Plamo: The 30 Minutes Missions Iglight 02

You know, it's been a hot minute since I last checked in with 30MM, I wonder what they're up to?

The Iglight 02, I didn't see the 01, is one of the newer 30 Minutes kits to materialise at my local nerd shop. Something of a soft reboot, it goes back to basics with three concise and briskly organised runners, putting me in mind of the original Alto and Portanova kits. It is however something of a clean sheet design, drawing on the five-ish years of experience. Polycaps aren't present, and it's clip joints all the way. The Roy Roy partner drone thing is still present, although these seem to have gone a bit targetmaster this time, with a pair pulling double-duty as weapons. Another innovation this kit brings is that parts are designed to be removed from a sprue without the use of tools. This isn't super new or anything, Blokees does the same thing, but I made a point of doing so here, as part of the whole 30 minutes thing. No tools? So faster and easier, right? I can report that it works pretty well, as I was cleaning with just my thumbnail in many places, but the light green likes it better than the dark green. The 01 version probably doesn't have that problem with it's white and purple, but that's got more of a Gundam protagonist look TBH.

Once assembled, the Iglight is a very skinny, very-very skinny, but just as posable, grunt. The overall vibe is similar to that military Spinatio I did a while back, while the moustache and shoulders are similar to early Alto parts. While already skeletal, there's notable hollowness in areas like the knee joints and ankles. This is the only area where I felt I felt the price-point biting. Well, that and the Roy Roy drone that doubles as a shield. That needed a sensor or something. This was a notably cheap kit by local standards at £13, and while I've paid a lot more to get less, I feel it's worth a mention. Things I do like include the rotating arm mounts, the way the blaster can become a sentry gun, and the head. In a clever bit of design, possibly unintentional given the paperwork, the translucent visor pegs into the head so as to suggest eyes behind the glass. The other translucent bits in shoulders just kinda get lost though. Meanwhile, there's an adjustable, ECOAS style sensor pack to cover all that for the Splinter Cell look. It's all very characterful, in a pleasant distraction kinda way. Its not complex, but it is elegant, and in a style I like. Whereas the Gelgoog was a revelation with fictional baggage, this is a simple meal done well. 

I did a basic weathering job on this, picked out some details and put some leftover mud paint on the feet. It worked pretty well. Would buy another as a palette cleanser.

Gunpla: The WMS-03 Maganac (HG)

 Yes, it's time to talk about Wing's lesser known grunt.

The eponymous machine of the Maganac Corps is something without a clear or direct equivalent in wider Gundam. It's a good guy grunt treated with some dignity, and isn't obviously a re-imagining of something from the One Year War. Rather they are what are the box calls a Middle Eastern Nations design, with all that implies. There is possibly an Orientalist aspect to this, and if Quatre Raberba Winner isn't a nod towards Lawrence of Arabia I'd be very surprised.  But then I am British. There's supposedly 40 of them, there was even a big multipack towards that end, and how many thieves did Ali Baba have? I did attempt some research on the creative intent here, I asked around, but I did not find much, so I'll leave that discussion to other writers. Practically, the Maganac was judged to be superior to the Leo, although that's a low bar, with customised versions being common. My recollection is that these guys weren't in the show that much, but generally gave good account of themselves when they did.

 

As a kit, the Maganac is one of those 30 Minutes Missions adjacent armybuilders. It's a relatively simple design with a few polycaps, but mostly friction/clip joints. In some respects it's a transitional piece, with the shoulder joints looking an awful lot like, no, exactly like common polycaps. Colour accuracy is good, but also an annoying near miss. I don't really care that the gun's magazine is the wrong colour, or that you need to put a couple of stripes on the tower shield. I do mind that the yellow panels on the shoulders are stickers when the kit is otherwise very good at colour separation. On the plus side, there's a few weapon storage options, the gun being stowable in the shield, and there being adapters for the axe and shield to stow on the back. The latter two are functional, but don't look great. They look a bit "first draft"; doing the job, but aren't that visually pleasing.  There’s transfers though, if that’s your thing.

While this kit is more solid than the Leo, with fewer fiddly bits, I like it less. Part of that is because the Leo is a fucking classic design, and the Maganac isn’t. However part of that is execution, like the stickers which just aren’t great. The Leo has its flaws, but can easily be built up with little things like foil behind the visor, some black paint, basic panel lining, gundam markers, and/or the inkwash of your choice. Its a simple design that rewards simple techniques, but if you go that extra mile it can shine. If you want a great Maganac, this kit requires you to either sticker the thing up, or paint yellow atop of brown, both options being very annoying.  Also, while true to the animation, there's a notable lack of surface detail here, especially on the lower legs, and a some flair wouldn't have gone amiss. I’d also like the highlight the elbow and knee joints as areas where corners were cut, although they are entirely functional.

