REAL GRADE EXIA

Finally, a spare time to do some review for one of my favorite Gundam, EXIA. This time it’s a real grade and I’m not going to review all about him because it will takes sooo long. So it’s just going to be a share of some good and bad things about him from my point of view. 

Basic Articulation

For me, articulation is always became something important to review especially for Real grade because they claimed to have a superb articulated inner frame which supposed to boost its articulation better than others 1/144 mokit. Funny thing is, high grade kits seems to evolve in engineering to be somehow became more and more pose able each day and has this partial  inner frame, which I think maybe at some point could match the real grade’s and make every one confused about their difference :).

For articulation review, I will detach some of his outer parts to the condition which exia could perform at least 90 % of his pose ability. That is because I was too lazy to strip him all down to his inner frame this time and I just somehow liked him better in this condition and will keep him this way for a while.

 Head

Nothing really became an issue here. It’s a standard RG head-neck articulation which means that he got free rotation and chicken movement there. This is good IMO, because exia figures always seem to have hindered head rotation because of its 'collar'.

 

Shoulder and arms

Exia has standard RG joints at shoulder connection with small extra side chest joints which always became exia’s 'signature' joints. It’s really good and a bit better than others Real Grade.

His arms sections also implement another standard RG movement.

Torso

This area seems to be the focus of RG exia inner frame points of improvement. First, his chest and abs connection could give him a better side-to side body movement. Then they add a hinge below it so he could do hunch movements better than others RG, although with his grey round abs part attached, his movement became hindered. Below that, it’s a pivot joint to do full rotation movement at waist, and the last; he has hinge connection between its main body and hips, which adds a little more front hunch movement. Together, they perform better torso articulation than any RG before.

 

Upper thighs and hip connection

The real world is not perfect after all. When there is good news, bad news always comes a fter it.

Exia’s ball shape upper thighs were made a little bigger than usual IMO and it does hinder his split and others movement, so unlike others RGs, exia won’t be able to performs 180 degree splits. 

They also removed the RG’s good old master grade style up-down thigh joint system, which is not a good choice IMO. Well, at this strip down mode, its effect will not show much, but after we attached his front skirts, it will drop his performance reaaaly much. We’ll see in next section.

master grade style up-down thigh joint at destiny RG, which sadly removed

Legs

It has standard great RG inner joints, which is rotation at upper thighs, double jointed knee which show some nice armor movements at bended position, moveable ankle armor and three parts feet. I think they make improvement at its ankle joint by changing the usual double ball joint with a ball-hinge joint. It adds a little range of motion at its ankle.

 Here are some poses to shows its inner articulation which is overall Great:

Back Pack

Well, no back pack. Just a removable GN Drive.

GN Sword

From articulation point, it is the best at its scale. Unfortunately the peg that connects his arm and the GN sword is rather loose at both points.

GN Shield

This is another point which shows that Real grade not always better than high grade. It cannot rotate, so it could only be arrange at one fixed position. The attachment peg also has bad snap fitting to his arm.      

Good and Bad

I’m not going to mentioned everything again after his full armor attached, but rather just mentioned some points which being this kit plus and minus IMO.  

Good things

-        

           Good build good separation

I really enjoy building this guy, especially at main body and head parts. It has decent parts and color separation. I liked how they used two different tones for white and blue colors. Too bad they don’t really shows off if you look him from distance because somehow the tone still seems a little bit too close IMO. 

 

-        Chromed blade

Well, it’s just his swords actually, but yeah, they do looking good and definitely the best painted Exia swords ever.

-        Some improvements at inner frame

I remembered MK2 inner type has claimed to be a sturdy inner frame at that time, but I found that it also has a very vulnerable waist joint. Freedom inner frame type is much better at the waist, but it has a bit worrying thigh to hips joint IMO.

Exia inner frame does manage to compromise with all of this issue. And it somehow feels a bit sturdier than others too, although he still suffers those real grade’s weak shoulder joint while holding his GN swords.

Bad Things

-        

          Hindered outer frame

One minus thing about RG exia that I found quite annoying is… unlike others RG that I have build so far, his outer frame does hindered its movements in a way that could not be ignored.

First, his shoulder armor does limit his arm lift movement to certain degree, before his bulky upper arms pushed it off and removed the armor from the shoulder.

 

Second, his abs attachments hinder his crouch movement.

Third, his thigh armor, which make him need to spread his leg a bit so it could perform a rotation movement. His blade holder also hinders his waist rotation once attached.

And the worst, the absence of good old master grade style up-down thigh joint system, which make his leg could only performs not more than 60’ front movement. Simply said, your Exia will find a hard time to sit right.

Less decal

I'm not sure whether this could be say as a minus or not, but he has less decal/stickers than others Real grades before him. Not really an issue for me actually.

Exia decal is the right most

 Need to be careful

-        

           Loosing thin straps

One good but a little annoying thing is that, this mokit has few thin soft purple transparent material that used at his shoulder armor, head, abs and leg. They just easy to ‘jump’ while assembly and once they do, you will find some quality time looking for them around :).

-        

           Big excess mold – nub mark

This is really just me, but somehow I got this feeling that this kit has more or bigger access mold (runner) than others. And it takes an extra time to clean the nub mark. I even accidentally cut a peg at his biceps which used to holds his shoulder straps. That’s why it did not show in any of the pictures.

