GG INFINITE: PRE-ORDER ITEM
The Build
The MG Duel Gundam build was a lot of fun. Although there is a lot to this kit, there wasn’t an overwhelming amount of plates to clean so I was able to get everything cut and cleaned in about five hours or so. The inner-frame of the Mobile Suit was a pretty simple build for the most part but it still has several complex joints in the knees and the waist. You can pose the inner-frame without most of the outer armor on except for the feet and head, which are made up primarily of the light gray and dark blue outer armor.
All of the outer armor goes on easily over the inner frame and everything stays together really well. The loosest pieces are on the shoulders, which can sometimes come off when they rub against the chest unit.
The Color Scheme
The MS has a nice color scheme in my opinion, the major color is a light grey which is offset nicely by the dark grey inner frame and the dark blue pieces on the knees, feet, chest and a few other areas. There are a few orange pieces on the forehead, chest and on the backpack which stands out nicely from the rest.
The Assaultshroud armor shares the dark grey of the inner frame and the orange of the accent pieces as well as introducing a light shade of blue for a majority of the armor as well as a few pieces of brown here and there. The light blue would not be my color of choice, especially with the darker colors below, but it’s not horrible and it was established in the anime
The projectile weapons are made up primarily of the dark grey with a few green stickers for the sensors. The shield has most of the colors on it, so it looks pretty nice. In place of color on the weapons, there is a lot of nice detail molded into the plastic, so painting is always an option.The kit also comes with quite a few decals and stickers to help spruce up the dull areas with some color, but I lack the skill and patience to get them all applied correctly.
The Mobile Suit
Initially, I wasn’t all that excited for the MG Duel Gundam, mostly because I didn’t have any attachment to the suit, pilot or design from anime. I didn’t have anything against any of those things, although Yzak was a complete jerk in the show. But Bandai did a good job with the marketing and I really started to look forward to it prior to the release.
By the time I got the MS all put together, I was really, really impressed with it. The overall design of the MS is really attractive in my opinion. The Duel Gundam of course shares some of the design elements of the Strike Gundam such as the knees and shoulders, but the Duel has several unique elements of its own. The outer shoulders have some sharp angles coming down off the edges, the waist design is unique as well along with the chest and head. The Duel isn’t as sleek as the Strike nor is it as bulky as the Buster, rather it’s a nice mixture of both.
The color scheme really came together and looks very nice. The light grey looks great in place of the typical white and the dark grey and blue do a great job offsetting the lighter color. The orange serves as a nice highlight for the chest, head and backpack.
All of the important joints; the knees, ankles, shoulders and torso, are pretty strong and do a great job of supporting the weight of the MS and the extra armor and weapons pretty well. The shoulders do slouch with the bazooka in hand, but that’s a minor annoyance. You don’t get the crazy articulation of the MG Red or Blue Frame, but you also don’t get the hassle of the weak joints or loose armor.
The Assaultshroud armor is very nicely designed as well and adds a lot of bulk to the MS, giving it a much tougher look all around, baby blue color aside. There is a lot of nice detail on the Assaultshroud armor, plenty of good lining opportunities. Once you get everything in place, the Assaultshroud armor stays together pretty well. Aside from the front and back skirts, everything else seems to stay on without too much trouble.
The Weapons, Equipment and Hands
You of course get the standard issue beam saber blades and handles as well as the typical Seed-style shield. In addition, the kit comes also comes with a beam rifle with a grenade launcher, hyper bazooka, a shoulder mounted rail gun and 5-barrel missile pod on the opposite shoulder. The rail gun is mounted on a swivel joint that allows for 360° rotation and a bit of side to side swivel. It can also be held in hand with the flip-down handle.
I’ve already mentioned the overall lack of color in the weapons as well as the nice amount detail molded into the plastic. The single color setup is pretty typical for a majority of the MG kits out there, but it would be nice to see some additional colors straight out of the box.
The hands in this kit are similar to that of the recent MG Wing kits since it comes with two palms and two thumbs as well as four sets of fingers that can be swapped out depending on the circumstance. There are two sets of fingers that are meant to be used to hold on to the projectile weapons. The handles on these three weapons have a large, rectangular port on the outer edge that allows the thicker pegs on the appropriate hands.
This setup works well for the beam rifle and the rail gun, but it doesn’t work so well for the bazooka. With the first two, the pegs on the hand seem to squeeze in to place and hold there pretty well, but the bazooka handle seems not to pinch the peg at all, so it has to rest on the shoulder while being precariously perched in the hand. It works okay, but there isn’t much I can do with it. Maybe something is wrong with my version, but you can get around it.
Final Thoughts
To put it simply, this is a great kit! There are very few complaints that I have, and most of those are either cosmetic or minor annoyances that are pretty common on most Master Grades. On the other hand, I can’t say enough good things about the kit. It may be silly, but I really appreciate how well everything stays together on this kit. With a lot of MG’s, the more fancy the articulation, color separation or impressive the load out is, the more issues with stability you get. With the Duel Gundam, though, there aren’t too many issues with that sort of thing.
The Assaultshroud adds a lot to the kit as well with very little expense to overall quality of this MG. Adding this armor does take a way a little articulation, specifically in the shoulders, but it’s a minor detraction. I just wish there was a different color used for the outer other than the light blue. The additional armor also adds some nice variation to the kit. If you get tired of the standard MS, you can load it up with the armor and end up with a significantly different looking kit.
I would happily recommend this kit to anyone reading this review.
Striking off into my territory are ya? :)
ReplyDeleteYeah, you better watch out! I did do several written reviews back before the videos started, but GG asked me to do some short write-ups as well, so here we are.
ReplyDeleteHow's everything?