 

I ended up doing some basic weathering here, trying to conceal some cutmarks, and did up the sensors with paint. I think it works alright, but this isn't the best kit to start with TBH. 

Gunpla: The gMS-01 Sugai's Gelgoog (GQ)

OK, it looks like I'm gonna have to explain the painfully named Gundam GQuuuuuuX. It's still very new, so hopefully I won't get sidetracked too much.

GquuuuuuX is the Gundam multiverse series. No, not Turn-A. Nor Build. Or Super Robot Wars. No, it's the one explicitly about alternative universes and canon, although it doesn't immediately present like that. Initially, it presents as a "what if Zeon won" story, imaging a different story route for the original 1979 anime, but parallel worlds and time-whimey elements consume the narrative. At which point, it's not really a warstory any more, nor a real robot show, because realities are being created or destroyed seemingly at will. To give a spoiler free analogy; GQ is akin to a Spider-Man story where someone is repeatedly resetting history to keep Uncle Ben alive and ensure Peter Parker never becomes a superhero. It's the kind of story you write when you understand the letter of canon, and have memorised the apocrypha, but don't actually understand why any of it was important in the first place.

The "Gelgoog" is a good example of how self-regarding the show can be. It's the Zeon made mass-produced version of the original Gundam, a GM in all but name. The original Gelgoog was of course the Zeon answer to the Gundam, and the name has been applied here..... just because? This rather like Nazis knocking off a Sherman tank and then calling it the King Tiger. It makes sense for Zeon to apply it's own naming conventions, don't get me wrong, but that's typical of the self-referencing stuff GQ does. As to why it looks like it does? Well.... just because? GQ designs kinda look like that. Yes it does put me in mind of the difference between 80's Transformers and Michael Bay's Transformers. And to make it better, or possibly worse, this is not the stock colour scheme. That’s a stereotypical green affair on a limited release. No, this is Sugai’s colours, a Federation ace who has somehow settled on a paintjob not otherwise present in this universe, which makes it look as much as possible like a GM …just because? Its the ouroboros of grunt suits. 

GQuuuuuuX, as a series, sets off my autism something fierce. All this having been acknowledged, I feel I should mention that I actually kinda like the Gelgoog on its own terms. I like how the legs exist mainly as frame for some rocket engines. I like the odd offset(?) joints; they are very Syd Mead. I like the forearm shields, and the fact you can John-Woo this guy with twin pistols. I like that all the weapons store.  No, the white bits on that exaggerated collar aren’t beam sabers, those are greeblies. I even kinda like the finger harpoon thing. Had GQ been it's own narrative, its mecha designs would have been viewed as modern and fresh. Or at least something interesting by the Evangelion guy. A subtle homage maybe? Instead, everything in the series exists in a context where it is unavoidably compared to a genre making classic, and the creative team behind this was, perhaps, not up for that comparison. Either that, or I’m just desperately trying to justify my own hypocrisy in buying this.

 

So, all that having been said, fucking hell, three paragraphs just to place this properly in its incestuous continuity and I didn't even mention Sugai! Oh well, let's skip that. She was only in one episode, I dunno if she actually matters that much, and I've written too much already.   

Ahem, so, all that having been said, how is the Gelgoog as an actual kit? Interesting and boundary pushing. The high parts count is used to create a layered effect in the details, in often creative ways. It's complex, but not needlessly so. It comes with a decent selection of hands and weapons, even throwing in a Darth Maul gimmick just for the kit. Colour accuracy is 99% ideal; there’s a few areas that need some black paint, like the inside of the leg thrusters, but that’s really nothing remarkable. I'm not a huge fan of the black plastic, and the odd choice of opaque plastic for the sensors, but this at least on the level of that Origin GM, but with no stickers. The joint design is a notable highlight, with no polycaps used and some clever locking taps used in places. With the backpack thrusters the ball joints like to come off, but all load-bearing joints seem great. It takes a while to get everything done, there’s a lot here due to its  unconventional design, but if you want a quality example of what Bandai can do with a Gunpla, here it is.

The Gelgoog was very impressive build, which honestly did not need much work to look good.  I did a basic weathering job, that possibly goes against the vibe of its series, but its fine.  I wasn’t able to fix the backpack issue, but that’s manageable. Also, I realised upon writing this that the thighs should probably not have that horizontal seam, that's something for the colour variants. Oh well, too late now, and its still a good kit. Pick it up if you like the looks of it.

