#review

Okay, so actually Meulin is going to be two years this July, so im a little behind but I have been wanting to do a year later review to talk about the durability, resilience, and continuous contact with the maker! Here is Meulins one year later review!



Fursuit was made by Velveteen-Solider

Date Made/Bought: July 2015

Cost: 550$ (partial)


I purchased Meulin as a premade back in June 2015 and here we are in 2017. I can’t believe this kitty will be two years old soon!


So, to keep things simple and so im not repeating myself, here is my first review of Meulin back when I first received her in 2015: http://fursuitreview.com/?p=407


This review here is a year later (two years I guess) and talks more about contact with the maker and fursuit durability a year later.




How has the fursuit lasted over the course of the year?


I will start off by saying, the fursuit has lasted so incredibly well. No seams have ever popped, no fur tearing. I will say though, but this is more than likely my fault, her white fur on her face began to bald about a year in. I was more than likely brushing too aggressively or just some wear and tear damage. The armsleeves, tail, and paws, have all remained resilient and look just as good as new! Other than that no problems ever arose with the durability of the fursuit.


Have you remained in contact with your maker about problems or engaged in friendly contact?


Yes me and Velveteen talk occasionally on Instagram! I also talked to her about the balding later on and she was extremely helpful and interested in a refurbishment!


Any modifications or sending the fursuit back to the maker in this time?

Because of Meulins balding fur, I contacted Velveteen about a refurbishment. I have actually contacted her about the balding fur and was able to send Meulins head back off for repairs. I originally only had paid her to fix her white fur and also commission magnetized eyelids. To my amazement, Velveteen went far and beyond what I originally paid her for. Not only was the white fur fixed and new eyelids, Meulin was relined with new lining, better ventilation, neck lining, a new shave, and new teeth!! I was so elated to see all these new fixes that I felt I really underpaid her for her work. She did an amazing refurbish job and went far and beyond what I asked for. Some modifications I did with her permission was simply adding some nubby horns to her tail, which you can see here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/21205416/


Conclusion:

Almost two years later and Meulin is still just as good as new; and with her refurbishment even better! Velveteen has been so kind and a really great fursuit maker. Very professional! I recommend her as a maker because even though Meulin is only two years old, she has lasted extremely well. Also with the refurbishment she went far beyond my expectations! Not to mention with each fursuit she makes I see her imporve even though Meulin is only two years old. I am so thankful for Meulin and also the work and contact I have with Velveteen!

Lupita was formally named Laputa, so sorry for the confusion! Lupita just turned one year old back in January! This review is to talk about the durability, resilience, and continuous contact with the maker! Here is Lupitas one year later review!




Fursuit was made by Myrtles-Monsters

Date Commissioned: July 2015

Date Completed: January 2016

Cost: 2000$



So, to keep things simple and so im not repeating myself, here is my first review of Lupita back when I first received her in 2016: http://fursuitreview.com/?p=841


This review here is a year later and talks more about contact with the maker and fursuit durability a year later.




How has the fursuit lasted over the course of the year?

Lupita fursuit has lasted amazingly. No serious wear and tear, but the usual popped seam (which is always an easy fix). I will say that her indoor fetpaws are starting to bald on the bottom, I will say I have a habit of dragging my feet, and wear and tear on indoor feetpaws is extremely common! Luckily I have a pair of outdoor feetpaws aswel. Her handpaws, tails, and head have all remained resilient and are as good as new! Other than that, the suit has lasted amazingly over the course of this year and countless hours of wearing!


Have you remained in contact with your maker about problems or engaged in friendly contact?

Myrtle and I have have gained a really awesome friendship due to this commission! We talk often and am really good friends with her. Also, if any problems or questions arise with my fursuit, she is always there to help!


Any modifications or sending the fursuit back to the maker in this time?

Over the course of owning the fursuit, I have sent her bodysuit back for a refurbish. I added some extra horns to Lupitas design and the bodysuit needed to be brought in just a bit. Getting the bodysuit back after the refurbish she was much better fitting and all my new bodyhorns were all correct! Also, I commissioned a pair of dragging tail protectors, seen here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/20325160/
I am planning on sending the bodysuit back for one more resize because I have lost some weight in the course of the year. Myrtle is always happy to help with any questions or fixing of the fursuit!


Conclusion:

A year later and Lupita is just as good as new with no problems! The suit is extremely well made and Myrtle as a maker is extremely friendly and very professional!

The guys at Louviva were awesome enough to send me these awesome little vibrating kegal balls in exchange for making a review video. I’d had a glass or so of wine by this point so this is my unfiltered and, buzzed, and 100% honest review of this cute little guy. 

