So the series that I was watching at the time when I bought this was Turn A Gundam. To keep it frank, I absolutely loved the series, so that love combined with the fact that the MG Turn A Gundam was the 100th MG was enough to make me buy this guy. Sorry if there are any potatoes, I only have a phone to take pictures with, and I tried to do my best to keep the pictures as good as possible, but it's hard to do so due to my room being tiny, so I can't have a white backdrop or focused lighting.
Box:
The boxart of the Turn A Gundam is a simple one. It's got the MS standing in between the moon and earth (the symbolism is real) with a reflection of it in the background. I think it looks great and impressive at the same time.
Parts:
You get 4 white runners, most which are molded in polystyrene but the F runner is actually molded in ABS, hence the off-white look in this image. Fascinating, I assume it's to hold the stability in certain parts where polystyrene just wouldn't do. It's not pure white unlike the other white runners, instead it seems to have a small shade more grey.
You also get 3 grey frame runners molded in ABS plastic for stability...
...a multicolored A runner with some clear parts, and a blue runner, all molded in polystyrene...
...a grey runner for the gundam hammer, and the beam effect parts.
We also have the chain for said hammer, very few foil stickers that stick really well, a bit too well maybe. We also also get dry transfers and the only compulsory one is that green symbol on the helmet. Long story short, I messed it up, so I had to paint it in with some green gundam marker. Oh well.
We also get a single runner for the Turn A's famous moustache, and if you look closely you can see two extra chains for the Gundam Hammer. Don't lose these! Their purpose is to connect the parts of the Gundam Hammer to the long chain that you saw, making these parts essential! Be careful with them!
Manual:
The manual has a unique cover and opens like a book. Inside, you get the color guide, instructions and part count. There are also some cool sketches of the MS inside the manual, which is a nice inclusion.
Inner Frame:
The inner frame is quite unique compared to most. Obviously, the main thing would be the white plastic used in it, obviously used from the F frame. I guess this was the reason that they molded it in off-white, but you do use it's parts around the suit as well. The kit also doesn't come with any polycaps, which will allow the frame to hold it's poses better, but also make the kit more rigid at the same time.
Your eyes do not deceive you, the eyes comes as a part in clear yellow plastic! One of the stickers is actually used behind the eyes to make them more shiny and visible. Unlike normal stickers, the backing of the foil stickers are a shiny silver to do this, which is cool, but at the same time not. Because of this, the adhesive is very strong, and you can't move the sticker once you put it on. So if you make a mistake, you're going to have to try to take it off and do it again as opposed to just rubbing it a bit to get in place. Every time you take it off, you risk scratching that silver backing, so be careful!
Frame Articulation:
It may not look like it, but the head has some extreme sideways movement. As you might be able to see, there are two joints in the neck, a ball joint for the torso, and another joint in the neck. They work in tandem and give the head really nice movement, and it also looks up and down quite decently too.
You may have noticed that the inner frame's chest was hollow by now. It does serve a purpose for some gimmicks, but i'll get to that later. As you can see with this frame, the waist actually has some really good sideways movement.
It can also do a good abstretch, but not so much of an abcrunch sadly.
Now we have the arms. The arm actually swivels at the elbow, but it works fine. These arms are double jointed and that already makes them really articulate. But they are really impressive even for your typical double joint. Let me show you what I mean.
One of the joints of the arm already has about a 100° bend, and the other joint has about a 155° bend. So if the arm could go through itself, the angle of the arm articulation would be a reflex angle, which is quite cool. However, this isn't the case as the kit is a solid object, so the inner frame has a perfect 180° bend.
The hands are articulate, but they're the older type. The whole fingers come completely molded, so there aren't multiple jointed fingers like in the 2.0 hands and emotion manipulators. The thumb and pointer finger come on ball joints, while the final 3 fingers are hinges. Not the best, but workable. Also, there is a tab in the palm which holds the weapons.
It's a really cool gimmick, however it snaps off if you go to far, so you may want to be careful with it, as snapping it off enough might eventually break it.
