Tonythem's Hobby Corner: Review: HG 1/144 Exia Repair II

So finally I do my first review, due to lack of time, patience, "health", and lot's of other things, my gunpla reviews, where delayed, back in August or September, I did a first photo session for Exia, but the pictures where really dark, and I didn't like them at all...so here is it, my review! This is the Intro picture, just for fun I photoshopped it a little bit and gave a small glow in it's eyes, ehehe...

READY?? GO!!!

Another intro picture just for the fun with Exia showing off his moves...xDD

I forgot to clean the dust on the first pictures I took, so you might see some dust there (sorry xDD)

So here you can see the job I did at his face, I painted that yellow, with yellow gundam marker, and the result is really good, if you haven't done that, I seriously recommend, it really gives much more life to the model!

Front shot, showing the glow at his chest clear part, which I painted with Tamiya's Clear Green, and the result is much better than using the crappy stickers...which are black...so the coolness effect would be lost...

Side shot, to show his other clear pieces, that I painted, with Tamiya's Clear Green, I highly recommend it!

Side Shot to show the model itself now...

Back shot, one thing I didn't like here was that, that red thing you see in his back skirt, is actually a sticker...and in the front skirt, it's actually a red piece, couldn't Bandai just make another red piece for it?

Articulation

Now I'll show you the basic articulation of this HG kit, since it's a HG, you can expect that the articulation is not as complex as a MG or PG...though, Gundam 00 series kits really made it to the next level, and Bandai sure made an awesome job in this models...

Basic and simple articulation for the shoulders, they can do 360º, though they can't go much more higher than this...

The arms can do a little more than 90º, I would say 100º maybe...and if you move the fist, you can maybe get another 5º...

Exia can easily do the 90º on his leg, though...

This is where it really shines, the pose ability of this model, it's legs can do almost the 180º, just like some MG models, and this was the first step for the new HG models, they now you new engineering that is used in MG models, but much more simplified. With this you can pull out lots of different poses and if you add a Action Base 1 or 2, though 2 are more useful for HG kits, the number or poses you can do is almost unlimited...

The legs can't spread more than this, which actually is pretty good...

And they can only do this when you try to do the splits...

The feet can rotate freely so...for some poses it's really helpful...

This was the articulation, since this is my first HG kit, I think I can't judge it too well, though since I built this one, I have built another 3, so now I can judge it well...since they are all HG kits...

The articulation is good, I can say is a little bit above average...since most of HG kits, can't do much more than 90º on their arms and legs, but Gundam 00 models, really are above average, and can do things that most of other HG's can't really do, and when I'm saying this, I'm comparing this HG's to all the Seed and Seed Destiny HG's, and to all the HGUC line before 00 Gundam models started to come out...

Accessories, Weapons and Extras

I'll start out with his hands, so a couple of HG's from Gundam 00 models, come with this set of hands, the normal ones for holding weapons, and a extra left open hand for poses, which actually works pretty well..

Ahhh this is Exia's main weapon, the GN Sword, this is the GN Sword 2, though this kit comes with the Sword 1 blade, since this kit is a re release of the first Exia, with a couple extra pieces to make the Repair II version, pieces like arms, legs, chest, shoulders, and this weapon here...though you can't make the first Exia at it's full because the is no rubber pieces for it's arms xDD

This is the GN Sword 2 opened, and as you can see it's nothing much complicated, and it has a weird aspect though I like it more than the original one...

Now it's on "pistol mode" because that thing he holds is actually a pistol...weird looking one...though Exia only used it a couple times during the anime...

Like I said before, you have here the other blade, I actually when I built this model, back in August, I remember I replaced the blades, DON'T DO IT, it only ruins the whole mounting mechanism, because after it, when I put the Sword 2 on again it was really loose, so I had to do was to use some blue tack, in my case it was white tack, and I put a little big on the connection points on the Sword 2 blade, and voilá! It actually solved the looseness problem!

This is the Repair II GN Drive, which is open, this was actually used to fight Ribbons Almark piloting the 0 Gundam, which was actually supposed to be my First HG model, because it really it's design was inspired on RX-78-2 Gundam, the Grandfather of all Gundams...

I actually used the First Exia GN Drive instead because it looks better to my eyes...

Another weapon Exia uses a lot, it's his four beam sabers, in it's first version, he used four of them, two behind its shoulders, and other two on it's back skirt. Repair II version only uses two of them, and it's on its side skirts..which I never leave them there because they constantly fall as I try to pose Exia...

Unfortunately, Bandai didn't give us any beam effect part, they only gave us this beam saber, which is only 1 piece, and was all white, if you check my Work in Progress, you'll see that I painted it with red gundam marker...just to look better..

Other difference in Exia it's his unusual shield which is really weird looking, though I like it, except that the white you see, is a sticker...and again Bandai did a mistake here...I can forgive the red piece at his back skirt, since no one would back pose him...but the shield, come on!! Bandai does so small pieces, like you saw the GN Sword, it was all made but different pieces, if this model was built with the 1990's engineering, the GN Sword would be like 3 or 4 pieces...and all the same colour, white, grey or black..

And here I am talking how about Bandai really evolved, this last years since Seed and Seed Destiny HG models, and they make this Huge mistake...I forgive...only because Repair II Exia isn't supposed to use a shield...even though...I think this could have been much better done...as you can see, why is there a back grey piece, when is mostly covered by it's arm? And the most important thing, the white, is a sticker??