BUY HERE: Louviva Vivila Wireless Smart Remote Control Vibrator 7 Stimulation Modes Vibrating Silicone Bullet Egg Rechargeable Waterproof Kegal Balls with String for Kegel Exercises

RX-80WR White Rider (ZEUS)

I’ve run out of kits I’m not saving for customs, and I haven’t bought anything P-Bandai in a while, so I tracked down one of the designs I really liked. I know there were other I was into, but this was the only one that immediately came to mind. If you don’t recognize the White Rider, it’s one of the two prototype units for the Pale Rider introduced in the recent game MSG Battle Operation Code Fairy. It certainly does stand out, with the crown, cape, and heavy crossbow. You can easily tell the design came first and they had to create lore to justify it all later.

The Good: Never built the Pale Rider, but this is a pretty good kit. Good range of posability, full accessory storage, some interesting gimmicks, and some cool use of new parts, such as only the right outer arm being new to accommodate the Prototype Shekinah. The cape and Shekinah also balance each other well, so there’s no stability issues.

The Bad: The Shekinah is a completely new piece, and it’s transformation requires quite a bit of prying things apart. It probably wouldn’t be too hard to have designed it to be fully transforming, especially since the barrel does that already.

Last complaint is the stickers, which there are a lot of. This can happen when you’re trying to add new details to an older kit, and granted it comes with doubles of some since you can display it with or without the ZEUS System active.

The Details: And I didn’t use any of them. I did basic panel lining and black fill in recessed areas, and metallic red for optics and the like as I chose to display it with ZEUS active. In addition, I added gold anywhere the stickers said to add it or yellow, and a few more spots on the Shekinah, ankles, and a few miscellaneous other areas. I also added silver to the chest vents, cape, and the top of the Shekinah.

I considered painting the Heat Rapier as if it was active, but as its main weapon is the Shekinah, I wasn’t sure how often I was going to have it out.

Overall, this was a good kit, with a very fun design and main weapon. Don’t know if I’d suggest tracking it down unless you really dig its aesthetics like I do, but if that’s why you want you won’t be disappointed. I did consider, and may still, track down its brother, the Black Rider, but I’m not in the mood to build the same kit twice in a row. Maybe some day.

SSSS.DYNAZENON THE GATTAI Gridknight & Goldburn

Oh, I have a story! I preordered these two back in July (’21), with it being announced that it would ship in January (’22). Now, there was a lot of issues with shipping in general back in January, so I wasn’t surprised when it didn’t ship during that month. Come March, I had still heard nothing, so I sent an email, and half-an-hour later I got an email saying it shipped.

They had forgot to send mine.

But it was just a label being printed, so I kept my eye out until it actually shipped, and I’m glad I did because my shipment was cancelled a few days later. I sent another email, and a few hours later I got a message in response to the first one saying they were sorry and giving me a new, working tracking number. Another two or three days later and I got a response to that second email, again apologizing for the confusion and re-giving me the second tracking number. It shipped a day or two later, and I obviously have it now, but if you haven’t received yours yet, you should probably email them about it.

The Good: Gridknight is Gridman with a remolded head and bigger hands, and it’s a pretty good mold when those hips don’t have to support the weight of two support vehicles. It has a decent range of posability, and doesn’t need any adapters to combine with Goldburn or Dynazenon, though comes with one as a gap filler, and another so you can pose Gridknight on DynaRex’s back.

Goldburn is also pretty good, having just enough posability to get any pose you might want out of it. He does require an adapter to be held as a shield, but that’s it; all other forms are easily accomplished without any.

As for Kaiser Gridknight, it’s a surprisingly solid transformation considering Dynasoldier is just rocking out on its shoulder, but it actually uses the tail pipe as its main connection which gives it a lot of stability.

The Bad: The chest connection for Kaiser Gridknight is very strong. I pulled Gridknight’s chest piece out the first time I combined them, and I think that happened when I combined it with Gridman a while ago as well. It pops back in easily, but it’s still concerning. What’s also concerning is the first time I tried to swap the right holding-things-hand the ball unpegged itself from the wrist. I was able to re-glue it together, but I worry I might find more QC issues in the future.

The DynaRex-Burn Gridknight display adapter also feels like it was assembled backwards, so Gridknight always looks like he’s floating and you can’t really get any good poses out of it that don’t look good from more than one angle.

And while I did say Gridknight had fine enough posability, there were a few iconic poses (mostly him crossing his arms) that I tried to but was unable to replicate.

Overall, It’s a good addition to the lineup of now 11 Agents, machines, and kaiju that make up the Gridman team. I’m hoping we at least round it out to 12 in the upcoming movie, but I’d also just be happy with a second swing at Full Power Gridman with stronger hips.

Again, if you ordered this set, and it hasn’t shipped yet, make sure to email Good Smile JP/US (depending on your region) to make sure you get it.

