SD BB Senshi Zeta Gundam Mini Review

The Zeta Gundam is a very iconic MS, yet it never seems to get the best of kits. The 2.0 is good, but it has issues preventing it from being great, the RG breaks when you look at it strangely, the HGUC was simply dated crap, the PG was expensive with bad proportoons, and the MG 1.0 had no reason to be bought. So, with this, I wanted a Zeta kit on my shelf, not one that would necessarily satisfy me completely, but one to hold the spot until a better version came out. So in this, I decided to purchase the BB Senshi Zeta Gundam, due to how cheap it was, and due to the fact I usually don't mind if an SD kit is not impressive because frankly i've got pretty low standards for them. Soon my prayer for a better Zeta was answered in the form of the HGUC AE Zeta, but until that kit arrives, this one was also pretty neat to have.

The kit itself is what it is, if you're expecting anything really good from this kit, you might be disappointed. Color accuracy is not great, although this is normal for most BB Senshi. Articulation is limited with everything is on a hinge or swivel, no ball joints here. This kit doesn't even have elbows, the arms can go side to side, but no bend. The accessories are nice though, you get a beam rifle, the waverider shield, and the Hyper Mega Launcher.

The BB Senshi Zeta can also transform to it's Waverider Mode with a slight amount of partsforming. To transform it you have to take of the waist part, head, and put the shield in a different place, but that's all the partsforming, rest is actual transformation which is quite neat for an SD kit. It's also worthy to not you'll need to display the Waverider on the Hyper Mega Launcher.

Verdict:

The SD BB Senshi Zeta isn't an impressive kit, it's something that will just stand there and look like what it is. I do recommend buying a black fine tip marker for this guy as he looks really bland without the black areas in his chest and head filled in. Despite this, i'm not too disappointed, and that's because he transforms. Yes, there is slight partsforming, however i'd be willing to say it's excusable, there is no way the head's transforming, and the shield partsforms on every Zeta kit, so the fact the waist joint is the only partsforming part is completely acceptable! Sure, in other aspects, the Zeta is a mediocre SD, missing color apps, bad color accuracy, and is a brick, but honestly, i'm quite satisfied with this kit.

Pros:

- 90% of the kit transforms despite being an SD. (!)

- Quite a cheap kit.

- No hollow parts.

Cons:

- No ball joints, everything is a swivel and it limits posing.

- A lot color apps are missing, but it's an SD problem more than anything.

SD BB Senshi Zaku II Mini Review

The Zaku, arguably the most gruntiest grunt suit of all, and definitely the most iconic in the Gundam universe. Out of most other SD kits, I found myself strangely attracted to the Zaku. Maybe it's the baby-like, flat proportions, and the fact it's monoeye track has this nice segmented detail. Nevertheless, I found myself wanting the kit and eventually got it for myself.

The build was extremely simple, nothing truly special to note but it was nice to build a quick simple kit in an hour. This kit has no legs, the feet just plug in right onto a ball joint on the waist, so while they can pivot and move around a lot, it's not going to be doing much. Articulation is what you'd expect from an old SD, that being severely limited, but it is what it is. Due to the simple design of the Zaku, no real color apps are missed. the kit's got a few hollow parts like most other SD's, those being in the rifle, hands and heat hawk. The left shoulder can also swing forward for shoulder bashing poses.

You can also pull off the top of the scalp and plug it in a different way to make the Zaku reveal some of it's inner deail in the head like the PG. Like this, you could also move the monoeye easier, but it's honestly easy enough since the eye itself sticks out and the visor is huge due to being an SD. It's a nice gimmick to have I suppose. The monoeye itself is quite detailed and has these segmented gaps that add an extra depth to the whole thing.

Verdict:

The SD Zaku II is a decent kit for what it is. It was one of the first BB Senshi kits, and thus it is a bit dated compared to more modern SD kits. However, it's definitely got a few interesting aspects, including the opening head panel, the swingout shoulder joint for the shoulder bash, and the fact that you can store the ammo clip of the machine gun on the backskirt, Not to mention that great looking moving monoeye. Due to how it's constructed, the panels lines are done on the part to give it more depth and I love it. It's got all the accessories it needs, and it's quite cool that you do get them. In my opinion, this is one of the cuter looking SD's that looks more like a baby instead of an MS with shrunken limbs. Articulation isn't anything amazing, but it's an old SD. I'd recommend it if you're interested in the way it looks and or want it in any way, plus, you're not spending a whole lot on it, so purchasing it shouldn't be too big of a deal.

