#tastier

Oh boy, buckle the fuck up folks. I got a lot to say about this one. This is genuinely one of the best model kits I've ever made, especially relative to its price, and especially especially considering it wasn't made by Bandai. For $100, you get:

One robot (MG size and quality)

One robot dog that can become a gatling gun and can also have its legs used in like five different ways

Two pistols

Two rifles

Two knives

Four lightsabers (also every weapon can be used in like four different ways)

Two FX pieces for each gun (6 total) and two for the swords

Four pairs of hands

Eight photoetched metal visor options

An LED unit for the head

A massive display stand that can store almost all of the above, and has half a dozen posing options of its own, and also comes with a gooseneck flexible metal stand arm

A cloak for the robot, which is poseable thanks to wires in the fabric

A background diorama display

A blueprint of the robot and dog (forgot to include this in the photos)

All of this, for $100. Did I mention that nearly every part is undergated, and the snap-fit is Bandai-tier quality?

And oh man, the engineering quality. Bandai's HG/PG Evas have trained me to groan when I hear the words "rubber parts," but this kit uses rubber in some really cool ways. Many of the red accents in the legs, arms, spine, etc. are rubber, and they're laid out in such a way that they pull other pieces around when moving, or let pieces smush together without damaging the paint. It's very clever.

And speaking of clever, the hands! Instead of swapping out weapons, there's one set of holding hands for each weapon type (gun and blade), and the hands have the handles built into them. So instead of pulling a hand apart and putting something new in it, the whole weapon disconnects from the handle and you can just swap it for something else.

Also, P I S T O N S.

I repainted the whole kit other than the parts that already had a metallic coating, but I stayed mostly faithful to the original. I just didn't care for the blue and the clear parts.

The weapon rack can rotate down inside the stand to make way for other attachments.

This good boy has about a dozen options himself.

For one thing, he can carry any of the weapons.

For another, he can turn into a giant fuckoff gatling gun.

Or, if you're so inclined, you can turn him into an extra set of limbs for the robot.

The robot--whose name is apparently Tastier; don't ask me, maybe it sounds better in Chinese--has a whole bunch of different options for his visor. I know 5 and 6 look similar, but I promise they're different.

Other than the extra arms and his regular hands, he also has weapon mounts on each arm. I didn't think to do it while I was taking photos, but he can carry eight weapons at once. ._.

The rifles can break open like this; it reminds me of what energy weapons do when they overheat in Halo.

The real star of the show, however, is this cloak. Holy crap, this thing is cool. Giant robots with capes look silly, but this guy is just a guy in armor, and "guys in armor with trenchcoats" is a sorely underrated aesthetic. Kinda reminds me of Helldivers, though I've never played that.

The wires in the cloak let you easily pose it and make it dramatically blow in whatever wind you desire.

I'm not at all experienced when it comes to this kind of miniature photography, but I still think it looks cool as hell.

Even with 30 photos, there's still so much I haven't had space for. The fact that the pistols have functional slides, for instance. Or the fact that the cloak has back holsters for them. Or the way the stand arm works.