HGUC 1/144 RGM-96X Jesta

Review by Team GG [PatrickGrade]

For a long time, I would be more excited for a Master Grade release than I would be for a High Grade, typically because I prefer the complexity, size and overall enjoyment I get from the MG’s. For a long time early in my Gundam building career, I wouldn’t even pay attention to the HG releases, and for that I am sorry. While Master Grades are great in their own right, they are much slower to be released, the scope of the kits is much narrower, focusing generally on lead mobile suits or classic grunts and because of the costs of producing such complex kits, Bandai seems less willing to take a risk. Aside from maybe MG The O or the Guntank, the MG releases have been safe.

I first really got into the HG line because of the kits from the Unicorn series. Starting with the Kshatriya, I began to appreciate the quality, the diversity of the releases and the lower price point that the HG line tends to offer. Even though I still prefer the 1/100^th scale of the MGs or the seemingly extinct NG line, the releases from the various HG lines are something I look forward to.

The Jesta is a release that I have been anticipating ever since the first news of its impending release. I didn’t know anything about the MS itself except for the design, but that was all I really needed since I think the design looks amazing. So, after bit of a wait, it’s finally here and I get to tell you all about it.

Packaging & Instructions:

Not much else I can say here for that the box art that I haven’t said in my other reviews except that the pictures and information on the box and in the manual are all top-notch. The awesome illustration on the box lid shows the Jesta team in action attacking or defending against some unseen enemy and of course there are the various gimmick and action poses along the edges of the box. The manual repeats a lot of the pictures that were used on the box as well as some other pictures and information of the Jesta itself and various other notable suits from the Unicorn continuity. Standard stuff for the HGUC line, but it works. It may be time for a refresh on the layout and format of these things, especially after seeing the HG Gundam AGE packaging.

Runners & Colors:

There is not a lot of color in this kit, which is just fine by me. The majority of color is the dark blue that we have seen in the past used for the Titans group MSs as well as the Musha Gundam MK. II. There is also a light blue/grey color used for the secondary areas such as the upper arms, thighs and as detail pieces. There is also the medium grey often used for inner frames or joints and there is a singular clear orange piece used for the eye/sensor array. The contrast between the two blues works well and the grey helps break it all up. I really like the clear orange in the head unit as well as the foil orange stickers for the rifle sites. There is a sheet of water slides to designate suit unit numbers, team alliances, etc. as well if you plan to build a squad or something.

Build & Gimmicks

This is a quick and easy build; nothing too fancy going on here except for a few areas. I was happy to see that there is some quality color separation here that is not achieved by stickers, using plastic instead. Specifically on the front skirts and the chest, the light blue plastic really looks good among all of the dark blue, and it’s so good that there aren’t stickers used here. The head also uses several colors of plastic instead of just one, and that really helps to make head “pop”.

There are a few bland areas, though. The shield specifically could use some more color, especially on the missile tips or whatever that is supposed to be in the light blue areas. On the box, we see that these things are white in the illustration and product shots along the side, but they are in-fact a solid, monochrome piece. And there aren’t even any stickers to help, so you need to use a Gundam Marker or some paint to make it look its best, but that’s not too big of a deal.

The shield does have another problem, though. Unlike most shields in the Gundamverse, the shield for the Jesta attaches to the backpack by way of solid piece of plastic. Actually, Bandai has seen fit to include two different options to connect the backpack and shield together, which would leave you to believe that at least one of the two works well. But, you’re sort of mistaken.

The two different connectors are simple; one is a “collapsed” version and the other is an “open” version. The better choice, for me at least, is the open version. Both ends of the connector pieces pegs into a polycap which allows for a little movement here and there, but it’s not enough. Where the arm attaches to the backpack, there is no up/down movement at all, just a little forward/backward. And where it attaches to the shield, there is some swivel and outward, unfolding wing sort of action, but it’s still not enough. The shield can only cover the side of the left arm unit, it can’t reach to the front, nor can it be attached to the right side of the backpack, even though there is a polycap for it to do so. These arms are designed asymmetrically, and there is too much plastic in the way to go on the other side. Though, I plan to do a test on the collapsed version to see if I can sand enough of the plastic away so it can function on either side.

Another big flaw in the design of these two pieces is that there are large, empty areas in the most visible side of the arms. One side has nicely sculpted detail, the side that faces away backwards that is. And the side that you see from the front of the kit loses a lot of that detail and instead has pretty noticeable gaps in the plastic. When the whole kit is assembled, a lot of the open areas are covered by the rest of the kit, but I know that they are there.

In my opinion, Bandai should have given us just one arm with no gaps in the plastic and also make it so that one has the ability to move in some way. This is definitely a downside to HG kits; most of the time, everything is boiled down to its most simple form which gives us an arm that is supposed to be able to move but instead, it’s a solid chunk of plastic.

Even though I have complained about it for a while, it’s not too big of a deal. The shield, although limited in posing options, still looks good and the whole thing works, it just could have been better. But, that just makes me look forward to a (hopefully) Master Grade version of this kit. It seems inevitable, especially with all of the love the Unicorn series is getting from Bandai. I just hope it happens sooner rather than latter, maybe in time for the 5^th episode of the OVA.