Last but not least the GN Sword and GN Dagger, this where part of Exia's 7 Sword Mode (4 Beam Sabers + 1 GN Sword 1 (the big one), + GN Sword (this one) + GN Dagger ( the smaller one in this picture).

I'm glad Bandai gave us the full arsenal for this model, though I find it horrible to pose with this weapons..I don't like them too much, neither did Setsuna since he most of the times he would throw them to other Mobile Suits...talking about Strike Freedom's Beam Spamming? I present to you....THE SWORD SPAMMER......EXIA!! xDD

So the accessories, weapons and extras, are really a lot, and I haven't showed all the extras, because Bandai included the pieces to make the first version of Exia, some arm pieces, shoulder pieces, leg pieces, back skirt piece and a inner chest piece...I don't think I will ever use them...though when I get good at modelling I pretend to make a couple custom things, and this might be useful..

Conclusion

This now are only a couple pictures before the conclusion.

This is the classic Beam Saber + Shield pose which does fit Exia in a certain way...

Like I said before, I find myself horrified when I try to pose Exia with this stuff... xD

To conclude...well...I first made contact with gunpla when I met a friend and he showed me what was gunpla, and I fell in love, I already knew and had seen a Gundam Show before, I had seen Seed and Seed Destiny but I didn't know what was gunpla...more or less in the summer, in the middle of July I ordered this model as my first gunpla model, and I worked on it with very care and attention, though you might see major mistakes as some of the nub marks are still there, since this was my first gunpla model, I won't penalise it in the evaluation for my mistakes.

When this friend of mine showed me gunpla, I read that there was a new gundam series, the Gundam 00, and I watched it, and I really liked Exia, it's Badass, and really knocks the others down. (Sword Spamming Yay!! xD)

This HG model, is really a good representation of it's anime version, in all the details, with the exception of a couple parts that could have been different, like the white on his shield, and the clear pieces which should have been green...

The articulation for a HG is above average, and the Gundam 00 models really are good in this department...

It's proportions are correct, I am an arts student so I know a few things in this department, and the HG's tend to be really well proportioned, better than most of Master Grades before MG Strike came out..and I'll be discussing that in my next review...

EVALUATION

(every aspect has the maximum of 20 Points to make the total of 100 Points)

( Like I said on the post before, High Grades evaluation system is based on default High Grade Quality, so it will be normal to see High Grades with the same Points as Master Grades...though it does not mean they are better or worse than those Master Grades, they're simply fighting in different competitions)

Quality of the model - 17 Points - As I said the model is really good for a High Grade. It could have been perfect though Bandai, is still doing some of their mistakes that by now they should have corrected...and throwing in a couple beam saber effect parts would have been much better

Colour Application - 15 Points - In here I really am going to penalise the model, everything is good in it, but like I said, Bandai is still making some mistakes, and the fact that they did what they did to the shield, has no excuse, they do actually give a sticker, but it should have been a piece...

I would have preferred not to have so many extra pieces for arms an legs and get the white piece for the shield...and one other thing, is that they give us the GN Blade, in clear green, which is perfect, but they don't give us the other clear pieces in green...so Bandai is doing it right and wrong at the same time.... so in here I give 15 out of 20 because they still made an effort for making some pieces in the right colours...but only because of that...

Articulation / Pose Ability - 18 Points - For a High Grade is like I have said before, above average, and it's really good, it would have received a 20 if it was, 00 Gundam or 0 Gundam, those guys do have perfect articulation and pose ability, though Exia still is pretty good, it's pose ability grows with the add of the extra left hand for poses, and it's legs mobility really adds something for aerial poses!

Design / Proportion - 20 Points - I don't see any mistakes in the Gundam at all, so congratulations Bandai, you learned that this is how you make good stuff!! :D Gundam 00 models are really well proportioned, they are not like the HG's from Seed and Seed Destiny which only few of them are good, the rest, like HG Strike Freedom, it's really a shame, it's totally disproportionated, and the quality itself of the models, are not that great...

Accessories / Weapons / Extras - 18 Points - I'll give 18 specially because as you have seen, Bandai really included lots of stuff, but they showed that this was just a Re Release of a previous released model, so every problem that model had was carried to this one, like the fact that they didn't include beam saber effect parts...another reason is that they include stuff that we really don't need, like those extra leg and etc pieces...who is going to care? Most people would throw that to the garbage... though, I still loved that Bandai included all it's weapons, the more the better! :)

17 + 15 + 18 + 20 + 18 = 88 Points out of 100

I think is a good mark, don't you? As I said, Bandai did correct some of their mistakes of the past by delivering us a great model line like Gundam 00, but they still are doing some mistakes, and well, I don't know if that's a financial issue (because I would have paid extra couple dollars / euros / yen for the extra beam effect parts...) , or if is a engineering problem (which I don't think it is, since they can do amazing stuff like Real Grade).

Leave your comments bellow, I would like to hear more from you, give me your opinion if I was good enough or not..

And as a Gift I will try to include some kind of story like a fellow gunpla modeller, tries to do in every review he does, he is Z from gunpla-inochi.com, I do seriously recommend you to check out his web place :)

"Exia's Problem"