The lower leg also has a similar feature. If you pivot the foot forward, it would extend some of the lower calf fins along side it. It's a really cool gimmick and adds a bit more depth to the kit.
The foot does have a toe joint, however the joint goes inwards instead of outwards, and the heel moves a bit too, but it looks a bit weird.
In this pose, I tried to use every single point of articulation in one go. Poor fella.
The completed kit looks really good. However, while this kit provides you the panel detail, you're going to need to line it with marker to get the most out of it. I ran out of my black gundam marker during this rewiew, so I couldn't panel line the blue and red parts of the kit. Still, it's proportions are on point and it looks really good, the Turn A Gundam's design is one of the more unique designs, made to look more futuristic than regular Gundams. I personally think that they pulled it off really well. I have to admit, it looks strange, I even originally hated the design of the Mobile Suit, especially with that moustache. But I quickly warmed up to it after watching the show, and the kit does a great job of replicating how it looks. You aren't going to be disappointed in the looks department with this guy.
The green symbol on the head is the only compulsory part that requires a dry transfer. As you know, I messed it up, so I painted it with some green gundam marker, and it doesn't look that bad. When you build the inner frame, you won't notice much of a difference in the eyes when you put on the silver sticker behind the clear part. But when you assemble the head, it becomes a lot more noticable, and it really stands out. It looks a lot better than your average foil sticker, so kudos to Bandai there.
The shoulders may seem like they would limit arm movement, however they are actually two parts and split when you move the arm up, because of this, the kit has really good shoulder articulation
The inner frame had a god-level arm bend, but the armor pieces and shoulders do limit it. Oh well, it's still really good and that's kinda all that matters.
The sideskirts don't actually move up very much, more on this later. So although the leg articulation is there, you may not be able to use it all on ground poses. An action base would solve that.
Also, I found out that if you move the foot too much forward, the a bit of the leg armor will pop off. It does that quite a bit and can get quite annoying. Still, enough to ruin the kit.
As I said, the leg articulation is unhindered. You just need an action base to get the most out of it.
This guy comes with quite a bit of stuff! He isn't really missing anything here! Of course, he could've come with the Moonlight Butterfly, but Bandai wanted to release that as P-Bandai...
...Which makes me a bit salty...
...Honestly the mention of "P-Bandai" already pisses me off...I have a minor problem..
You get widespread open hands, which you can't get with the normal hands due to the last 3 fingers being on a hinge joint as opposed to a ball joint.
Remember how the sideskirts limited leg articulation a bit? Well, if you didn't know, the Turn A Gundam's cockpit is that crotch area. Yes, that clear part is where the pilot sits. This is because the entire crotch area can actually detach from the main suit, and transform into a core fighter in emergencies.
It's a cool gimmick, however it does present it's issues. The most obvious one being that the scale isn't the best because of it. As you can see, the figure of Loran has no way of fitting inside that small cockpit, and the molded Loran inside the cockpit is not the same size to the figure, proving that this isn't to scale. However, the figure is to scale with the kit...so...then...is the design of the cockpit wrong? I don't even know. Another problem is that the wings keep on falling apart. The superglue trick will help, and supergluing the whole thing together may be the best solution as it's permanent. Nevertheless, as a straight build, it's annoying. The yellow clear piece also doesn't like to stay on, and will pop off if you dislocate it from the grey piece inside. Still a cool gimmick though.
The kit also comes with a non painted 1/100 Loran Cehack in his space suit, and a non painted 1/100 Cow as well. The Cow has another trick, which I will get to later, they're cool and I personally really like them, and they'd look even more better if you'd paint them, so you can do that as well!
He also has an alternate chest piece.
The anime accurate one is blue, but you can swap it out for a white one if you like color separation.
It also comes with an adaptor for the Action Base 1.
The way you put on the action base is you take out a small button out of the back (which does do something when you press it, I will get to that later) and plug the adaptor inside. Sadly, I don't have an action base to use this with. :(
He's also got a pair of beam sabers on his shoulders which just slide out, they are actually really detailed for two little handles.
