Baby TheEnd's Gunpla and Toy Review: MG V Gundam Ver.Ka

Hey everyone, I'm still not dead, just busy! Anyway, I've got a pretty sweet gunpla review lined up for ya. The MG V Gundam Ver.Ka was a kit that caught my eye as soon as I saw it. Not so much because of its transforming gimmick, but because it's just so pleasing to the eye. I won't be showing any of the transformation gimmick, mind you, but if enough people want to see my opinion [and pictures] of it then I'd be happy to oblige. Anyway, let's check out the V Gundam.

I really like the lighter blue on V Gundam, it looks quite nice. And originally I used the circular red foil stickers for the round red parts, but they looked like crap and wouldn't stay on so I painted them all in myself. I also used every Ver.Ka sticker. Every. Single. One.

Stickers and decals aside, the articulation on this fella is pretty impressive. Yes, it's a MG kit, but it transforms, and transforming kits tend to sacrifice posability for proper transformation gimmicks. V Gundam definitely mixes that up a bit though. From the top down, the head is on a double joint and the neck base plate thing can move around a little [though I think this is just for the sake of turning the top part into the core fighter]. The cockpit part can slide open to reveal the pilot, and other than that the torso/waist has no articulation at all, once again because of the transformation gimmick. The shoulders are attached by a peg, and can swivel and turn uninhibited. The shoulder armor itself is on a hinge and can move pretty freely up and down. The arms can rotate right under the shoulder joint, and can bend at two points at the elbow [and can almost do a 180˚ bend!] and the hands are ball jointed at the wrist. However, instead of having articulated fingers, V Gundam Ver.Ka has finger swapping to accommodate for the beam saber or the rifle. The red containers on the back of the forearm can also swing forward to be used as the beam shield generator, and the hatch on top of the container can open and a beam saber slides right on out. Moving down to the waist, the front and side skirt armors are on ball joints and are really never in the way at all. The back skirt, though, is pretty much stationary [it can move a little bit, but not enough to matter]. The hip connection is a polycap ball joint into a socket in the top of the thigh, but the connection is somewhat loose and the legs will fall off sometimes, but it's no big deal. The knees are double jointed, but because of transformation when you bend them the kneecap armor will jut out a little bit, and if you bend the leg back far enough the fin for the bottom fighter will pop up. And finally, the ankle armor is on a ball joint attached to the foot, which can extend out and bend downward in the middle [for the transformation, of course].

First off, this sucker is TINY. Despite being a MG kit, the V Gundam Ver.Ka isn't much taller than your average HG kit. While this may bother some people, I think it's totally reasonable. You definitely get your money's worth, since it's got a pretty complex frame and overall build and it looks fantastic when it's all finished. Next, the finger swapping. That one factor really had me on the fence about this kit for a very long time. I didn't like that I'd have to keep extra finger parts [not even extra hands like on HGs] around in case I want V Gundam to hold the beam rifle it comes with. However, after building the little guy and seeing how everything works, I think the finger swapping makes sense for a kit of this size. The hands would be too small for ball jointed fingers to be effective at all.

That last picture kind of makes V Gundam look like a football player... >__>

~*~ACCESSORIES~*~

V Gundam doesn't have too many accessories, so let's start with the beam rifle first! Molded in a weird brown color, the beam rifle has a special set of fingers that you attach to the hand for. Then you slide the rifle in the hand and close the thumb around it!

Next up, we have the beam saber/beam fan. Like I mentioned earlier, the beam sabers are stored in the red things on V Gundam's arms. A little hatch can open on the top, and the beam saber can be pulled right out. Once again, this requires a different set of fingers to be used >__>

The beam saber beams are quite thin, which I think is pretty fitting for a Gundam of such a small stature~. The beam fan blade pegs into the handle the same way the saber does, though I really don't get how a beam fan could be used as an effective weapon at all...

And finally, the awesome beam shield! Like I mentioned before, the red container part swings forward, and you remove a little part on the end and slide the shield effect onto the part and then re-attach the whole thing! The beam shield effect is really quite awesome, and it's got an interesting shine to it under the right light.

~*~SECTIONS~*~

Since V Gundam is made of multiple fighter sections, I thought I'd at least give a brief rundown of each one.

First up, the most important part of V Gundam: the core fighter! This is where the pilot sits, and when it attaches to the rest of V Gundam it forms the head, back, chest, and top of the shoulders. I definitely like this version of the core fighter much more than previous iterations [like say, RX-78-2's core fighter] because it looks more like a fighter jet instead of a block with some goofy wings and a nose cone where the pilot sits.

I also snapped a picture of the other core fighter included with V Gundam Ver.Ka, the Hexa version core fighter. You'll see a few pictures of V Gundam Hexa toward the end of the review~

Next up is the top rim of V Gundam. Basically, it's the arms and waist~. There really isn't too much to say about it, honestly. To dock the core fighter [after it's been transformed, obviously] pull the shoulders apart a little bit and slide the core block right in, and there's a little locking mechanism that'll take care of the rest.

And the final part: the legs! Definitely the most important part of any Gundam, the legs clip on to the top rim quite easily and are ready to go~

And here's V Gundam all ready to go, sans the core fighter. I'm gonna show you guys what V Gundam Hexa looks like. I think the lack of v fin is kinda cool on a traditional Gundam face :D

~*~FINAL VERDICT~*~

The MG V Gundam Ver.Ka was a kit that definitely grew on me as time passed, and even more as I built it. It retails for around $40, and in my opinion it's worth every penny. It's a surprisingly complex hit for being so small, and if you like transforming kits then this is definitely right up your alley!! Like I said before, if enough people want to see it transformed the I'll do an update on it~.