Review: HGUC Triple Dom

By Loran

Once in a blue moon when all of the planets in the solar system line up and an eclipse occur, Bandai releases a multi-set of HGUC kits as something that ISN’T a convention exclusive. There have only been five (six if you count the new “Gunpla Starter Set” of a Gundam and a Zaku), and they typically feature special color schemes, extra stickers, and on one occasion, special stuff. These kits are typically characterized by their white boxes with pictures of the actual kits on the front as opposed to a black box with an illustration. Typically, they aren’t very good deals, because you’re basically just paying the same price as you would for the kits separately with extra stickers and a nicer manual, so there’s no real value.

The “Triple Dom” set, as it’s typically called, was released to recreate one of the classic scenes from the original anime-the Jet Stream Attack. Basically, you get the Black Tri-Stars Doms in one convenient package with some optional parts to pull off the actual scene. It’s a nice little set, and a great thing for army builders, but you have to build three of the same kit, which can get kind of repetitive and frustrating.

The head of this kit is probably my favorite part. While the design heavily limits the movement, the construction actually allows you to pull off one of the Dom’s best traits-its wacky little monoeye. By removing the CLEAR PLASTIC in front of it (seriously-you don’t see that often on kits that aren’t Master Grades) and red Mohawk thing, you can adjust the monoeye easily, which is mounted on a ball joint. For whatever other flaws this kit may have, you can’t deny the awesomeness of the monoeye.

The torso of the kit is a bit of a mixed bag. It has a very good up-down movement that is sometimes hampered by the heat saber, which is positioned diagonally on its back. The scattering beam gun piece needs to be painted, which is kind of silly when you consider that it’s supposed to be yellow, and the heat saber comes in yellow on the standard kit. Oh well.

There isn’t much in terms of side-to-side movement because of the design, but I LOVE the way the skirt on this is made. It manages to capture the anime look very well while allowing for really good movement on the legs. Of course, it has the three boosters in its butt, and a polycap to allow for the stand to be used.

The arms are very unremarkable, very basic construction. The only thing worth noting is the shoulder joints, which have the additional movement allowing to hold the bazooka with both hands (although the trigger finger has issues holding the bazooka like that). It has some decent hands, but I’ll get to those later.

The legs have some pretty good flexibility considering their bulk, and have a nice double joint. The feet can extend pretty far and allow for some nice movement, helping a lot for poseability. Inside the feet (mounted on the joints) are the trademark three boosters.

Now, of course, it’s time to talk about the true reason you want this set: The accessories. All three kits come with a Giant Bazooka and a heat saber. One of the three heat sabers comes in blue to represent a heat saber that’s turned on.

But what you really want are the specialized accessories-the stand, rocket, smoky bazooka trail, and the “smashy” hands. Getting all of this together just looks awesome. It’s not as stable as I’d like, but the individual parts are adjustable to help get the pose right. Getting all the stuff together takes practice and I honestly still can’t get it right. It’s made out of smoky clear plastic so it has the “illusion” of being invisible. Whatever. Regardless, it looks just awesome when you have all this together, especially if you have an RX-78 for them to take on. Now if only there was a Medea kit at 1/144 scale…

Also included are several stickers which I didn’t put on my kit that allow you to make each of the Doms unique, with the markings to make each of the tri-stars suits.

Overall, this kit’s a really neat buy for anyway that likes army building, scene recreations, or customization. At some point I want to paint one in Ramba Ral’s colors, and another as a Dom Funf. My only gripe with the kit is the lack of Rick Dom parts, so you can’t choose to build one Rick Dom and two Regular Doms or whatever. We don’t carry this specific set in the store, but we do carry the smaller HCM Pro Jet Stream Attack set, which uses three of the smaller figures with more “action” parts, and the regular Dom kit, which comes with the Rick Dom parts. So get yourself some Doms and make the Black Tri-Stars proud!