Pros:

- Quite affordable

- Head has a surprising amount of inner detail.

- Moving monoeye.

Cons:

- Zeon stickers on the chest and shoulder shield have outlines which don't look the best. 

- Quite bad hollow parts on most of the weapons. 

Robot Spirits Gundam G-Self Review

G-Reco, a controversial series in the Gundam fanbase, but a show that I actually quite enjoyed. It's story was confusing sure, but I found most of the characters quite charming, the art style to be amazing and the MS designs to be quite good. If you've seen my HGRIG G-Arcane review, you'd know that my favorite MS are the two main Gundams that stayed from the beginning, the said G-Arcane and the G-Self.

 A lot of people seem to dislike the G-Self's design, saying it looks ugly and weird. I on the other hand, absolutely dig this design, everything speaks to be here, it's proportions, it's mix of round and angular shapes, and the immense amount of color usage and clear lenses dotted around the MS. Sadly, the HG frankly...wasn't very good, and as a Gunpla collector, it felt disappointing. However, I checked out Type V3's channel, and he noted that the Robot Spirits was an alternative. After checking his review and finding out that the Robot Spirits was not only a very good figure, but also still matches 1/144 scale, I put it on the wishlist for a representation of the MS. After buying my GM Sniper II, I had reminded myself to get this guy, so the next time I visited that shop, I bought myself the Robot Spirits G-Self.

Box:

The box is your average Robot Spirits box, you get the red side with the logo along with the type of mech it is, being a "Side MS". There is a cutout where you can see the figure and glimpses of the accessories. You also see a snippet of it equipped with the atmospheric pack next to the name.

On the back of the box, you have some pictures of the figure in action poses, and some information about certain aspects of the figure.

Product:

Out of the box and this figure looks fantastic. The proportions are bang on on this figure, I especially love the headsculpt, it is a lot more anime accurate and has much better proportions compared to the HG's. The eyes and round shape of the head give the G-Self an image of an active curious child, which is the impression I get from the entire MS. all the details are here, if you want, you can even panel line the details and this thing will look completely anime accurate, i've personally just panel lined the black in the front skirts, but more will help if you're careful. The clear blue lenses are an extreme highlight, gone are the few clear parts and numerous stickers on the HG, and in it's place are clear blue parts with shiny silver paint underneath, and the effect it gives makes the blue areas shine beautifully. All color apps are accounted for, and the paint is well applied, something I cannot say about the HG. There are also no visible mold nubs on this one like most other Robot Spirits have, so that's another plus. I love the way this figure looks and have zero complaints with it.

Articulation:

Head is on a ball joint, doesn't look up or down super far though, main movement is side to side.

Arms go up at 90˚s, quite serviceable.

Shoulders swing out to the side.

Arm can swivel and bend about 100˚, which while a bit disappointing, it bends more than the HG's 85˚.

Torso is super articulate and can move a bit forward.

As well as a ton backward. It could even swing side to side a bit.

Surprisingly, the sideskirts and frontskirts are connected together on a single bar, as well as each being on their own balljoint, with the front skirts actually having a barbell joint. This gives these skirts a lot of articulation. The leg itself also swings down forward, so he's got some very nice thigh mobility, far exceeding what the HG can do, and is probably the best part of articulation on the figure.

Legs swivel at the thigh and are double jointed and bend about 110˚. There is also a part at the back of the thigh which you can move up to give way to slightly more movement. The round thrusters on the sides of the legs can also rotate 360˚, and are removable as well.

The ankles move forward and backwards quite well, but not a whole not side to side. Both the toe and heel of the foot are also on their own hinges, so those move as well should you need them to.

Accessories:

This figure comes with a nice assortment of stuff, it's what you'd usually expect.

First you get a part which can plug into the hole used for plugging the G-Self into a Tamashii stage. This part allows you to plug the G-Self onto the stage at an angle, and these holes also work with action bases, however I find it redundant with tamashii stages as the stage itself has a hinge at the end.

The G-Self also comes with it's Atmospheric Pack.

It has a square peg and clicks snugly into the back of the G-Self.

Now here you have it with an inactive Atmospheric Pack.

To make it active, simple flip the pack up and flip out the wings.

There is also a peg connection in the atmospheric pack which allows a Tamashii Stage or Action Base as well.

