that.

So here's the full kit... The Calibarn with its backpack, two beam-sabers, the variable rod rifle, and the escutcheon. I guess I'm not really sure why we get the escutcheon? I don't recall seeing the Calibarn actually use that in the anime...

Here you can see what's left at the end of the build... There's the clear smoke-grey v-fin and a bit from the chest, as well as a whole lot of black stickers. Clearly you can give this thing a fairly different look. But, as I've said repeatedly, I don't know why you'd want to do that. The rainbow looks so much better.

Thankfully this kit comes with a runnerless stand, so we can actually get it up in the air. I'm not going to say it would be impossible for this thing to stand on its own two feet... But that variable rod rifle attaches to the backpack and it's fairly heavy - so it'd certainly be challenging.

We get some flat beam-saber blades, in blue, which is always a nice surprise. I'm so used to seeing the normal blades in pink all the time. These look very nice. Very striking.

And then we get the escutcheon, in white... And, like I said, this doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I really don't recall the Calibarn using the escutcheon in the anime. I think there's a scene where Suletta kind of steals the bits from Aerial? But I don't recall the Calibarn having its own bits.

Of course we can do a bit-on mode, too, which looks fantastic. Definitely one of the better bit-on forms we've seen.

This is a really, really neat kit. Very cool design. I love that this thing actually has a broomstick as a weapon. But I can't help feeling like this kit could've been executed a little better.

I would've loved to see more of those pre-painted bits. Or maybe some actual raised details under the clear plastic so that painting didn't seem so impossible. And some of those 3D stickers we got in the Schwarzette might've been nice in the variable rod rifle.

Really, though, it's just a fantastic kit. I don't think there's been a single genuinely bad kit in the entire HGWFM line. I'll again complain that there's no alternate hands... But that's the most I can do. This one doesn't even have the annoying feet that the Demi kits do.

I guess it's neither here nor there... But this Bandai HG Macross line is kind of weird. #01 is the YF-19 from Macross Plus. Then we skip ahead to Alto's YF-29 from Frontier and Max's YF-29 from Delta... And, finally, we're back to Macross Plus with #04 - the YF-21.

I don't know if they were just knocking-out the most popular protagonist mechs first? But there doesn't seem to be a lot of rhyme or reason to these releases.

Once again we've got some of these weird, super-thin stickers.

You may recall from my YF-19 build that I wasn't very happy with how the color-correcting waterslide decals worked. So, this time around I resolved to try using these stickers. Unfortunately that didn't work great either.

They worked pretty well on the flat surfaces... But they really did not play nicely with anything curved. They didn't want to bend, stretch, or stick on any of the curves. You can see how wrinkly and ugly they look on those back engine sections.

So I wound up pulling those stickers off and hand-painting the bits instead. This actually wasn't too terrible... They're generally some fairly basic, solid-color lines. Usually surrounded by panel-lines so I could easily tell where to stop.

And, of course, I painted the pilot figure too. He looks pretty ugly this close up... But doesn't look too terrible in the cockpit. Especially since the canopy hides him almost completely.

I don't want to sound too nit-picky... But there's some weird scale/accuracy/consistency issues with this kit.

We've got a few "shortcut change" parts that get swapped-out when we transform the kit. And I think this works pretty well in general. I'd rather swap parts than try to do a real transformation at this scale. But some of these swapped parts don't look quite right.

The first picture up there shows some leg skirting bits that are basically supposed to be the transformed state of that whole bottom fuselage. They're very clearly not nearly large enough for that.

The second picture shows the nose/cockpit section that gets swapped in battroid mode. Again, it doesn't look right.

I guess this is maybe excusable with the YF-21 since we see it actually bending and morphing... It's clearly got some weird, high-tech materials going on... But it still kind of bugs me. I wish it looked more consistent. More accurate.

So, once again, I picked up some waterslide decals for this kit. The official Bandai ones. And I'm honestly not thrilled with these decals.