Digimon Xros Figures Sparrowmon / Shoutmon X5

Finally completed the entire Xros Heart team. After handling all of them, I really like the engineering, and it has made me appreciate their designs even more. Sadly, and I know I harp on this every time I do a Xros Figure, but this is still the best version of said design and engineering. I just wish they’d take a second crack at it with modern advancements, especially with all the recent model kits they’ve done. Will add that this is the biggest combo the toys get, as they never released OmegaShoutmon or ZekeGreymon. Hopefully, someday, this will be rectified, but until then we’ll have to settle.

The Good and Bad: Sparrowmon’s kind of a brick. It has shoulders, and that’s it, but it is also meant to mainly be a component piece for Shoutmon Jet Sparrow and Shoumon X5 / X5B. It does a pretty effective job of that, looking decent in both modes, and I do like how much its wings extend, even if they aren’t always visible past all of Shoutmon’s bulk.

The Details: Like the other figures in this line, I did customize this one quite a bit to make it more screen accurate. I repainted its eyes to look more anime-esque, as well as the arms white as that’s their color in the show/official art. I added some silver under the wings to try and replicate the speakers seen there on Shoutmon Jet Sparrow, and panel lined the top to bring out the details there. I also added a lot of black to the tail area to try and match some of the official images I found.

Last thing I did was repaint the new helmet. I had a lot of problems with the X4 helmet, but it ended up being a lot easier the second time. I added some black underneath the eyes, and dotted the eyes black, then white.

Overall, definitely glad I got this one last. It’s not bad, but it’s meant to function as an upgrade to another collection of toys rather than be good standalone like Beelzebumon was. However, grabbing this one has convinced me it might not be a bad idea to track down the few I was on the fence about, like Cyberdramon, Deckerdramon, and Tsuwamon. Hopefully I’ll be able to find them all sooner than later.

DX Metal Append Zenkai-Oh JuraGaon / Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Series Review

Before we get into the series proper, let’s talk about its final toy: Metal Append Zenkai-Oh. I’ve covered this mold before, so I’m mostly going to be covering the differences and my general thoughts.

What’s New: The big thing this guy advertises is new metal parts. The animal teeth, individual robot legs, and the blades on the weapons have all been replaced. I’m pretty sure each of them is new molding, but they’re all identical apart from the Jyuran and Gaon’s new legs which have all their gaps filled in. Apart from the metal, it also has a new face that’s more accurate to the show, including sharper horns.

It also comes with a few new parts. The most obvious are the leg covers, which make them look more show accurate. They slide on very easily and clip onto the back of the legs. If you want to remove them, I tend to unclip them, bend the knee, and slide them off. It also comes with a small… thing? I’ve found it useful for sticking in between the hip and shoulder assembly to keep it up for certain poses because of the added weight, but I don’t know if that’s its intended purpose.

And then there’re also a bunch of new paint details. Jyuran and Gaon’s faces new have extra black details and the number on their foreheads are gold, Jyuran has a lot more two-toned red on him, his shield (and a lot of the silver) is brighter and has additional dark grey paint around the edge, the orange bands on his arms new encircle the entire limb rather than sitting on top. And Zenkai-Oh’s exposed hip joints have been painted. Jyuran got a lot more paint than Gaon did, but Gaon really only needed his face to be accurate.

What Does This Affect: So, while this toy does wear its new metal parts gracefully, it’s still not meant to have them. The arms are now far heavier, which will probably mean it has a shorter shelf life than the original. Also, the boots affect the balance of all the other combos. I made Don Zenkai-Oh using the boots and just extending its arm one notch made him balance on the longer leg unintentionally. I could also visibly see Zenryoku Zenkai-Oh’s arms sag when I attached these guys. It’s meant to be JuraGaon and not really anything else.

Overall Thoughts: In my opinion, this is a fantastic display piece, but does not replace the original DX. The added weight does not remove its ability to interplay with the other releases in this line, but it does make them less stable. The DXMA can transform purely so you can choose your favorite mode to display, and not to be played with. If you’re primarily a display oriented collected who doesn’t play with their toys, this is probably your better option, but if you enjoy puling them off the shelf every once and a while and messing with them, then the DX will serve you better in the long run. Not a replacement; just a different type of release for a different type of collector.

With that in mind, my toy recommendations for this year would be the two Zenkai-Oh with Zenryoku Eagle so you can make Big-45-Man. I think both ZenKaiju-Oh and Enya Rideon are very cool toys, and they interplay well with either Zenkai-Oh, but they’re not necessary; just good additions if you like the play pattern. And TwoKai-Oh is passable. Only get it if you already have ZenKaiju-Oh so you can do its extra combination.

And now let’s move on to the series proper…

The Good: While the previous two seasons have been very episodic, Zenkaiger, while having some of those elements, has a lot more ongoing story lines that run the course of the entire season. The search for Kaito’s parents, returning Ricky and Cutanner to normal, Gege acting weird, Stacey in general. And it’s not just big swathing things like that, either. Vroom was only a Tojitendo janitor for the first four episodes, but it comes back right at the end of the show. Kaito literally beats the final boss at a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, which him being good at was a throwaway line from way earlier. Even Seichan recapping the previous episode always had an element of the previous episode in it. The show had and stuck to its continuity throughout, which is a welcome change after the last couple years.

