HGRIG Mack Knife Mass Production Type Review (P-Bandai)

If you know me, you'll know that i'm a fan of G-Reco, which is one of the controversial series to ever hold the Gundam name. As controversial as the show is, the show did bring quite interesting MS designs to the table, a shame only a handful of those received kits though. One of the most interesting of said designs is the Mack Knife, which has one of the strangest humanoid MS designs ever seen in Gundam. At first, I wasn't a huge fan of it, but eventually, it had the Turn A effect, and I eventually grew to like it more and more. When I went shopping for one though, I found that the shop I went to had the P-Bandai Mass Production Type, which is the Mack Knife with a new monoeye head and colorscheme, both which are features I do enjoy, so it's safe to say that I spared no expense in buying it.

Box:

Like most P-Bandai boxart, the art is monocolored, with yellow being the color for the box. In it you can see 4  Mack Knife Mass Production Types flying, with the predominant one shooting beams out of his fingers.

Parts:

For parts we have 2 dark grey runners...

...2 white runners, a grey runner, a yellow runner...

...a small red runner, and an light grey runner. You also get a runner for the standard base.

You then get the polycap runner.

As well as a sheet of stickers.

Manual:

The manual is entirely grey, and gives information on the MS. Inside you'll find the instructions, part count...

...and the color guide. Unfortunately, it's in grey, so you'll have to read Japanese to use it.

Completed Product:

The Mack Knife has a very unique design compared to most other MS done. For one, it does not seem "stable", it's got really thin limbs and a small body, with large ball joints being the only thing that connects said long limbs to the tiny body. The MS does have a very simple build overall, and the seamlines in the limbs are quite noticeable. The only differences between this and the regular Mack Knife is the yellow colorscheme and head parts, with the Mass Production Type having a monoeye. As a kit, it's quite sturdy despite the thin limbs, and the lack of hollow areas due to the thin bits make it quite easy to pose.

Articulation:

Articulation on this kit is very interesting due to it's design, not the typical posing experience, but we'll start with more normal stuff. First off, the head is on a ball joint so it moves around normally.

Upwards movement is quite good, it's worthy to note that the arm is actually connected to the torso by a ball joint polycap, so while it doesn't swing out, it moves around quite a bit.

Even with that, the arm can swing out due to the arm being on a hinge joint, and I want to bring up that the ball-like shoulderpad actually has a lot of range in all directions. This is because it's a universal ball joint similar to revoltech joints without a ratchet. The armor is also then designed in a way so things minimally get in the way of each other, meaning the shoulder movement is phenomenal in almost all directions! Combined with the fact it's connected to another ball joint in the torso, the shoulders are some of the most poseable shoulders i've ever had on a figure, and there's no fuss in posing it either.

The arm swivels at the ball shoulders as well, so combined with the shoulder design, it's some awesome shoulder poseability with the arms. The elbow unfortunately only bends about 80˚ due to the design of the arm and the thin design of the MS. The hand itself is also only on a hinge, and it's permanently on an angle due to this. It's built into the arm, and can only swing left to right, and while it's disappointing, i'm not too saddened by it, and i'll get to that later.

The torso is actually on a swingout polycap allowing it to abstretch backwards. It does tend to pop out here though, and this is the only part of the kit I wouldn't call sturdy due to it.

The hips are on similar universal revoltech-like joints to the shoulders, only they don't have another ball joint in the crotch, that's okay with me though, as the thighs still have extreme amounts of articulation due to that as well, and it's still a very easy posing experience despite how strange it is.

The legs only bend 90˚ due to the design, and i'm honestly okay with it. The feet are weird in the way that the legs just end in stubs, but the heel of the feet are on a hinge so you can kinda/sorta balance it.

However, the lack of stable feet doesn't matter, as you're only really meant to display the Mack Knife in the air. Never do you see this MS walking because this is a space use MS the legs act kinda like wings, and the arms are thin for aerodynamic movements. The way the Mack Knife moves in the show is really erratic and quick in space, as it's designed to be lightweight with high manoeuvrability in space, so the body is very suited for it's task, as it can move easily and fast despite zooming at high speeds. It's main weapons are the plasma claws in the hands that can shoot beams, so it doesn't need to hold a weapon and decrease balance, the shoulder movement along with the hinges in the arms allows for quick and unpredictable attack patterns. So those revoltech joints in the arms and legs, you're meant to do weird and strange looking poses with it, it fits with the Mack Knife's unpredictable attack nature.

So the articulation of the Mack Knife might not be fantastic in terms of a regular kit, but for this specific MS, it does the job perfectly due to the function of the MS. This kit can replicate all the poses the Mack Knife would need to do, and it's articulation is very good in the way that it's adapted very well to specific MS. It's unique articulation makes it stand out when posing, and the solidity makes posing this thing a fun experience.