It's quite a secure connection when using this one.

The figure also comes with 4 pairs of hands. Besides the closed fists on the figure, you get a pair of trigger ringer hands, gripping hands and open hands. The trigger fingers are meant for the beam rifle, and the gripping hands are for the beam sabers. All hands are painted well, which is a major improvement over the HG's hand stickers.

The G-Self's beam sabers look great, and like they are in the anime, have quite thin, straight blades similar to the Turn A. It's also worthy to note that the beams plug in only at a certain way, and that you need to insert the effect parts correctly. Also, these blades sadly do not store on the figure's shoulders like on the anime.

You also get the G-Self's second shield.

It plugs to the arm by using an adaptor.

The adaptor just plugs into the arm, and allows you to plug the shield by the side of the arm or under it.

It's a nice shield, far better than the first one, so i'm glad they went with this.

You also get the beam rifle which is superbly detailed, all the colors and detail are painter here very well, and defects are extremely minor. While the HG's rifle is pure grey, this one is just spectacular to look at, one of my favorite rifles so far.

I like using this weapon, like I said, it's one of my favorite beam rifles so far, and the detail work done here is superb. This rifle is absolute eye candy to look at.

G-Self flies around curiously, remaining one of my favorite protag Gundams to date.

Size Comparison:

The G-Self is marginally taller than the RX-78-2, and is actually exactly to scale with the HG. So if you were disappointed by the HG or found it had too many flaws to warrant the purchase like me, this Robot Spirits serves as an excellent alternative.

Verdict:

The G-Self is an MS that I personally really love, which is unfortunate because quite a few people don't share my sentiment, and the show isn't that respected to redeem this MS either. So when the HG was frankly, a disappointing release, I was honestly debating for a while whether to wait for an MG or get the Robot Spirits instead. After buying the GM Sniper II and having a wonderful ball with it, added with the fact it was to scale and Type V3's overwhelmingly positive review, I caved, and I did not regret. Sure you don't build this figure, and it's a bit on the pricey side too. Still, in terms of the finished product, this figure trumps the HG in every aspect, and is in my opinion, one of the best Robot Spirits releases to date. I love this figure, it's got some very cool engineering for it's articulation, it's got all the accurate proportions, it doesn't miss any color apps and looks amazing with how it was made. From the beautiful blue parts with silver base paint to make it shine, to the  many color applications dotted around the figure, this Robot Spiritsdefinitely is one of my favorite figures to date, and I am very glad I caved to get this figure.

Pros:

- All color apps are here and expertly applied, no real complaints even in the minor details. (!)

- Clear blue parts have silver paint under them, and shine beautifully because of it. (!)

- Can have decent shelf presence when displayed in the air with the atmospheric pack.

- Proportions are on point, no complaints here whatsoever.

- Absolute joy to pose, super solid figure with smooth joints and articulation.

- Quite good articulation, engineering done to achieve it is also very neat.
- Is a 1/144 scale Robot Spirits, to scale with 1/144 scale Gunpla.

Cons:

- Expensive compared to the HG release.

Robot Spirits GM Sniper II Review

Everyone's been hyping the MG GM Sniper II at it's release and were super excited when it released, but in all honesty, I did not follow this hype. This was partially because I prefer the regular GM Sniper as opposed to the GM Sniper II, but it was mainly due to a very...ill timed decision.

As a Gunpla collector, I had always been interested in the Robot Spirits line. I was always a Gunpla builder and I enjoyed the experience, but I had always wondered how handling one of those figures would be like. Of course, there were two things turning me off from the idea, one is that they aren't always 1/144 scale, so that would affect my scale OCD, and that they were quite expensive compared to Gunpla. So when I saw the Robot Spirits GM Sniper II for a cheap price, and found that it was close enough to the scale of it's HG counterpart, it was enough to make me buy it. So I came back home, unboxed and messed around with my first Robot Spirits and I loved it.

Then the MG got announced a week after.

So instead of excitement and hype for the MG, I got salt and a tinge of regret for it. Whoop de-fucking-do. Still, I am partially glad I bought this guy, because he certainly is a nice and enjoyable figure, and he does have his merits too.

Box:

For the box, you get the typical Robot Spirits layout. You get the red side with the Robot Spirits logo, as well as the unit number and what the mech is, in this case, it's an MS. You also get a cutout to see the figure inside, as well as a little snippet of art to show you it's bust.

