PLAMAX Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS - Sky Thunder
For someone who loves Xyz Monsters, I've never actually used AA-ZEUS. I do use TY-PHON, which I also hope they make a kit of, but the boss of all Xyz bosses somehow never fit into what I was building.
This is also a very interesting choice to do a kit of. Because all of the Gunpla kits are of season 1 main character boss monsters, and the one Moderoid kit we've gotten, while of a season 6 Link Monster, was also a main character boss monster. But AA-ZEUS has never been in the show, it's only ever been a card. A popular card, but just a card none the less.
The Good: It's a very beautiful kit with a decent bit of posability. It's not the greatest range, but for what the design is, it works. It has an alternate shoulder configuration featured only in the animations for combat. It also just perfectly captures this design; there are so many small details, like the collection of mechanical "eyes" it had hidden all over it, all of them partially obscured, that you'd never notice by just looking at the art. Despite any of its flaws I'm about to mention, I really do like this kit.
The Bad: Those shoulders are enormous, and because of that it does affect both their range and can cause the arms to sag. Also, some of the construction is a little weird; there are a few parts where you're supposed to assemble some loose parts then lock them together with another part in another step, like with the turbines. This is also a kit where I wish they did what Bandai usually does, and label the same part the same number, because it's very easy to mix parts up if, say, you nudge the table and they move around a bit.
The Details: For this I just used a panel liner and the metallic silver stickers it came with. There are a number of black stickers to further darken the design, but I preferred how it looked with the etched lines over accuracy. It also comes with two sets of translucent runners, one blue and one red, so you can choose what color you want during construction.
Overall, despite some flaws, I do really like this kit. I really hope PLAMAX does some more card-only designs, but I'm also having a hard time thinking of guys to do besides TY-PHON. Maybe doing the full combining VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon, the Centur-Ions are my girls so I'd love to see Legatia, Super Quantal, Drytrons, Ursarctics... Yeah, I guess if I look through all the concept art I have saved, there're plenty of neat designs they could still do.