They're generally a bunch of super-small caution markings that feel more like what you'd see on a model airplane. More realistic/military... Less sci-fi... And also super, super tiny.

These things were very hard to work with. They didn't want to release from the backing paper. And then they felt super fragile and tore easily. And then they didn't want to stick to the plastic well. You'll see some wrinkling and silvering in the finished photos.

Also - I used my Stedi panel-liner on this kit and I probably shouldn't have. That stuff is water-based which makes it very safe for plastic... But it also reactivates very easily if it gets even a little wet. So I was constantly reactivating panel-liner when trying to apply these decals, which got kind of messy.

Grabbing a picture of one of these HG Macross kits before completion feels a little weird. It's more like a collection of parts than a robot-to-be.

In addition to all of the parts needed to build the YF-21 in its various modes... We also get some extra hands, a couple rifles, some placeholder rifles for fighter mode, and the pinpoint punch effect part.

There's a number of very nicely separated clear parts in this kit. There's some clear red bits in the nose, the canopy, and two different colors of clear parts in the head. I decided to partially disassemble the kit and remove those parts prior to topcoating - I figured that'd be easier than trying to mask them off. I think it worked pretty well.

The canopy is that neat polarized clear plastic that Bandai has been using lately... Unfortunately it doesn't do this kit any favors. There's so little canopy in the first place, and the polarized effect reduces the transparency, so you can barely see the pilot inside there.

Fighter mode looks pretty damn good even though I'm not generally a fan of aircraft models.

I think gerwalk mode is probably my favorite in these HG Macross kits. It's the really distinctive, iconic Valkyrie mode.

The transformation is easy enough. It's mostly just some part-swapping. There's precious little actual transformation. But, again, I think that's probably the better approach in a small kit like this.

And then, of course, there's the battroid mode. Unfortunately this thing's face is so deeply-hooded and darkly-shadowed that you can barely see the clear parts in there. I debated painting them or using the stickers... But when the lighting is decent they really do look pretty. So I left them as-is.

Oddly, there's a couple left-over parts on these runners... A couple extra bits of shoulder armor. It seems weird to have left-over parts in this box. It's just #04 in the line. And it's the first YF-21 kit. It's not a color-variant or a derivative. You'd think these runners would be purpose-build for this kit.

I guess I assume they were planning ahead for some of the YF-22S variants we're going to see later.

It feels kind of weird to be struggling, making mistakes, and learning from a simple HG kit again... I mean - I just built my first PG a few weeks ago.

But these HG Macross kits are just a bit different from the HG Gundam kits I'm typically building. A few little quirks, oddities, and differences. There's definitely a bit of a learning-curve with them.

This kit definitely turned out better than my first HG Macross build. Painting those parts worked much better than the decals or the stickers. I think I'll probably just start with paint on the next kit I build - that way I won't need to clean off any sticker residue.

I also want to see if I can find any third-party waterslide decals... Maybe something from DelpiDecal or G-Rework? I bet those would work better than Bandai's...

I also again found myself wishing this kit came with a stand. It feels borderline-necessary for a kit with a fighter mode like this. I mean - you can't really display the fighter mode without a stand. Sure, on its landing gear if you have to? But that's really a little disappointing... It would've been fantastic if it at least came with something like those runnerless stands.

At the end of the day - I really enjoyed this kit. It's a good, solid build that's just different enough to be interesting.

I'm definitely looking forward to building some more of these HG Macross kits. Especially some of the Delta and Frontier kits.

This kit is just kind of weird. It's an HGUC kit, but there's no polycaps... But I can't really say it feels "modern" either, because it has a separate stand adapter. I feels like a weird hodgepodge of engineering elements. And the design aesthetic is really, really weird.

The level of detail on this kit is kind of insane. So many panel lines. So many mechanical elements. It all feels very busy. Very complex.

We get a full sheet of the RG-style stickers that I hate - I won't be using them.

