BANDAIHobby MG Gundam Kai Model Kit (1/100 Scale), Astray Red Frame

Mg astray red frame kai is one of the best kits around. There is a lot of plastic in the box (25+ runners) and it sells for less than comparable models like mg 00 raiser or rezel type c, for example. The build is great with abundant detail throughout and refreshing if you haven't assembled a master grade astray before. The model has excellent range of motion in all joints, although the shoulder to chest connection isn't the best. There are also a lot of nubs to clean up, the most I've encountered in the 10+ master grades assembled. This can be easily overlooked because the finished result is great in every respect. The colours and their separation create a unique and organic feel. The decals and their placement also sort of give it a cyberpunk look, which adds to the visual appeal.The astray red frame's weapons and accessories are amazing. It has 2 chrome coated samurai swords, individually named with their own detailed scabbard. These look great in any pose and are very well done. It also has a massive, cloud strife-style red sword that transforms into multiple modes that are interesting options. It can become an oversized bow with a yellow effect part at the tip, a strange delta form (shown on the box art), a flight mode, backpack v-form and the giant sword. It contains unused parts from the astray blue frame kit so that you can transform the sword into the gattling gun form as well. You also get the astray blue frame's sword handle and its 2 black side-daggers, including their sheaths. Finally, you can recreate the blue frame's blade arms, just without the pink effect parts. The kit even has an adjustable red stand to accommodate the tactical arms sword in all its forms, so posing options are almost limitless. In general, for what you get in relation to what you pay, the astray red frame kai is pretty much unbeatable.

Great model kit. The only japanese mecha kit I've done previous to this was a Kotobukiya 1/100 Alt Eisen kit - with which I was very impressed, but this blows it out of the water. The level of detail is insane. How do each piece fit together - without any glue, is genuinely impressive. There's an incredible amount of parts - and it even comes with its own 1/100 scaled, tiny pilot, sitting inside its (openable) cockpit. That being said, there are some flaws to such a system - some parts are unfortunately too loose, and I had to glue a few parts with Tamiya Cement, some joints are also too loose and there wasn't much I could do about that. Additionally, the model kit instruction manual only came in Japanese - thankfully, I found a translated version online. The decals were excessively hard to place, and extremely tiny. I think the instructions should of told us to put the decals during assembly instead of at the end completely, because by then it was an absolute misery to do so.To make the model look really good, I strongly suggest getting a gundam marker - or a really fine permanent marker like I did, to trace the armor panels in. It really outline the details of this model, otherwise it looks like a rather cheap plastic toy - when in reality, this is an amazingly engineered display piece, hardly appropriate for toying with (many fragile parts).To further improve, I strongly recommend buyers to purchase some hobby gold paint for the trim on this gundam's sword (In my case, I bought Testor enamel gold paint) to apply over the otherwise awful looking plastic yellow that comes by default.In general, I'd say the difficulty of this model is quite a massive step up from what I was used to. I was pleasantly surprised at the complexity, and quite like the display once done.

