Straight from Gundam Unicorn comes the latest in the long line of mass produced Universal Century mobile suits..
I bought this model kit at a con mainly because another vendor had rare-ish Transformer for sale but only accepted cash. Instead of taking the fee from an ATM I opted to buy this kit and overpaid a bit to get some cash back. I am very glad I went this route as it ended up being a fantastic model kit.
One complaint I have against many recent Gundam kits are the over-use of stickers and decos. This is really a rather hollow complaint though since you don't have to follow the sticker placement by the letter. I also don't mind having left overs to use on older non-MG kits. I guess from a design perspective the overuse bugs me. However, the Jesta has a rather conservative amount of labels to apply, and even though I applied most of the one the directions suggest (and even at least one it did not) I still have plenty of extras.
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| Blurry Londo Bell logo is blurry |
One interesting design aspect of the outer arm and the inner frame are the knees. At first glance the knees do not have a "full bend" as the armor prevents it. I assume the outer armor is trying to be as close to the line art as possible.
That limited knee bend would be disappointing in a modern Master Grade. Thankfully Bandai agreed and turned to the inner frame to solve this issue. The knees can be extended, giving the clearance kneeded (GET IT HAHAHahahahahahahahahahahahhahah................) in order to get the full bend.
This kit uses the recent "emotion hands." As such, the fingers are fully articulated! I was actually unfamiliar with these hands, so I was really confused seeing what kinda looked like a splayed out hand on a sprue. I was further surprised by the fact that the hand was pre-assembled on the sprue... I didn't realize that was possible.
This manipulator type uses a double peg system to hold on to accessories, and I must say its pretty successful. The connection is not super solid, but nor is it loose. One peg is located on the hand itself..
The other on the weapon. Both the rifle and beam sabre have this flip out peg.
The rifle it self is rather standard fare although its barrel is slightly larger than what I am used to; the overall look is pretty nice.
One of the main attractions on this kit for me was the backpack mounted shield and armature. I've had an idea for a custom using that kind of set up on the Buster for years but was never really satisfied with my experiments for it. This may change that.
Taking a cue from the Nu Gunda, the Jesta features left arm mounted beam saber storage, as well as ammo clips stored in the back of the right arm.
The chest has a cavity for an led, although I don't have the right color so I didn't bother testing it.
Additional shots..