Also helps that the characters engrossed in that continuity were all great. Kaito is a pretty simple character, being very caring and compassionate with a few quirks, like many leaders in Sentai. What sets Kaito apart is how heavily he interacts not only with other characters, but with his teammates. That they feel like actual friends that spend most of their free time together. Jyuranis a ton of fun. A bit of the wise, old mentor who wants everyone else to think he’s cool. Gaonis very caring and a bit of a worrywart. He’s also the only member of the costumed cast to go through any major character development, having a distaste for other Kikainoids during the start of the series that he eventually discards as the series progresses. I’ve said how I don’t typically like when there’s only a single female character in a season, but Magineis a very strong one. Able to easily and believably switch between energetic and shy, she’s very childlike and doesn’t fall into the usual trap of being “team girl” that others before her have. It probably also helps that Yacchan and Flint are also strong characters, even if they don’t morph. Vroomseems like a stereotypical intelligentual, but is also a bit of an extrovert which is a combination I feel I don’t see a lot, or at least in this style. Never one to shy away from asking questions, if he’s curious about something he’ll also be an inch away from your face asking about it. Zoxis a little like Kaito, being a somewhat simple character. While he spends the first two or three episodes of his tenure being somewhat antagonistic, he quickly becomes just another member of the team. A somewhat cocky family man with a good heart, he fits the sixth Ranger roll to a T, but is entertaining enough that that doesn’t become boring. Rounding out the main cast is Stacey, who, despite being evil, always felt like a member of the team. He’s the character who undergoes the most actual development throughout the show, growing from being a pure antagonist, to a reluctant ally, to a friend. He fits the role of an antagonistic Sixth Ranger without actually swapping sides until the last three episodes. A lot of the characters really fit the stereotypes of their particular “colors” (even if they were swapped around), but it never felt like that when watching the show, only on analysis in hindsight, which is something it deserves credit for.

The action in this season was very experimental, especially at first, but not bad. A lot of fighting on green screen sets with weird backgrounds. Every robot battle has tons of props everywhere. Near the end of the show we had a bunch of CG only fights. And while not all of these were super exciting, they were fun, and I enjoy that they tried something new.

And lastly we get to the designs, which were a lot different than normal. Gone is the slender spandex, replaced with much heavier, detailed designs. And I really like them. As someone who collected all the toys for this line, it’s cool having versions of the characters that also do all that transforming and combining I like. I also like how all the costumes call back to different seasons, with Zenkaiser being GoRanger and JAKQ, Twokaiser being Gokaiger, Stacy being Battle Fever, and everyone else being the first quarter robots of their respective years. Not to mention how the starring Ranger was white instead of red with red being second in command. It’s a very cool change of pace.

The Bad:Lumpingstory and characters together here, but it’s disappointing that the costumed crowd didn’t get a ton of individual development. While they had a bunch of good moments in all the humans’ episodes, they really only got a small handful of episodes a piece, and had very simple personalities, even if I enjoyed them.

Some of these experimentsare a little weird, and feel more like prepping for next season rather than adding to this one’s story. Mostly the heavy use of CG characters like Ricky and Cuttaner, the few instances of one-off CG Megazords and stuff like that, and stuff like that. I don’t have an issue with them using CG; they’ve done good models and fights in the past, but they were all big things and not day-to-day. It felt like they were getting practice more than anything, and that is, at the end of the day, a good thing since practice makes perfect. It’s just going to take a while.

And while I don’t hate the ending (I do quite like it), I was building myself up to the idea that Not-Gege was going to end up being the antagonist for DonBrothers, and that the two seasons were going to be direct sequels to each other. And while that could still sort of happen (I haven’t watched DonBrothersat the time of writing this), I had the idea in my head that maybe seasons 45-50 might all be a continuous story, which would have been totally awesome, but at this point I don’t think that’s what we’re going to get.

The Don: From what I’ve heard and seen of DonBrothersso far, it looks interesting and also experimental. All CG characters, an evil team, first quarter Megazord not being released until May (ok, maybe I’m not excited about that particular aspect, but there are quality assurance and future integration things that can benefit from that delay; guess it makes sense why Rideon came out when it did). Definitely curious about it.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. Not the best, but a lot of positives and not a lot of negatives. Some of those negatives come from being different and trying new things, and I think we all want Sentai to do that more often than not. An experimental bad series will always be better than a safe bad series in my opinion. Hopefully DonBrotherswill hit a similar stride.