Gunpla: The RGM-86R GM III (HG)

Oh crap, I have explain Double Zeta. What have I done?

OK, Double Zeta (ZZ) was the third Gundam TV series and an immediate sequel to Zeta. Zeta had gotten exceptionally bleak, and Double Zeta was something of a pendulum swing towards the other extreme. I don't think that's immediately a bad thing, although I've not heard much that makes me want to watch it. ZZ, in my limited understanding, seems to be a regression to older tropes, with many shenanigans in the first half, only for Tomino to take it seriously again in the second half, after the Char's Counterattack film was greenlit. The military realism seems to have faded with this one, and I have some deeply undiplomatic things to say about Neo Zeon, both in the general and the specific, but I digress. While not unpopular, ZZ doesn't the get the same reverence as the preceding two series. None of the above is me saying it's a bad show, but it is a hard sell. It does have some memorably excessive mecha in it though, see the eponymous Gundam for example, so there is that.

The GM III is of course, by some margin, less immediately interesting than the entire Neo Zeon fleet and whatever Judau's bunch happened to be fielding at the time. With the Titans gone, Federation arms development seems to have stalled a wee bit, and basically everything with a monoeye has either been retired or absorbed into the various Zeon spin-offs. A casual glance at the animation roster implies that the GM III is the only machine the Feds got to mass production during the ZZ period, and is arguably the only thing the Feds actually made during that period. I am not joking. Ancillary media like the famous Gundam Sentinel adds a few, but, yeah. The main thing the Federation did was upgrade the GM II to III. My research indicates this was mainly a refit situation too, new build machines ending up with a slightly different name. I have two opinions about this. 1) If you're doing military realism, it makes sense to incremental improvements to platforms for any number of practical/boring/sensible/logistical reasons. 2) As mentioned, ZZ really isn't doing military realism, and the GM II was outdated at the start of last season, so it doesn't reflect well on the Feddies. 

 

I'm put in mind of the term "bomb truck". This can refer to an older generation of jet fighter, one that has aged out of frontline roles, and now operates as an ordnance carrier. That's what the GM III looks like to me. It's a skinny frame whose engines have been enlarged, but now mainly carries missiles. Said missiles are however in hardpoints, so you can remove them, and go for a more melee focused machine if that's what you want. 

As a kit, the GM III invites comparison with the Nemo, and that Origin GM. It's from 2011, so it's a polycaps build with 7(?!) hands, and some waterslide decals. Joint design seems fairly modern, and was actually a touch closer to the Origin version than I expected. As it's an older kit it uses stickers marked with kanji, and, as you may recall, stickers are my recurrent bugbear of gunpla design. While largely inoffensive, or easily avoided with paint, there's a teal trim you have to sticker, as well as yet more of the red lined thrusters common to older designs. As a side note: Gundam Unicorn updated the colour scheme and removed some of this inconvenience, but other than a P Bandai release that's not something you can easily take advantage of. It would possibly be an airbrush job at that point. Furthermore, even with the stickers, there's areas like the missile pods and the inside of the shield that needs some dark grey. All in all: this makes for an acceptable mid-tier kit, with some ignorable flaws, but enough to annoy a perfectionist or GM III stan. I'm not so much the former these days, and I'm not sure the latter exists, so I'm fine with it. I did find that the parts fit wasn’t great in a couple of places, but maybe that’s just bad luck.

I did a basic weathering job on this one, picking out some bits with paint, and some with stickers. I’m not happy with the leg thrusters, this plastic did not like paint, but hopefully it doesn’t look that bad on the photos.

Gunpla: The RGM-79 GM(Shoulder Cannon / Missile Pod) (HG Gundam The Origin)

Okay, let me try to explain Gundam: The Origin. This started out as a manga retelling of the first Gundam TV show, but it has since been animated in part. In many ways it's typical of prequel and expansion trends you see in big franchises. As the name implies, it functions as an explanation for the One Year War, especially with those segments animated, but its more of a remix. As you might imagine, the continuity drifts after a while, most obviously with the mecha designs. These initially look to be a same-thing/different-artist affair but end up with some noteworthy differences, in an uncanny valley kinda way. Today's subject is one such example. What first appears to be a minor GM variant, but features vulcans in left forearm and heavy weapons built into the backpack.