We can see that the insane level of detail continues here with the stickers... There's some detailing stickers for the feet, for example, that looks almost kind of like zimmerit? And then the monoeye sticker has kind of a tiny little three-lobed look to it?

It's just way too much. Especially trying to put stickers like this over so much molded surface detail.

Since I'm not using the stickers I painted the monoeye with my favorite metallic pink Gundam Marker. I didn't get the three-lobed look right, but I think it looks decent.

As for the accessories... We get the Zaku machinegun and heat hawk you'd expect - but they're in that weird, excessively-complicated RFV style just like everything else. We get a little three-tube missile pod we can mount on the leg. Then there's a couple regular holding hands, a trigger-finger for the right hand, and an open/expressive left hand.

The posability is decent, but not outstanding. It's got the same kind of mobility issues as most other Zaku II kits - specifically, those legs are too chonky for their own good. There's not a lot of good flex in the ankles. It's hard to get anything real dynamic going with those feet actually on the ground.

There's definitely some elements to the design that I like... I think it's neat how the shoulder shield has those guns embedded in it. And I like the two antennae/fins on the head. Some of the detailing looks good. And I appreciate that we've got a couple subtly-different shades of black/charcoal going on.

But there's also a lot I'm not liking. Like having a separate stand adapter. Or a separate connector to stow the heat hawk on the back skirt.

And, as I've said, this level of surface detail is almost offputting. It feels too complicated. Too busy.

And if I'm being completely honest... I don't love these colors either. This kind of mustard/tan color isn't doing it for me. I think I'd like it better in a normal Zaku II green... But I really don't want to pay $70+ for a P-Bandai two-pack. I kind of can't believe they didn't sell a normal RFV Zaku II at retail.

Such a weird, weird build. There's definitely elements I like... And a lot of elements that I don't like.

As much as I love to build these Graze kits, it's getting hard to write about them. It's basically the same kit with minor variations... What do I write that I haven't said already?

As expected with a Graze kit we've got a fairly minimal sheet of foil stickers. There's the monoeye, a bit of yellow for the AHAB reactor on the back, a couple bits of yellow for the front... There's a couple extra stickers for the visor on the head. And then there's four stickers for the thrusters on the shoulders.

It's really not bad. If you've got some decent yellow paint you could omit most of these stickers. And, honestly, the thrusters in the shoulders looked fine without the stickers. Or you could probably paint those without too much trouble.

It's the same Graze build that I know and love. There's some minor tweaks here and there... The head is a little different. We've got some thrusters sticking out of the shoulders. There's a weapon attached to the left forearm.

But the core of the kit is the same thing I've built repeatedly. It goes together very easily. It's sturdy. There's none of the weird HGIBO jankiness you get with some of the Gundam frame kits. It's just a solid, satisfying build.

We get mostly the same accessories we've seen in previous Graze kits. There's the axe and the rifle same as always. The only real new addition is the wire claw.

The only extra bit left on the runners is a connector for the backpack/buttpack from the standard Graze kit.

Unfortunately the one bit of new equipment, the wire claw, is kind of disappointing. The supplied wire isn't really strong enough to hold a pose or support the claw... Which is sort of surprising given how small and light the claw is. It just kind of flops around and slowly droops. It's enough to get a quick picture... But if you want this thing posed on the shelf with the claw displayed you're going to have to get some stronger wire.

This kit just begs for a display stand - I think the only time we see it in the show is in space. But, unfortunately, there's nothing supplied. I'm using one of the Simple Stands by Good Smile Company. I love these things.

I really like how the head opens on this kit. The way the monoeye is tilted upward gives it a very dramatic, almost comical appearance when the head is open. It's giving me Muppet-y vibes?

Unfortunately there isn't a good way to store the equipment on this kit. You can't stow the rifle or the axe on the kit when they're not in use. I mean, you could probably figure something out... But it'll definitely clash with the rest of the armor/equipment.

It's interesting... Having just recently built the HGIBO Vidar... This kit is giving me vaguely Vidar-ish vibes. The black/blue coloration and the big things on the thighs... You can definitely see some similarities.

