Almost a year ago at the time of this review, I had encountered Gunpla for the first time when looking at some transformers in YATA. The kit that had interested me is the HG Unicorn Gundam [Destroy Mode], but at the time, I just thought it looked cool, and never had any true interest in purchasing it, partially due to price. Although ever since that, I had always began to notice the Gundam kits around me more, and eventually, I thought of buying my first model kit. As a retired transformer collector, I never thought that I would have the patience or determination to keep building, but when I saw the HG Unicorn for the upteenth time, I vowed to buy and build that kit one day. Of course, as a beginner, I thought the kit looked complicated, and since I really wanted to have my Unicorn kit to look good, I chose to choose another kit to make beginner mistakes on instead of Unicorn, and that brings me to this guy.
At the time, the RG Gundam Astray Red Frame had just been created, and I instantly fell in love with the design. So sleek, so detailed, so agile, and the katana just made everything more badass. I thought to myself, this will be the one. But being a beginner, my dad told me to go for HG. Back when I didn't know the difference between RG and HG, I complied, and bought the very kit i'm reviewing for my first Gunpla.
I made mistakes on this kit, I really did. I even had to buy another due to breaking it...twice, as I didn't know Gunpla were not toys meant to be played with, instead they are model kits meant to be posed and displayed. It's perfect for me, since I prefer leaving my transformers on the shelf anyways, so I learned from that and moved on. Back when I had built it, and made horrible nubmarks, it was undergated and I didn't even know what undergates were, so I just snipped. I've done my best to fix up the horrible nubs I made back then, but it's still noticeable. I borrowed my friend's silver paint and tried to paint his Gerbera Straight katana, and screwed up that badly. A few kits later I decided to both panel line and edgeline this kit, and it looked horrible never bothered to remove them. Despite all these mistakes though, i'm proud to call him my first kit, and he really was a great one. Enough backstory, lets get onto the review.
The kit itself is a very good one. It's got very good articulation for an HG, most problems with the articulation end up really only being small nitpicks, like pegs for the arms. Most details of the MS are there, although he does have quite a huge sticker sheet for finer details, and a lot of them don't look very good, specifically the ones associated with his Gerbera Straight. I also recommend panel lining this guy, especially the missing black in the head. Further more, I recommend getting a stand or Action Base 2 if you plan on using the Flight Unit, just for added flair. One thing I will say with construction are the side skirts, they pop out really easily due to their construction, and this isn't the best since one of them has to hold the gerbera straight scabbard. However, the rest of the kit is quite solid.
This kit not only has good articulation and looks, but he's got a plentiful amount of accessories. Pretty much everything you'd ever want from the Astray Red Frame is here. You get a plethora of weapons, and like the kit advertises, even the Flight Unit should you want to equip it. You even get the BuCUE head he uses in the special, and if you want to, that very head can be equipped and used on the HGSEED BuCUE! Sadly, I have no HGSEED BuCUE to show this, but take my word for it.
Verdict:
The HGSEED Astray Red Frame is a fantastic kit. It's got little issues, and where there are issues, they are usually nitpicks. If there is one problem I can think of for this kit, it's that it uses some horrible stickers on the Gerbera Straight and scabbard, seriously, if you have painting skills, paint it. The stickers on those areas either wrap around surfaces or just look bad. But besides that, I honestly can't think of any other noticeable flaws. This kit has fantastic articulation, great color separation, nice detail, and an arsenal of accessories. If you're a fan of the Astray, definitely buy this kit as I did, it was a fantastic gateway to a wonderful hobby.
Pros:
- Tones of accessories, comes with so much to mess around with. (!)
- Very nice part separation with the "frame" showing.
- Quite good articulation.
- Flight Unit increases presence immensely.
Cons:
- Stickers are numerous and not fun, especially the ones on the Gerbera Straight and scabbard. (!)
- Side skirts pop out a lot and are just badly designed.
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