MG Exia Review – Part 1: Formal Introduction & Pre-Build

Master Grade Gundam Exia Ignition Mode

Introduction

I’m playing around with a new format for model reviews for this… My Sinanju review was popular far beyond anything I expected, so I wanted to make this one as up to snuff as I can. Reviews will be separated into various sections (obviously) that I’ll post as I go along, and I hope to have the entire thing done within a day or two. I won’t be doing reviews all that often as I only will do them for significant kits I get, such as MGs, and I just don’t get that many of them, but I’d like to help out people when I can.

A question I would like to pose is this: Would you be interested in me putting up a separate gallery of hi-res pictures? They would be the pictures you see here, just significantly larger, as the ones I post are downsized from my 12 megapixel camera (which has a focus that doesn’t suck, so rejoice if you got frustrated with the Sinanju’s pictures). Anyhow, let’s begin, shall we?

The MG Exia is something I’ve been anticipating since it looked hella nice to me, and I didn’t have a 1/100 Exia kit. The details in all of the pictures I had seen looked excellent, so I was pretty eager to get it and snap it together. I elected for the Ignition Mode due to the initial pricing (more on this below) made it pretty not a huge leap from the normal edition, plus I’m a sucker for gimmicks… Included in the Ignition Mode over the regular mode is two LEDs to light up the front and back of the GN Drive, parts to convert the Exia to Exia Repair (as seen in Gundam 00 episode one of season two), and some of the parts, such as the GN Sword and GN Blades, have been chrome plated.

A question I’m sure plenty of people are wondering is whether this is really worth it over the non-grade 1/100 Exia that was released almost two years ago, which I’ll answer to the best of my ability without having the 1/100 Exia myself. This review can be looked at quite effectively as a review of the standard MG Exia, as the vast majority of the review applies to the standard MG as well as Ignition Mode.

Let’s take another look at the boxart:

There are two tragedies about this thing’s box art:

1. I don’t have a scanner big enough for it.
2. That “Premium Price” thing you see is NOT a sticker.

These are both sad because the box is fucking awesome, and I don’t think you can really deny that… The premium price bit on the box is because the initial release of this kit costs 5000 yen, after which it will be 6500 yen. Also, a fun fact is that the green text on the bottom is printed with a reflective/metallic finish.

MG Exia Review – Introduction: Rant and Awe

The postman bore gifts today!

This was actually quite surprising, since I used AIR shipping (usually 1-2 weeks) and these shipped on the 24th, which means they got here in 4 business days. Woot.

The stand is for the Exia, and the Arche was due to an error in my last order, as RainbowTen accidentally sent me a GN Archer rather than an Arche Gundam, but they sent the Arche for free and let me keep the Archer, so all is well.

Just a side note for anyone who has an Exia Ignition Mode on order, order you batteries NOW. I received this and took a trip out to CVS to get the batteries it requires (LR41/Energizer 392). CVS was out of them, but they were $5 EACH. I meandered down to Walgreens, who actually had them in stock, but again, $5 each. I hopped onto my phone and did a quick check… You can get a 10 pack on Amazon for $1.55.

So in the end, I don’t have batteries for the LEDs yet, but I ordered 10 of them (you need 4 to power both LEDs) for a total of $6.34, which is about what I’d pay when you include tax for just one of them at my horrendously markup-happy drug stores.

Anyhow, review of MG Exia is forthcoming. I’ll start putting him together tonight, and luckily I have my new camera now, so the pics will be a lot better than my Sinanju buildup!

Sinanju: Buildup Part 7: Closing Thoughts

IT’S TIME FOR A MOTHERFUCKING ORGY OF BEAMS.

Sinanju: Buildup Part 6: Backpack and Weapons

Final piece of the buildup. I’ll have another post with some closing thoughts, but the building ends here.

The extending booster mechanism in the backpack is actually rather simple. Which, as I mentioned, I’m a fan of. The more moving parts ya got, the easier it is for something to go wrong.

For a prime example of this, see the Unicorn MG.

Sinanju: Buildup Part 5: Legs

Alrighty, I recovered from New Years Eve to start working on the Sinanju again.

On a massive beast like the Sinanju, there’s a horrific amount of parts… But what I really liked was the simplification of some parts on the leg. The section pictured up there, which is the majority of the leg frame, is made of only 7 parts, which is especially impressive given the complexity of the knee armor mechanism.

Sinanju: Buildup Part 4: Head Revisited

Going through the head buildup for someone over at HF…

Here’s all of the parts seperated… Here we go!

Notice my bandaged up thumbs from cutting BOTH of them while building yesterday.  I’m totally coordinated.  ><

Sinanju: Buildup Part 3: Arms

The building continues…

Sinanju: Buildup Part 2: Head

THIS IS MY FUCK YOU FACE.

Sinanju: Buildup Part 1: Torso

And here we go with my review-as-I-go with the Sinanju!

Box open. Let’s rock.

Sinanju: Pregaming

THANK THE LORD THEY HATH ARRIVED!!!

One of these babies is going to a friend of mine, but the other one is about to get slapped together. Omnomnom…

Here’s a scan of the hot lineart (less preposterously hi-res scan here). I’m throwing this up here for someone to hopefully use some l33t photoshop skills to make a nice wall or something.

But enough talk. I’m off to build. A review on the kit and more pics is forthcoming!