1/144 HGUC RX-0 Unicorn Gundam Destroy Mode (NT-D)

This is the 1/144 HGUC Unicorn Gundam in the NT-D "Destroy Mode".

I guess the meaning of NTD is New Type Device... well, maybe, what ever, just my wild guess.

The story of Mobile Suits Gundam Unicorn (UC 0096) happen 3 years after the event in Mobile Suit Gundam Char's Counter Attack (UC 0093).

In the first episode of the anime or OVA of the novel adaptation, we managed to see a few character and to make the connection with the classics, they even mentioned the name of extremely popular Char Aznable and the not as popular but surely important Bright Noa... maybe everybody familiar with Char, but the name Bright? I guess only if you are a hardcore fan of the Universal Century (UC) or if you have already watched all the previous Gundam anime within the UC timeline then you should be familiar with that name.

Just a little bit of guidance on the Gundam anime related to the UC timeline;

1. Mobile Suit Gundam (UC 0079 - UC0080)
a) Mobile Suit Gundam The o8th MS Team
b) Mobile Suit Gundam 0080 War In the Pocket
c) Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO 2
d) Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO 2: The Gravity Front

2. Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 Stardust Memory (UC 0083)

3. Mobile Suit Gundam Z Gundam (UC 0087)

4. Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ Gundam (UC 0088)

5. Mobile Suit Gundam Char's Counter Attack (UC 0093)

6. Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (UC 0096)

So if you have watched all of the anime or OVA listed above, I guess you should know a lot about the history, the conflicts and the politics within the Universal Century timeline. In other word, you can consider yourself a graduate of UC... hahahahaha

As Bandai plan need to continue their survival in the toys and hobby business and of coz make lots of profit along the way, they knew very well that the anime or OVA play a big role to promote their important GunPlaMo kit division as well as their figure division (Robot Tamashii / GFF / GFFN / HCM / HCM Pro and so on).

More new models introduced in the anime/OVA/movie will means more variables of GunPlaMo kits and figures can be produced and hopefully the fan will keep on buying them.

As far as Bandai/Sunrise concern, Gundam anime/OVA/movie is a commercially driven entertainment form. Although the original creator and director (Yoshiyuki Tomino) may not necessarily agree to some of the approach dictated by Bandai Sales and Marketing division and all the big boss of Bandai but in reality all of this stuff its not just for free entertainment and legacy. It is also very much about making money to survive. It is a simple as that.

And even though there are plenty of Gundam fans out there globally now, Bandai somehow still need to find a way to grab the new generation (the young ones) to be addicted to Gundam (just like the old and current generations did) and all the extras that comes with it. This requires consistent continuous effort and a whole lot of creativity and hard work is needed.

Nonetheless, talking about new generation, the latest Gundam Unicorn is surely one of the best looking Gundam anime in UC timeline with HD color and modern character design, though "Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO 2: The Gravity Front" will have a say in that as well. For what is worth, the graphic in Gundam Unicorn is surely beautiful and I hope to see more interesting stuff from Bandai/Sunrise in the future.

This is basically what we see in the anime when the Unicorn transformed into the NT-D Mode (or Destroy Mode)

By the way, this is the devastating Kshatriya (NZ-666) piloted by Marida Cruz, she is a lovely and beautiful woman but she have a very sad life history prior to her current life as the pilot of Kshatriya.

Marida Cruz, a capable pilot and artificial Newtype. She refers to captain Zaberoa as "Master" and loyally carry out his orders. Originally known as "Puru Twelve", she is actually a clone of Elpeo Puru. She was awakened by Glemy Toto and fought with her sisters during the first Neo Zeon movement. After the fight with Chara Soon in U.C.0089, one of the clones survived and was retrieved by an MS pod.

She was then sold into sex slavery, and from then on she worked as a prostitute. Before coming under the protection of Suberoa, she experienced countless pregnancies and abortions and her body is scarred by the abuse of her customers. During an examination on board Nahal Argama when she was captured, it was ascertained that she cannot bear children anymore..... well OK, I'm a pro Zeon, though we always lose the war, we will never give up but I better stop talking about the poor Marida, it is just sad.



And this is Banagher Links, the new hero, a student at Anaheim Industry Technical School in the colony "Industrial 7". He is described as seeing war as something akin to fiction, as he was born after the One Year War ended and did not experience the more isolated wars that followed it. However, upon meeting Audrey, he is drawn into a new conflict. He does a part-time job clearing space debris with a miniature MS.




So now finally, the NT-D mode again...





