1. Intro:
Model: Mg 00 Qan[T] ( i will be simply calling it Quanta for this review)
Size: MG 1 100
Pilot: Setsuna F. Seiei
Boxart:
The box is actually pretty small for a 4500 yen kit. It is the small-size MG box but is rather thick. Nice to see Graham Aker's Brave in the background.
Sideshots:
A tour around the box shows some gimmicks, and a very impressive looking out-of-the-box picture of the kit.
Price: 4500 yen. At the higher end of the price spectrum of Master grades, wonder will the quality of the kit be worth the premium price?
2. Parts:
Head and torso. Like Mg exia and 00 Raiser, the kit has green parts with laser etched details. Speaking of clear green parts, this kit comes with one and a half runner of clear green parts. Which is to say, totally awesome. The head and the torso looks ridiculously good, with all the details, clear green parts with sticker underneath. The torso is empty at the back for the Gn drive to slot in. The Gn drive is the same one used in Mg exia and 00 raiser, only this time it does not come with led lights. This is good for me since i don't use the light up gimmick anyway. The torso can move side to side as well, which will definitely lead to some stability issue after the side-heavy GN shield is equipped.
Arms and shoulders. The 2 arms and shoulders are slightly different, which is very unique as most gundams are symmetrical. The right arm has a bigger shoulder and a giant blue part at the forearm for the GN sword v to attach to. Articulation is awesome as seen, the arms can bend all the way, till they get blocked by the armour pieces. Hands are the trigger finger, 3 finger split. What is incredible about the arms is still the clear green parts. In this kit, the clear green parts in the arms and legs can pop out when the armour pieces are removed. As such each clear green is actually made up of at least 2 clear green pieces, as the second one is a cylinder shaped piece that goes all the way into the arm/leg 's inner frame.
Front and back of the waist. The waist has a simple minimalist design which could allow the legs to move forward and backwards very easily. What is problematic is the side skirts that are connected by a single ball joint each. Which means they pop out way too easily.
Legs. The legs are symmetrical, and unlike Mg exia, the ankle joints seem to be far stronger this time. One thing to note is that the clear green pieces that you put on top of the sticker, will not stay on if you shaved off the cut marks too cleanly. I made the mistake of shaving a little too much when i clean up the clear green part and it could never stay on. I had to resort to using some white glue to glue the part in. Luckily i applied the glue at the groove point of the clear part so from outside the glue is not noticeable. Articulation is as seen from the pic, a full 180 degree bend.
GN sword V, in its sword mode and blaster mode respectively. The blaster mode looks unconvincing, since the only significant change is that the blade portion is rotated around. Ironically, Setsuna used the rifle form more often in the movie, since the ELS are not affected by most melee weapons.
The GN shield, attached to the backpack. Articulation is about as perfect as it can be. The shield can bend in anyway possible way you want, for better posing options. The shield can also flip apart into 2 parts to reveal the Quanta's 2nd Gn drive. Celestial Being sure has unconventional ways of mounting the GN drives.
The GN sword bits, which consist of 2 GN sword As, 2 Sword Bs, and 2 Sword Cs. Each of the sword bits has a handle for the Quanta to hold as weapons. Which means that the Quanta once again has a total of seven swords, excluding the GN sword IV add-on. The sword bits can also be attached together for even more posing goodness.
Unfortunately,the attachments between the bits and the Gn shield are extremely tight and it is very difficult to remove the bits from the shield.( I had to use the tweezers to force some of them off) After removing the bits once, i find some stress marks forming at the attachment points. Which means i should not do this again and now i have to decide if i want the bits to be on the shield or not.
The included stand, the Gn drive with its clear green holder and a small unpainted figure of Setsuna. The clear green base for the Gn holder is not very useful, seeing that the Gn drive is needed in the kit for the backpack to be mounted. The stand is the standard HG 1/144 action base stand, but it comes with a longer grey connector so that the base can extend much longer than usual HG action bases. The stand will be used for supporting the Gn Sword V in its massive buster sword or rifle form. Will be much better if the base is in clear sparkle green though.
