HGUC Gyan Revive Review

Unlike a lot of people, the Gyan is a mobile suit I actually liked from the start. While most people think it's design looks ugly and unfaithful to the knight motif, when I first saw it, I thought it's design was unique and more agile looking compared to other bulky Zeonic MS, and seeing it in action against the Gundam was a treat to watch. It's shield was a powerful weapon, rapidly firing a spray of missiles is a powerful attack, and made me love the MS more.

Sadly, the HGUC incarnation was quite a shitty kit in all honesty. It lacked in articulation due to the dated engineering of the kit and had a lot of bad design choices. At the same time however, it was the 2nd HGUC kit in existence, so it's flaws could be minorly forgiven. Still, I had been praying for this kit to get Revive when I saw the MS in the show for the first time, and when it was announced I was ecstatic. It took me a while before I bought it, but I eventually did, and now I have a Gyan Revive in my hands, and ready to be reviewed.

Box:

The boxart shows the Gyan in combat with the RX-78-2 Gundam recreating their battle in the Texas colony. Despite the obvious RX-78-2 in the side, The Gyan is easily the main focus here, and if you're a fan of the show, you can tell the Gyan has been redesigned to have more modern proportions and aesthetics. I don't care much about these new proportions, however I sorta miss the old ones.

Parts:

For parts you get a lightish violet blue runner, a dark blue runner...

...2 grey runners molded in the now popular PS/PE hybrid plastic...

...a small red runner containing one part and a small yellow runner. You also get a clear effect part which is interestingly molded with the same mold as the blue runner.

You also get the polycap sheet.

Got also get 3 stickers, the reason you're getting two monoeye stickers is because one is bigger than the other. This can be used for a more "focus-eyed" expression, however I just went for the normal one.

Manual:

The manual is your average HGUC manual, nothing special here. You get part count, instructions, painted product shots, info of the MS, and a color guide.

Completed Product:

The Gyan Revive looks really good. It builds up on the simplistic design of the Gyan and makes it look sleeker, more serious, more detailed, and more realistic. It's not anime accurate though, many points of the kit have changed, and the color of the kit is more of a bluish purple instead of the light violet the Gyan is supposed to have. While I have no problem with this, it may affect some purist's opinions on it, but let me say the redesign is worth the kit. It's vastly superior to the original HGUC Gyan and is a much better purchase.

Articulation:

The head is quite poseable despite the design. You can look up and down easily, as well as rotate it around no problem.

Shoulders can go up a good amount.

They can move forward nicely with the use of the swing=out polycap, and it's interesting to note that the joint itself is covered in blue plastic, so it looks a lot nicer and natural compared to just slapping the regular swing-out polycap there.

Arms have a bicep swivel and are double jointed and bend 180˚ no problem.

The Revive does a great job and not only does it swivel at the waist, but it has a very nice abcrunch, which is something kits rarely do. Although, when fully utilised, the gap may look jarring.

He can also lean back a very good amount.

Thigh can swivel and the backskirt actually moves unlike most, so it can reach farther back than others when posing. The legs bend 160˚, can't get much better due to design, however i'm quite satisfied already, so no issues here.

The toe even bends a bit for lunging poses.

Accessories:

The Gyan revive doesn't seem to come with much in terms if weapons, but I guess doesn't need to. It has all the weapons it ever uses, but open hands would've been nice, but then again you wouldn't use them since he dual wields weapons.

First off all, you get his beam sword, simple weapon, yet looks really good. You don't need to detach the beam as there is nowhere to store the beam sword on the MS in the first place, but you can take off the effect part if you wanted to.

He can use this for stabby stabby now.

However, while he can hold the beam sword in his normal hands, he does come with a dedicated right hand for holding the sword. This hand holds the sword at a slight angle and looks differently, but it's main use is for posing.

The ball joint of the hand is actually a separate part, meaning his wrists have a hinge. this allows his hand to move more, and do more poses like lunging and stabbing poses.

As demonstrated here, he can lunge. You can also use the toe joints to get him into a more dynamic pose if you want to.

He also comes with my favorite weapon of the Gyan, it's famous shield. This thing is a powerful weapon, and not only acts as a shield, but can rapidly shoot missiles in both a spray fashion and a focused fashion. The missiles are molded in onto the red part, and while they're supposed to be grey, it's going to be hard to paint every single individual missile in there grey. In the show, the grey parts in the yellow area can open up to deply hide bombs, which are essentially floating bombs, sadly the Revive does not come with them, however they aren't really needed in anything besides diorama posing.

He holds it by the handle, while the other end grips onto his arm.

It's a good shield.

You could also put the shield in front of the hand, as if it were using it more realistically or to shoot it's missiles. To do this, first pull the shield back a bit before moving the assembly up.

Then you swing it in front of the hand.

Now he can shoot missiles with ease.

With the sword, you can really get this guy into a lot of nice poses.

Sieg Zeon!

Verdict:

The Gyan Revive is an absolutely excellent kit, you cannot deny it. It's got amazing articulation, some of the best that HG's have to offer, an ultra solid build that can survive being thrown at a wall, a sleek looking redesign, and is vastly superior to the previous HG Gyan in many ways. It's certainly an astounding kit by modern standards, and is a very worthy addition to the Revive line, probably even the best of it. Anyone who is even the slight bit interested should buy this kit, it's one of the best HG's i've ever seen, and it's a good kit for sure. It's got more detail than the Gyan is supposed to be due to the redesign having little indents in the legs and arms, but it's a welcomed aspect to me, as it helps make the Gyan look better, but then again, it isn't anime accurate and could deter 0079 purists from buying this kit. While the redesign is a good one, some people may not like it, and that's the only real "flaw" I see in this kit, is that the redesign may not match with people's personal tastes. Overall, I think this is a kit every High Grade collector should experience, even if you don't like the Gyan, this kit may change your mind. It really shows what a simple HG kit can do if Bandai puts the effort into designing it well.

Pros:

- Extremely good articulation. (!)

- Super easy and fun to pose due to construction. (!)
- Solid construction, no falling parts or annoyances. (!)
- Great color separation.
- Very little sticker use.

- Redesign looks sleeker, and more detailed than the original.

Cons:

Uhhhh...don't have any real ones here.

Neutral:

- Redesign isn't completely anime accurate.

- Colors aren't anime accurate.