MSiA reviews!

[DarkPhoenix]

Both figures use the same frame, as expected, just different colors for the primary armor area (torso, shoulder, upper calf bulge area, crotch-top, and feet (which are different, but not consistant.. Force has red footies, Sword has black footies).

Posability is rather good, although the neck is limited in its up/down movement when the head is facing to the side. Double-jointed elbow, balljoint wrist, clavical joint and shoulder joint. Decent waistjoint, good thigh motion (hampered in part by the bulky side-hip, which stores poor, undersized Schneider Cutter(?, the little switchblades Strike had) replacements. Ankles are okay, but could be better, double-jointed knees.

Both come with the.. Core Splender, or whatever the unmanned pack-deployer is, the core fighter, which holds up and inserts into the back G-Gundam style, and the funky shield that unfolds 0083/Gundam mk 2 style. Hands are good. The simple 3 sets of 2 (trigger, grip, fists) are present. The Force pack has balljointed lower fins, but the upper wings are static. The weapons are made of harder plastic, which prevents the horrid drooping the old swords had (My Sword Strike Gundam has to be posed with the beam boomerang.. its entire sword warped from its own weight when posed sideways =\). Force has a beam rifle (very nice and beefy looking without being too cumbersome to weild), two beam sabers, and blades for them. Sword Impulse has its two huge-ass swords, which can be combined together at the hilt Darth Maul style (they are hard to pose this way, though, due to the blades facing opposite sides..), and dual beam boomerangs.

Now, on the Rick-Dom..

It's the same figure as the Dom, as to be expected, with the change of the calves to have thrustors instead of the hovering duct-fan system. Colors are a bit darker.. Only 3 sets of hands (fists, trigger, grip).. but it has THE BIG HONKIN' BEAM BAZOOKA!

[DarkPhoenix]

Here's a groupshot of the Impulses and my Astray Red Frame..

[DarkPhoenix]

Force Impulse Gundam..

[DarkPhoenix]

Sword Impulse Gundam

[DarkPhoenix]

Rick-Dom's BIG HONKIN' BEAM BAZOOKA!

[DarkPhoenix]

omg ur ded now

[mpchi]

Awesome pics. Though I wouldn't have Astray Red stay in that pose for very long. Looks like the sword is bending, and will suffer gashapon disease if leaving as that for too long.

I just got my shipment of some MSIA as well. A Quebeley, ZZ, The-O, and a Astray Red. Only opened Quebeley & ZZ, and they are very nice. Not the latest designs, but were well made. ZZ looks really cool, though the Double Beam Rifle is too loose on the folding & too heavy for ZZ to hold naturally. Otherwise, ZZ is great.

Does anyone know an good site with lots of MSIA reviews? Even Japanese sites will do. Since Fantoysia was gone, I couldn't find good sites with in depth MSIA reviews. Thanks in advance.

[DarkPhoenix]

The sword's barely bent at all. It's fine.

The best place I've found for reviews is waist-joint.com, really. Private BBS, need to sign up to access, not advertised.. Its main benefit is being able to filter out posts you're not interested in, as everything is catagorized.

I agree that the Qubeley is nice. I have mine in a doll stand so it can be posed as if its flying. The-O Is good, but its beam saber blades are too flacid. =\ They droop under their own weight (the Qubeley has this same problem), so beware of that. Astray Red Frame is nice overall. Very posable, nicely detailed (only detail lacking is the coloring on the hands, sadly) and the sword is VERY nice.

[zeo-mare]

nice set, you should try picking up some of the Gundam Fix set you would problly like those alot, i was wondering do you have any pics of The-O? i was wondering how big he was along side some of the standard Gundam MSIA

thanks

[DarkPhoenix]

I don't have a close up, but if you go look /here/ http://pics.livejournal.com/atheonyirh/pic/00001qh7/g1 and peek at the bottom left corner of my monitor, you can see The-O beside the v2 GP02a, GP01, Qubeley, and Zeta Gundam.. with Strike Rogue and the rest of the Strike Family to its right.

[zeo-mare]

thanks he does not look as big as I thought he would , by the way real nice collection, but one thing how do you work in such a cluttered area without knocking everything over?

[DarkPhoenix]

Mouse is in a cubby-hole on the right where you'd of put paper for one of those old beltfed printers (this is an oooold desk), keyboard goes on the pillows below the desk and is in my lap when I use it.

The-O is decently large, too. Very hefty and beefy. It's a damn shame his beam saber blades are so flimsy, or I'd of had him weilding 3 or 4 of 'em.

[wolfx]

I don't have a close up, but if you go look /here/ http://pics.livejournal.com/atheonyirh/pic/00001qh7/g1 and peek at the bottom left corner of my monitor, you can see The-O beside the v2 GP02a, GP01, Qubeley, and Zeta Gundam.. with Strike Rogue and the rest of the Strike Family to its right.

Eeeps! The dust!

And is that a snake tank on the far left?

