#xingfeng

Xingfeng Knockoff HGUC 1/144 P-Bandai E.F.G.F Specialized Mobile Suit RGM-79S "GM Spartan"

GM Spartan is a really cool looking kit, with a a lot of cool details and an excellent set of extras. Unfortunately it's also a P-Bandai realease, and for once I couldn't be convinced to shell out the $100 or so for the actual kit. Luckily a friend from my uni's model club let me know the Xingfend knockoff clone of this kit was only $6 - a price so low I'd be stupid to say no.

So how was the Xingfeng kit? It's essentially a one to one clone. I'm not sure how they got the moulds, but they've pretty much exactly replicated the sprues from the actual kit, although they've had to separate the multicolored "A" runner into three separate pieces to maintain colour separation. The only issue was the kit being a more yellow-tan and brown rather than the JGSDF Green that the actual kit is supposed to be, although I just headcanon this kit as being a desert variant.

There was a little bit of flashing and some mould lines, but nothing worse than older HG Bandai from the early 2010s. Overall a surprisingly good experience. In fact, it had some perks over the official kit - it includes a perfect clone of the EVO Waterslide decal set and by god they're miles better in quality than Bandai's official decals. They're thin, strong, and only need a little bit of water to come off the sheet, and look super vibrant on the plastic.

I ended up using the digital camo as a base layer and placing the marking decals on top, which gives it a super gritty, realistic look.

So how is the actual gunpla then?

The GM Spartan is a super detailed kit. The legs and arms are full of panel lines, and there's some great detail on the feet with little claws and treads, which I've painted grey. There's a large reactor backpack, which has a pop-up Minovsky Particle dispenser, really cool vents detailed in both grey and brown to emphasize depth, and a pulse knife/MS combat knife.

The kit also comes with a shoulder mounted set of wire-guided missiles, a forearm mountable beam saber rack with two beam sabers and two beam effects (The Xingfeng KO effects are hard plastic and UV reactive, as is the visor), and a really cool minigun.

The minigun targeting sensor can flip down sideways or remain upright. The magazine can fold to the side to allow an extra magazine to be added to the top, or the spare box mag can be stored on the back skirts. There's also a foregrip-mounted beam handgun with its own E-CAP magazine in the handle. The handle swings freely allowing for super easy posing.

The kit comes with one left open hand, a right and left pistol grip hand, and a right and left open fist hand.

The beam saber rack can be easily relocated to either forearm, or swapped with the shoulder missiles and attached to the right shoulder, or left shoulder if you remove a part. Beam effects can be added while stored, or the sabers can be removed and posed normally.

The GM Spartan's MS Combat Knife is my favorite part of this kit. The knife actually goes into the sheath on the backpack, and can be held nicely by the open fists either upright or backhanded.

This kit does use some polycaps, but it's still overall a very well articulated and solid kit. It's not floppy or lose at all, doubly surprisingly since I'm working with a knockoff.

A neat feature of this knockoff is the dual-effect visor. It fluoresces blue under UV light, but it also glows green in the dark. Bandai wishes it had features like this.