Hobby - Gundam Seed Astray - Gundam Astray Red Frame Custom MG 1/100 Model Kit

|| REVISION 4-6-2015 || As I said before, this is a fun build. Being my first Master Grade, I was surprised by every little detail this Model Kit had to show, and the mechanics within' the inner-frame. Honestly, my mind was blown. Anyway, being a MG, the build time should take around 7-10 hours. But man, you will enjoy every bit of it. Anyway, once you're done, you will have a Mobile Suit, a pair of katanas along with scabbards, Torch gun and the Tactical Arms II. And a lot of spare parts from the Blue Frame Second L Revise. (Since you know, the Tactical Arms II is practically a copy from Blue.) Possibility: Since it's a MG, you're going to get a ton of it. At least 28 + the fingers (Depends if you split the three fingers.) So, starting from the torso, you get a nice ab crunch and side to side movement, along with a ball jointed waist that pretty much allows you to rotate the whole thing 360 and swivel it around as well. Above the torso is the head that sits on a ball joint, so again, swivel in all directions and you can rotate it all around, and thanks to its double jointed neck, you get a pretty good range going up and down. After that, the arms are pretty superb, so you start off with what I believe is a butterfly joint, so you can have his whole arm practically touch its chest. The arm itself allows you to rotate 360 and pull it out around 120 degrees, then you have the bicep which again, allows you rotate it 360, you got the double jointed elbow which pretty much goes almost 180, below that you have what it seems to be a wrist joint that only allows to pull it up a good 90. Now, the hand starts off with a hinge that connects to the wrist, the hing allows you to bend the hand 90 degrees in both directions, and the ball joint that connects to the wrists lets ya swivel it and rotate it 360, and then you have the single jointed fingers which'll give you some emotion for the poses as well as gripping the weapons. We then head to the lower torso, it's pretty similar to the arms in a way, but you don't have that weird wrist articulation and such. So, it starts you off with an L joint, that lets you rotate it 90 in both directions and even bend it out to do the splits, then you have a thigh swivel and you have a double jointed leg which will allow you to bend his leg back an entire 180, his ankles have a nice pivot which bend around 60 degrees from what I remember, then his feet are plugged in with a ball joint so you got a swivel going on as well, its toe section also can do a slight bend. Did I mention the skirt units also have a little swivel and a couple bends as well? So you can get some pretty dynamic poses with Red Frame. BUT, certain joints are a tad loose, so it'll be tricky for him to hold a pose without him falling over to the side. Especially if you have the Tactical Arms equipped. Also, some parts are a little fragile, so don't go out and play around with him, because, something will break. Onto the accessories: Like I said before, you get the katanas Gerbera Straight and the Tiger Pierce, along with its scabbards, you also get the torch gun along with its Tactical Arms II, and you get a pair of yellow beam effects for the Torch gun. The katanas are nicely detailed and are painted in a beautiful vacuum metal finished blades, giving off that silver finish to it. The guard and the pommel are this dark yellow color that try to imitate a gold finish, and the handle is this mat black hue (Which is also used for various other parts of the MS and TA-II), As for the Tactical Arms II, its a wonderful accessory and really have a lot of play value to it. You have various transformations that belong to the Red Frame and then you have the spare parts to transform it into something only Blue Frame has. (Yay recycled parts.) And the transformations are... SWORD, ARROW, DELTA, V, WORK and FLIGHT. The transformation names pretty much imply what each form is, Sword is basically a giant buster sword, Arrow is a large bow that uses the Torch Gun as the handle and the secondary bow to fire out the Beam effect arrow, Delta pretty much has the wing/blade unites transform into a turn Delta shape, while the V is similar to the Delta, just in the shape of a V. Flight is pretty much the V form but you just flip out the unit and make it look like wings. Now, Work form is a kinda like lobster claws, you transform the TA-II into the pincer cape and have Red hold it with his hand. As I said before, you have some left over parts from the Blue Frame, meaning you'll have the gatling unit, which you can replace to create the Gatling Form or Arm! The Form is basically a torrent that uses the wings/blades to balance itself, while the Arm form is simply the TA unit without the wing parts. You also be able to build