 

Tangent for a second: why is it only the Federation that routinely features vulcans/miniguns/machineguns/anti-infantry-dakka as secondary weapons? Within the context of the One Year War at least. These weapons make the most sense in a combined arms conflict, not a mobile suit versus mobile suit war. As the Federation had no suits at the start, it was combined arms, shouldn't every Zaku have that feature? <quick google> Oh, Origin doubles-down on this, and has Federation suits much earlier. OK. Now it makes less sense. Moving on.

So, here's the thing. This is a luxurious kit, with a load of weapons, including some you didn't know you wanted. It utterly shamed the regular GM,  although that's very old. The GMGM has lost its top spot. This is extremely new and it's an Adele situation, where they took what was already a nice Gundam and turned it into a grunt. Best GM ever? I don't know, but it's a question you can reasonably ask. The articulation, engineering, colour separation, and sheer quantity of stuff like waterslide decals make for a good argument there. The legs are especially well-engineered, with numerous little quality of life touches. I mean, the beam saber mounts are even articulated, making a drawing pose that bit easier. Thrusters are articulated in places too, and there's even a toe joint.

HOWEVER.

However, this is a kit that requires an individual sticker for each missile in those pods. Yes, one individual red sticker for each missile. 26 of them. Also, for reasons I don't fully understand, the circular joint covers are separate pieces, which then require stickers. Why? Also, we're using a lot of polycaps here, which mostly work great, but these are also used for backpack hardpoints, and mine don't feel great. I think a hard plastic part would have worked better there, but your mileage may vary. So a bit of a mixed experience then? Well, it's like someone created the perfect chocolate cake, only to go cheap on the icing, and top it with a hazelnut.

So, you can probably guess what I skipped, and I shall now gently shift towards the build and painting. I opted to paint the missiles while still on the runner, as an act of spite, and opt for a load out that didn't over stress any polycaps while still retaining the Origin style. This meant the "early type" Beam Spray Gun with those missiles, and the optional, erm, butt rack for the beam sabers. Other weapons have gone into bitzbox as deposits against future projects. I did a basic weathering job, painting silver behind the visor as I like that effect, and gunmetal for those joint covers. I declined to apply the waterslides as I honestly do not care. In other news: I found my action base!

 

My general tone and petty complaints aside, I do like this kit an awful lot. Origin kits are clearly prestige items for Bandai, which makes the imperfections worse, but it's hard to dislike the end result. If you like the look of this kit, and are aware of those imperfections, I'm pretty sure you'll have a good time. 

A- 

 

Gunpla: The MSA-003 Nemo (HG)

 

In my apparent quest to revisit every Zeta Gundam design, I now present the Nemo. In my defence, this was not a conscious choice, and seems to be a reflection of what Bandai ships to my part of the world. 

The Nemo is a relatively obscure mobile suit, despite being only the second/third "good guy" grunt in the franchise. Technically. Kinda. Speaking in narrative terms, if not absolute terms. Depending on how you feel about the Rick Dias and such. Zeta was the first proper Gundam sequel, and the franchise tropes hadn't quite solidified yet. Functionally, it was an off-brand GM, built to outperform the contemporary Hizack and GM II. As such, the Nemo gets the basics right. Its the classical sword & board style of a Federation mobile suit; no stupid gimmicks, just solid design with newer tech. Its origins are possibly more interesting than the suit itself. It was made by Anaheim Electronics for the painfully named Anti Earth Union Group, AEUG, the protagonist faction of Zeta. Shady arms dealers amongst other things, Anaheim was a duplicitous conglomerate known for selling weapons to both sides in any given conflict. This was a habit that made the Universal Century tangibly worse, even if it was to be a net good in the Nemo's case. Said mobile suit is described as having various zeon-style design traits despite its appearance, a side-effect of Anaheim buying up expertise and arms companies after the One Year War ended. As well as other shady goings-on too messy to go into here. While performing well enough, and having a few spin-offs, the Nemo basically disappeared after Zeta. With the Titans gone, and AEUG absorbed back into the Federation, the Nemo was somewhat redundant. You don't need, really, a knock-off GM when you have the real thing. It effectively married back into the GM lineage, and wasn’t heard from again until Gundam Unicorn presented the act of prolonged fanwank that was the Torrington Base battle. Which prompted this kit.

 

My honest reaction when opening the box was a decidedly unfiltered "oh you mother-fucker". There is an utter indictment of a sticker sheet. Nothing I haven't seen before, or should be surprised by, but this is exactly the sort of thing that makes a gunpla unfun. The worst example are those shoulder vents which need five, I repeat, five (5) each. Either mould them in black, or just don't bother at that point. The leg thrusters need four each too. There is no red in this kit, that's all stickers. And why is there a yellow sticker for the head when we have a tiny sprue already in that colour? What budget cut or executive oversight mandated this? And its got a lot of polycaps too, should that be a deal-breaker.