NA12 Brady Hound + V-33 Stork Carrier

Last of the Kyoukai Senki kits I had on order. Kinda wanted to get the V2 of the black boss unit, but could never find one on sale. I actually really like the designs from this series; they’re very modern and different from a lot of other Real Mech shows we get, and I enjoy that. I’d be very curious to see the designer(s) for this series do other stuff, like I’d love to see how they’d do a Gundam and how different it would be from, say, G40 which was created to be very realistic, or even Senkiitself since all its units are terrestrial and not space fairing.

The Good: These were very fun builds. The Brady Hound does a few things that surprised me and there was a lot of cool parts usage. It’s also very posable despite how weird its shoulders appear at first. It also comes with a swappable ‘off’ head.

The Stork Carrier was also fun. Definitely more simple than the APC, but has a few neat features to it, and a much more involved gimmick with how it tows the Brady Hound around.

It also comes with a few new accessories; a pair of shoulder mounted shields with small firearms inside, a pair of small automatic weapons, and a storage backpack. I would like to have upgraded my Kenbu with them, but they’re designed to be used with a specific kit, so I ended up not assembling them.

The Bad: The Brady Hound’s shoulders take a lot of force to assemble, and should be flush to the flight units. If you’re not careful, or don’t push them in all the way, you can easily stress the insides. And those shoulders do fall apart more frequently than I’d like, whether it be the winglets falling or armor popping off. The head’s also a little loose, but weirdly hard to swap out.

Similar to the APC, the Stork is just a giant accessory, but while the APC can be used with multiple kits and its additional part can as well, the Stork can only be used with the Brady Hound, and its new shoulder shields are also meant to be used with one specific kit.

The Details: Like the other Senkikits, not a ton of details to be added here. Just panel lining, fill, and optics (metallic green). Same with the Stork, except with a lot more fill and no optics. I did paint the edges of the wings (originally stickers) black, and the tips of its hidden missiles white and red.

Overall, the Brady is a good kit and good design. The Stork is also good, but definitely more passable since it’s just an accessory. If you’re a fan of MS like the Zaku, I think you might dig this one. While I do like the Bunyip more, this is a bit more traditional in design, which more people might appreciate.

KXK00-M Crossmessiah

I don’t have a ton of history with Medabots/Medarot. I watched a bit of the show as a kid, and I had one of the GBAgames, but little more than that. I will say,  though, that Medabotshad a lot of really clever ideas, like Mr. Referee or Space Metafighter X. I also occasionally just like perusing the more recent designs they’ve done, because they’re all really cool. Crossmessiah is one of those more recent designs from the mobile game, and a kit I grabbed because I think it’s neat.

The Good: From the few Kotobukiyakits I’ve handled, this keeps up the trend I’ve come to expect from them: a relatively simple kit with great attention to detail. This kit is designed to look good, and it is spot on to the design it emulates. Every gap has a detailed filler piece, every minor detail well crafted, parts swapping is easy and non-intrusive. It is very well designed.

And can I talk about how crazy this thing’s weapons are? I haven’t kept up with the series too much, but it technically houses 6 very versatile weapons, capable of both basic and heavy beam fire, missiles, blade and piercing attacks, and a crushing claw. A high firepower all-rounder fitting the first mix of the typical Kabuto and Kuwagata themes.

The Bad: Posability is entirely polycap balljoints, and ranges don’t really exceed 90°. You can still get it into plenty of poses, but be aware. And this is probably just Bandaispoiling me, but I do wish the left claw and head fins were jointed instead of being swappable parts. I can understand for the right arm since it has so many opening panels, but I can easily imagine how you could do so for the other pieces without sacrificing much if anything.

The Details: Not a lot to be done here. I did some panel lining where applicable, and added some black to a few interior areas, like the right shoulder, cannon barrels, and along the edges of the extended weapons.

I did want to paint the medal in the back gold, but it’s almost impossible to get out after putting it in >_>

Overall, a decent kit with a great deign. If you like Gunpla it might be a bit simple in comparison, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with trying a different construction philosophy every now and again.

ASC-716E Armored Special Carrier

I built a model car, dad; are you proud of me yet!?

Jokes and my probably 200+ model robot pedigree aside, I don’t build a lot of vehicles. I remember building a red car someone bought me as a kid, and I built the Ikaruga, even if it isn’t a traditional one, but that’s it. The process of building a robot is more fun for me, as there’s a lot of complex joints, and gimmicks, and more to do with it when you’re finished than set it up for display. That being said, this was an interesting change of pace, and sometimes throwing together a simpler model in a few hours can be more enjoyable than the long, complicated process of some other kits.

The Good: Simplicity in construction says nothing of detail. The ASC has a number of fun details, such as the displayable interior, its side and back doors lining up with both the internal staircase and trailer door, as well as a good deal of surface detail.

