Robot Damashii #168 God gundam

I know God Gundam not from the anime or manga series, but from the Super robot wars (srw) series. He simply became my favorite character because he was one of the 'real robot' characters which usually have melee attack as strong as the 'super robot' type in most of old time srw series.

God Gundam knows also as Burning Gundam in its English version of anime.

Appearance

Really glad they release this version because despite of became one of my favorite character, I never really satisfied for any toy/mokit/figures that he has so far. The master grade probably was the best and anime acurate, but still feels not perfect for a hot blood type gundam for me. This robot Damashii performs what I call a must have proportion for God Gundam.

In the other hand, I’m a bit disappointed that they did not paint or top coat most of its plastic especially his legs. The glossy color of its plastic material makes me feels that I’m holding a straight build mokit rather than a high quality toy/figure.

Details are good, but with such a minimum painting, they do not shine much unless maybe if you panel line them yourself.

Joints and Articulation

This seems to be the strongest point of this guy, and I am pretty satisfied with it, although I’m not a big fan of that pop-off able ball joint system at his biceps and hips connection.

Head

Head could perform all that it needs. It has Full 360 rotation, good nod down, just a bit look up, decent side to side and ball movements.

Arms

Shoulder armors are using hinge, and not detachable.

Arms connected to shoulder using ball joint and hinge, so it could performs swivel movement with a very good range. Its attachment 'cup' could be pull out like Master-grade-style, which give him more front reach than other Robot Damashii I've tried so far.

Un-common as i could remember, his biceps are attaching using ball joint. It does add a bit of range of movement, but it also became pop-off able if you move them to harsh.

Double jointed elbow and rotation joint at his lower arms just like what happen in age-1 normal.
 

***) Ball peg for hands and its alternatives are longer than usual. It is used to gives more articulation to its hands parts such us palm striking pose. I found this to be new and like it.

His gauntlets are attached quite loose and kind of hinder his palm movement. Luckily I’m not a fan of this thing and prefer his looks without them. 

Main Body

Main body are separated in two, the chest and abs. Chest to abs connected in hinge, and could perform front bend very good but not side to side movement. Not much for back bent though.

His front piece of chest could be remove and changed to his alternatives Hyper form mode.

Abs to hips connected using a ball joint, and it placed a bit hang-up from the hips surface. It does gives a front-back-side to side movement decently, but also created a gap. Good thing that his skirts armor covers it up so it will not visible except from certain angle .

At hips area, skirts armor pieces are connected using ball joint. Although they're connection are quite simple, surprisingly, they did not hinder his legs movements too much. The round sword holder could hold pretty well and they could rotate to, which is very nice.

Legs

Legs connection at hip are using a moveable ball joint. They attached nicely and could swivel around very well. Just remember not to force them to move out of their range, because they could pop-off - one thing that I don't like from this ball type of joint. But don't worry, because they could pop in safely and luckily, i do not suffer any loose joint.

The ball pegs could move front and back a little and add its legs range of front movements.

It has rotation at upper thigh, and double jointed knee as usual. The difference is that they add another rotation joint at knee, so it could do swivel around for surprisingly 360 degree. I really glad they add this feature, it just 360 degree feels a bit too much for me :).

The upper knee joint could not perform full 180, only about 120 degree because of its legs construction.
His calves could open and show its inner frame, which i actually hope that they also make this kind of feature for his Hyper Mode chest transformation :).

Feet are on a ball joints and also has separated thumbs. They could bend down really good although has a very limited bend up. Nice thing is they add rotation joint for these thumbs so they could do swivel like revoltech although a bit limited.

Accessories

The original God gundam does not really have much of weapon, since it build for hand-to-hand combat and only has a beam saber, so I really glad that they make quite number of hand pieces for this robot Damashii.  

Beam swords

I think this the best beam sword that I ever have from Robot Damashii line so far. They also has longer sword holder than usual so could be hold by two hands easily. Very nice.

Back Pack and Hyper mode effect part

Good thing that God Gundam's back pack was came as an accessories, IMO, because with that big wing could really hinder his articulation if attached solidly.

The wing-pieces have articulation and could flaps a bit. He also has this transparent colorful circle Hyper mode effect that also attached at his back pack using 2 additional pegs. This whole back pack assemble attached quite secure for any of static position, but you need to detach them before changing his pose, because the back pack became too heavy and tend to pop off from main body while doing so.

Alternative hand

I like these parts most. He has pair of palm hands, pair of open hand, pair of holding hand and pair of Hyper mode hand. All these additional pieces have the curved attaching hole type for more range of articulation ***).

