By Loran
Every once in awhile, a kit comes a long that I just have to have, and I honestly can’t explain why. It has nothing to do with the design itself, or the engineering or anything of the sort. It just calls to me. And that’s why I love this monster.
The Pallas Athena/Palace Athene (the second spelling is the “official” one, but I much prefer to use the former…) is a hulking beast of a kit, much like most of the designs Paptimus Scirocco employed in Zeta Gundam. This specific unit was used by Reccoa Londe, one of the few characters in Gundam I CANNOT STAND. She was tolerable at first, but then she joined the Titans and just… anyway, I digress. Let’s get onto the kit, shall we?
Like I said, this thing is huge-closer in size to a 1/100 than a 1/144, standing about 2-3 inches taller than your average 1/144 when you factor in the parts on its back. It’s mean and green, and it’ll make your GMs and Zakus run away scared. I should get around to painting mine someday… what I did for the orange parts looks terrible.
The head is made up of only 5 pieces, with soft plastic tubes and a flexible plastic antenna. The tubes thankfully don’t interfere with the movement of the head in any direction, which is a huge plus.
The torso continues the trend with the soft plastic cables, which are a bit more of a hindrance here, but nothing TOO detracting. The massive backpack and its eight giant missiles all hold up very well and have no issues with stability whatsoever. With a full loadout, this baby sure is terrifying. The waist has a port for a stand to be attached, however, you’d need a special stand that only a few other kits come with.
The arms have a nice, sort of hourglass-like shape to them, going from large to small to large again. Inside the shoulders are soft plastic wires, like on the head and torso, but they don’t actually do anything. No double joint in the elbow, sadly, but that’s to be expected on a kit this size, I suppose. The hands are really cool and cartoony. All you get are both fists, and a hand to hold the beam saber (which I misplaced, whoops).
The legs, too, are huge and bulky. Because of the design, the skirt armor is connected to the legs themselves and not at the waist. They’re attached by a hinge, and don’t interfere with movement at all. The knees also have a double joint that isn’t interrupted by anything in terms of armor plating.
Possibly my favorite feature on this kit is the feet, which are slightly “transformable”. The heels and “toe” pieces can all swing down, which in fiction would be used to keep the suit grounded on an asteroid or something in space. It’s an awesome feature and adds even more height to the kit when deployed.
The weapons are plentiful-the aforementioned missiles on the backpack all stay on pretty well, and don’t get too loose. The beam rifles and shield both clip onto the forearms, sadly not with a polycap joint. I feel that if they were attached via a polycap, they’d be a bit more stable. Also, the sabers store in the shield and come with clear yellow blades.
Overall, if you’re into this design, or just want a big monster suit that won’t break your bank (I’m looking at you, Kshatriya), this is the way to go. It’s a fun build and a great display piece, and the weapons and transforming feet give some pretty good play value. Definitely recommended!