the handle part so that you can make the Sword Mode look a little snazzier. You also get an extra heels along with a hidden knife that slips behind the heel units, so you could probably replace the current feels on Red with Blue's. Speaking of knives, you get two Armor Schneider Combat knives with holsters, so you could equip it onto Red as well. Being the Tactical Arms that were also used on the Blue Frame, you can also remove the Blades/wings and equip them onto Red Frame's forearms to create the Sword Arms. The transformations with the Tactical Arms II are endless! Now all Tactical Arms in any form will require you to use the Action Base II! Which is a base provided by Bandai and can be bought separately in various colors. Now, being the Red Frame, the stand comes in red. It can rotate 360 degrees at the base plug, bend upward while having it locked in said position, you can extend the secondary arm as well (It also has a lock.) then you have the secondary base, which rotates up and down pretty well, and the main base swivels left and right. So thanks to this Action Base II! You can do some pretty snazzy poses with Tactical Arms equipped to the Red Frame. Also, the cockpit of Red can flip open to reveal the pilot, Lowe Guele. You also get a 1/100th scale figure of him. So, with all of that laid down, we go onto what's inside the box! Inside you will find: 1x manual 28x Runners ( 6x Red, 6x White, 7x Black, 1x Silver, 1x Dark Grey, 1x Gold, 1x Multi-Color and 1 Transparent yellow) 1x Runner of poly-caps 1x bag of screws and nuts 1x Runner for the Action Base II 1x Dry Transfer Decal sheet 1x Sticker sheet 1x Foil sticker sheet Alright! Manual time: The manual is pretty standard, you got a simple Front Cover art, and a back cover with the Mobile Suit. Inside you'll find a layout of all of the Runners with a few parts crossed out. The next page will then begin your build of the Astray Red Frame, instructions are straight forward and you will not have any problems understanding them since everything is in pictures and such. You also have a few colored pages of artwork of the Red Frame. The last page will include a layout for the decal placements including a little pallet for the paints you'll want to use if you choose to paint Red. Verdict: As I said in the very beginning, this build is fun. You'll enjoy every bit of it, but keep in mind that it'll probably take up your entire day building this. The Mobile Suit itself is incredibly detailed for its kind, and its overall stature as a Gundam is phenomenal, probably the uniquest one in its time. The Inner-frame allows you to create some incredibly flexible poses, BUT, some joints are loose so you'll have to be creative with it in order to keep it standing. The Tactical Arms II gives you so many possibilities with transformations, which means you'll have a lot of play value with it! Both the Gebera and Tiger are beautiful on its own as well. I highly recommend the MBF-P02Kai Gundam Astray Red Frame Kai. You'll have a blast the entire build through and you won't be able to resist posing him around with his TA-II and his Katanas. (I've included a link to another store that showcases the contents of the GunPla with pictures, so feel free to click on it if you're in need of pictures.) Link: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10106665 Sadly, as of today, Red Frame has gone out of commission to do the excessive play with him, the L joint on the leg broke and the finger slots on the hand broke as well, not to mention the secondary bow arms broke as well. So I extremely recommend you being careful with Red, or at least enforce the certain joints with copper wire through said joint. || ORIGINAL REVIEW 1-23-2012 || This kit was fun to build, took me 7 hours to build and it was worth it. The possibility is fantastic it has double leg, neck, wrist, foot, arm, shoulder and finger articulation. It came with about 27 runners and these colors are chrome silver, gold, red, dark grey, white and some see through green. The accessories are the beam torch, the tactical arms II, 2 Swords, 2 scabers(it what holds the sword) 2 beam arrow effects and some parts from the blue frame. The tactical can transform to the sword, arrow, delta, v, if you want to you can use the blue frame parts to make the Gatling gun, the 2 bladed arms and can have a better use handle for the sword mode. Also the T.A.II has this claw mode seen in the art in the manual. It also comes with stickers for the head, and the gundam it self and come with some decals. Let's sum it up it's the nice it's better than the high grade and the 1/100. It's the only one with the tactical arms and It's comes with a action stand it can work the astray any 1/100 also it works w/ high grades. So buy it it's worth it, it's fun to build and it looks nice for play and display.

