Tuesday 15 June 2010

Toybox REVIEW: 1/144 Scale Gundam Sandrock Custom


Gundam was a franchise I was never supposed to enter. With a huge range of mecha spanning over numerous years and numerous series, I knew that if I ever watched a series I'd start buying them, and it would only be a downward spiral from there. Watching Gundam Wing changed all that. Luckily right now its the only series I've watched (so there's not too many suits to get), and choosing the 1/144 scale (so that the kits are roughly in scale with other mecha lines such as Revoltech and Robot Damashii) has provided me with some relatively cheap options. The one I'm reviewing here - Quatre's Gundam Sandrock Custom from the OVA/film Endless Waltz, cost me a measly £3.11 during HLJ's free shipping week. Even if the figure turned out to be rubbish, I consider that a bargain.

Construction is fairly straightforward - 7 sets of runners and a 12 step guide to completion. While the figure itself isn't much (it looks great, but at the end of the day it looks like a standard Gundam - nothing really to make it stand out like the rest of the Wing suits have), the true beauty of the kit lies in its weaponary. Featuring a shield and 2 huge crescent blades, Sandrock is certainly well armed. These weapons can also be held/stored in quite a variety of blades - Sandrock can wield them, it can store them in its backpack or they can attach to shield to make an enormous pincer weapon. For such a cheap figure, that's quite an array of possibilities.

The kit not only has a variety of hands for posing but also the parts for an extra "action" torso to get even more poses out of it! Paint isn't required for the figure but I'd recommend some touching up nonetheless (especially on the blades since they're moulded in white plastic). In short, while it may not give off the epic aura of the Deathscythe Hell or the Wing Zero, the Sandrock is still a very fun and satisfying kit to build. And if you're a Gundam fan, how can you say no at that price?


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