|| REVISION 4-6-2015 ||As I said before, this is a fun build. Being my first Master Grade, I was surprised by every little detail this Model Kit had to show, and the mechanics within' the inner-frame. Honestly, my mind was blown. Anyway, being a MG, the build time should take around 7-10 hours. But man, you will enjoy every bit of it.Anyway, once you're done, you will have a Mobile Suit, a pair of katanas along with scabbards, Torch gun and the Tactical Arms II. And a lot of spare parts from the Blue Frame Second L Revise. (Since you know, the Tactical Arms II is practically a copy from Blue.)Possibility: Since it's a MG, you're going to get a ton of it. At least 28 + the fingers (Depends if you split the three fingers.) So, starting from the torso, you get a nice ab crunch and side to side movement, along with a ball jointed waist that pretty much allows you to rotate the whole thing 360 and swivel it around as well. Above the torso is the head that sits on a ball joint, so again, swivel in all directions and you can rotate it all around, and thanks to its double jointed neck, you get a pretty good range going up and down. After that, the arms are pretty superb, so you start off with what I believe is a butterfly joint, so you can have his whole arm practically touch its chest. The arm itself allows you to rotate 360 and pull it out around 120 degrees, then you have the bicep which again, allows you rotate it 360, you got the double jointed elbow which pretty much goes almost 180, below that you have what it seems to be a wrist joint that only allows to pull it up a good 90. Now, the hand starts off with a hinge that connects to the wrist, the hing allows you to bend the hand 90 degrees in both directions, and the ball joint that connects to the wrists lets ya swivel it and rotate it 360, and then you have the single jointed fingers which'll give you some emotion for the poses as well as gripping the weapons. We then head to the lower torso, it's pretty similar to the arms in a way, but you don't have that weird wrist articulation and such. So, it starts you off with an L joint, that lets you rotate it 90 in both directions and even bend it out to do the splits, then you have a thigh swivel and you have a double jointed leg which will allow you to bend his leg back an entire 180, his ankles have a nice pivot which bend around 60 degrees from what I remember, then his feet are plugged in with a ball joint so you got a swivel going on as well, its toe section also can do a slight bend. Did I mention the skirt units also have a little swivel and a couple bends as well?So you can get some pretty dynamic poses with Red Frame. BUT, certain joints are a tad loose, so it'll be tricky for him to hold a pose without him falling over to the side. Especially if you have the Tactical Arms equipped. Also, some parts are a little fragile, so don't go out and play around with him, because, something will break.Onto the accessories: Like I said before, you get the katanas Gerbera Straight and the Tiger Pierce, along with its scabbards, you also get the torch gun along with its Tactical Arms II, and you get a pair of yellow beam effects for the Torch gun. The katanas are nicely detailed and are painted in a beautiful vacuum metal finished blades, giving off that silver finish to it. The guard and the pommel are this dark yellow color that try to imitate a gold finish, and the handle is this mat black hue (Which is also used for various other parts of the MS and TA-II), As for the Tactical Arms II, its a wonderful accessory and really have a lot of play value to it. You have various transformations that belong to the Red Frame and then you have the spare parts to transform it into something only Blue Frame has. (Yay recycled parts.) And the transformations are... SWORD, ARROW, DELTA, V, WORK and FLIGHT. The transformation names pretty much imply what each form is, Sword is basically a giant buster sword, Arrow is a large bow that uses the Torch Gun as the handle and the secondary bow to fire out the Beam effect arrow, Delta pretty much has the wing/blade unites transform into a turn Delta shape, while the V is similar to the Delta, just in the shape of a V. Flight is pretty much the V form but you just flip out the unit and make it look like wings. Now, Work form is a kinda like lobster claws, you transform the TA-II into the pincer cape and have Red hold it with his hand.As I said before, you have some left over parts from the Blue Frame, meaning you'll have the gatling unit, which you can replace to create the Gatling Form or Arm! The Form is basically a torrent that uses the wings/blades to balance itself, while the Arm form is simply the TA unit without the wing parts. You also be able to build the handle part so that you can make the Sword Mode look a little snazzier. You also get an extra heels along with a hidden knife that slips behind the heel units, so you could probably replace the current feels on Red with Blue's. Speaking of knives, you get two Armor Schneider Combat knives with holsters, so you could equip it onto Red as well. Being the Tactical Arms that were also used on the Blue Frame, you can also remove the Blades/wings and equip them onto Red Frame's forearms to create the Sword Arms.The transformations with the Tactical Arms II are endless!Now all Tactical Arms in any form will require you to use the Action Base II! Which is a base provided by Bandai and can be bought separately in various colors. Now, being the Red Frame, the stand comes in red. It can rotate 360 degrees at the base plug, bend upward while having it locked in said position, you can extend the secondary arm as well (It also has a lock.) then you have the secondary base, which rotates up and down pretty well, and the main base swivels left and right. So thanks to this Action Base II! You can do some pretty snazzy poses with Tactical Arms equipped to the Red Frame.Also, the cockpit of Red can flip open to reveal the pilot, Lowe Guele. You also get a 1/100th scale figure of him.So, with all of that laid down, we go onto what's inside the box!Inside you will find:1x manual28x Runners ( 6x Red, 6x White, 7x Black, 1x Silver, 1x Dark Grey, 1x Gold, 1x Multi-Color and 1 Transparent yellow)1x Runner of poly-caps1x bag of screws and nuts1x Runner for the Action Base II1x Dry Transfer Decal sheet1x Sticker sheet1x Foil sticker sheetAlright! Manual time: The manual is pretty standard, you got a simple Front Cover art, and a back cover with the Mobile Suit. Inside you'll find a layout of all of the Runners with a few parts crossed out. The next page will then begin your build of the Astray Red Frame, instructions are straight forward and you will not have any problems understanding them since everything is in pictures and such. You also have a few colored pages of artwork of the Red Frame. The last page will include a layout for the decal placements including a little pallet for the paints you'll want to use if you choose to paint Red.Verdict: As I said in the very beginning, this build is fun. You'll enjoy every bit of it, but keep in mind that it'll probably take up your entire day building this. The Mobile Suit itself is incredibly detailed for its kind, and its overall stature as a Gundam is phenomenal, probably the uniquest one in its time. The Inner-frame allows you to create some incredibly flexible poses, BUT, some joints are loose so you'll have to be creative with it in order to keep it standing. The Tactical Arms II gives you so many possibilities with transformations, which means you'll have a lot of play value with it! Both the Gebera and Tiger are beautiful on its own as well.I highly recommend the MBF-P02Kai Gundam Astray Red Frame Kai. You'll have a blast the entire build through and you won't be able to resist posing him around with his TA-II and his Katanas.(I've included a link to another store that showcases the contents of the GunPla with pictures, so feel free to click on it if you're in need of pictures.)Link: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10106665Sadly, as of today, Red Frame has gone out of commission to do the excessive play with him, the L joint on the leg broke and the finger slots on the hand broke as well, not to mention the secondary bow arms broke as well.So I extremely recommend you being careful with Red, or at least enforce the certain joints with copper wire through said joint.|| ORIGINAL REVIEW 1-23-2012 ||This kit was fun to build, took me 7 hours to build and it was worth it. The possibility is fantastic it has double leg, neck, wrist, foot, arm, shoulder and finger articulation. It came with about 27 runners and these colors are chrome silver, gold, red, dark grey, white and some see through green. The accessories are the beam torch, the tactical arms II, 2 Swords, 2 scabers(it what holds the sword) 2 beam arrow effects and some parts from the blue frame. The tactical can transform to the sword, arrow, delta, v, if you want to you can use the blue frame parts to make the Gatling gun, the 2 bladed arms and can have a better use handle for the sword mode. Also the T.A.II has this claw mode seen in the art in the manual. It also comes with stickers for the head, and the gundam it self and come with some decals. Let's sum it up it's the nice it's better than the high grade and the 1/100. It's the only one with the tactical arms and It's comes with a action stand it can work the astray any 1/100 also it works w/ high grades. So buy it it's worth it, it's fun to build and it looks nice for play and display.