So, the Barzam is looking pretty incredible right now. But does the Nemo do anything well? In fairness most things when not involving stickers. There's a frankly excessive 7 hands included with this kit, and the fundamentals are sound. The backpack thrusters are colour separated to an extent, and balljointed, for example. Stickers aside, its a decent kit for it's time, and compares well to more-modern grunts.  It's got a fairly involved construction too, not a full inner frame, but there's more going on than it looks. The sad thing is, while the Nemo would have been a fantastic candidate for the Leo/30MM style of construction, its not gonna get that treatment as this kit is good enough, even with the stickers. 

I gave this my standard weathering job, and used silver paint behind the visor. There's some interesting detail there. It turned out OK, but I think I’ll take a break from Zeta.

Gunpla: the MSJ-06II-A Tieren Ground Type (HG)

 

I was at Partizan recently. Its a twice-yearly wargamers event, tending towards historical games. Its worth a visit if you're passing, and its just down the road from an aircraft museum, which is awesome. I found Partizan to be rather busy this year, and regrettably I didn't find anything I was looking for. I did however find this for a tenner.

The Tieren hails from Gundam 00, the last Gundam I remember watching before dropping out of anime for a while. Manufactured by a China + Russia + etc. superstate called the Human Reform League, the Tieren Ground Type is 00's tribute to the Zaku II. For reasons so obvious I hope I shouldn't have to list them. That said, its definitely a machine with its own character. The Tieren has a lot of tank in its DNA, like the vision slits around the collar, and maybe a bit of Armored Core or Front Mission. It looks more like a brick shithouse than Zaku-alikes usually do, and honestly would not look that out of place in my guard forces. It's very utilitarian, with almost no head to speak of, and is in some ways the antithesis of baseline mobile suit design. This really isn't designed for agility in space. Or indeed being cool. It makes the 08th MS Team look like a bunch of posers. Sadly, building this not-long after the Asshimar did it no favours.

Dating from 2007, this kit is contemporary to the series it comes from, and that leads to a common problem that you may have noticed. If you've got a UC release after the fact, you'll find a certain degree of extra effort put in. Some silliness with thrusters perhaps, but that’s the source material. Kits for that year's anime, can be a bit more obnoxious with their stickers, especially older ones. The Tieren is mainly sensible military tones, except for some orange sections on the chest and some white trim. Guess which bits are stickers. Guys, you are just making things difficult for yourselves, and you've been doing this long enough to know better. I skipped the stickers completely, breaking out the paint again. I'm just gonna come out and say it, doing those orange bits in grey just looks better, even with my brushwork. This faintly annoying situation seems to be a consequence of the runner design, which is optimised for reuse with the Tieren's garish variants, but I suppose it is rather forward thinking. In other news, sprue A did feature an uncharacteristic amount of plastic flash for a Bandai release, i.e. some. I must have got unlucky. 

 

Then again, maybe its not that great of a kit in the first place; its a low priority release from 2007. There's a fair number of hollow parts, mould lines and seams. Nothing I can't ignore or work around, but its not often you get seam splitting the top of the head. That's a shame because otherwise there's some interesting elements here. The arms for example are on the biggest forwards butterfly joint I've ever seen, the body being a large drum around which the shoulders rotate. Its legs go together in an interesting way, and Megatron style arm cannons aren't too common in gunpla. The tiny monoeye is sculpted and posable, while the shields are on jointed mounts. Posability tends towards the acceptable for such proportions, but really isn't great, and suffers for a party trick that highlights the limitations. You can arrange things so the gun rests on the leg shield, the instructions encouraging this, but you have to swap to the other arm, cheat a bit, and generally it looks awkward. I didn't bother photographing it.  Maybe the 1/100 scale version can do this better, but I won't be leaving it posed like that. Pose it like a battlemech, and you won't have complaints. There is also spare hand, and provisions for a flight stand, although I’ve neglected to find mine. I would show you the melee weapon too, except I can't seperate the hands to put it in. That's probably the ink wash I did, gumming things up, but I didn't try it beforehand, so who knows? Never had that happen before, and I'm not inclined to try forcing them open.

As you can probably tell, I've been a bit back and forth with the Tieren Ground Type. Its design lines up nicely with my current tastes, but the execution is lacking. Its like somebody wanted to make the mobile suit equivalent to a soviet-era shitbox, and Bandai ended up producing a kit that started to have the build quality of a soviet-era shitbox. People tell me that this is the norm for 00 era kits. Clearly I got out in time. Its not terrible, and the vibe does carry it, but a remake wouldn't hurt. A frustrating kit.

