One of the best parts of the Gundam Multiverse are the
endless possibilities for Mobile Suit designs.
Gundams, Zakus, Goufs, if they exist, you can tweak them however you
like. The Gundam Breaker Battleogue
takes full advantage of this concept by repainting familiar favorites or
combining elements from various suits from the Gundam Multiverse into one bad
ass combination. Today, however, I’m
looking at a non GBB Model and instead am looking at a MSV (Mobile Suit Variation)
from Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn. I’ve
had my eyes on the Gundam Delta Kai for a long time. It’s just one of those suits that just jumps
out at you the moment you see it and makes you want to build it yourself. As excited as I was, I had no idea what I was
getting into with this one and it resulted in one of the most frustrating and
complex builds I’ve ever attempted.
To this day, it has not been seen in any Anime entry of
the Gundam saga, so this’ll be a shorter section than usual.
The Gundam Delta Kai is a customized version
of the MSN-001A1 Delta Plus, which is itself the latest in a line of Mobile
Suits from Project Zeta (whose ranks include the Zeta Gundam & Hiyaku Shiki
from the Gryps War).
It contains all of
the Delta Plus’ features from weaponry to a transformable Waverider Mode.
This special custom model appears in several
non cannon Gundam entries and video game spin offs including the Gundam Unicorn
Video Game (piloted by the Delta Plus’ pilot Riddhe Marcenas) and Mobile Suit
Gundam U.C. 0094: Across The Sky Manga.
I kind of knew I was in trouble with this one the second
I pulled out twice the amount of part racks and then opened up the
instructions.
There are over 70 steps to
building the Gundam Delta Kai and that’s not including the transformation
sequence, which actually adds an extra 18…holy s***.
That’s more than double the normal amount of
steps for a standard High Grade Gundam Build, jeez this might as well have been
a Master Grade if it still wasn’t so small by comparison.
There’s also the matter of the decals, which
have become a common complaint Ive had with the last couple of builds.
Usually I’ve found there are too few but with
the Delta Kai, theyre wayyyyy too many and the instructions were clear on how
to apply them.
So this was arguably the
sloppiest job I’ve done with a Gunplas decals, not real happy about that.
As for the bodywork, the Delta Kai is textbook
extra.
The size of the weapons: the beam
rifle, the shield, the funnels, I’m amazed this can even stand on its own.
Assembling this thing also had me really
nervous as to whether it would all fit together and…it does but maneuvering it
feels a bit tricky.
Annnnd I also broke
off a piece of one of the fins so while it can still fit in its proper space,
it’s still very loose and I’m still wondering if I should apply Gorilla Glue to
it to make sure it doesn’t fall out.
I
could chalk that up to not paying attention rather than blaming my fault on the
huge amount of instructions I had to follow.
I will admit though, the Delta Kai does look bad ass once finished.
Was it worth the effort to assemble it all
through trial and lots of error though?
I should also mention that, much like the Delta Plus, the
Delta Kai Gunpla can transform into a Waverider.
Buuuuut it requires building an almost
entirely separate module as a base before taking apart the main body and
applying them to this module.
It really
did feel like building two Gunpla at once.
However, unlike building a Core Fighter for the Full Burnen, this feels
way more complicated than it needed to be.
Even the Wing Sky Zero from the Gundam Breaker Battleogue series had way
less steps and only required swapping out the feet for boosters.
Kind of like the more tough to transform
Transformers I still own, I’ve tried transforming the Delta Kai once, gotten my
photos of it and now it’s gonna stay in its Mobile Suit form for good.
Conclusion/Rating
I was really looking forward to this one but it ended up
being more of a hassle to build, manipulate and transform than I wanted it to
be.
Too many steps, too many parts, too
many decals, it all ended up being pretty messy.
Does the Delta Kai look cool? Yes and even
it’s Waverider form is pretty cool too.
But, idk, this wasn’t the most fun I’ve had building a Gunpla, especially
coming off the highs of building the Alex and Kampfer back to back.
This’ll look good on a shelf for sure but the
path to getting it there couldve been smoother
5/10
Next time, we’re back to something a little more familiar
and mainstream.
Actually it’s the Gundam
that’s everyones favorite right now because it’s series has become arguably the
biggest hit for the franchise since Gundam Wing.
See you Next Week for a new Gunpla Builder Thursday
right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
No comments:
Post a Comment