Mg Sandrock EW (Part 1)

My second endless waltz kit, Mg Sandrock ew version. My first wing ew kit, the Epyon was probably one of the best master grades to be made in 2011, and i liked the design of Sandrock EW version better as compared to the other EW master grades. While the anime version of the sandrock looks rather clumsy and slow as a mobile suit, the endless waltz version looks very much stylized and much fiercer. Also, the ew version has longer heat shotels, while the anime version's heat shotels look puny.

This is how small the anime version's heat shotels are. If i had not known better, i would have thought they were force impulse's boomerangs.

1. Intro:
Model: Gundam Sandrock Endless Waltz version
Size: Mg 1 100
Pilot: Quatre Rabera Winner
Boxart:

The box itself is a small master grade size box, it is rougly the same size as my ng arios' box.

Sideshots:

Typical ver ka style box. While the box itself is nicely designed, it lacks the straight-out-of-box picture of the kit which many builders like myself would have appreciated.

Manual:

Flipping through the manual, i noticed there were not as many action poses of the kit for people to copy.

Price: 3800 yen. A decent price for a smaller master grade. Same price range as most EW kits such as Mg Shenlong and the upcoming Mg Heavyarms.

2. Parts:

Head and torso. I painted the clear part of the head in clear green which shows as the head jewel that appears at the front and back of the kit. Green stickers are provided, but clear green paint is always better. The side vulcans on the head are separate parts in gray and they look very sharp with very little effort needed.

The yellow crown is another obvious winner in the kit, as it makes the kit stand out among other gundam types. The torso is very small and simple in its construction. The slot in the back seems rather small as well, but since the sandrock does not very a big backpack there is nothing to worry about. No stickers involved in the torso, everything you see is made up of actual plastic parts.

Arms. Maximum articulation as seen, only slightly above 90 degrees. This is quite disappointing for a 2011 master grade. The shoulder armour at the side also impedes the arm movement towards the side. The arm itself is simple enough, with a basic inner frame with the white and grayish blue armour. The shoulder, on the other hand, is simply amazing in terms of looks. The scales are built layer by layer, instead of a giant white piece. The small yellow parts are done with by covering actual yellow parts with the white parts, such that the yellow parts show through. A major improvement over many older master grades such as my Mg Zeta 2.0, which uses stickers all over the kit for yellow detail parts.

The waist is another absolute winner here, easily my favourite gundam model waist at the moment.  While the waist does not seem that complicated at first glance, a look from the bottom reveals the details and the large number of small parts required to build it. The waist, and the shoulders, are probably the parts of the gundam that best represent its Arabian design nature. 

The part that connects the torso to the waist.

The legs are plain and have a nice and subtle colour scheme. The predominantly white nature reminds me of Mg 00 Raiser's legs. The ankle guard is a solid piece, no moving parts or any gimmicks whatsoever. Articulation is standard fare for a new master grade, as the leg can bend all the way until the armour pieces get into the way.

The backpack is extremely plain, as it is mostly light purple with a bit grey. I painted the inner thrusters in red, which i think really give the backpack a much needed boost in terms of looks. The slots in the grey part are for the heat shotel to attach to,and the purple handle part that swivels out helps secure them further.

The heat shotels. Kudos to Bandai for including 2 versions of of the blade. The clear red versions seen in the first picture are the heat shotels heating up. The normal version comes in a nice shade of grey, but there are visible mold marks, thus i painted them up in chrome silver. The second picture shows the painted blade with the grey runner. Not a good painting job, but for a handbrush paint i am rather pleased with the result. The 2 versions can be swapped easily by pulling blade portion out from the handle part. Though my paint job makes the normal version much harder to pull out... Must be careful. The heat shotels' handles are also hollow on the inside, thus to display them you would want to equip them on the right hands such that the hollow parts face inwards. The hollow parts are for the handle to swivel in for the backpack storage mode.

The beam spray gun, with size comparison to my alleujah figure. At first glance this weapon looks to be outclassed by the cooler heat shotels. But it actually looks pretty good and unique compared to the usual gundam beam rifles. The long handle also makes it look that much more manly. 

The handle can also be folded inwards for storage mode at the back of the waist.

There is also this part that can swivel out for no purpose i can think of.

The shield. The clear parts are painted with clear red. Stickers are given, but stickers suck, so i try not to use them unless necessary. I also painted the thin white strips myself, as you can see the paint is too thick and uneven. I probably should have left them alone... Only the 2 larger white strips at the right of the picture are given. Quite a bummer, actual white parts would have made this shield much better. Also the back of the shield are mostly yellow and not grey. I decided not to paint this time, seeing that my white strips did not turn out so well. 

The cross crusher configuration, is simply assembled by attaching the 2 heat shotels to the underside of the shield. Rather secure, and the shield now looks even more like a menacing cobra head, ready to take out some stationary leos.

The kit also comes with an Quatre figure, an action base connector, and a total of four sets of fingers, like all the other Wing Mg's finger swapping. 1 Set is the closed fist that is attached to the arms,  the other 3 as shown in this picture are open fist, weapon holding fist, and spread palms. While the 4 sets of fingers do swap around rather easily, it is still pretty troublesome to keep removing the weapon and the hand to just swap out the finger part. Either the standard 3 finger/trigger finger configuration or hand swapping would have been better. 

Even my Hguc Gm III has separate hands...

3. Articulation and details.

All assembled, without the backpack.  First impression is that those shoulders and waist are gorgeous. The white on the sandrock is also slightly different from usual gundam white and it has less of the plastic sheen. Almost like it has been topcoated already. 

With the backpack and heat shotels equipped, the sandrock looks even more impressive. While the small backpack itself does not do much to change the looks, the heat shotels gives it a very unique look amongst gundams. Although, it clearly will take up much shelf space. The model can stand by itself with absolutely no back heavy toppling problems. The heat shotels are slightly movable at the back, as they can be rotated slightly upwards or downwards. 

This review is longer than what i expected from a smaller master grade, i have decided to split it into 2 parts . See Part 2.