Gunpla: The RMS-154 Barzam (HG)

 

Eh. Its been a while since I've done one of these. This post is a sequel of sorts to one of my earliest gunpla articles, featuring the Hizack. At the time, I pointed out how that machine made no sense in context of Titans faction, and the Barzam is much the same. I find it to be kinda fascinating. Appearing late in Zeta Gundam, its visual design screams villain, as a tall monoeye machine with unusual proportions. OK, fine, the Titans were very much mask off by that point, long-long before, but I've often felt the Titans-made mobile suits were too zeonic in appearance, even if our subject goes in new directions. While supposedly derived from the Gundam Mrk-II, the Barzam has almost no family resemblance, and bar a few details it might as well be a completely new machine. This is noteworthy as while the GM family is a lot more complex than it looks, those are usually just a headswap away from being a Gundam. Which has actually happened more than a few times, in either direction. Ancillary media has dedicated much time to explaining or fixing the Barzam, usually making it more like the Mrk-II, and also throwing in ties to other Titans mobile suits. The instructions point out you can switch backpacks with that model incidentally. That's a lot of retcons, ink and plastic spent on what amounts to a late-war grunt. While the Barzam is usually regarded as a capable machine, it didn't get fielded soon enough to really matter. Because if the Titans liked anything more than warcrimes, it was spending obscene amounts of money and time on prototypes. Like I said, too zeonic.

As a 2017 kit, the Barzam is quite modern and nicely designed, if still having the occasional polycap in there. Its exposed internal frame and general weirdness make for an interesting build. Colour separation is good, you could add red to the thrusters but life's too short, and the sticker sheet is very inoffensive. Its used for sensors and the occasional red detail, often in recessed areas, so that’s okay. I mean, they used three different plastic colours for the codpiece, for heaven's sake. An effort was made, but they did hollow out the trim on the buttplate. Its also somewhat big. Not super-big or anything, but even if we ignore the frill, its on the tall/wide side for a High Grade.

 

 

One thing that confused me at first was the gun. I'd assumed that the gun would sit flush with the arm, possibly having a connector piece, but no, it just floats there, held by a long handle. The shoulder connection is nice, but the whole affair feels somehow wrong in a way that I can't quite put into words...

Once I had this together, I went in to paint a few details, before weathering it, and applying the sensor stickers. I don't think the weathering comes across well in the photos, its rather subtle. It turned out OK though.


All-in-all, this is a pretty decent gunpla with an odd look. That odd look is both a strength and a weakness, but if you want a weird grunt, I doubt the Barzam will disappoint.

Plamo: The 30 Minutes Missions Baskyrotto (gray)

Wow, its been a wee while since we last talked about one of these, Isn't it? Allow me a quick summary for the unfamiliar. 30 Minutes Missions is a line of highly customisable mecha models made by the gunpla people, Bandai. These aren't tied to an anime, at least not yet, and the gimmick is that these can be assembled in under 30 minutes. I've never really felt the need to rush like that, but 30MM kits are consistently pleasant builds reflecting the expertise Bandai can bring. They are the platonic ideal of robot model kits, and putting aside teething troubles from the early years or the occasional duff polycap, you're in for a good time. Although... they can get a touch samey through parts reuse, and the lack of fiction hurts my word count. Which is probably why I don't talk about them super-often these days.

The Baskyrotto is a comparatively recent release, new this year, and one that tickled my fancy. Its overall vibe is similar to the Armored Core series of video games, something likely not coincidental as Armored Core will be joining the 30MM line soon. It's like with Lego doing Minecraft sets, but I digress. The Baskyrotto is short, angular and very stocky. Its not that much taller than the adorable egg robo they did, but its much wider, and a chest that would look right at home in a PS3 era cutscene. Its not entirely AC though, with the backpack having a folding rack arrangement like the Gundam Ground Type and a two-thumbed hand design highly reminiscent of the Jo Hound. As a build, its definitely as intuitive as these tend to be, although you get a lot of smaller sprues rather than the consolidated sprues of the 1st gen kits. There is a the original joint sprue in the mix, although not all of it is used, such as two regular hands. Speaking of hands, the Basky is supplied with two open and two closed/holding hands, all interchangeable as left or right, which is good. Overall posability is about what you’d want for something proportioned like it is, although the legs are all knee and are probably better than you’d expect. Meanwhile, the Roy Roy is present, in a chicken walker style. Of note here is that the sensor is for it and the regular head is a duplicated piece, just coloured and oriented differently. Finally, the Baskin Robin features a tower shield and an assault rifle, which certainly fits the vibe, but some kind of melee option would have been nice. I also which that little panel center of the chest actually locked in place, as the pictures show, its rather easy to move without noticing. All-in-all? Another winner, but if in doubt, wait for a colour variant you like.