Like I said - it's getting kind of hard to write about these kits. They're all really solid, really fun builds. I love the basic design aesthetic. I haven't been genuinely disappointed by one of these Graze kits yet.

Once again - this thing is just big all around. Huge box with a carrying handle. Lots and lots of plastic. Three instruction manuals. There's just a lot to this build.

We've got a beautiful plated runner in the box... It's a very cool, silvery color with just a hint of pink to it. Rose silver maybe? Is that a thing?

And there is a lot of ABS plastic in this kit. Feels like there's more ABS than PS plastic... Which is fine, I guess. ABS is tougher. Wears better. It's better for inner-frame and load-bearing joints and whatnot. But it's kind of annoying to work with. It cuts weird... Sands weird... Doesn't play nice with some solvents... Doesn't work right with normal plastic cement...

And then we've even got some metal parts! The hip joint and a couple pieces inside the thighs are actually metal. I can certainly appreciate the hips being metal - I assume that'll handle the weight and stresses better than plastic would. But I'm not sure what those metal parts in the thighs are accomplishing.

I decided to go all-out (it's called "perfect" grade, after all) and painted some of the cockpit in the Strike Rouge, too. Too bad it'll be virtually invisible once the kit is finished.

Some of this built felt unnecessarily complicated... Like the LED unit in the head. I guess I appreciate that they included an LED unit, but I had to build it myself. There were a couple loose bits of wire, an LED, a screw, and some bits of plastic to hold it all together. And the final result was seriously underwhelming. The LED was very dim and unreliable.

The LED was absolutely terrible in the head. It was barely visible with the light on... And with it off, everything was dark and muddy and indistinguishable. I decided to paint the eyes and cameras with some fluorescent paint - which I think turned out well. It looks better than the LED ever did even without a UV light. And it really pops with the UV light on.

I ran into another issue with these hatches/panels on the shoulders... The bit of grey plastic just didn't want to securely connect to the outer white plastic. And since the grey stuff was ABS I had to use superglue to get them to stick. Annoying.

These hands... Just... Wow...

It's certainly cool that they're fully articulated. But it's also a pain in the ass. So many tiny little nubs to clean up! And the end result really doesn't have a lot of strength to it. I guess they're nice for actually articulated poses... But I would've liked some fixed-pose hands in the box too.

There's some really neat articulation and gimmicks in the arms and legs. Little pistons tucked-away. Sliding armor panels. Unexpected panels and hatches. Really good stuff.

And here's the monster all laid out...

We've got the two armor schneiders - which were molded onto the same runner as the hands and required absolutely no assembly at all. We get the beam rifle and shield. We get that massive grand slam. And of course we've got the Aile Striker with its beam sabers that I built along with the Skygrasper.

So, again, we've got the sticker-style decals that I didn't use. As well as some gold dry-rub decals that I didn't use.

I used the same DelpiDecal waterslide decals that I mentioned with the Skygrasper build. And, again, I wasn't thrilled with them. Little tweaks and changes that I didn't love.

And I didn't use any of the gold stuff around the chest... I've never liked how that looks. Too fancy? Too ornate?

Once again - this thing is just huge. It doesn't fit inside my photo box unless I'm very careful and very conservative with the posing. So you get to look at my messy workspace again. Sorry about that.

The articulation is pretty good... But the sheer mass of this kit is a problem. Everything is so big and heavy it winds up feeling fragile and awkward. It's hard to pose without feeling like something is going to break.

The stand certainly does its job... But, again, I'm kind of wishing it wasn't so bulky. I guess I don't know how you'd support a kit like this without something substantial... Maybe a metal stand could be smaller?

Honestly... I kind of hate to say it... But I was a little underwhelmed by this build? I'm not entirely sure what I expected from my first Perfect Grade, but I guess something more impressive?

I mean, yeah, it's big. It has some serious shelf presence.

