HGUC Jesta

Debuting in Gundam Unicorn Ep4, the jesta is a specialised support grunt suit that is built to support the unicorn gundam. As the unicorn hype continues to burn in my heart, i had to build a hguc jesta while waiting for the fifth episode of Gundam Unicorn.

1.Intro:
Model: Jesta
Size: HGUC 1 144
Pilot: Londo Bell's Tri Stars
Boxart:

Another brilliant boxart showing the 3 jestas. Too bad the ep 4 of the ova did not actually show them on the ground.

Sideshots:

The picture showing the unpainted kit. I did not notice it at first, but the shield's grenades are not molded in white as shown prominently in the boxart. It was a sly move of Bandai to use the unicorn's white to act as the colour contrast, so that we would not notice the missing white in the shield.

More pictures around the box showing the kit's features and a nice cgi shot of them in the ova.

Price: 1600 yen.

2. Parts:

Head and torso. The head has a clear orange part for the visor, and 2 small orange stickers for the front and back camera. The torso looks plain, but the neck guard is actually of a slightly different colour than the rest of the torso. The chest parts look fantastic as they are made up of a light blue part sandwiched between 2 dark blue parts. The torso is a real treat to build in general and no stickers are involved.

The arms. The left arm has a beam saber attached like the hguc nu gundam, while the right has the ammo pack for the beam carbine. The ammo pack is removable but it is not usable because the ammo pack in the beam carbine is molded with the weapon itself.

The waist. The grey grenades at the side skirts are a separate piece, so no painting required. The 3 grenades are however attached as one piece, with the dark blue piece covering over it. I split the front skirt up, to get 2 independent front skirts. Works well, though i think for high grades a combined side skirt works fine and splitting the piece is just an optional step. One major improvement over older high grades is the orange v sticker in front.  Instead of using the usual v-shaped sticker like in many older high grades like the nu gundam, this sticker is a rectangle with the orange V on it. This way, the sticker can be applied much more easily and will not peel off that quickly.

Back of the waist. No point of articulation whatsoever.

Legs. Maximum articulation about 90 degrees. The legs are very well designed. I was worried about the nub marks on this kit , since dark coloured parts leave very ugly nub marks when cut off the sprue. Luckily much of the nub marks are completely hidden from view when the legs are put together. A big bonus, especially for non-painters like me.

The shield connectors, the shield and the backpack. There are 2 shield connectors, one long and one short to choose from when attaching the shield to the mobile suit. A problem with the 2 connectors is that the hollow part can be seen from the front of the kit when attached. Bandai could have designed the connectors such that
they are made of 2 pieces combined so that no hollow parts are exposed. The shield's biggest disappointment would be the grenades that are not molded in white. The shield does look exceptionally good from the back as it has the grey piece attached. The backpack is unexciting as seen. I painted the inner thrusters red, as per usual practice with most of my gunpla.

The beam carbine and 5 extra hands. The beam carbine is a simple build, no movable parts, all in grey. There are 2 orange stickers for the front and back of the scope. Other than the 2 open palm hands attached to the hands, there are 2 closed fists, 2 open fists for weapon holding, and a trigger fist. Kudos to Bandai!

The jesta only uses 1 beam saber, so there is 1 left over in the pink runner. There are also a few leftover grey parts for the back of the hands. This is because the jesta has dark blue for the back of the hands, hence the grey parts on the runner for the multiple hands are unused.

Stickers. The rectangle spot on the right of the orange stickers is the sticker for the waist as mentioned earlier. The stickers with the many londo bell insignia and numbers are a plus, but i probably will not use them much as stickers always peel off over time.

3. Details and articulation

All assembled, the kit looks much better than when i look at it in separate parts. The jesta's colour scheme is supposed to be dark and subtle to represent its covert style. The individual parts, the legs, the hands ,etc look rather plain and unremarkable. But once put together the jesta looks really awesome. Especially when placed beside my hg unicorn.  

Awesome articulation as well.

The arm can bend outwards that far, almost touching its other shoulder. 

I attach the shield on using the short connector. And the result is that it is too short to be of much use. The shield ends up impeding the arm's movement, leaving the jesta in a perplexed state.

The longer connector works much better and arm movement is now much easier. The shield can swivel around the connection point, to protect the jesta's side or back as required. Another bonus is that the connector's hollowness is not as pronounced as i thought it will be from the front.

The beam carbine is swapped on easily since the trigger is already attached onto the weapon. Too bad there is no way to attach the beam carbine onto the jesta itself while it is not holding it.

The open fist holds the beam saber well. 

4. Poseability.

Team Tri Stars, On My Command....

Charge!

Die you Zeons morons!

With some fiddling it is possible for the jesta to hold the beam carbine with both hands. 

5. Stability

As with most of the newer hguc line, the jesta is a very nicely designed kit with no falling parts whatsoever.
However, the trigger hand holding the beam carbine is not 100% secure, so given some time the beam carbine may sag downwards. When that happens, simply push the hand further into the peg or apply some school white glue onto the ball joint to secure it. The beam carbine is a rather light weapon so this is not a big issue.

6. Conclusion.

An absolute must have for all Gundam unicorn fans or grunt suit fans. The subtle colouring scheme really works well and it is a solid addition to any gundam collection. The kit actually has more different colour parts such as the neck piece than what my pictures show. (Pardon my louse camera and photography skills) The jesta is one of those kits that look unimpressive when you open the box but turns out to be an excellent kit and it is almost flawless once you have built it.

Positives:
1. Total of 7 hands for fun hand swapping action.
2. Amazing articulation for a high grade.
3. No falling parts. At all.
4. Many nubmarks are splendidly covered up in the build.

Negatives:
1. Shield's grenades should be in white.
2. Trigger hand could be fixed more securely.
3. Connector's hollow parts can be seen from the front.
4. The short connector seems useless.

Details: 8/10 As detailed as a high grade could be, other than that shield's grenades.
Articulation: 10/10 Nothing more i can ask for.
Sturdiness: 9/10 Minor trigger hand issue.
Poseability: 8/10 Great posing options for a kit with only 2 weapons.