1/72 Helios Victoria ver Review

Best Armored Core kit i have for now

For weekly plamo review this time i choose Helios Victoria version. I am abit skeptical with the kit at first but it is easily the best AC kit that currently have. The reason why i say the kit is the best because the plastic quality is much better compared to previous 2 AC kits and it is easier to paint it. Probably the best looking AC which are not NEXTs.

Perhaps some people will mistake this model as AC from From Answer or 4 due to its looks. But this AC is from the classic one. If i recall, Helios is the lead mecha for an Armored Core Novel which has timeline between the ACFA and Classic AC series. Helios is a Lightweight type of core and its components are all made by Mirage corporation, one of the 2 Giant AC company. Though some of the weapons are manufactured by CREST, the Mirage rival company.

I would say the result of this kit is much better compared to my Amored VF-0S since the construction of this kit went perfectly with no apparent obstacles. Just like another Kotobukiya kit you need to paint the kit in order to match the provided sample.

Is it just me who find that Kotobukiya are fond of making OB type core which probably has something to do with the easeness of replicating the gimmick since EO is harder to make and Normal is just plain normal(though in game you can use this type to store extra weapon).

While the box only show 3 weapons equipped on Helios, the kit comes with 6 weapons which one of the reason this kit cost 4800 yen. There are 2 weapons for each type: right handed, left handed and back weapon.

For the Right Hand, Helios had Linear gun or Parry Blade. Linear Gun serves some sort of Hybrid between Machine Gun and Laser Rifle. It has a power of Machine gun and have faster firing rate though the overall damage is still low compared to Plasma Rifle.

Parry blade is probably the stronger compared to Laser Blade and probably one of the most powerful weapon type since 3 or 4 hit from this weapon easily kill an AC. However this weapon is really hard to use due to its short range and doesn't lock on to enemy like energy blade.

As for the left Hand, this kit comes with energy blade and portable grenade launcher. In Armored Core games, energy blade can be distinguished into 2 type. The first type focus on melee which deal heavy blow to opponent when the blade hits. The second one is focused on Shockwave which enable the blade unleash shockwave upon slash and increase the range of weapon.

The grenade launcher are good for crippling light armored enemies though AC with good solid defense won't be affected too much by it. IIRC Quadrapeds type of AC is really good with grenade launcher arm type.

 

For the back weapon, the kit has Anti-ECM antenna and Missile backpack. The device that looks like an antenna is a support equipment that provide AC with some protections against Jamming. Since in the game there are some missions which have very bad interference that render weapons such as missiles unusable. For the Missile backpack i assume the type is small one considering Lightweight AC can't carry too much load.

With this i finished all of the AC kit that i currently have, despite Helios looks strong it can't compete against NEXTs such as Hogire and Tellus since both of them had much better performance and capable of destroying 10 normal type AC at a same time. I think i will get some more AC kits in the future and currently i had my eye on Lahire Gunmetal and Nineball Seraph.