But I'm not thrilled with some of the gimmicks and articulation. There's some neat stuff... But also some stuff that feels superfluous or gratuitous. Some unnecessarily fragile bits like some of the opening hatches on the legs (which I broke).

And it doesn't feel nearly as posable as I want it to be. I can't really get the dynamic poses out of it that I want. It's just too big and bulky.

It's very cool. It was a fun build. But I'm hesitant to call it "perfect". I'm left really wanting to track down an RG Strike Rouge and see if that finally scratches the itch.

Like I said - this is a big kit. Basically two separate models in one box. And it's a big box at that. This thing's got a carrying handle!

There's three sets of instructions in here... The build manual for the Skygrasper, build manual for the Strike Rouge, and then another manual with all sorts of information and a marking guide and whatnot.

We get several pilot figures in the box, which I painted of course.

There's a seated Mu and Cagalli in her body armor for the Skygrasper. A seated Cagalli in her flight suit for the Strike Rouge. And then a giant standing Cagalli in her flight suit. That standing figure can't possibly be in scale... It's about twice the size of all the seated figures.

I also painted some of the cockpit details since that's all going to be fairly visible through the canopy.

This is kind of a simple build. It's impressively large for a gunpla kit... And there's plenty of room for details. Plus - those details are large enough that they're actually visible. But there honestly isn't a lot of mechanical complexity going on.

Unsurprisingly, there aren't really any accessories here. I mean - there's the Aile Striker pack that we'll see later... And a stand... But it's basically just the Skygrasper itself here. There isn't a lot of optional equipment to swap out or anything.

There was a sheet of sticker-style decals that I decided not to use.

I grabbed some DelpiDecal decals... But, honestly, I was a little disappointed with them. I should've shopped around more.

Unlike most of the decals I've gotten from DelpiDecal, these don't match the marking guide in the book. There's a separate guide on the DelpiDecal website. And I didn't like some of the changes.

The Skygrasper itself looks awfully plain. It was missing some of the caution markings like those triangles around the the intakes. And then the Aile Striker had a bunch of weird lines/stripes all over it that I didn't like - so that wound up looking very plain too.

Photographing this thing was genuinely difficult. It's just too big for my homemade photo box.

The stand is certainly functional... I guess it'd be weird to complain too much about a stand... But it is kind of big and awkward and bulky. I suppose it has to be to hold up something as large as the Strike Rouge is going to be - but I do wish it were a little less obtrusive here.

And then I added the Aile Striker and the thing just simply did not fit in my photo box at all. So now you have to look at my messy workspace. This thing is just huge.

So, unfortunately, I don't think my final thoughts on this Perfect Grade Skygrasper are too complimentary.

I mean, it's fine. It's not a bad kit at all. The build was fine. Nothing too annoying. The parts were all generally fairly large and easy to work with. And it's certainly nice having details large-enough to actually paint without using a toothpick.

But I can't help comparing this thing to the RG Skygrasper I built a little while back... That thing had some extra gimmicks like sweeping wings and articulating thrusters that this one doesn't. And I guess I expected something called "perfect" to be the best possible version. To have all the gimmicks of an RG and then some.

While it's not labelled as such, this is basically an Entry Grade kit. It's got the same simple runners. The same touch-gates. The same surprising color accuracy without any stickers. As such, it's a very quick build.

One of the things that makes this kit so much fun is all the little nostalgic/historic asides in the instructions. Little reminders of what it was like to build gunpla way back in the day.

While I didn't actually get into gunpla until fairly recently - I did build plastic models way back in the '80s and I can certainly remember some of those anecdotes.

The build is super, super simple. It's all very hollow with no hint of an inner-frame at all. Very simple joints with very limited articulation. Hardly any surface detail. Very little panel-lining.

But it's got that same, surprising Entry Grade color accuracy. There's no stickers at all. Everything you're seeing on the head up there is color-accurate plastic. Even that little, yellow 'v' on the crotch is separate plastic.

Every time I build one of these EG-ish kits I find myself wondering why they can't manage this level of color-accuracy in HG kits.

