MG Turn A Gundam

Hello readers, happy Friday! Today I've got a review for you on the MG Turn A Gundam. I'm not gonna lie, the first time I saw it, I absolutely hated it. Nothing about it looked appealing to me. Slowly, though, it grew on me to the point that I liked it enough to buy the MG. Assembling it was pretty neat, but the right chest flaps all broke so I had to glue them on. They're both removable, but the left one's flaps are the only ones that work ^__^. Anyway, review time!!

Just taking a quick look, you can see that unlike Turn X, Turn A Gundam is perfectly symmetrical. It's also a panel lining nightmare XD. It looks great when it's done, but my fingertip was quite blackened from the gundam marker~

Articulation time~. Turn A's head is on a ball joint that's attached to a little neck piece, so I suppose he's got a double jointed neck. The chest compartments can both be removed, and the three blue flaps can swing open to reveal some missiles [nukes?] in storage. Turn A's torso can bend at each two places [or each red part of the torso]. There are also some vents that can open up on Turn A's back, but they're a pain to open sometimes D: The waist itself has no moving parts except for the side skirts. The front skirts move as well, but technically they're not part of the waist, but part of the cockpit. The cockpit can also detach and transform into the core fighter [though it's not much of a core fighter since it's exposed like that ^__^;;].

Turn A's shoulders are the strangest shoulders I've ever seen. Rather than having conventional shoulder armor, the back face is stationary and the front section [the top and front] rotates about the shoulder connection. There are some flaps on the back of the shoulders that can swing open a bit, but otherwise they're immobile. The beam saber mounts sit vertically and can rotate 360˚ and the beam sabers can slide out. Turn A's arms are pretty simple: they peg into the body at the shoulders and can rotate at the shoulder joint. The elbows are double jointed, and can also rotate at the top elbow joint. The wrists are ball jointed onto the arms, and the hands are ball jointed onto the wrists, and each finger can move independently [though they're not jointed fingers like on 2.0 MG kits].

Now for the legs. Turn A's legs are fantastic: they look great and they're incredibly flexible. The hip joints can swing out and the legs can rotate when pegged into the waist. The knees are double jointed and can do a total 180˚ bend. In addition, when you bend the top joint the grating [which I believe is Turn A's thrusters] comes out a little bit for a cool mechanical effect. The shins also have a little joint that allows them to swing forward a bit, revealing some more mechanical detail on the calves. There isn't any ankle armor on Turn A because of the incredibly unconventional design. The bizarre high-heel feet ball joint right into the ankles, and the front and back parts can fold up for a more streamlined flight mode thingy.

Turn A's articulation, in conclusion, is wonderful. There really isn't much to complain about or dislike [unless Turn A's design as a whole :P ] except for MAYBE the shoulders, which can be a bit annoying because of their unusual design. But other than that, it's fantastic. Nothing gets in the way of anything else, allowing for some awesome poses [which are further enhanced by Turn A's dynamic design]~

~*~ACCESSORIES~*~

Turn A Gundam only three accessories, not counting the beam sabers. But let's start with those first ^__^

Reeeeeeally thin beam effect parts for the beam sabers, but they look strangely appropriate on Turn A. Awesome posing time go!

Next up is the shield. Every time I look at it, all I can think of is ProtoMan xD. It's a cool shield, though, and has little clamps on the sides to allow for more stability when on the arm. It's also got a little siding mechanism, which is nice because the shoulder often gets in the way so I have to slide it down D:

GUNDAM HAMMER TIME >:D. This is the same hammer included with the MG RX-78-2 Gundam 2.0, and boy is it a pain to clean the parts Dx. It's worth it though, Turn A looks awesome with the hammer~

Finally, the beam rifle. This strange rifle can be held three ways: like a conventional rifle, like a suitcase, and like a beam cannon launcher thingy. Unfortunately, part of the handle for launcher mode broke, so it's tough to pose him with it in that mode. Overall, though, it looks cool, but the HUGE back of the rifle makes it tough to pose sometimes =\

The shield and rifle have little parts that allow them to be mounted on Turn A's back for some cool looking "after battle" or "reaching for weapons" shots :D

~*~FINAL VERDICT~*~

Simply put, Turn A Gundam is an awesome MG kit. The articulation is fantastic, the parts are well designed and don't hinder anything, and it looks wonderful just standing there. MG Turn A retails for around $45 dollars [more or less depending on where you look] and if you like the design and don't already have one, then I highly recommend picking this bad boy up. It does require a little bit of paint and a painful amount of panel lining, but it's worth the work. It's definitely not an artistic masterpiece or anything, but it offers a nice variety to the more traditional Gundam designs.

And that's it for this week! See you next Friday with another Baby TheEnd review~ :D