Because I am basically hardcoded to weather every model I make, I proceeded to make this dirty. Maybe I should use one of these as the basis for a how-to guide. In summary, I drybrushed a bit with metals, before selectively applying Agrax Earthshade. This was heavy on the legs and 3mm ports, but lighter elsewhere, as I figured the legs would be the dirtiest bit. Once this had dried, I applied a light drybrush of Zandri Dust to suggest, well, actual dust and dried mud.

 

 

Jobs a good-un.

 

Gunpla: The GAT-02L2 Dagger L (HG)

Finding myself in need of another distraction, and not wanting to let my experience with the Duel Gundam hold me back, I picked this one up. I had a better idea what the kit was actually like this time, going in. In-Universe, the Dagger L is in the grand tradition of the GM series of grunt suits. You know, a somewhat watered-down version of a Gundam without the plot armour. More specifically, its a further economised version of the 105 Dagger, an already simplified version of the Strike Gundam and is explicitly a machine designed to be used en mass. It doesn't have a particularly distinguished service record, SEED Destiny, and the Cosmic Era in general, was not kind to grunts, and this one was being phased out. It was also fielded by the Earth Alliance, which I am led to believe aren’t very nice, but the writing in the Cosmic Era is often awful, and I don’t want to go and check. But the Dagger L did maintain the modular equipment functions. I also half-remembered something about this being a retool of a full-fledged Gundam kit, which made it a bit more interesting. Hopefully a more recent kit than the painfully outdated Duel. Given that Bandai usually tries harder with hero mechs, this boded well. A simple meal done well, maybe? It worked for the Adele.

Initial impressions during the build were positive. Polycaps were present in a majority of the joints, but effectively so, with the elbows being a slightly more advanced double-jointed friction affair. The shoulder design confused me at first, I was convinced I'd got a bad polycap because the left arm kept separating, but no, I was just being dumb. Make sure to double check the instructions and that everything is fully inserted, if you have the same problem. The joint design seems to be the only thing taken from the Build Strike kit, its not a Fine Build kit like the Leo, and everything else seems totally new. Articulation is pretty great across the board, with a redesigned waist joint. No stickers were required, and were blessedly absent, the kit not being totally colour accurate, but the bits skipped being minor to the point of why bother? The main areas of criticism involve the accessories. You do get the standard swords, gun, and shield loadout, but not those stilettos this family of mecha have. You get two sabres with very long blades instead. The gun cheats a bit, as there is not a trigger hand here, just closed fists, so the trigger guard is cut-out. There's also notable hollowness on the inside of the shield, and you'd have to paint it grey if you were a perfectionist. Striker Pack functionality is there, but there's none present in the box. I feel I am either nitpicking or at risk of overpraising it. Its not as refined as a recent 30MM or the Demi Trainer, true, and my perspective might just be warped by that last kit I did. But if you did like this design, and maybe to the point if doing a squad, this kit does everything it chooses to do well. Its not a complex design, but its not unattractive, and I find those head-mounted guns quite charming. It puts me in mind of both the Gundam Mrk-II, and a pair of earmuffs.

I did a fairly standard weathering job on this. First a light drybrush of Vallejo Chainmail for general wear, and to pick out the CIWS gun. GW Nuln Oil was carefully used to pick out recesses and panel lines. This included the sensors beneath the visor, which required that I carefully dismantle the noggin. I then went back to drybrush again with Vallejo Silver, attempting to suggest more recent scrapes. Its a rather simple design, so there's only so much detail to pick out, but I think it worked out OK.

Job's a good 'un.

 

Transformers: Buzzworthy Bumblebee G2 Universe Cybertronian Trooper Is Something That Exists

 And has a very long name.

 

Comic art of the Cybertronian Army, with Jhiaxus bottom-centre, from the wiki.

 

Now, here’s the thing about Transformers, a basic and fundamental thing: the vast majority are individuals. Optimus Prime for example isn't merely a thinking robot, he's a person whom happens to be a robot. And also a truck. While this idea has developed and shifted over the years, your average Transformer had a presumption of personhood from day one. It helps sell the toys. As such, Transformers as a franchise generally avoids tropes like faceless mooks, drones and disposable robots. There were however exceptions even in those early days, the first example being the self-replicating Insecticons, although the Vehicons featured in Transformers: Prime are probably the brands best example. A fandom term for such things is "army builders", where uniform anonymity is largely the point. This leads us to today's subject matter: The G2 Cybertronian Trooper. These were Jhiaxus’ army, and like him, were created from whole cloth for the Marvel comic. They obviously never had a toy before, but here they are as part of the new Armybuilder Boxset. But before we talk about him/them, we need to talk about a completely unrelated character: the G1 Pretender character Skullgrin.