I knew when I started building that this had to be my first MG kit. I loved the design of the red frame since way back when, and the double sword and Tactical Arms combo just sealed the deal for me. The kit looks amazing, and also comes with a few bonus features in the way of spare blue frame pieces (you can switch the TA to the blue frame version with the parts included and also make use of the armor schneiders if you want to). The kit has a good amount of decals, though nothing close to the amount of a real grade. My biggest gripe with the decals is that there are quite a few that go over curved or raised surfaces. It is unfortunate that the stickers are not designed with that shape in mind, so it can be awkward to apply them so that it looks the way it should. I love the simple red/white/black/gray color scheme of the build, but I just wish that the sword guard and butt were made in shiny gold instead of this weird semi-clear glitter yellow. The articulation, sturdiness, and poseability of the kit is very nice. The Tactical Arms are heavy, but this can be taken care of with the included action base (win) or with some fiddling. The only problem I've come across is that for some reason my kit's right shoulder is looser than the left, so it doesn't hold as well (or at all) vertically. I may go back later and fix that with some glue. The V-fin absolutely loves to fall off, and I've ended up losing mine .By the time I realized it, it had been in 2-3 places and I didn't know where it came off. This particular box was not distributed by bluefin, so I will need to have a friend from Japan bring me the part, but that was my carelessness and not a fault (for the most part) of the kit. Even with some minor, minor problems, this kit has so much going for it, I have to give it a 5.

Great model kit. The only japanese mecha kit I've done previous to this was a Kotobukiya 1/100 Alt Eisen kit - with which I was very impressed, but this blows it out of the water. The level of detail is insane. How do each piece fit together - without any glue, is genuinely impressive. There's an incredible amount of parts - and it even comes with its own 1/100 scaled, tiny pilot, sitting inside its (openable) cockpit. That being said, there are some flaws to such a system - some parts are unfortunately too loose, and I had to glue a few parts with Tamiya Cement, some joints are also too loose and there wasn't much I could do about that. Additionally, the model kit instruction manual only came in Japanese - thankfully, I found a translated version online. The decals were excessively hard to place, and extremely tiny. I think the instructions should of told us to put the decals during assembly instead of at the end completely, because by then it was an absolute misery to do so. To make the model look really good, I strongly suggest getting a gundam marker - or a really fine permanent marker like I did, to trace the armor panels in. It really outline the details of this model, otherwise it looks like a rather cheap plastic toy - when in reality, this is an amazingly engineered display piece, hardly appropriate for toying with (many fragile parts). To further improve, I strongly recommend buyers to purchase some hobby gold paint for the trim on this gundam's sword (In my case, I bought Testor enamel gold paint) to apply over the otherwise awful looking plastic yellow that comes by default. In general, I'd say the difficulty of this model is quite a massive step up from what I was used to. I was pleasantly surprised at the complexity, and quite like the display once done.

REALLY fun build, tight spaces for the dry rub decals, so make sure you have tape on hand. As with most MG, be careful with the fingers. Was really excited about the cockpit being accessible after the full build. Super tall in comparison to SD and HG (fourth picture, SD on the left, HG on the right, person from MG kit for scale)

Mg astray red frame kai is one of the best kits around. There is a lot of plastic in the box (25+ runners) and it sells for less than comparable models like mg 00 raiser or rezel type c, for example. The build is great with abundant detail throughout and refreshing if you haven't assembled a master grade astray before. The model has excellent range of motion in all joints, although the shoulder to chest connection isn't the best. There are also a lot of nubs to clean up, the most I've encountered in the 10+ master grades assembled. This can be easily overlooked because the finished result is great in every respect. The colours and their separation create a unique and organic feel. The decals and their placement also sort of give it a cyberpunk look, which adds to the visual appeal. The astray red frame's weapons and accessories are amazing. It has 2 chrome coated samurai swords, individually named with their own detailed scabbard. These look great in any pose and are very well done. It also has a massive, cloud strife-style red sword that transforms into multiple modes that are interesting options. It can become an oversized bow with a yellow effect part at the tip, a strange delta form (shown on the box art), a flight mode, backpack v-form and the giant sword. It contains unused parts from the astray blue frame kit so that you can transform the sword into the gattling gun form as well. You also get the astray blue frame's sword handle and its 2 black side-daggers, including their sheaths. Finally, you can recreate the blue frame's blade arms, just without the pink effect parts. The kit even has an adjustable red stand to accommodate the tactical arms sword in all its forms, so posing options are almost limitless. In general, for what you get in relation to what you pay, the astray red frame kai is pretty much unbeatable.