3. Details and Articulation
All assembled, the Quanta looks very slim and slender without its weapons and that Gn shield. The left arm looks a bit awkward and undersized without the Gn shield hanging beside it.
The Quanta can look pretty far up, unlike Mg exia's neck joint that has only one point of articulation.
As mentioned earlier, the torso can move sideways as such. While i think that this is a really great feature passed down from perfect grades, i do worry about the model kit sagging sideways with all the weapons. I generally prefer stability over articulation in my model kits.
The cockpit mechanism, revealing setsuna sitting inside, all ready to be a trailblazer. This is probably one of the best cockpit mechanism in gundam thus far, no wonder the cockpit is featured in the movie's poster art.
With the Gn shield and Gn sword V equipped, the suit now looks much more complete. The Quanta has a futuristic look not seen in other celestial being's mobile suits. To me it definitely resembles exia more than 00 raiser. No side-sagging issues yet at this point.
Holding the Gn sword V in the right hand. As expected with this finicky 00 style hands, equipping weapons on the kit was a big mess, with the fingers taking turns to pop off. Hope Bandai resolves this hand issue with future kits. Another gripe is that the hands have to be bent quite a bit when holding the sword because of the blue piece that is connected to the forearm.
And as expected, the kit sags towards its left. The Gn sword V is nowhere as heavy as the massive shield.
4. Poseability
On a clear action base, the side heavy issue is not as serious as you can make adjustments to the poses much more easily.
The rifle mode of the Gn sword V looks unnatural as expected.
The Gn sword bits can be detached and connected in a few ways and each sword bit has a handle for the hands to grab.
The giant buster rifle mode for the Gn sword V turns out much better than expected. The way that the bits attach to the sword is much easier than the shield, which means no stress marks and no tweezers needed for removal. After some fiddling with the Quanta's posing and its finicky hands, i had the buster mode up in a semi-acceptable pose. The stand attaches to the sword fairly well and does gives it the additional support. The set up will still topple over at the drop of a hat though, since there is nothing supporting the sword at the front. I decided to skip the buster sword mode, since i could not think of any decent pose that the kit could pull off with that.
5. Sturdiness
Being the 2nd MG to come out after the exia and before the 00 raiser, the quanta definitely shares many stability issues with these 2 other setsuna kits. Firstly, weapon holding can be irritating, especially with the Gn sword v the fingers may pop off and it is not as easy as it looks to get the sword nicely equipped. Secondly, the side heavy issue is unavoidable with the entire weight of the Gn shield leaning on one side. Perhaps Bandai could have sacrificed articulation for stability and made the torso less movable. Thirdly, side skirts fall off at the drop of a hat, which is rather unforgivable for a newer master grade like this one.
6. Conclusion
Putting the minor gripes i have about the kit aside, i must say that this is one gorgeous master grade. The proportion, the colours, the details are all very well done and really brings the mobile suit to life. I would recommend this kit to anyone that likes gundam 00 or just cool lead mobile suits in general.
Positives:
1. Many points of articulation, such as the Gn shield's attachment mechanism that allows it to move about freely.
2. Clear green parts with laser etched details and a pop-out mechanism.
3. A lot of weapons and the stand included.
Negatives:
1. The usual Gn frame means the usual stability issues like finicky hands.
2. Clear green parts may not stay on if you shave off the nub marks a milimetre too many.
3. Gn sword bits leave stress marks when detached from the Gn shield. This is probably my biggest issue with this kit.
4. Clearly we need just a few more parts such as the clear green ring and the torso piece to pose the Quanta in its quantum mode.
Details: 9/10 Awesome details and colour separation.
Articulation: 10/10 Anything that looks remotely movable moves.
Sturdiness: 6/10 Flying finger parts are hard to find.
Poseability: 7/10 Many available poses, though some like the Gn sword v in rifle mode looks awkward.
After building the kit, i have to say that 4500 yen is a very reasonable price for this kit, given the clear green plates that you get and the extra stand to hold the weapon. I probably will not use the stand for display with the quanta, but i can definitely use it for my other high grade kits.
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