He holds them quite well, and the effect parts are nice. They may look thinner than your typical beam saber, but that's how they're supposed to be. The Turn A's beam sabers are much thinner than the standard beam saber.
He also comes with a Gundam Hammer, which you can pose well if you get creative. Sadly, you won't be doing many action poses with this guy as the chain does abide to the rule of gravity, it's still cool.
He also comes with a shield, which looks really good and has a few gimmicks as well. The shield does get blocked by the shoulderpad when trying to pose it, so that can be annoying.
The shield clips on to a flat hole in the arm, however I find that a bit of the armor parts tend to like to fall off with the shield due to the weight. It can be really annoying, an combined with how this thing is quite limited posing wise, putting the shield in an action pose can be surprisingly frustrating due to this.
The part where the shield connects to the arm can move up and down, so that can help you make posing a lot easier, and it can also fold up, so that the grey parts won't stick outside the shield.
It also comes with an adaptor, this allows you to put it onto the Gundam's back.
You just plug it into the hole under the right shoulder armor before putting the shield on.
He also comes with a really unique looking rifle, which is is easily my favorite accessory of the kit.
There are actually two modes of the rifle. You can change it into it's other mode by folding up the handle. This is done by first sliding open a panel and tucking it in before closing it up again.
To hold it while in this mode, slide open the back section to reveal a handle, and take out the handle before turning it.
The handle itself is not held in by anything, so it can fall out at any time. This leads for some...really frustrating posing experiences.
This pose took me ages to do, and as awesome as it looks, It was way too frustrating to do. It still looks cool though.
You can also fold up the rifle completely and hold it like a briefcase. Although I have to admit it's quite hard for the kit to get a grip on it.
It also comes with an adaptor to plug the rifle on the back as well. It's attached the same way as the shield's adaptor, but only on the left shoulder.
Fully armed and ready to go.
Remember that button on the back of the Gundam? Well when you press it, that pops the chest open, and when you fold out the blue panels, it opens up to reveal missile silos!
There are even some parts at the back which you can flip open (with a lot of effort) and if you put a pin or something in there, you can make the missiles inside the silo look about to launch. You can also use gravity to get the missiles armed.
This is quite intimidating if I do say so myself.
Another unique gimmick includes the 1/100 cow figure that came with this kit. This involves disassembling either one of the two missile silos and removing the missiles, after that, you can put the cow inside!
This is to replicate a scene in the anime where Loran uses the silos in the Gundam to transport a cow, it's really neat that Bandai included this for the kit just in case you wanted to do so! Now if only they added nuclear weapons as well, but hey, that chest is already really cool with all it can do.
I've already mentioned the moving leg "fins", but they get another mention for being so cool.
The hands are articulate, but they're the older type. The whole fingers come completely molded, so there aren't multiple jointed fingers like in the 2.0 hands and emotion manipulators. The thumb and pointer finger come on ball joints, while the final 3 fingers are hinges. Not the best, but workable. Also, there is a tab in the palm which holds the weapons.
The legs have a thigh swivel, but the leg's frame has some really cool engineering on it. As you can probably see on the upper thigh, that there seems to be a part that is connected to the main leg frame and the leg (what would I call those things on the back of the leg...fins? I'll go with fins) "fins". This is so that when you bend the leg, the part will move down taking the fins with it, this makes the fins extend out when you're moving the knee joint.
It's a really cool gimmick, however it snaps off if you go to far, so you may want to be careful with it, as snapping it off enough might eventually break it.
The lower leg also has a similar feature. If you pivot the foot forward, it would extend some of the lower calf fins along side it. It's a really cool gimmick and adds a bit more depth to the kit.
The foot does have a toe joint, however the joint goes inwards instead of outwards, and the heel moves a bit too, but it looks a bit weird.
