Tuesday, February 1, 2011

1/144 Arblade Custom Review


One of the best SRW kits for its price

This is another kit that i recently finished along with my Wildwurger L. I got this kit from the HLJ sale last year along with 1/144 Wildwurger. I would say i really like this kit due to sheer amount of accesories it has and you can make 2 models out of this kit; Arblade(though you need to paint for this one to match the color scheme) and the Arblade Custom. In this review i will discuss both kit and i will refer it as R-Blade since it is the English version of translation.


R -Blade is the project supported by EFA in order to mass produce R-1. This PT is the protoype version of the Massproduced R-1 though it seems that the project seem to be cancelled considering Huckebein seemingly gained more favor though in Shadow Mirror universe, R-Blade is managed to be mass produced as R-Eins. R-Blade and the customised version are piloted by R-1 Pilot, Ryusei Date.



R-Blade is equipped with G railgun which has better fire power compared to Huckebein's Photon Rifle though slightly weaker compared to Boosted Rifle. It provides decent firepower against grunt units though it is quite useless for boss units.


R-Blade also has G-revolver as the standard armaments just like R-1 for the close ranged combat but again this weapon is quite useless in the game.



R-Blade is equipped with Blade Tonfa as the melee weapon since T-link system wouldn't be feasible for mass produced units since there are not many pilots had telekinesis ability to use the system. This is the trademark weapon for R-Blade considering it is exclusive for this mecha only.





Usually the R-Blade use the Blade Tonfa with 3 combo hits succession with Backward stab with the blade of the tonfa as the finisher. This weapon is pretty good since it has high critical rate which makes this weapon easily one of my favorite move in SRW.


The reason why i said this kit is great because it got plenty of accessories which is kinda rare for SRW kit which usually only have 2 to 3 weapons. Probably my favorite part is the jacket armor gimmick since you can purge the armor just like 1/100 Wildwurger. If i didn't play SRW @3 i wouldn't have known that this kit is really awesome since i initially thought that the kit is the regular R-blade,




R-Blade Custom is the upgraded R-Blade equipped with Jacket Armor, Wing Binders and more weapons to increase the Overall performance of the mecha. In SRW @3, Ryusei used this mecha after SRX is being wrecked by Balmarian and Aya was missing. Ryusei used this mecha until stage 44 or 45 where he get kicked in the ass by Hazal though he give a payback on his new mecha, Banpreios.


I do some paint jobs for several parts since the kit doesn't look that perfect after the construction. The wing parts and the weapons comes unpainted which you need to repaint them to match the actual model. I also repainted some of the parts since i find the color to be dull. The result is pretty good overall since i don't need to mask lots of parts which allow me to finish the painting quicker.

 

Just like other SRW kit, R-Blade custom does not really have good articulation though it is much better when compared to the 1/144 Wildwurger. Some of joint is to sturdy to rotate which easily broke the parts when you apply to much force on the joint. This kit also had some balance issue due to the massive backpack but the wings look pretty impressive.


The Wing Binder increase the speed for R-Blade, it also can provide some limited protection. The way the wing used reminds me with shield binder of Dynames Gundam. The length of the both wing binder when fully spread is pretty impressive for the kit of this scale since it spans more 30 centimetre when both are spread.


One of the new weapon for R-Blade Custom is the Split Beam Cannon mounted on its shoulder. Surprisingly this weapon is stronger than G-Railgun+ which is upgraded version of G-railgun on R-Blade's right hand.



R-Blade Custom get the Blade tonfa again as the melee weapon, with wing binder it enable R-Blade to get close to the target faster. i should have painted the Blunt edge of the tonfa silver instead of blue but it still looks okay.





R-Blade also use the Blade Tonfa with the sharp edge pointing at front which seems to be more painful compared to the blunt part. Ryusei at least leaved a scratch on Hazal's Vayikra before getting kicked in the ass. While Blade Tonfa seems to be unconvincing weapon for human it seems to pretty cool for a mecha weapon.


I would recommend anyone to get this kit since it is one of the better SRW lineup from kotobukiya due to better gimmicks compared to most 1/144 SRW kit. Definitely one of the kit that worths for the money. I am planning to build my 1/144 Cybuster soon and i bet it will look impressive as well. Please look forward for the review once it came out!

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