 This is the first time I ever do it after so many model kits before. Well, it might just me being careless but you may need to be careful a bit while doing this kit.

-         

     Erasable text

I found funny thing that, the printed text at some of its sticker is erasable. I usually use a cotton bud to press down the sticker so it will stick evenly and better. I do not remember press it to hard or wetting it by any liquid, but yet it somehow erased its printed text. It might only happen at my kit due to bad quality or something else, but just in case, you may want to be careful with it.

 Pose-ing

Well, since its articulations are hinder a lot after attaching all his armors, I do not have any mood to play much posing with it. So it just some picture showing his weapons attached.

size comparison w/other RG

Final Thought

While I was doing its inner frame and partial parts built, I got this thinking: “This is great, it is something new and highly recommended “… But after it’s fully assembled, well… honestly I was a bit disappointed with how limited his movement turns out to be. So, if you could deal with it, I still think that he is a good real grade model kit and off course recommended, especially because he will have this additional parts coming ( repair pack and Astraea pack if i'm not mistake ).

SIC Kiwami Tamashii Masked Raider Kuuga Rising Ultimate

He is small, he is highly detailed, he has decent articulation, and he is (was?) cheap! Yes, he is the (discontinued?)  Super Imaginative Chogokin Kiwami Tamashii Masked Rider Kuuga Rising Ultimate (now that’s what I call a looong name :)).

The looks

For anyone who likes small, 3.75 inch figure such GI Joe and marvel universe line, SIC kiwami is like a blooming flower in the middle of the desert ( and I don’t even know what that’s means !). And in the terms of looks, Kuuga rising ultimate inherits all good things from this line of figure. Just look how detail this guy is while he is only about 4 inch tall. 

For your notice, I have displaced this figure torso joint by the way. As far as I know, regular release of SIC KT kamen riders are using double ball peg for its torso joint and there are two type of it, the long one and the short one. Regular kuuga mighty form and ultimate rising was using short joint for both, and I have change mine to the long one which make him a bit taller than his original released. I like this proportion better and it became more articulated so I just going to keep it that way.

The red eyes are made of red compound eyes which add the goodness of this guy.

 His sign of Kuuga painted very well on its fists.He is detailed everywhere and even at his footsteps.

And yes, he is made in china and has the customer service number just in case you need more…

Overall he is definitely a beat up for other small figures and even compare to his bigger companion such as SHF.  There were some un-neat finishing for its plastic mold left over in mine, but it does not affect much on his sweet looks IMO. Two thumbs for the appearance.

Articulation

Articulation of this guy is actually pretty decent. Not all great but I think could still do every things that he needs to do, except maybe the rider kick. Well… maybe it just me and maybe because I came from the showa age, but I always think that the ability to performs the rider kick is a must for an articulated kamen rider figure :).

Another thing that I’ve remember, when I first open this guy from its mint condition, some of its joints are kinda sticky. It seems that they place him inside his box while his paint was still not perfectly dry. A deadline release I think. So if you got him in his mint condition, you might need to be careful on your first try moving his joints, don’t put much force to it. Once they moved, everything’s gone be all right.

Head and neck are separated parts from the upper body and connected using ball joints. Free head rotation, decent nods down, limited for side and looking up movements. 

 

Upper hand to shoulder connected using ball hinge joint which makes a good swivel and ball movement.

 

Unfortunately upper arms movement get hindered by its shoulder armor attached at his main body shoulder which only has a little up down hinge movement.

By the way, you might need to be gentler with the shoulder armor joints. From my experience, sic kiwami has a fragile shoulder armor joints so far, and I was having bad time with agito trinity and blade joker.   

Its upper arms itself has this separated moveable shoulder cover which is a very nice feature IMO.

Pivot rotation at the biceps and double jointed elbow. Hands wrist using Ball peg which has a deep ball connection so it could only gives a rotation movement.

Unlike SHF, SIC KT’s main body only separated in to two parts and connected at its torso using one double ball peg. Like I’ve mentioned earlier, I’ve swap his with SIC KT Blade’s which the long one is, so what you see in the next pictures is actually better than his original movement.

 

The only thing that, well… need to be complain is his thighs to hips connection. It is a ball joint, and the way they construct the ball cup make him possessed a reaaally lame split movement. 

 

His upper thighs are separated and connected at pivot for rotation movement. But it happen to be kind of hindered. Maybe that’s because how it shaped. It makes its rotation movement became very limited.

Other than that, everything else is good, double joint at knee and ball hinge at ankle.

Accesories

He only has alternative hands and an alternative black eyes head. A bit disappointing because as I could remember he has a higher price tag compares to others regular KTs. I will not say much about them besides they all made with the same good details, except for the black eyes which only has a plain black color without compound structure.

Poses

Could still do rider kick with a bit of imagination.

Now, posing with other small 3,75 inch GI Joe so you could compare them by yourself

Let's make peace my friend

Size comparison

Final Thought

If I was writing this pose at the end of 2012, I would recommend this guy just based on the thought: he was too good to be cheap (or too cheap to be good?). Unfortunately this is a late review, he is already discontinued (?), and usually these kinds of discontinued figures have always become too expensive to considerably buy at present. 

ULTIMATE WRATH OF THE RISING THUMB WHATEVER ATTAACK !!!