Went it comes to transforming mecha, Gundam often feels a bit under-commited to the idea. Its something that's been there from day one with the Core Fighter concept, but entire series omit the feature, or otherwise relegate it to a gimmick. This often manifests in the mecha design itself, such machines usually having a trio of overlapping flaws. Often they don't turn into anything recognisable. Often the end result looks more like robot yoga. And when it doesn't? The transformation is not really achievable at the preferred 1/144 scale without some form of disassembly or cheating. The Asshimar is a rare exception to all that, both conceptually, and as a model kit.
Yes, the Asshimar is another Titans machine, and thus the usual comments about suspiciously zeonic designs and expensive prototypes apply, but I have to admit that they were onto something here. As a series, Zeta Gundam features a significant number of transformable suits, some more credible than others, and the yellow cyclops here does approach verisimilitude. Its not got any gimmickry beyond the transformation, and it is modestly-but-effectively armed with a big beam rifle. The lack of a melee weapon is unusual, but we see it punching things a lot, which is cool. It's bulky and top heavy due to its other form, and has Macross style thruster feet. The silhouette is rather different from the VF-1, and there's no obvious aircraft bits, but the comparison is unavoidable. But if you're gonna copy, copy from the best. Its a design I’m predisposed to like, and I did have the 1/200 scale HCM Pro version for a time. Of course, Ive been discussing this model in total seriousness so far, and not mentioned what it turns into. Purposefully. It's called a Mobile Armour, but we all know what it is. Its a bloody UFO. it's not an especially aerodynamic example of a UFO, and nor does it have obvious control surfaces, but I want to restate how snake belly low the bar is for these things. These are made for space combat usually, or just utterly disregard aerodynamics. The Asshimar at least adds curves and compresses it's form while appealing to my sense of whimsy.
As a kit from 2005, excuse me for a moment while I turn to dust, this HG model is part of the merchandising push for the Zeta Gundam compilation movies, and ends up feeling curiously old and modern at the same time. Its a polycap build, with a modest sticker sheet labelled with Japanese characters rather than numbers. There is a flight stand present, a huge boon for something that flies, although its a proprietary example that you literally screw together. Said stand also features dedicated storage for loose accessories, a quite luxurious touch in this context. The transformation is almost perfectly executed, with lots of tabs to secure things, although you may wish to pop an arm off for convenience. The monoeye is a foil sticker, but its placed behind a transparent panel which makes for a nice effect. Colour separation/accuracy is pretty good too, although this is one of those designs that has multi-coloured thrusters. Posability and articulation is where we see a notable but understandable weakness though. While decent-if-unexceptional in most areas, the transformation prevents waist rotation, and that’s a bit of a shame, but its not immediately clear how to better in a HG. I mean, when they made the closely-related Anksha in 2012 by retooling this kit, they fixed that, but it became a partsformer in the process. A shame, as the Anskha has more going on, but I digress. Otherwise? Its more or less on point for 2005 era kit, although the closed fists required glue for some reason.
I ended up doing another basic weathering job on this one, opting to paint in thruster details by hand. There I opted for a dark grey and metal combo as I strongly feel gundam mecha designers make life too difficult for themselves and everyone else by using more colour than that on a glorified nozzle. The kit takes paint pretty well actually, I had a violet that was ideal, and the dark grey came in handy elsewhere. I did manage to mess up one of the stickers though, but see if you can see where it should be. After that, a drybrush/wash weathering followed.
All in all? A good kit that turned out OK. And it can also do this.
I’m sorry.
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