The frame has got downright astonishing and groundbreaking articulation. Just be more careful with the chest as it's got hollow parts and the frame could break because of the parts being loose. Also be careful with the legs, as the moving "fin" gimmicks do require parts that move in tandem with each other, which could go wrong when not handled right.
In this pose, I tried to use every single point of articulation in one go. Poor fella.
Completed Product:
The completed kit looks really good. However, while this kit provides you the panel detail, you're going to need to line it with marker to get the most out of it. I ran out of my black gundam marker during this rewiew, so I couldn't panel line the blue and red parts of the kit. Still, it's proportions are on point and it looks really good, the Turn A Gundam's design is one of the more unique designs, made to look more futuristic than regular Gundams. I personally think that they pulled it off really well. I have to admit, it looks strange, I even originally hated the design of the Mobile Suit, especially with that moustache. But I quickly warmed up to it after watching the show, and the kit does a great job of replicating how it looks. You aren't going to be disappointed in the looks department with this guy.
The green symbol on the head is the only compulsory part that requires a dry transfer. As you know, I messed it up, so I painted it with some green gundam marker, and it doesn't look that bad. When you build the inner frame, you won't notice much of a difference in the eyes when you put on the silver sticker behind the clear part. But when you assemble the head, it becomes a lot more noticable, and it really stands out. It looks a lot better than your average foil sticker, so kudos to Bandai there.
Articulation:
Neck articulation is the same, no difference there.
The shoulders may seem like they would limit arm movement, however they are actually two parts and split when you move the arm up, because of this, the kit has really good shoulder articulation
Although since the armor behind it is static, you're not going to get as much backward movement with the shoulders.
The inner frame had a god-level arm bend, but the armor pieces and shoulders do limit it. Oh well, it's still really good and that's kinda all that matters.
The sideskirts don't actually move up very much, more on this later. So although the leg articulation is there, you may not be able to use it all on ground poses. An action base would solve that.
Also, I found out that if you move the foot too much forward, the a bit of the leg armor will pop off. It does that quite a bit and can get quite annoying. Still, enough to ruin the kit.
As I said, the leg articulation is unhindered. You just need an action base to get the most out of it.
Accessories:
This guy comes with quite a bit of stuff! He isn't really missing anything here! Of course, he could've come with the Moonlight Butterfly, but Bandai wanted to release that as P-Bandai...
...Which makes me a bit salty...
...Honestly the mention of "P-Bandai" already pisses me off...I have a minor problem..
You get widespread open hands, which you can't get with the normal hands due to the last 3 fingers being on a hinge joint as opposed to a ball joint.
Remember how the sideskirts limited leg articulation a bit? Well, if you didn't know, the Turn A Gundam's cockpit is that crotch area. Yes, that clear part is where the pilot sits. This is because the entire crotch area can actually detach from the main suit, and transform into a core fighter in emergencies.
It's a cool gimmick, however it does present it's issues. The most obvious one being that the scale isn't the best because of it. As you can see, the figure of Loran has no way of fitting inside that small cockpit, and the molded Loran inside the cockpit is not the same size to the figure, proving that this isn't to scale. However, the figure is to scale with the kit...so...then...is the design of the cockpit wrong? I don't even know. Another problem is that the wings keep on falling apart. The superglue trick will help, and supergluing the whole thing together may be the best solution as it's permanent. Nevertheless, as a straight build, it's annoying. The yellow clear piece also doesn't like to stay on, and will pop off if you dislocate it from the grey piece inside. Still a cool gimmick though.
The kit also comes with a non painted 1/100 Loran Cehack in his space suit, and a non painted 1/100 Cow as well. The Cow has another trick, which I will get to later, they're cool and I personally really like them, and they'd look even more better if you'd paint them, so you can do that as well!
He also has an alternate chest piece.
The anime accurate one is blue, but you can swap it out for a white one if you like color separation.
It also comes with an adaptor for the Action Base 1.
