Review of Bandai 1/100 Gundam Kimaris Booster Unit Type

Going to my old favourite, building gundam kits. It has been ages since I built one and I managed to pick up this kit at a sale. I have never built a non-MG 1/100 grade before so I was curious about this new series that Bandai has launched.

This kit features in the popular series Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans. I have not watched that series so I do not really have any particular affiliation for any kits from that series but generally speaking, the box art looks impressive as usual. The kit looks cool on the cover.

The manual is little more than a leaflet passed outside a supermarket but I am guess it does its job. The parts are all nicely packed as expected.

Jumping right in and this is the chest piece. The construction is simple. The plastic is a little soft compared to what I remembered from previous MG kits. The detailing is good and lots of places to do panel lining. On the face of it, the kit comes with an inner frame though very simple it may be.

The snap fit is not as good as MG kits with gaps in many places. Not something I would expect from Bandai but I guess that is a trade off for the price.

The V shaped neck piece has a tendency to drop off at the slightest provocation which can be quite irritating.

The arms have basic articulation and the hands none.

The feet are....well...quite high heeled.

The finished inner frame. The construction is quite simple and the articulation is basic. From the looks of it, it will do well just standing without holding any fancy poses. The colors are pretty good. My son said it looked like Megatron without clothes on. And I kind of agree with him especially with the fingers looking like that.

The shoulder fins and packs on along with the head armour. Surprisingly, the top of the shoulder pops up as a gimmick and the fins can also be moved back and forth. The head looks very ..."megatron-ish" though

The arms and the leg armour on. The leg armour looks distinctly like those 1970's bell bottom pants haha.

Side view of the waist armour.

The booster pack

The weapons.

All round view of the Kimaris.

With the booster pack on.

Now what do I feel about this kit? I think for the price, Bandai has done an excellent job with the detailing, articulation and poseability. The inner frame is pretty basic but it can hold basic poses especially if a stand is used. And as can be seem the kit can stand on its own which is always a major plus in my book.

Review of LEPIN 05006 Kylo Ren's Command Shuttle

So here we are again with another kit from the popular series.

A decent size box comes with nice box art and a total of 6 minfigures. Yep, thats right.

Presenting the mini figures. To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the minfigs. There are no "funny" expressions or missing eyebrows etc. All in all, looks to be good quality.

Start off with the basic frame

The construction is decent with no issues except that I had a missing piece so I waiting for it to arrive before I build this again.  I later realised that the "missing part" was actually a misplaced part but the realization was too late for me since the new part had already arrived.

The construction is very good. The clutch is very strong so no loose pieces hanging off.

The wings coming on.

Close up of the wings

With both wings on

The "extended" wings on.

Which then fold with a nifty trick

The bottom extension of the wing

Attached on to the main body

Finished view of the kit.

Some points to highlight about the kit.

1. The shuttle does not have a stand built in so it sits on the folded bottom extension of the wings
2. There doesn't seem to be any place for the minifigs to be seated inside the cockpit of the shuttle
3. The green plastic bolts of laser can be shot out of the shuttle with a simple press in a slot on the wings. Just be careful that its not pointed at any delicate body parts before firing. So not really ideal around young kids or "young at heart" adults. 

Review of Takara Tomy Cross Fight B-Daman CB-23 - SUPER CUSTOM SET Power & Rapid-Fire

Presenting something completely different from what we have done so far. I was going through a toy sale and saw this. It looked interesting so I picked it up to try it out. After bringing it home, my son told me that it is part of a cartoon on tv. Well thanks for making me feel old, son haha.

A small size box with a lot of images on and the mostly Japanese written on the box does not help at all in deciphering what is inside the box but that is my fault for not knowing Japanese.

All items are very nicely packed and the kit comes with 3 marbles for instant fight gratification haha.

The body piece with the plunger at the back.

The head is pretty much a single piece with a slot at the back to insert the marble.

That is the red "fighter" all ready to rock and roll. The marble slots in from the back of the head which right now is covered with a piece but that can be easily removed when its time to play.

The blue fighter is all ready. This one is the rapid fire type which can be seen is different from the red one which is the power type. The power type does not come with the grip.

The "magazines" for rapid fire. Basically slot the marbles into the mags for rapid fire support. The hole in the centre of the mags is where the mags have to be fixed which feeds into the figure.

Thats how it looks like after fixing the mags and the loading thing onto back of the head. Ready for rapid fire.

Both figures next to each other. I did not paste the stickers on them. I will leave that to my kids.

The figures are simple but feel firm and plunger mechanism is not flimsy so it should stand up to some punishment.

Its ready for battle now. Slot in a marble and fire off with the plunger. Who shall win? Maybe its time for you to find out

Review of Qixels Kingdom Mega Dragon

Presenting something different and new. Saw this on sale for about 5 SGD at a warehouse sale so I decided to pick it up and give it a try.

The box is nicely styled and a little oddly shaped, which I am not sure why they shaped it this way. But anyway, that's another topic.

Opening the box and you find things very neatly packed. The plastic blocks separated by colour and a nice separation tray included along with small spray bottle. Obviously, they have never heard of LEPIN or LELE haha.

So how it basically works is that you have some design papers with you put on the back of the plastic pokey thing then on top on the design, you stick on the plastic beads according to the colours. The making is simple, however the problem that I faced was that the colour separation can be very small between some piece so it can be difficult to get the right colour on the design.

After finishing the design, fill the spray bottle with water then spray it evenly over the design. Then let it sit for about 30 mins before peeling it off.

Then you get something like this. I am guessing the glue on the pieces gets activated after water is sprayed on it. Oh and before I forget, some pieces can have a plasticky oily smell. Just FYI

The dragon head then gets onto the plastic model.

Thats the tail fixed on.

The rider on the dragon has a sword stuck on but it does not grip that well so it can slip off. The wings have nice stickers included on them.

Thats the final pieces with all the items included. I think it was a fun, quick build. It can get a little tricky for younger kids to fix the blocks on but with some supervision, it should be fine. Not sure if the pieces can be reused after sticking together. Will have to try that.

Go for the Qixels.