In this form, the psycoframe built into the entire body's movable frame reads the pilot's thoughts (psycowaves) and directly influences the unit's movements. In other words, the MS can ultimately be controlled by thought alone. However, when compared to one's idea of how a human body works, the stress of gravity on a 20 meter MS (more than 10 times the size) is extraordinary. Aided by the psycommu, the pilot's mind can only endure about five minutes of operation, after which a limiter is believed to activate, returning the MS to normal Unicorn form. Furthermore, the system activates not according to the pilot's discretion, but automatically when certain conditions, as yet unexplained, are met. In this mode, the mobile suit becomes taller and its head transforms to one having standard Gundam features.


The box...



This kit assembled by a lovely lady as requested by me, from time to time, I like to ask somebody else to assembled my GunPlaMo kits just to see the difference... and especially if that particular kit is kind of "difficult" or have too many complex parts, then I rather skip it. I am such a lazy person...

And as always, Jenny never disappoint me... she took about a month working on this kit, as they said slowly but surely and I am pretty please with the end result...

Let's have a look...










Just like the Unicorn that we reviewed in January, the articulation of this Unicorn Destroy Mode is more or less the same. The increase height does not contribute to any improvement to the parts and limbs movement range.

1/144 HG 00 Gundam is still the best when it comes to articulation.





And just like the Unicorn, we seriously hate the elbow joint system of this model... it is pretty much weak and as annoying as it could be...






Another thing that you need to be careful is the Beam Saber port - the thing where you attached the beam saber at the backpack. It is very thin and so fragile that you can easily broke it. So be careful when you pull out that beam sabers, you need to actually pull it out upside accordingly and if you do it roughly and wrongly... that thing can broke - easily.

Some standing pose:






And now some action pose...











Beam saber time...



Please take note of the following when you want to buy the Unicorn and Destroy Mode.

Unicorn Mode comes with the following;
- 4 beam saber handles, you know that white thing where the Gundam hold on to, 2 for storage on the arms and another 2 at the backpack
- But only 2 unit of red beam saber parts are included
- 1 hyper bazooka
- 1 shield

Destroy Mode comes with the following;
- 4 beam saber handles, you know that white thing where the Gundam hold on to, 2 for storage on the arms and another 2 at the backpack
- NO red beam saber parts are included
- 1 beam rifle
- NO hyper bazooka
- 1 shield

So obviously Bandai did not plan to supply everything completely on each box set even though one might argue that with just 1,000 yen we can get a very nice complete package of 1/144 HGUC RX-78-2 Gundam (comes with 2 unit of beam saber complete set, beam rifle, bazooka, shield and even the small core fighter)

So at least now you know that it is almost a must to buy both of them together unless if you don't mind about what ever missing weapons/equipments in each mode. In a way Bandai have their own logical reason for that but at the same time we the customer always wanted that everything is included in that particular box.








If 2 beam saber from the backpack is not included, by all means use another 2 stored inside the arms.






Honestly I have no clue how the Gundam use it in the anime and I am so look forward to it but at the moment this is all that I can assume for the sake of showing all 4 beam sabers in action....







Well, once you have this item, you can do any pose that you like or that you can think of, my selection of pose here may not be the best or may not suit to your personal liking but it is only for reference purpose only.

I did quite a number of review from month to month basis and after so long now, I feel that it is like a normal routine and at the end of the day, I just wanted to get over it as soon as possible... there are many other things that I need to attend to, so I have to limit my time on certain things now... sometimes I do wonder if my passion slowly dying... gosh, I hope not... but sometimes, time is really limited for us and the older you are, the more you will appreciate those wonderful times that you could use to do something else...

Size comparison between the Unicorn and Destroy Mode.




And now we add the 78 in the middle and you can see how tiny he is...



Though Destroy Mode is quite tall but eventually he is just as tall as the Nu Gundam and that also means the same height as the Hi-Nu Gundam as well.




Overall, as a GunPlaMo kit produced in 2009 we feel that it is a little bit disappointing in the articulation department, it is better than those HG 1/144 from the Seed/Destiny era but 2009... come on, we deserve the right to ask for something better or at least as good as 1/144 HG 00 Gundam. Another complaint that we have on this is the elbow joint parts is totally bullshit. One of the worst we've seen recently... new technology should make it better, stronger, firm and more durable - not lousy and annoying.

Other than the above, this is somehow still a brilliant kit, lot's of small parts for a 1/144 scale and if you like something challenging, this should be fun. More importantly, it is the cheapest way to have Unicorn Gundam in Destroy Mode without going thru all those "manual" transformation and conversion process and after that you still need to deal with those loose parts (I'm talking about the 1/100 MG Unicorn Gundam Ver. Ka)