It also has a lot of clever engineering, such as a very simple axle that turns the front wheels in tandem, both sides of the trailer are able to naturally drop without deconstructing them, and it has a sliding armored section to cover the cab. If you buy two, you can also attach both trailers together, or endlessly if your wallet is as bottomless.

It also comes with a new arm unit. It’s meant for the Kenbu, but because it comes in white you can technically swap it between several of the AMAIMs. It’s also ambidextrous, if you happen to have two for above mentioned reasons.

The Bad: While it’s neat, it’s a large accessory, and not much else. Without any of the AMAIMS it’s just a car, and even if you like model cars, I don’t know how much you’d enjoy a fictitious one.

The Details: Panel lining and a few metallic red highlights where some of the headlights would be. I did end up using the front headlight stickers because of their complexity in a small space. When applying them, do it from the back as to not fill the hole meant for the translucent plastic.

Overall, despite being surprisingly enjoyable, this is just a large accessory, and not something that should be purchased on its own. Still, it’s neat, and if you like the AMAIMS, this is a fun piece to go along with them.

Tropical-Rouge! Precure

So I’ve pointed this out before, but it’s weird how all of Toei’s heroes, apart from Revi/Vice, are all concurrently white. We’ve got Zenkaiser whose second in command is red, Gammamon who’s the first main Digimon to not be a primary color, and, the subject of today, Cure Summer. While pink isn’t as set in stone as red is for Sentai, white is more often a second-in-command-ish color (White, Egret, Rhythm), though I suppose all 3 of the aforementioned heroes are also very colorful apart from being just white. Zenkaiser and Summer both have stripes of their team’s colors, and Gammamon evolves into four different Digimon (red, blue, green, and black). It’s an interesting change of pace, and I’m very curious as to why they decided to do this.

The Good: This was a very strong season. Coming off the very mellow Healin’ Good Precure,Tropical Rouge is immediately bursting with energy in contrast. Manatsuis very much like Kamen RIder Fourze’s Gentarou; she’s a character that undergoes very little development herself, and is instead a positive force of change for the people around her. That being said, she might also be one of the weakest characters on the team, and is a strange instance of the team leader not being the main character. I liked Sango, but shewas also kind of weak. She wasn’t a bad character, and her individual character episodes were always interesting even if not my favorites, but the other girls each had a backstory and development that was built up throughout the season, while Sango felt mostly like a background character. I found Minorito be very funny, partly because of how much more animated she was when a Precure than she was normally. Her story was built up throughout the season, and the finale was technically her payoff. Asukawas definitely the strongest of the original four, with a very strong overarching plot that popped up very often over the course of the show. My only real issue with her story was that the student council prez was very antagonistic toward the group throughout the show, but had a somewhat abrupt face turn right at the end. Laura, despite starting the show as the team’s “fairy” and not being the leader, was the main character. She undergoes the most development of all the characters, usually is directly involved in everyone else’s to a greater extent than even Manatsu, and most of the ongoing plot is centered around her. At the beginning, I had the feeling they were going to speed her along to getting her legs, which I thought as a bit of a cop out, but the way they developed her character made me quickly start rooting for her to get them. I don’t think the show wouldn’t be as good as it was without Laura around.

The overall plotwas interesting, too. Every time we got a bit of information about the Procrastination Queen it got me theorizing about what her end goal was, what her connection to Cure Oasis was, and while I think a few of my theories were a little more interesting than what actually happened, it was still cool to see the mystery answered in a very Precureway.

Lastly, the animationthis season was phenomenal. Episode 29 is probably the best animated episode in the history of the show. I can’t help but feel that they took all the time and manpower they would usually use for their Spring/Summer movie on it. And it’s not a one-off instance, as there were periodically some amazing animated moments.

The Bad: I brought this up briefly, but while Laura, Minori, and Asuka were all well developed, Manatsu didn’t have any developmentand Sango had so little she sometimes felt like a side character. Honestly, some of the villains felt more developed than them, which is odd considering they were the first and second members of the team. Don’t get me wrong, I really like that they broke the norm and made the fairy character the focus of the season, but I also really enjoyed the interactions between Manatsu and Laura, and it would have been nice if Manatsu was more important to Laura’s story.

Just because it bothers me so much, I do want to bring up the Asuka vs Prez thing. This is probably American vs Japanese ideals, but when we learn their backstory during the train episode, Asuka is entirely in the right, IMO. She catches their opponents cheating, does nothing but grabs one of their wrists to stop them and yells, which are pretty understandable reactions, and the Prez gives the cheaters exactly what they want and drop out of the match, something they didn’t have to do at all. Asuka also didn’t want them disqualified or anything, she just wanted to beat them at tennis, which is a very honorable way of going about things. And even if Asuka got understandably upset and left the room, the Prez had over a year to talk to her and try and patch things up and get her to rejoin the team, but instead she acts like a jerk toward her. I like that they end the show on good terms, and being friends with Asuka improves her personality, but I would have liked an apology or admission she put her supposedly best friend in a pretty unfair situation.