 

The original 1998 Skullgrin toy

For the unfamiliar, a Pretender was a toy where you had a rather simplistic robot, that stored within a much larger figurine, which usually had the vibe of a He-Man character. An often fun idea. These ran for a couple of years, got a few variations, major regional differences, and a few noteworthy comic appearances. There’s been a few updates over the years, but the play pattern has not been attempted again in the mass market. Power of the Primes got pretty close, but those were tiny and not hugely good. Botcon did a few too, but good luck getting them. As a result, whenever you see an attempt to modernise a pretender character, most split the difference between the shell and the inner robot, by basing the robot mode on the shell. See also my write-up on Sky Shadow for further discussion, which was my first article in this format, inceidentally. Skullgrin was a Decepticon whom had a brief movie career, and received two revamps before turning up in Legacy. One was a headswap retool of Darkmount AKA Lord Straxus, a comic-first character we don’t really have time to go into here. The other was the use of his shell by Liege Maximo, Jhiaxus’ boss, and another comic-first character we don’t really have time to go into here. The Legacy version however was purpose designed for Skullgrin, and I suspect the Liege Maximo connection may have played a part in it being adapted into being a G2 Trooper. This presents a problem as, well, Legacy Skullgrin was not hugely good.

 

The 2022 Legacy Skullgrin toy

 

So, let's acknowledge the negatives before going further: the tank mode is hot garbage. Specifically, garbage that arises when the designers try to replicate something simple, and end up missing the point so hard that they end up climbing into their collective bumholes. Needlenose had a similar problem, but perhaps less extreme. The original Skullgrin toy had an extremely basic vehicle form, as many Pretenders did, so the designers merely scaled this up, and sculpted some hands on the guns, to suggest the old transformation. No consideration was given to how this would work, or parts allocated to make it roll. We just have a set of tracks on the rear half of the vehicle, the front seemingly floating there. You'd think the sensible thing to do instead would be, I don't know, put another set of tracks up front? You know, to balance it out? Or maybe wheels like that Darkmount retool? Maybe sculpt some tanky bits while you're at it? Cybertronian alt modes often look like nothing in particular, but most try harder than this. It makes Jhiaxus' jet mode look like genius by comparison. And what's more, the new parts make this problem worse, as you have a tank with a ribcage on top, with odd colours and more gaps. Also, and something I didn't quite realise until photographing the toy, the gunblades are rubbery white plastic with painted handles, which means unavoidable paint chipping. Positives? Well... I suppose we could acknowledge the 5mm port system, and that with 4 weapons, you can mix & match in a way handy for an army builder. But this altform isn't getting a passing grade just for that.

After a somewhat annoying transformation where the treads move on weak armatures to the lower legs, we end up in robot mode. And, to be completely fair, this was an area where Skullgrin did OK, and the Trooper arguably does things better. It's an unusually profound example of a headswap retool, as Skullgrin's rubbery monster bonce has been replaced with something more conventional, along with a new chestplate. This completely changes the character of the toy, and the designers have really leant into the army building thing by including an alternative head. There's a dedicated connector to facilitate swapping between the cranium, with the horns on each having a 3mm peg allowing you to have these positioned how you liked, or indeed exchange the horns. Factor in the aforementioned weapon options, you can definitely have the room to do a mixed squad. Not everything specifically Skullgrin has been removed though, and I think I see another explanation for using that mould. The Troopers had a very 90's/heavy-metal/muscles-&-guns look, and Skullgrin fits in with such things. Maybe they should have painted the skull belt, but the shoulder pads and gunblades are right at home. The fundamentals are also there, with legacy standard articulation and no glaring problems. He also retains a tail, if that's your thing...

My point? Only that the Trooper is something that exists. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, the Trooper is quite compelling as a proof of concept. If Hasbro does want to try an army builder set again, doing it like this guy seems to be the way to go. And I'd be lying if I said the robot form wasn't appealing to me. On the other? The basic toy is based off arguably the most flawed Deception deluxe of modern times, and getting several of these is probably gonna be a nuisance. If somebody is splitting a pack, feel free to grab one like I did, but otherwise? Don't overpay.