Unsurprisingly there's not a lot of accessories in this kit.

We get a shield, a beam rifle, a beamsaber, and an extra beamsaber hilt. That extra hilt is for use with a beamsaber effect part - but one is not included with this kit. That's probably fine... I've certainly got plenty of spare saber effects from all my other kits... But it still feels a little weird to get that empty hilt without anything to put in there.

Also - the beamsaber is completely unpainted. Just solid white. The pink you see up there is from a fluorescent pink paint marker.

Clearly the proportions and shapes are a little wonky on this kit. The shield is shaped weird. The beam rifle is tiny. The whole robot is recognizably "Gundam" - but not actually even remotely accurate. It's got the same kind of janky charm as the classic first Gundam series. It's very reminiscent of some of the old off-spec animation.

The articulation and posability is pretty terrible. There's some halfway decent ankle and knee bends... But the hips are so limited that you can't really do anything with it. The arms and shoulders are a little better, but not much. There's absolutely no flex at the waist. You're simply not going to get anything real dynamic out of this thing.

Here you can see the difference between the included baton beamsaber and an effect part... And, honestly, the effect part doesn't look right. This kit is so janky and misproportioned that the effect just looks out of place.

It's also worth noting that the two saber hilts in the backpack are fixed in place. They can't be removed without some kind of modification.

You can really get a sense of how weirdly proportioned this kit is in the 360-spin. It's so adorably janky.

It's also worth noting that the camera on the back of the head is hand-painted. It's not at all color-accurate out of the box.

This is such a weird kit... It's a whole lot of fun, but not for any of the reasons that I typically enjoy a kit. The build itself is almost an afterthought. The articulation is barely existent. The model is completely off-spec. But there's some real charm despite (or maybe because of?) those shortcomings.

It seems weird to call a 2013 kit "older" - but it really feels kind of dated. There's lots of polycaps. A lot of the plastic feels very hard/brittle and marks-up very easily. It comes with the weird, stubby beamsaber effect parts. But that doesn't make it a bad kit.

We get some foil stickers... Largely color-correcting, but there's some nice lens stickers too.

There's also a sheet of sticker-style marking decals that I'm not going to use. You've heard me say it many times before - I don't like these things. They don't stick well and they don't look good on darker plastic.

We get a whole runner of hand parts... We won't be using the armor bits at the top of the runner - we've got color-accurate alternatives elsewhere. But we will be using all of those hands... And I've got to say that the hands in this kit feel unnecessarily complicated.

The closed fist hands are made of three pieces - palm, knuckles, and thumb - plus the armor on the back. That really feels excessive to me. I can't help thinking that could've probably just been a couple pieces.

This kit is molded almost entirely in dark plastic, which I don't love. It's hard to pick out the panel lines... But I guess this kit isn't real heavy on surface detail in the first place.

The head is kind of awesome. I love that orange visor. And the asymmetrical arms are terrific. Plus, we've just got tons of chonky armor all over the place.

We get a lot of options with this kit.

There's a whole pile of hands in this kit. We get two open hands, two closed fists, two holding hands, and a single right-handed trigger-finger for the rifles.

We get two different rifles... But, unfortunately, they're not set up to be ambidextrous. They've got little pegs on the handles that only work with the right-handed trigger-finger. So there'll be no dual-wielding without modifying something.

The backpack can be assembled in a couple different ways... It can be a plain backpack, or we can mount the shield on it, or we can attach the cannons.

Then there's the beamsaber and an alternate bit of side-skirting that holds the beamsaber when it's not in use.

And we wind up with a few extra parts once the kit is built... Several grey bits of hand armor, some standard Jesta shoulder armor, a bit of leg, some front skirting, and a few random bits I can't immediately identify. There's definitely some potential for kitbashing here.

I really like how the shield is attached to the backpack on a little arm. I wish there was more articulation here? But I guess that's too much to ask in an HG. Instead we just get a couple alternate, fixed-pose arms that don't allow for a whole ton of options. It's actually kind of hard to get the shield around in a natural-looking position.

