Sunday, March 18, 2012

SD Gundam Review: BB Sangokuden Oath set

Good evening everyone!

Today I present you the BB Sangokuden Oath set. This set contains Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang fei in clear color. It's very beautiful in person, the pictures somewhat made them look metallic XD

For those who don't know, BB Sangokuden is a series based on the Chinese epic "Romance of The Three Kingdoms". To sum it up, China was divided into three kingdoms: Shu, Wu and Wei. Each Kingdom is ruled by an emperor namely: Liu Bei, Sun Jian (Technically his son Sun Ce started the army) and Cao Cao respectively. 

What's great about this series is that they tell you how the Three Kingdom war unfolded using gundams XD It's quite a nice combination if you ask me. Each character is modeled after a specific gundam, mostly the main characters in a series.

It's called the oath set because this represents the time when the three individuals: Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhan Fei made an oath to each other that they will only die by each others side. If you wanna find out more, there's a lot in the internet that have accurate data concerning the Three Kingdom War. If reading is not your thing, just play any Dynasty Warriors game hahaha!! They're pretty accurate in re-telling the said epic story.

For this review, I'm only gonna show how I build Liu Bei because it's pretty redundant if I showed it to you three times. They all have the same body construction, they just differ in detail, armor and weapons.

on with the review!

Box art:















Very beautiful box art! It really has that Chinese feel to it (despite it being a japanese brand XD) Nice to see that they included on the side what the models would look like after building :D

Unboxing:

















Each character has 3 runners (Liu Bei has the other two runners connected). They also give you a cardboard background XD You'll see more of that later :D The manuals are the usual kind, nothing ordinary except that they contain comics to retell the story of the Three Kingdom War. All of the Sangokuden kits have this as their manual. If you want, collect the mall to read the whole story hahaha! Too bad that I only buy characters from the Shu army... for now ;)

BUILDING TIME!
Let's awaken the proud leader of Shu, Liu Bei!

Runners:



The runners really have that beautiful glimmer in them :3 The runner's are arrange as Liu Bei, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu. I will Build them in that order :D Reminder: I will only show the build of Liu Bei since the three of them have the same body construction.

Head:



The clear parts look pearly XD Since these are clear parts, I barely did some panel lining. The stickers work really well because of their metallic look, they blend well with the clear parts texture.

Body:




Another simple construction, I barely looked in the manual hahaha!! Even the polycaps are clear :D

Arms:

 



All of the Sangokuden kits have this kind of construction :3 The special versions of Liu Bei have elbow joints though :3 It looks metallic in the pic huh?

Lower Body:

 

The red part looks like candy XD

Complete Body:



See? They all have the same body build :D Guan Yu has a beard though XD But that 's Guan Yu's signature look :D They even include it in his biography's "....famous for his long beard..." something like that hahaha!

Each Sangokuden character has 2 looks, this one, their un-armed look and the next set of pictures, their armored up look \m/

Accessories:
































Each character has his own armor set and weapon. I relied on the stickers for the details and they didn't disappoint! The metallic shine blended well with the glossy-ness XD 

Liu Bei has his signature swords, Zhang Fei has his Spear/Pike (not sure XD) and Guan Yu has his signature Spear, it's pretty accurate to the real thing :D Even the weapons have nice details on them despite it being clear.

Armored up:















Don't tell me that's not awesome... They look AWESOME!! The stickers really brought them to life, they really did the model justice XD (if this were an ordinary kit, I'll pretty much paint everything XD) So glossy :3 Oh yeah, before I forget, Liu Bei was modeled after the RX-78-2 Gundam ( Definitely looks like it :D), Zhang Fei is modeled after the Zeta Gundam ( The head piece is a give away, also the spear heads can be collapsed and attach to the back making it look like the wings of the Zeta Gundam.) Guan Yu is modeled after the ZZ Gundam ( I don't see it XD except for the head piece)

POSING TIME!!

They really look nice together! It's like if the other is missing it will look really dull XD















My Shu Army: (L-R) Guan Ping, Guan Yu, Zhao Yun, Liu Bei, Zhang Fei, Ma Chao, Zhuge Liang and Ma Dai. I'm Still missing Huang Zhong and another one of Ma chao's cousin XD To bad they didn;t make model for Xing Cai and the others :( The cardboard backgrounds other side is an ongoing war. Good thing they have the luxury to do a group shot hahaha!!

With these 3 together, they're unstoppable \m/ 

I have 2 Liu Bei's by the way. The one on the left is the version towards the end of the series, wherein he has upgrades of his armor and the legendary Dragon sword. So yeah, very drastic changes in every aspect. The one on the left is still my favorite version XD

Verdict:

Detail: 10/10 - Despite it being SD kits, they have a lot of intricate detail if you examine them closely. Since these are clear kits, it's pretty much a waste if you painted them that why I relied on the seals the bring out the detail. They didn't disappoint, they really gave life to the kit :D very little panel lining is require too :D

Articulation: 8/10 - This is where most Sangokuden kits suffer, since they have a very little body and lacking elbow joints, they're pretty much hard to pose XD But some kits are exceptions like my Other Liu bei (no the one in this kit). Most of the joints are ball boints, those are a pain over time because they tend to wear out fast causing them to dislocate when you rotate them.

Accessories: 10/10 - You get what you see on the show, since this is what they look like when the show started, don't expect awesome looking armor (like my first Liu Bei :3) They all have traditional armor, pretty much acceptable from what you see during war periods XD They don't really need much, they look awesome as is XD The cardboard background is a nice addition for photography purposes :D

Not much gimmicks, thank god XD The SD Gundam's tend to overdo their gimmicks with the accessories creating abominations -_- yes, I'm talking about the SD's from Gundam 00 hahaha!!

Parts: 10/10 - Parts are solid in connection, the clear parts somewhat have a more brittle feel to it, it was kinda scary at times because while fitting the parts, they sometimes won't budge but with little effort you'll hear a nice snap :D My only complaint is the ball joints. They wear out easily thus making parts loose overtime. But if you're not gonna move them that much, you're fine :D

Conclusion: 10/10 - This set is worth picking up even if you're not into the Three Kingdom War story, it's a pretty nice addition to any collection, nice to look at and perfect for diorama's :D For a clear set, it's rather cheap, it's the same price as a regular high grade nowadays :D Three kits for the price of one? why not? haha!!


One of the best poses you can do with this set. The brothers pledging their oath :)





No comments:

Post a Comment