By 1994, following an economic downturn and the by-all-accounts depressing Victory Gundam, Bandai had decided to take things in a new direction. This was "what if Gundam were also Dragonball", resulting in Mobile Fighter G Gundam. To say that this was a radical departure would be an understatement, as all pretence of realism was swapped for martial arts tropes and some quite cringe-inducing national stereotypes. Bandai never tried that again, and this remains a rare Gundam spin-off that's alien to me. Mind you it seems to consist only of memes, WTF, and industrial amounts of hammy dialogue, so I'm curious.
The Death Army, or Dark Army to Americans, long story, is in truth a fairly mundane pleb by the standards of the show. Its a mass-produced suit that exists for a multinational team of Gundams to beat up. There's a couple of odd features to note, like the ability to fold up for combination stuff, which I skipped, and it's distinctive beam rifle/club. Yes, let's take an energy weapon and bludgeon people with it. Its also a machine built by the aptly named Devil Gundam, piloted by corpses resurrected by the Devil's nanotech. Its both the Zombie Apocalypse and the Grey Goo scenario in one. Yes, that counts as mundane for G Gundam. If you disagree, go look up the Nether Gundam or the Walter Gundam.
As a project, the Death Army is firmly in armybuilder territory, a simple kit that Bandai would like it if you brought multiples of, and therefore is streamlined. The build is very much akin with the 30MM line, and the similarly mookish Leo, although not as elegant. An Alto for example keeps the number of sprues down, keeps seamlines to a minimum, and is completely indifferent to colour accuracy issues by its very nature. The DA meanwhile has some sprue doubling, suffers with some nasty seams around the spiky bits, and skips some brown segments easily covered by a sticker. Which is weird, as we do get some great stickers for its rotating monoeye gimmick. Posability meanwhile is decent, although I feel the elbows could have been better, and its more suited to bludgeoning poses than shooty ones. Quite acceptable, mind you.
To go on a tangent for a moment, like the Galbaldy, this kit is very obviously intended for a double-dip in the Build sub-franchise, where you can find a less spiky and more purple quadruped version of it. I can't comment on the quality of that one, but I'm inclined to think that this zombie came out better than the Galbaldy did for its price. Yes, there's elements that I can't be bothered to correct, but this is fellow is explicitly for building in bulk. There's nothing about it that seems needlessly over-complicated.
Overall? Perfectly good for what it is, more satisfying than some, but not exceptional.
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