HGUC Kampfer

Despite appearing for only roughly five minutes in the war in the pocket ova, the kampfer became a very popular zeonic mobile suit. I liked its overall aesthetic design very much, and its very comprehensive array of weapons that can rival that of the strike noir. I got the hguc version made in 2008, which i thought may be a better choice than its much older master grade counterpart.

1. Intro:

 Model: Hguc Kampfer

Size: HG 1 144

Pilot: Mikhail Kaminsky, and some other lesser known pilots.

Sideshots:

A quick look around the box, showing the kit looking extremely impressive, and its many weapons.

The manual, standard hguc fare.

Price: 1800yen. A very expensive high grade kit, hopefully the quality and sheer amount of weapons are worth the extra yen.

2. Parts:

The head and torso. First thing i noticed is that the kampfer's torso looks like the face of some gecko. Really unique, even for a zeonic suit. The real head itself has a pink sticker for the monoeye, which can move if you partially take the head apart and make some adjustments. Overall very nicely detailed, though i have painted quite a few parts for this kit. I will list the parts that i painted later on in the review when i put the entire kit together.

The arms are asymmetrical, and articulation is pretty good as seen. Left shoulder spikes look very menacing and worthy of being a zeonic suit.

Front and back of waist. Back has a thin slit to for mounting the one of the shotgun. No sideskirts or front skirts, which can be a good thing for leg movement.

The legs. Articulation is slightly short of 90 degrees, and the feet can move a little attached via the usual ball joint. 

 Weapons wise, starting with the, 2 giant bazookas. Single grey all over, no colour differentiation or stickers whatsoever given. The handle can swivel as up and down as  such.

 The 2 shot guns, mono-grey again. Both shot guns come with a shorter version of the handle for swapping as for the somewhat compact mode used when the shotgun is mounted on the back of the waist. The waist can only mount 1 shotgun though, so there will be parts leftover, ready to get lost.

 The 2 sturm fausts, which resembles some sort of musical instrument which creates sound when you shake it. Anyway, they are supposed to be handheld- rocket propelled grenades used as anti-ship weapons. Each comes with a small little attachment piece for attaching at the side of the legs.

 3 other attachments, 2 for mounting the bazookas on the back, and the last one for that shotgun on the waist. 2 extra trigger hands, 1 left open palm, in addition to the 2 usual open fists already on the hands.

                                       
 Probably the most famous weapon of the kampfer, the chain mine is one beast of a weapon for a high grade. Each disc-looking part is assembled with 2 halves, and they are all connected by a black wire. The wire is obviously a sleeker version as compared to Mg Epyon's whip, but they are both flexible and work pretty well.

2 yellow beam sabers with blue handles. These weapons did not seem to appear in the ova, and surprisingly there is no way to mount them on the kit itself. 

3. Articulation and Details

The hguc kampfer, all assembled without weapons. Which brings me to my biggest complaint of the kit. I painted the white trims on the head and shoulders because those are stickers. And stickers do not stay when they are wrapped round any part. I painted all the thrusters' inner side in yellow. And the only yellow-orange parts given in the kit are the 2 round pieces in the torso and the one in the left shoulder. I painted the yellow trims in the upper torso, the waist, and the sides of the legs. My complaint is not that these parts should all be in their right colours for a high grade, but that there should be a picture of the unpainted kit on the box. 

At first i thought this was the picture of the unpainted kit, as i could not read japanese. 

Bad points aside, the kit actually has some decent articulation rivalling some master grades.

 The torso can rotate around 360 degrees. 

 A incredibly high front kick, due to the lack of side skirts and front skirts.

 Rather good side movement for the legs as well.

Arms are nowhere near reaching across the chest, though. 

 Mounting the bazookas on the back is as easy as it looks.

 Sturm fausts mounted on the side of the legs, being as useless as plastic model weapons go.

The hguc kampfer, with most of its weapons on. The beam saber's clear yellow form a brilliant contrast to the rest of the kit.

I have also used waterslide decals for the decals on the kit, such as the zeon decal on the torso and the various markings on the weapons. The kit itself comes with 2 clear zeon decals and 2 small yellow decals to be applied on the face.

4. Poseability

 The chain mine works as expected. The black wire is going to allow some flexibility, but don't expect any crazy dynamic poses. It is held rather securely though, as it has a thin rectangular piece that attaches into the groove of the open fists. The rest of the weapons are light enough and thus no need for this extra attachment.

 Up on an action base 2, there is a tiny blue piece below the waist part that must first be removed before you can mount the kit up. Recent high grades seem to have done away with this part, since nobody is going to notice the polycap under the waist anyway.

More poses:

The giant bazooka is rather hard to pose with, due to its size as it is very awkward to get it into a decent firing position.

Finally the sturm faust proves that it is best left attached on the legs. 

While individually the parts are very articulated, with the mobile suit assembled and the weapons mounted and equipped, i find that the poses seem to be rather limited. Many more dynamic poses do not seem too natural, although this is probably due to my lack of imagination in posing my kits.

The ova itself also does not show the kamper doing much poses with its many weapons, since it has a very limited screentime.


5. Sturdiness.

The kit is actually rather back heavy for a high grade. With both bazookas attached on the back, the kampfer may tend to lean backwards. Of course, no such issues when it is on an action base.
Weapons all mount very securely on the kit, only complaint is that trigger hands and sometimes the open fists can be quite hard to take apart when i want to equip the weapons.

6. Conclusion

The Positives:
1. The kampfer is an excellent mobile suit design ( to me at least ), and the overall model kit looks great and brings the kampfer to life.
2. Many, many weapons, and the kampfer can equip and mount many of them at once.
3. Many, many thrusters.
4. Gecko-faced torso.

The Negatives:
1. The box does not show the unpainted out-of-box kit, and there is a huge difference if you do not paint the missing yellow details.
2. Weapons are all mono-coloured.
3. White stickers that wrap around parts. These will peel off within a week.

Details: 6/10 The missing yellow and the white trims.
Articulation: 6/10 Decent articulation, but nothing particularly amazing, other than the high front kick.
Sturdiness: 9/10 Extremely sturdy, considering all its weapons mounted and equipped.
Poseability: 7/10 Many weapons for many poses.

All in all, the kit is nowhere near as good as the legendary Hguc Gouf Custom, which is still my best high grade at the moment. However, if u like a kit with many weapons and thrusters, or if you like the ova and Zeon mobile suits, then you can consider this high grade. I don't have the master grade version, but that may be better for oob builds considering that it has more yellow parts and its thrusters have inner yellow pieces.

 Meanwhile, the king of all high grades wait on for its share of the nice zeon waterslide decals and a good flat topcoat to seal the goodness in. Sieg Zeon!