Bandai Hobby Sword Impulse Gundam, Bandai Master Grade Action Figure

Those who know me know that I'm no fan of Gundam Seed Destiny, the rather terrible sequel to the hit show Gundam Seed. From every aspect including plot, characters and even MS design GSD seemed to be worse in nearly every way. This is however not a review of the series so I'll move onto the MS design. GSD does many questionable things like recycle UC Zion MS desings as the 'upgrades' to the older ZAFT suits (ok) and then when it comes to the Gundams, they took the idea of overdone backpack designs and turn it up to 11 here, and not in a good way. Among the 'hero' MS, the Destiny itself was a poor design, Strike Freedom is just a fanwank ripoff of the Freedom, a much better design IMHO and Infinite Justice which looks exactly the same as the original Justice...The one shining design in this rather poor show turned out to be the melee version of the first title suit, the Sword Impulse Gundam. With it's non traditional sports car red color scheme and rather imposing anti-ship swords (ASSes) this has to be one of my favorite designs in the Seed universe, and they capture the design very well in the MG kit, which was one of my favorite builds this year.The kit comes in the large MG sized box and not only includes parts for the MS, but the backpack accessory weapons/jets including the core fighter and Sword flier unmanned craft. Details on the inner frame and outer armor plates are nicely done and the kit is designed to transform into it's component parts (which was frankly a dumb design) but one cool gimmick is you can remove the core fighter to have it on display as well as the sword flier...and the kit comes with a fighter dummy plug to fill the empty space inside including an adapter back plate making it compatible with other weapons packs from different Seed MG kits including the Strike Noir and Freedom.Articulation is very nice as you're able to position the kit in some of the craziest poses making show accurate dioramas but be warned some of the joints are a bit tight at first so you might be concerned about breaking joints when you pose your newly built kit.Parts are molded in color matched plastic and it comes with a set of stickers and dry rubon decals which are a pain to apply, but look so good compared to stickers or even waterslides.

I’ll start by taking the Seed Line of MG are my favorite series of gunpla kits.The ABS inner frame is vey tough, once connected no loose joints. It does contain polycaps so be careful with posing and repositioning the kit.The color separation is very good for being an older kit. There are some parts that you might want to pain the underside to give it a less model kit feel.The kit is an older kit, so there are larger runner gates. The darker plastics will need some extra effort to avoid “nub” marks. The kit does have a low glossy finish right out of the box.But this DEFINITELY IS a must have kit!

Cons- The anti-ship swords are hard to securely stay in the hands. With some patient, you should be able to get it where you want, but don't expect is to be easy.- Poor articulation in the body because of Core Splendor unit (in case you don't know, this MS is made up of three parts: legs flyer, chest flyer, and a core splendor). It's not a brick, just not that great.Pros- Look at that badass look! The armor, the swords, the boomerangs, the color scheme. This has to be one of meanest looking Gundam out there.- Very nice articulation overall. Arms can easily reach across its chest or over the back. Posing is a pleasure.- All parts are done properly in plastic. Beside camera lenses & eyes, not other stickers are required.- Filled with effect parts for the anti-ship swords and boomerangs.VerdictI had fun putting this MS together. The final result was pleasing. Although, I'm not a big fan of the three-parts thing, but it is still a bonus for those who appreciate it. If you are on the verge of getting one, do it. You won't regret this one bit :)

Though Gundam Seed Destiny was mediocre at best, the mobile suit design were pretty awesome. Sword Impulse no exception. Being a 1/100 scale, the size of this model is pretty nice. Articulation is great due to the ever improving technology of Bandai's models. It also comes with a fair amount of accessories like 2 anti-ship Excalibur swords that can combine into one, 2 Flash Edge beam boomerangs, two daggers that fold into the side-skirts, a beam rifle, and a shield that can expand into a slightly bigger one. The coloring is scheme on this model is also pretty cool. Being a Master Grade or MG for short, the detail and paint are already pretty good. Although if more time were spent on this model in terms of top coat, panel lines, and decals, this already excellent model will look even better. Definitely one of the better looking MG models out there.