And as much as I enjoyed the plotwe got, it was very sparsely added to. Basically, every time we went through a full round or two of character focused stories we’d get a small tidbit. I really wish there was a bit more sprinkled in, as at times it felt like I could skip maybe half the series and still get the full story. This form of writing also made it awkward right after Laura learned about the memory erasure, as she was still going on about being queen even though she felt like she was having second thoughts the episode before.

Overall, this was a very good series, my gripes aside. I might have to go rewatch Heartcatch(which may be apropos as this season crosses over with it), but Tropical Rouge may surpass it as my second favorite season of the show on the merits of Laura’s character arc alone. It’s definitely hard to beat Go! Princess in my books, but during the first half of the show I was wondering if it would beat it out. Despite my complaints about Manatsu and Sango, I still like them, and the individual episodes are still strong even if they don’t always move a character’s or the overarching plot forward.

I’m not super excited about going into another season with a baby. I’ve aired my conspiracy theories about that already, so I won’t go into it here. I’m kind of excited that we’re getting a male main character, since we haven’t really gotten that since Go! PrincessandHappiness Charge. I guess my opinions going in are very neutral, so let’s hope it’s a good one and my worries will be easily and quickly subverted. Still, I’ve never watched a season of PrecureI thought was bad, it just probably won’t be as good as this one.

JMF-1337B Blazing Gundam

The God Gundam. The name they can’t use in the US, but was the titular Gundam of its own series. It is typically referred to as the Burning Gundam, but the instruction manual for this kit refers to it as the “G Gundam,” which I don’t think is a bad choice, but it is odd, especially considering the name “Blazing Gundam” is definitely in reference to that colloquialized name.

Also, fun fact, the Build Burning and Try Burning Gundam were named without knowing that the God Gundam had its name changed in other territories. Further adding to the strangeness of the God’s legacy.

The Good: This figure looks really good. It reuses a lot of parts from the old God Gundam kit, but changes just enough minor details to look like it’s own unit rather than a repaint of an older one. It also has quite a few melee accessories, and a much more wieldy expanding parts gimmick compared to the Helios and Livelance.

The Bad: What holds this kit back is the very old God Gundam kit it’s based on. Tons of polycaps, not that great articulation, and it’s Beam effects are supposed to be used on both the tonfa and sabers, but get jammed in both very easily (I nearly tore them trying to get them out).

I know it goes against the theme, but this really should have been a completely original kit. Reusing old runners is what hampers it more than anything, as everything new is very cool, but what isnew is just aesthetic and weapons.

The Details: This is a very simple kit, and as such only really required black panel lining and black fill, with metallic green eyes. Most of the important fill details have stickers, as well, so don’t feel like picking up a paintbrush is too essential to get it to look good.

Overall, it’s perfectly fine, and looks good, but suffers heavily from being built upon a very old kit. If you care more about appearances than posability, it’s perfectly fine, and even then you can still get a few good poses out of it, but you’re missing out on the fun of martial arts poses. Definitely the weakest of the three I’ve handled, but still not terrible.

Also it’s call tag is dumb, but I don’t think anyone else cares.

XXXG-01L2 Gundam Livelance Heaven

This was an oddly hard model to photograph. When taking photos, you don’t want there to be a ton of negative space, and that can be an issue when what you’re photographing is long and slender. Pole arms fall into that category, and the fact that the Livelance comes with a very long beam effect doesn’t help. I only photographed it at full length four times (three of which were in Scythe Mode), and ended up cutting off the end of it in three of those to keep a balanced composition, with the only exception being held incorrectly in order to fit it in frame. I suppose I could have had it lancing another unit to fill that space in, but that might have also taken focus away from the Livelance. Tricky business, it is.

The Good: This is a fairly posable kit, with a lot of extra joints; a sliding shoulder joint, an extra waist joint, and the knees are detachable to increase their range. That extra range is very helpful since it’s using a two-handed weapon, and can achieve a decent number of poses that utilize it effectively. It also has bent-wrist holding-things-hands to help with that as well.

Also, while the Helios had a ton of new parts, the Livelance is a good example of reuse of old parts, with very few extra parts in comparison. It even took me a day or so after its reveal to figure out what it was based on, and the pun in the name, which is a sign of a good revision.

The Bad: One of the advertised gimmicks is swapping parts between kits, but since the Freedom and Deathscythe are from different lines, there’s some looseness that makes it not really work. Also, since it reuses parts, there’s some stickered detail that isn’t sculpted.

Biggest issue is the pearlescent white isn’t great. Especially on the head, I had several issues of marring, staining, and cracks formed just by piecing things together, so be vary careful when assembling specifically the head.

Also, would have liked it if the cape had a lock when not active.

