By Loran
As I mentioned a few articles ago, my favorite part of Gundam Unicorn Episode 4 was getting to see all those old mobile suit designs again, with a few new ones thrown in. Naturally, I went for a bunch of them the second I was able to. I’m still holding out hope that we’ll see all of the designs (or at least, all of the really cool ones) in kit form at some point, but for now I’ve got plenty here I can work with. Oh, Unicorn. You make it able for suits nobody cares about normally to get kits.
First up, the Jesta. I love the Jesta. It’s basically a special ops Jegan. I was all over this design when I first saw it. I imagined this thing running around the battlefield carrying no weapons at all, just punching other mobile suits in the face. That’s how cool it is.
From what I can tell so far, this kit seems to be standard fare for modern GM-descendants. It doesn’t explicitly share any parts with the GM II and GM III (save for the hands that come with the GM III), but the basic structure is similar enough. Chances are, I’m really going to enjoy this one.
I find the moldgates for this one to be very interesting. It looks like Bandai is planning on released a kit of the Jesta Cannon, which I believe appears later on in Unicorn. I hope they do, because let’s face it, the Jesta is awesome, and I’ll have no problem with buying additional versions of this kit.
Here we have the Marasai, Gundam Unicorn version. Of the three kits here, it’s technically the oldest, being made from a kit initially released in 2004. As such, its engineering doesn’t really hold up to the others, but 2004 was when HGUC kits started getting really good, it at least gets a pass. It’s not like the Schuzrum Dias or EWAC Zack, which were basically first-year HGUCs reissued in 2009.
Thankfully, to keep this kit from feeling like a total rehash, Bandai included new weapons with the kit including the rifle/sword combination and some kind of grappling hook? I’m not entirely sure what it’s supposed to be.
I like how this kit has a green monoeye. It kind of drives the “Captured Federation Suit” point home. It makes me wonder if these were part of the MS compliment of the Pegasus the pilots shot down…
Pretty sure I’ve said this before, but never in a million years did I think we’d get an HGUC Juaggu. It works for me cuz this would’ve been one of the harder ones to kitbash. Still, it’s a pretty impressive kit, all things considered. The thing looks EXTREMELY poseable, and the “snout” is made with a wire! A few years ago I bet Bandai never would’ve thought of that.
Interestingly, the kit has both the standard HG polycaps, and some I typically only see on First Grade kits. I can’t think of any other kits that do that.
Also, it doesn’t show up in any of these pictures, but a small plastic “window” will guard the monoeye. I wonder how well this will work, and if it does work well, I hope we see it on more kits in the future.
Well, these three kits should hopefully keep me occupied along with my slew of kitbash projects. These three help me get a number of fixes through, with the Jesta for late-first-UC, the Marasai for Gryps Era, and the Juaggu for One Year War. Remember, you can always get your kit fix at FPNYC!