Hand Armor / Gauntlet hyper mode

A pair of alternative gauntlet for burning mode. They are nice and the yellow claws could jiggle a bit, but I don’t really like using them since they also attached loose and hinder his hand pieces articulation just like his normal ones.

Hyper mode chest pieces

It was made with nice paint, detail and looks, but I just prefer that they’ve made this not as separated part but rather attached inside it chest and has an open-close feature like his calves.

Size and pose

He has similar dimension to Robot Damashii Age-1 normal. Here are few pose that i took.

 

 

 Final thoughts

Although God gundam officially only has a pair of beam saber for his weapon, his accesorries and articulation make him has a lot of play value IMO. I do think that they should do it better at the paint area, but over all I did satisfied with what I've got and do recommended him especially for God Gundam fans and Robot Damashii collector.

  

Robot Damashii #149 Plan 1055 BELIAL

Full metal panic was one of my favorite anime and I really like its mecha designs especially the main protagonist mecha; the Arbalest. Belial is one mecha character from the manga version (if I’m not mistake, he is an antagonist) which I never know because he never appear in the anime and I never read its manga :).

Appearance

Belial sure looks good. The matte Black and glossy silver combination does really looks cool from every angle. Everything that you’ve seen on its picture does execute very well. He somehow reminds me of superman’s Black costume after his death story. I have nothing to comment cause everything at his appearances just simply cool and likeable.

 

Articulation

Now… Belial’s articulation does give me a mix opinion. Let’s just started to see how it’s doing.

Head Parts

His head could rotate at 360 on a ball joint, and his neck has a good front-back movement. They simply good and has nothing much to explain. 

 

Arms
First thing that I remember when I tried to moved his arm, is: SHFiguarts. He implied similar joint systems which definitely define as: good. Double ball joint at shoulder, rotation at biceps, double joint elbow and ball peg at wrist. If you have SHFiguarts, you will know how they work. His shoulder armor could move quite a bit and attached by using a ball joint.

 

There lower arms has this ‘gun covers’ that could removed and replaced with its alternatives part. They are attached pretty loose, but I don’t mind at all because for me he actually looks better without them, revealing its hidden lower arms metallic color.

 

The ‘shoulder fins are attached using hinge joint and could simply detach just in case you did not like it.

One unique feature is the circular body pieces that appear in between his body and shoulder. This piece reminds me much on Exia or double O body type. It does not have its own attachment joint and just simply hanging in the middle of shoulder ball peg. It does not have any circular movement, but instead just moving around following the shoulder movement.

 

His front and back side fins are attached at this circular part and has a limited hinge movement. They are pretty nice attachment IMO. 

Legs Articulation

Same thing happens at his legs joints; it’s using the similar to SHF joints structure. Ball and hinge at hip joint, pivot rotation at upper thigh, double jointed knee with a bit knee armor movements, ball and hinge at ankle area, separated toe at its feet. 

 

His foot feels a little bit too small though and kind of has hindered articulation. They have decent movements although quite troublesome for more dynamic poses.

Body

 Let see… An awesome detailed and colors appearance; a very good head, arms and legs articulation; Cool side fins… almost a perfect score for me until I’ve check at the main body articulation.

Surprisingly, they made his middle section articulation at a very limited range of motion. It does have a small front-back and side movement, but he could only performs at maybe about only 5 degree of rotation, which hardly seen and gives me the feels that he does not have any articulation at all. 

max body rotation

 

It feels kind of waste after all those good things that they’ve been doing for others parts of the figures.

When I look closely inside of the waist area, I see a cutting line which means that the abs and the hips are actually made of two separate parts. 

 

So I keep wondering, why they don’t place; let say a simple rotating peg; so it could performs better waist rotation which definitely will add much to its pose-ability. 
Not bad over all, but could and should have been better.

Small nice looking fins are attached at his back using simple peg and could easily removed.

 

Accessories
Not much to be talked here because he only has a bow, few extra hands and a pair of arms gun. Nice thing is they give an action base for Belial which I think rarely happen in Robot Damashii line which could nicely covers his small feet limitation.

 

The bow has moveable parts that could be used for certain pose. You need to detached the handle part before attaching the holding hand.

 

Size Comparison with revoltech and Real Grade

Belial in pose :

Final thought

If you are looking for a good looking figure to shown on your desk, you should go and get him. Belial has very good appearance for his scale and you might like him without even know who he is. His play value does a bit low due to his small number of accessories and limited abs movements.