An Awesome MG, but not for beginners. The MG Gundam Red Astray Kai is an awesome looking kit, but it's a pain in the butt to not only build as well as pose. I highly recommend you use the stand that comes with this kit. Before you consider buying this kit get some experience with standard HG's or MG's this kit is quite advanced in terms of construction and lead me to confusion due to it's design several times. This gundam is not easy to build and is defiantly takes a slightly higher skill level to build. *Contents This kit came ahead of time, but the box was slightly bent. Not a big deal though. It's Box is MASSIVE and is reminiscent to more recent MG boxes. There are an abundance of runners of red,grey, white the three main colors here. With a large instruction booklet that led me to become confused several times due to unclear placement of parts. As well as Stickers, dry apply decals, and rub on decals. *Articulation This kit has decent articulation, but due to it's small feet can bet very had to pose without a back support. The stiffness of the arms and legs white articulation is there they do not specifically turn to well. So poses I've had are a bit simpler. Still due my own inexperience with posing gunpla someone with more experience could probably work something out. The head sadly is a bit limited too, but has basic left right movement. *Accessories & Gimmicks The kit comes with SWORDS! As well as a laser bow. It's comes with two giant Katanas, and a giant blade similar to it's brother kit the Blue Astray. The kit is very modular with it's sword and jet pack and can be set up in all sorts of cool variations. Such as a bow, a sword, and wings. This kit also comes with a Gatling gun, from the blue frame and can actually be used with the red sword if you'd prefer a gun instead of a bow. Also two daggers from the blue frame as well. So more swords! *Detailing & Painting Painting is somewhat required for some parts like the finders and neck pieces, but these are minor and Out of Box building works fine here too.Panel Lining and Decaling is overwhelming here. With paneling opportunities to that of the 1/100 No Grade HG line from the 90's. It's defiantly a big task. I used Grey, Brown, and black fine tip Gundam Markers for the panel lining. I only applied the stickers and rub on's due to my lack of experience. But if you've successfully built a Ver. Ka with decals then you'll be right at home here. *Negatives One of the BIGGEST issues with this kit are the Nubs. Not because the kit is mainly red, but because there are nubs UNDER the parts as in not connected to the runners/trees. Meaning to get certain parts to come together I had to denub more then usual. This made building confusing. As I had to make sure 100% that no nubs were on the inside before putting together two parts. I've never seen a kit have these inside nubs and while the kit in the end is great this is my only big complaint. *Conclusions This Kit took about two to three days to complete with taking breaks and then finally decaling. I give this kit a high rating due to the quality and design it's appealing and complex. It's a awesome looking kit, but suffers from some minor articulation errors built into the design as well as odd nub placement. Though if you have the experience and love the astray design defiantly get this kit.

Good kit 👍

This Gundam can be completed within the day with a friend :p or alone with the right dexterity and coordination lol comes with tiny mini fig of the main character. Had no problems with the upper torso aside from the v crest sitting on red astray's forehead. For me, one of the legs manage to latch onto one of the other pieces in the knee area, effectively cracking a tiny plastic piece. Did not ruin the model for me whatsoever, seeing as I purchase numerous figures from different genres that feature main characters with swords. (with a few exceptions)This model fit in perfectly with my mini hall of heroes lol The swords have the Japanese writing for their names. The giant accessory is like a model in and of itself, although was quite beautiful when put together. Also came with a stand, which is a good thing for if you want to pose the model with it's giant buster sword/blade-bow and arrow/shield. Astray simply cannot hold the giant accessory alone without some help and thankfully Bandai included the stand. :) Product also came with numerous knicks and knacks such as spare gun pieces, knives, and probably actual gundam parts (which i assume might build your own custom gundam if you buy enough of the models lol. All-in-all, I am very happy with the red Astray Model-kit, very cool that it's got dual blades and a giant claymore!