Other aspects of the kit, like the arms, chest and legs, all look great! Though there is a lot of detail molded into the plastic, there aren’t a lot of pieces that go into making each unit. The legs are probably my favorite parts of this kit as they have a really nice hard edge design with deep channels and good detail.

Aside from the problems with the shield and backpack, both are well designed. The shield is pretty small as far as shields go, but it is very angular and thin, giving it a nice look. The backpack is really simply designed, not much mechanical detail at all except for the two thrusters on the bottom.

The overall design of this mobile suite comes off as very “stealthy” to me, and I love it. The color scheme is muted, the sharp lines remind me of those from the decommissioned US B2 Stealth Bomber and I even see some similarities between the Jesta and some of the Stealth Iron Man movie designs. I’m not saying either is a rip off of the other, but there are shared ideas or parallel design philosophies going on there.

Weapons & Accessories:

I’ve already talked a lot about the shield and backpack, and those two things are a majority of the accessories we get in this kit. There are a few other things, though. A Beam Carbine serves as the long range weapon, there is a single beam saber handle that is stored in the left forearm, and both side skirts house a three pack of grenades.The Beam Carbine looks pretty nice. It’s not your typical beam rifle design; rather it looks more like a burley machine gun or something. The construction is simple, just three pieces slapped together, and no moving parts. The site has orange foil stickers for either side, which is pretty nice.

The beam saber handle is super simple, no channel lines or anything, just a thin cylinder capped off by a little thicker cylinder. It’s cool that it is stored in the forearm, though. And the grenades are simply there for aesthetic purposes. You could probably cut them all apart so you would have three single grenades as opposed to one set of three, but that seems like too much work.

Lastly, we get seven manipulators. There is one trigger finger hand, two closed fists, two open hands and two beam saber holding hands. The closed fists hands are unique to me since the thumb and closed fingers are separate, each plugging into the palm section. I don’t think I’ve seen that before in a HG, but maybe I have. I don’t see a real advantage to doing it this way, but it’s interesting I guess.

And that’s it for weapons and accessories, which is kind of odd to me. The Jesta is a grunt suit, meant to work in teams of three I believe, so I’m sure a lot of people plan to build a squad out of these guys, which is awesome. And a lot of the other grunt suits I’ve gotten, various Geara Zulus, Geara Doga, Jagd Doga, Stark Jeagans, etc… all have a gun and a bazooka and sometimes something else. So, if you do want to build a squad, you’re going to have to borrow someone else’s weapons to get some uniqueness going on. Banda did give us a lot of sticker choices, though. So that’s something, at least.

Appearance & Articulation

As I have said before, this kit looks great. I really like the simple color scheme, the orange accent pieces/stickers and the sharp lines. I don’t think there is anything about the design of the kit that would make me tell someone not to get it. As long as you like the more real-life militaristic design, you should love this. But, this is no pink Zaku my boy, no pink Zaku at all. So, if pink Zakus are your thing, or maybe bedazzled Zakus, or orange Zakus, this may not appeal to you.

The articulation is pretty good, too, except for the ankles maybe. There is very little side-to-side movement provided by the ankle joints, so you won’t be able to get the legs into too wide of a stance, but there is plenty of forward/backward movement, so you can achieve a good walking pose if that’s what you’re looking for. Otherwise, the legs move forward and backward just fine and off to the side a sufficient amount. There isn’t much swivel in the torso, you can only move it to either side about 45 degrees before the side skirts get in the way. The chest unit is one solid piece, so there is no ab-crunch action going on. The shoulders can come away from the chest some, allowing for a nice range of movement and the arms bend to almost 130 degrees or so. The head is free to move all the way around and there is a small amount of neck movement. The shield I have already gone over, but just to say it again; it is pretty limited in its ability to move, but that could be me being to on nitpicky about it.

One odd thing though is how loose the hands are when holding something. I’ve seen this polycap method used time and time again for the wrists and arms to connect together, but for some reason there isn’t enough friction there for the hands to stay in position while holding either the Beam Carbine or even the beam saber and blade. But, putting a little glue or putty on the wrist joints should fix that problem.

Conclusion:

This kit was well worth the wait! For a little over $20, you get a great looking kit that really stands out from other grunt suits because of its design and colors. Everything about it is pretty unique in my opinion even though it builds upon the foundations of other MSs, like the Unicorn, Jeagan, Zaku, etc. And even though there are some disappointing areas; a lack of color separation, poor shield articulation, hindered ankle movement, this kit is only 20 bucks, so I don’t think I can reasonably deny its awesomeness. And I won’t; this kit is great.

The Unicorn series has provided us with some really unique kits. The Kshatriya, Sinanju, Geara Zulus, Delta Plus, ReZel, Jesta, Loto Twins, and the Dreissen are all great looking MSs and great kits as well. And although a lot of these designs have been around for a long time, the Unicorn books and OVAs helped to spark interest in them, allowing Bandai to release them in various grades. We’ve seen other grunt suits from Unicorn get Master Grade releases; the ReZel has two versions out and the Delta Plus came out just a few months ago, so I think that both the Jesta and Geara Zulu will get Master Grade treatments eventually. But I think first, we’ll see the pretty cool looking Jesta Cannon in HG form and maybe some other variants of it.

For now though, do yourself a favor and pick up this excellent kit and enjoy every minute of it!