We get two different rifles and they both look pretty damn good. The bulkier one even has a little bit of articulation on the back... But there's nowhere to store them when they aren't in use.

Of course we've got the big cannons on the backpack. They look pretty good. Pretty dramatic. But the longer one has some unfortunate seam-lines.

Like I said - this thing has the old, stubby beamsaber blade effect parts. You get two of them, but just one hilt. And then there's an alternate piece of side-skirting that holds the hilt when it's not in use.

This is really a pretty great kit... I just wish it wasn't so dated.

All the polycaps leave it feeling very floppy and loose. Kind of spongy? The limbs don't hold their position real well. It all feels kind of soft when posing.

And the plastic is all very stiff, hard, brittle, and prone to marking. Worse still - cleaning the nub-marks up is very difficult to do without scuffing the surrounding plastic. It's just very unforgiving.

And, again, the hands are just unnecessarily complex. Yes, I absolutely appreciate having so many options... But we don't really need three bits going into a fist.

But, at the end of the day, it's a very nice kit. It looks absolutely fantastic up on the shelf. Very militaristic and business-like. None of the drama of the typical Gundam protagonist suits.

As I indicated - I had no idea this kit even existed. I'm completely unfamiliar with Warrior at the Borderline. And, furthermore, this is going to be my first Full Mechanics kit.

I guess I'm not really sure what I was expecting out of this kit... But pilot figures were certainly a surprise.

I'd heard that Full Mechanics kits were basically just big High Grades. Better external detail and maybe some more gimmicks... But not a whole lot of internal complexity. So I really didn't expect to see pilot figures here. And, furthermore, this is a 1/48 scale kit - so those pilot figures are big!

And this is basically where I decided I was going to have to put more effort into this kit than I'd originally intended.

I figured I'd treat it like a big HG. Basically a straight-build right out of the box. Not a lot of extra effort. No decals or painting or topcoat or anything.

But then I saw these big pilot figures and figured I really ought to paint them... And then I thought I ought to do decals and a topcoat too...

Speaking of decals - this kit comes with a big sheet of sticker-style marking decals that I'm not going to use. They've got the same feel as the sticker-style decals I hate in RG kits.

We also get a sheet of these fantastic "plastic stickers". It's basically a very shiny foil sticker with a fairly thick layer of plastic over it. I love these things and sincerely wish we'd get them more often. They're very shiny and give a real lens-like look.

This thing is shaped weird. It's very angular and pointy. Lots of triangular shapes. It's got less of a humanoid appearance and more something like a dinosaur or bird?

This kit feels a little light on accessories... There's the giant sword and the arm-mounted gun, but that's about it.

We get some alternate hands, but only a couple pairs are actually useful. There's another pair of hands with a trigger-finger thing going on and I'm not sure why they're there. I guess I assume this is a variation on another kit? One that'd have a gun to hold in its hands?

So, since I didn't want to use the included sticker-style decals, I bought some waterslides instead. I couldn't find any official Bandai waterslides... Nor anything from DelpiDecal or G-Rework... So I wound up buying these off eBay. I don't know what brand these are - I can't read most of the writing - but they're really pretty good. Lots of vibrant colors. Clean, crisp printing. They released from the backing very easily and stuck to the kit very well.

This thing's got a neat gimmick where part of the back skirting acts as an elevator to lift the pilot up to the cockpit. And there's even a fold-down screen kind of thing inside the cockpit. Terrific little detail.

This is definitely a big kit. It barely fits into my home-made lightbox. It's easily the same height as a Master Grade.

Unfortunately the posing options feel somewhat limited. That sword is just so big... It kind of gets in the way.

I'm really very impressed with this kit though. The build was fantastic. Relatively simple... But with a great payoff. Everything snaps together quick and cleanly with no issues. There's not a lot of surface-detail, but all the planes and flat surfaces really look good.