The Details: Apart from the black panel lines and fill, I added a number of metallic blue details (some of which replaced stickers) to the head, shoulders, scythe, and the front of the cape, as well as under the translucent blue on the forearms to embolden the color choice while retaining the details, unlike what I did with the Helios where it was directly under the plastic. I also added some yellow paint to the front and back of the back skirt, and to the inside of the cape (where the aforementioned missing detail was).

Overall, I like this kit, and if the other recent Wing kits are anything like it, I might have to try them out. But it’s also very creative in its own right, and makes me excited for the other Breakers kits I plan on building in the future.

XZM-FE05 Hundred Edge

I have been waiting for this kit to come out since it was revealed in February of 2020. The Hundred is very heavily tied into the history of Gundamfan works, and seeing it physically in front of me is this really… intense feeling? I don’t really know how to describe it.

If you don’t know the Hundred’s history, back in 2009 the circle Kuramochi Zukan released the first in a multi-series work chronicling a fictitious Gundam series that took place in 1997 called “Gundam Beast,” and later “GUNM Beast,” possibly to avoid copyright. The Gundam Hundred was their equivalent to the X or Exia. So 10ish years later, now as Kuramochi Kyoryu, and in conjunction with several other groups, they’ve released the first in their Code Beast model kit line. And after handing the Hundred Edge, I’m really excited to see what else they’re going to release down the line.

The Good: This is a very well designed and solid kit. I went pretty light on the detail work on this one (because I plan on getting a second), so it allowed me to just enjoy the build, and it was a lot of fun to put together. It has above average posability, a decent accessory pool, and a transformation that would make every Gundam flight mode cry. The torso in particular does a lot of very interesting and intuitive movements to achieve its elongated lion version for its beast mode.

It’s also enormous. It’s 1/100 scale, yet it towers above Master Grade Gundams (or at least the one I own), and is over twice the height of a standard High Grade.

The Bad: The POM they use on this kit is much harder than with Gunpla, with the ups and downs you might expect from that. The tail is also notmade of POM (one of the few jointed areas to not incorporate it) and falls apart easily when moved, though is easy to put back together.

Last issue I have is extremely minor, but I’m a little disappointed that the transformation for the arms and legs was greatly simplified in comparison to the original design. The current ones are fine, but I would have liked to have built the original jointage.

On a weird note, there were only two pieces left over after finishing, both on the neon sea green runner used for eyes and scopes and such. They also had accompanying stickers, so I was unsure if I had missed something. After a little research, it looks like they’re actually the barrel and scope for the upcoming “Arma Style” upgrade kit, if you were curious.

The Details: I went very light on details this time around. Black panel lining in narrow areas, black Gundam Marker in thicker ones, metallic green over the few neon green pieces. And it looks good, IMO. The only thing I would consider adding would be a bit of black paint to some of the white and orange pieces on the lower legs.

Overall, I’m very happy that this kit just exists, and doubly happy it’s very good. I definitely recommend it, but I feel like part of the reason I am is because I want to support this line and see more from it, and I hope if you’re reading this you will consider supporting them, too.

MSB-GH03 Gundam Helios

I actually play Gundam Breakers. I run an entirely SD Gundam team, and typically swap between Gold and Silver Rank in 3-VS-3. It’s a…fun game, but I can’t help but feel that the more mechanics they add every update, the less easy it becomes for new players to pick up, even if they make it easier to get upgrade parts. I’ve been playing since Lv5 Parts were the highest you could get, and 800,000 was a high CPWR. Still, I sign in every day, so it must be doing something right.

The Good: This guy has a forearm swivel, and that should say a lot. Most Gundam with large forearm accessories, like the God or 00 Sky, don’t have that. It also has great ranges apart from that, with more modern parts for all its joints, and very few reused parts apart from the back pieces.

Also, with the backpack removed, it’s a very sleek design.

The Bad: That big backpack with its many cannons does have some parts collision issues, but I weirdly haven’t had balance issues with it when the wings aren’t, like, very far back.

Also, it may not have a lot of reused parts, but it does have a lot of reused runners, so there are a lot of extra parts that don’t necessarily connect to each other, but perhaps you can find a use for them?

The Details: While there were a number of stickers for this kit, most of them were for the green stripes on the backpack. I replaced those with paint, as well as used metallic green on the eyes, inside the cannon barrels, and behind the translucent parts (mostly because I did it for the chest and continued to do it throughout).

I did black panel lining and fill throughout the kit. I also added a few drops of yellow in the triangles in the knees and back skirt. The stickers have black in the inner triangles, but some of the official images and paint model don’t have that, while others do. I decided to go without.

Overall, this is a much better kit than I thought it would be. I was expecting it to be more of a cash brag and reuse many more parts, but it ended up being an insanely posable and well designed kit. If you were on the fence about this kit, I would say to give it a chance.