At the back you get some info of the MS, as well as some shots of the figure in action poses.

Product:

Say what you want about Robot Spirits, in terms of proportions and colors, this is the most anime accurate GM Sniper II out there, no it does not have the "3" unit decal on the shoulder, which is a bit of a shame, but this has proportions that is more faithful to the original lineart compared to the MG and even the HG, not to say I prefer them though. Like most other Robot Spirits, there are a few nubs from the cutting of plastic during the molding process, and they don't look the most appealing up close. The gunmetal used for the joints looks pretty good, and the plastic colors work fine too with little deviation from the original colors.

Articulation:

Head is on a ball joint and the neck is on a small hinge.

Shoulders can move up decently far.

But sadly there is barely any swing-out movement.

Arm can swivel and the elbow is double jointed and bends about 150˚, only hindered by the armor and shoulder design.

Torso can move a bit back.

As well as abcrunch a bit forwards.

Leg is on a ball joint but doesn't swivel that much, but the leg is on a 170˚ bend with a floating kneecap.

The ankles pivot quite decently, and even have working pistons inside.

The toe can move insanely far forward, this guy can kneel quite easily.

Accessories:

He comes with a nice amount of accessories, everything you'd really expect from him, but no machine gun.

Besides the closed fists, you get 3 pairs of hands. You have open hands, trigger finger hands, and grabbing hands.

You get this adaptor piece which allows you to put the figure in a Tamashii Nations base or even an Action Base.

You just shove it between his legs for some aerial poses.

You then get a pair of vivid clear pink beam effect parts.

These are for the beam sabers stored on his backskirt. Word of note, these do fall off a lot, so pay attention to them.

Otherwise, they fit into the grabbing hands and look really good due to their bright pink color.

You also get his shield, and it looks pretty good.  This doesn't have a stand like the MG, but I think that was a one-off thing for the MG, not even the HG does it, and nothing about it is stated on the wiki.

Behind the shield there are 3 peg holes.

Each one can be put into the shield adaptor. The shield adaptor itself has a little smaller adaptor that can be put under or beside the arm, so you can choose whether you want the shield to be under the arm or on the side of the arm. The 3 peg holes on the actual shield can be used to adjust height, which is pretty nice.

The adaptor for the connector itself is on a ball joint, so you can move the shield around as well.

It's great!

Finally the most iconic accessory of this figure, his sniper rifle. It's painted in a nice matte green with a beautiful gunmetal grey for accents, the best paintwork on the whole figure is this gun as a whole. I love this thing. It's also worthy to note that design of this is slightly different to the one on the HG and MG. The handle is flat and parallel on this one, while on the Gunpla variants, it's on an angle so the kits can hold it with their hand designs. It also doesn't have the bipod of the MG.

You can slide the trigger finger hand into the handle and it grips onto the rifle on an angle.

MRW the MG of the GM Sniper II gets released a month after I caved.

He can get into some good sniper poses.

Gimmicks:

His visor can slide down for some sniping poses if you need it to.

Size Comparison:

As you can see this figure is only one or two millimetres shorter than the Robot Spirits RX-78-2, meaning this figure is pretty much 1/144 scale. Which is one of the reasons I got this guy.

Verdict:

With all this hype around the MG, do I think the Robot Spirits is superior? Honestly no, it's got less articulation as the MG has some pretty impressive movement, it's got less detail, less accessories, and you don't build it. However, it's not a complete waste however, as this figure will serve an overall better alternative 1/144 representation when compared to the HG. It's got less accessories sure, but in turn it has more articulation, more anime accurate proportions, more detail, more color accuracy, and is overall the better representation. Plus, if you want the most anime accurate GM Sniper II out there, this is the one you want, not even the MG matches this figure when it comes to anime accuracy. I personally love how this figure looks, especially the gunmetal-like plastic used for the joints and grey parts of the figure. While it's not the MG, it's pretty articulate in it's own right, and definitely trumps the HG. If you're not a builder, or found disappointment in the HG, definitely consider giving this figure a try.

Pros:

- Sniper Rifle is painted really well with the different finishes. (!)

- Very good articulation.

- Most anime accurate GM Sniper II figure out there.

- Solid figure, does not feel fragile or tight in certain joints at all, super playable.
- Pretty much to scale with other 1/144 scale Gunpla.

Cons:

- No number 3 decal at the shoulder.
- Nubs from molding process are visible in areas.