By Rich Dula - images & text © 2008

Scale: 1:60

Parts: Over 200 injection-molded styrene .

Instructions: 18 pages, full color (Japanese text)

Decals: A small sheet of stickers is included

Molding Quality: 9 - no flash evident, all parts crisply molded

Detail: 7 - good detailing, but some things are not quite right

Accuracy: 7 - some areas like the hips and thighs are off in their proportions

MSRP: 4500 JPY (~$42.07 USD/$42.14 CAN/ € 28.98 EUR) available from HobbyLink Japan

Overall Rating: 8 - neat kit if you like big Gundams and don't mind the inaccuracies

Image: More parts

Image: Still more parts

Image: Instructions

Image: Completed example as paint guide, front

Image: Back

Image: Kit comparison

I was browsing through Just 4 Fun (formerly The Hobby Hub) in Lansing, MI a couple weeks back, and I saw this huge box sitting on the shelf. When I looked closer, I found out it was a 1:60 scale Gundam kit. I wasn't familiar with the Exia design, but I liked it, so it became part of my Closet O' Doom.

The Exia is one of the designs from Gundam 00 (aka Double 0). Gundam 00 is the newest television segment in the Gundam franchise. The series premiered in October 2007, and the Exia kit was released in November. The show follows four mobile suit pilots termed Gundam Meisters sided with Celestial Being. The protagionst is 16-year old Setsuna F. Seiei a quiet, taciturn young man who grew up in the Kurdish Republic, and a Gundam Meister for two years. The Exia, his mobile suit, is specifically suited for melee combat and is equipped with an armaments set known as the “Seven Swords”. More information is available at Wikipedia.

This kit is in scale with Bandai's Perfect Grade kits, but is about as difficult to build as a standard High Grade kit, according to information I found on HobbyLink Japan.

Overview

As with most Gundam kits, this one is colorfully-boxed and is crammed full of sprues.

I counted 15 of them, plus the polycaps. This thing is going to tower over my other Gundam kits once I get it built. The side of the box shows an “actual size” view, and it's about 12 inches tall. The articulation looks incredible. For example, each hand is made up of 12 parts, including the wrist polycap. The kit also offers a bunch of weapons configurations. Options include the GN Long Blade and GN Short Blade, the GN Sword Rifle, two GN Beam Sabers, GN Shield, and one GN Beam Dagger. Parts are molded in color, so the builder does not have to use paint on the kit if they choose not to.

Pros and Cons

Some of the folks that are more knowledgeable about Gundam than I am have indicated that, while the Exia is a neat design, there are some issues with the 1:60 scale kit. Specifically, there are issues with the hips and a couple other areas. One review I found on HobbyFanatics.com said the thighs were too short, which I can see when comparing this kit to the 1:100 kit. The head might also be a tad bit too small in proportion to the body as well.

Included with this review is a side-by-side comparison of the kit in 1:60, 1:100, and 1:144. There are some differences between the scales. I did read that the 1:100 scale kit was developed using modified line art as the basis, while the 1:144 and 1:60 kits were both developed from the anime art, so that may account for some of the differences.

Conclusion

This kit looks like it's going to be a lot of fun to build, and I was surprised at the price of the kit, which was less than I would have expected it to be. If you want a more accurate representation of the Exia, I'd recommend buying the 1:100 scale version. If you want a big model of this Mobile Suit, and don't mind the accuracy issues, then you might want to pick one of these up while they're available.