[DarkPhoenix]

Yes, I suffer horribly from dust

Close, by the way. It's actually the 90 gallon tank for my bearded dragon. ;D

[Graham]

Bought 2 each of the Sword, Force & Blast Impulse MSiAs last week. Loving these toys. Probably one of my favorite MSiAs, chock full of features and certainly one of the better designed MSiAs IMO.

Atriculation is generally excellent, especially the shoulders and arms. The only area where I find articulation to be lacking is the ankles, as the toy is unable to keep the soles of its feet flat on the ground when in a spread legged pose.

I'm liking the fact that many of the weapons and accessories are made of hard POM or ABS plastic as opposed to soft PVC. The main wings on the Force Impulse's flight pack are so lovely and straight compared to the craptastic bendy Aile pack on the MSiA Strike Gundam. Also, as Dark Phoenix mentioned, the twin anti-warship swords on the Sword Impulse are nice and ridged as well . A huge improvement over the horrible floppy anti-ship sword that came with the Strike Rouge. Even the Impulse Gundam MSiA itself seems to look less rubbery and more like a proper toy IMO compared to many other MSiA.

However, the MSiA Impulse Gundams are not without QC problems. Here's the issues I found with mine: -

• Force # 1 = Slightly warped barrel on beam rifle.
  
• Force # 2 = Waist ball joint too loose, toy kept coming in half at the waist. Problem fixed with a coat of clear nail polish to the ball joint and socket
  
• Force # 2 = Left side skirt armor came off the first time I tried to put the folding knife inside. Side skirt armor is held on by glue, so I had to reglue it with some super glue.
  
• Sword # 1 = Perfect, no QC problems.
  
• Sword # 2 = Perfect, no QC problems.
  
• Blast # 1 = Waist ball joint too loose, toy kept coming in half at the waist. Problem fixed with a coat of clear nail polish to the ball joint and socket.
  
• Blast # 2 = Black paint was missing from the right leg, upper, outer calf panel.
  

All the above are only minor problems and this MSiA is light years ahead of the very first MSiA,the original ver.1 RX-78, which basically fell apart if you looked at it the wrong way

Graham

[Panon]

However, the MSiA Impulse Gundams are not without QC problems. Here's the issues I found with mine: -

[*]Force # 1 = Slightly warped barrel on beam rifle.

[*]Force # 2 = Waist ball joint too loose, toy kept coming in half at the waist. Problem fixed with a coat of clear nail polish to the ball joint and socket

[*]Force # 2 = Left side skirt armor came off the first time I tried to put the folding knife inside. Side skirt armor is held on by glue, so I had to reglue it with some super glue.

[*]Sword # 1 = Perfect, no QC problems.

[*]Sword # 2 = Perfect, no QC problems.

My Blast Impulse hasn't arrived yet, but I've had pretty similar experiences with my Sword and Force Impulses.

Sword is flawless, no QC problems at all. My Impulse however had a slightly warped wing on the flight pack. Nothing noticable on the shelf, but if you look up close you can see they're off line and not symetrical.

About the only other downside is they almost seem anorexic standing next to my GINNs, which just have a more solid feel.

Edited December 8, 2004 by Panon

[Black Valkyrie]

I thought I was through with MSIA but with these new babies I think not

http://www.tamashii.jp/special/special.html

[Anubis]

I just recieved my HCM Pro Zaku IIF and Gundam Mk. II Titans. First thing I thought was "damn these are tiny!"

However after opening them up, I have to say I am rather impressed. The plastic is sturdy, as Graham said earlier in the SEED thread. The Zaku's feet feel a little loose, but that's due to the foot design, which allows a large range of motion. No floppiness though anywhere, there should be no sag worry with these toys. Really a step above regular MSiA's.

They're very posable (had each of them in a full side-kick stance), and the detail is awesome, especially for something that small. Some removable parts to show interior detail. The Zaku's eye is movable (even comes with a tiny plastic screwdriver in the parts tree for that purpose). The Mk. II was great. I really think I'll pick up the Red Rick-Dias when it comes, maybe the Type-100 as well. It takes getting used to the idea of 1/200 scale, but it could lend the benefit of being able to fit many suits in a smaller space, with no detail sacrifice. They just look so good, even though they make my HGUC Char's Zaku II look big.

I'll try to take some pics this weekend.

I was skeptical wether I'd like them that much at first, but I am quite pleased with the HCM Pro so far. I'm thinking I'll get the majority of my Seed Destiny mecha in HCM Pro (Sword Impulse and Zakus). I do want a 1/144 Rey's Zaku Phantom though at least.

Edited December 10, 2004 by Anubis

[Magnus]

How small are they compared to MSIA's?

[Anubis]

How small are they compared to MSIA's?

MSiA's aren't really to usual scale, but they should be somewhere around 1/144 size, right?

HCM Pro's are 1/200 scale, so they measure 9-10cm in height.

[Anubis]

I do have to admit these newer MSiA's are loking pretty good these days. The Seed Destiny Zakus look great in the preview pic we saw before. The weakness of the plastic is a big turn-off for me though. If they had HCM Pro quality ABS plastic the MSiA's would rock.

Here's a pic with my two HCM Pro's with some master grades and HGUC's. I think I'm going to get the Rick-Dom as well soon.