Yes, once more the gnawing emptiness that serves as my soul drives me to purchase some random robot bits off the Intarwebz. This time, it's one of Rihio's MultiAbyss kits, a line of 1/60 scale toys on the lower end of the pricing scale. Further details seem to be obscured behind the language barrier, but this never stopped me before. Its my birthday! I'm allowed to indulge.
The first thing I want to say here is that this does not feel like a model kit or even a gunpla once assembled. The plastic here has a more robust, "toy-like", vibe. I was reminded of the time I attended a Botcon custom class and built an actual Transformer from factory runners and sprues. Had this come to me pre-assembled in the packet, I would have had no reason to assume it was a kit. This is not a criticism, just something that frustrated my need for categorisation. Model kits don't normally sit on my desk once completed, to be played with, like a Transformer.
Anyways, this kit features 5 sprues and a baggy of pre-painted parts. Probably an excessive amount of parts, to be honest, but we'll comeback to that. The build is maybe 1 hour of work, with nothing especially difficult. You get a choice of building it as the battle ready Striker, or the sentinel-power-loader-lookalike Logistic version. There's also a third style not explicitly named in English, a static gun turret type thing that's less impressive. Its possible to, and largely the point, to swap between the variants after assembly. Or indeed create your own versions. In the absence of anything pressing to do, I touched up some bits, cutmarks being a thing, and applied some contrast paints to the little pilot figure.
Once assembled, the toy is a small but perfectly formed robot, based around balljoints and 3mm pegs. The overall style puts me in mind of Votoms, and those boxed mechasuits you see in the modern Diaclone. Detailing is effective for the scale, but not lavish. This can make some parts a little indistinct, but you do get a great many of them. Mainly guns. Enough guns to satisfy The Punisher, and I'd like to highlight the rifle and sword with their two tone metal effect. In no particular order, there are also, 2 pistols, 2 larger pistols with top handles, a twin flamer assembly with a flexible plastic hose, 2 shoulder missile launchers, 2 things which I think are TOW launchers which I don't like, 4 stowage packs, a probable grenade launcher, a missile rack, paired shoulder cannons and some other stuff I don't recognise. That's an insane amount of ordnance, more than two of these mecha could easily carry. Also 5 assorted faceplates. I am not photographing all of it.
This makes the set some spectacular conversion fodder, and I could easily see myself building some Killa Kanz, or possibly T'au battlesuits from this. You get two sets of legs, could save a lot of time... However, what makes it all work is the articulation. Its simple, but very well-executed, moving exactly as well as something that looks like this should. The Striker form has a huge range of motion in the arms, enough for it to grab for weapons on its back, sufficient balance for on legged poses, and it collapses into a Votoms style sitting mode. Logistics form however puts a new slant on things with completely different shoulders and reverse knees. It's all very nice.
As noted, I'm hesitant to call this a full-fledged model kit, but this little dude was rather up my street. Its as a projects go, its a nice little palette-cleanser, and the end result is such fun. I'm very pre-disposed to like posable and tiny robots, especially when they have a daft amount of gun. In fact, it has so much gun that the dial rolls over and the omissions become glaring. There's just so many spare bits, it makes you wonder why you can't just build two robots at once? Because they want you to buy two. Mind you, that's about the worst I can say of it.
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