It is also almost possible to replicate the deactive pose, the only thing preventing it from doing it perfectly are the 80˚ elbow joints, but it's good enough for me.

Accessories:

The Mack Knife doesn't actually have any weapons as his hands can't hold any, but for an MS that doesn't have weapons, the accessories come in the form of display options.

The only real true accessory to this kit is the booster used by the Mack Knife for long distance travel. It suffers from remold syndrome, as while the booster is meant to be red, the parts were yellow due to the color swap, so we get two, wonderfully annoying cone shape stickers to place inside. Fantastic.

The boosters themselves can swing up far for posing angle options.

You can just clip it into the back like so.

Now your Mack Knife can handle far distance travel.

The other accessories that come with the Mack Knife are the stand and adaptors, all which are essential to use with this kit, you should not be displaying your Mack Knife on it's feet, always keep it on the stand, as it's meant to be always flying in canon and the kit has horrible balance on it's own. (The articulation segment was a nightmare for me.) For the base you get the typical stand, you get two types of connections, one pointing straight for typical poses and one at an angle for zooming poses, as well as an extension bit to make it go higher. Other than that, you get two adaptors for the base to use with the Mack Knife.

The first adaptor is the one for posing straight, it's a round C shape adaptor, and it carries the Mack Knife by it's round crotch. The connection isn't secure though, and the kit just sits on it.

This adaptor is the one you'd more likely be using, as this adaptor has a far more secure connection, and is poseable so you can put the Mack Knife at more wild angles for posing.

It bends at two areas, can go back and forth, side to side, and turn at the peg that connects to the stand. However, it might not have enough "clicks" in the joints for all the posing angles you might want. This adaptor also works with normal kits, so if you want to display your kits at weird angles, you could.

To use it, you pull off a small cover on the backpack, and reveal the peg hole underneath.

You simply put the peg into it, and put the Mack Knife at weird, uncanny angles.

Gimmicks:

The Mack Knife does have two more weapons, however they aren't handheld. In the crotch are two Photon Bombs that can be launched out and act as a defense for those willing to try to attack it from behind. This kit replicates this, the crotch splits open and the photon bombs are right there.

They're also removable, and honestly, fall out really easily if you're not handling this thing carefully. They're also really tiny, so they're extremely easy to loose, so i'd honestly recommend gluing them in since there's no way to display them midair anyways.

Size Comparison:

As you can see, the Mack Knife actually stands as quite a short MS compared to the standard size Gundam. Although while he's lacking in size, put him in a strange pose, and he'll get some shelf presence of his own.

Verdict:

This kit is not your standard Gunpla kit, yes it's an MS, yes you build it, and yes it's humanoid, yet the way it's engineered makes it stand out in terms of build and posing compared to typical Gunpla, and most figures in general as well. The Mack Knife simply sports a very bizarre, uncanny, and distinctive style of engineering that is specifically geared for this MS, and can't really be compared to another kit. It's design is strange, and it's articulation is just as so. However, that's what makes this kit stand out from others, it's extremely unique in that it doesn't do what typical Gunpla do, it's not meant to be treated like your typical MS. This kit isn't meant to be displayed with guns in hands, kneeling, or jumping, instead, it's meant to be displayed on a stand in an zooming, disc-like pose as seen in the show. This kit tries to follow the roots of it's MS and be unique in function, and in turn, it becomes a great kit for fans of the MS, and if you want to experience this kit, I highly do recommend you give the Mack Knife a shot.

However, when we're talking about the Mass Production Type, things get a little dodgy. This is a P-Bandai release, and although the monoeye looks really cool, I would not recommend paying inflated prices, nor looking high and low for it. In the end, it's really just a minor variant, and if you want a Mack Knife, the standard kit will be just as good of an experience. I'd only recommend it if you can get it for around the $12 it retailed around, with an absolute maximum of $18. Do not pay more than you need to for the Mass Production variant even if you're a huge fan of monoeyes, in the end, it's almost identical.

Pros:

- Extremely unique engineering makes for very bizarre articulation, overall poseability is very good. (!)

- Comes with a stand as well as adaptors to put it in many aerial poses. (!)

- Design is something very different, and everything about it is different to normal Gunpla too, points for originality.

- Mostly sturdy, this kit is a very easy and fluid poser.

Cons:

- Waist is loose and pops off a lot.

- Photon bombs are small, fall out easily, and are at high risk of being lost.

Neutral:

- Some might not be a fan of the Mack Knife's uniqueness and it's strange articulation offerings.
- Kit is not made to stand up on it's feet, use the stand and display it in the air.