The way you put on the action base is you take out a small button out of the back (which does do something when you press it, I will get to that later) and plug the adaptor inside. Sadly, I don't have an action base to use this with. :(
He's also got a pair of beam sabers on his shoulders which just slide out, they are actually really detailed for two little handles.
He holds them quite well, and the effect parts are nice. They may look thinner than your typical beam saber, but that's how they're supposed to be. The Turn A's beam sabers are much thinner than the standard beam saber.
He also comes with a Gundam Hammer, which you can pose well if you get creative. Sadly, you won't be doing many action poses with this guy as the chain does abide to the rule of gravity, it's still cool.
He also comes with a shield, which looks really good and has a few gimmicks as well. The shield does get blocked by the shoulderpad when trying to pose it, so that can be annoying.
The shield clips on to a flat hole in the arm, however I find that a bit of the armor parts tend to like to fall off with the shield due to the weight. It can be really annoying, an combined with how this thing is quite limited posing wise, putting the shield in an action pose can be surprisingly frustrating due to this.
The part where the shield connects to the arm can move up and down, so that can help you make posing a lot easier, and it can also fold up, so that the grey parts won't stick outside the shield.
It also comes with an adaptor, this allows you to put it onto the Gundam's back.
You just plug it into the hole under the right shoulder armor before putting the shield on.
He also comes with a really unique looking rifle, which is is easily my favorite accessory of the kit.
There are actually two modes of the rifle. You can change it into it's other mode by folding up the handle. This is done by first sliding open a panel and tucking it in before closing it up again.
To hold it while in this mode, slide open the back section to reveal a handle, and take out the handle before turning it.
The handle itself is not held in by anything, so it can fall out at any time. This leads for some...really frustrating posing experiences.
This pose took me ages to do, and as awesome as it looks, It was way too frustrating to do. It still looks cool though.
You can also fold up the rifle completely and hold it like a briefcase. Although I have to admit it's quite hard for the kit to get a grip on it.
It also comes with an adaptor to plug the rifle on the back as well. It's attached the same way as the shield's adaptor, but only on the left shoulder.
Fully armed and ready to go.
Gimmicks:
Remember that button on the back of the Gundam? Well when you press it, that pops the chest open, and when you fold out the blue panels, it opens up to reveal missile silos!
There are even some parts at the back which you can flip open (with a lot of effort) and if you put a pin or something in there, you can make the missiles inside the silo look about to launch. You can also use gravity to get the missiles armed.
This is quite intimidating if I do say so myself.
Another unique gimmick includes the 1/100 cow figure that came with this kit. This involves disassembling either one of the two missile silos and removing the missiles, after that, you can put the cow inside!
This is to replicate a scene in the anime where Loran uses the silos in the Gundam to transport a cow, it's really neat that Bandai included this for the kit just in case you wanted to do so! Now if only they added nuclear weapons as well, but hey, that chest is already really cool with all it can do.
I've already mentioned the moving leg "fins", but they get another mention for being so cool.
Verdict:
Personally I absolutely adore this kit, and that's not an understatement. Sure he has his issues, but also he does really well for his time, and Bandai really did well when thinking for possible gimmicks and what he should have. Sure he doesn't have a stand or the Moonlight Butterfly effect parts, but he doesn't need them. It's a really impressive kit by itself, and I love it. He has his flaws, the main one being loose parts, still, if you like the design Turn A Gundam, the anime, Unique kits, MG kits, or good kits in general, I can highly recommend the MG Turn A Gundam.
Pros:
-Really nice articulation overall, with absurd, crazy, painful-looking frame articulation. (!)
-Really cool gimmicks with the leg "fins" when articulating. (!)
-Tones of Panel Detail.
-Really nice gimmicks with the chest.
-Very little stickers.
-Core Fighter cockpit can split off from main kit and transform.
-Comes with 1/100 scale Loran and Cow.
-The fact that this was the 100th MG.
Cons:
-Loose parts that like to fall off.
-Posing can be frustrating due to said parts. Especially with the shield and rifle making more parts fall.
Neutral:
-No polycaps. (!)
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