Gundam Review: HG1/144 MRX-009 Pyshco Gundam

Good morning guys!

12:33 am here. I'm not yet sleep so I decided to do this review.

I'm really sorry for just posting now, I know I have a loooooooooooot of backlogs and I'm really doing my best to post them. I do have pictures of most of my new stuff.. I just need time to make their reviews XD

Work has been hectic recently so yeah... Stress is pretty much my best friend right now.

Enough drama.

Let's get it on with the review. I'm trying a new way of making my reviews. I want it to be more direct and simple like my last review: http://gunmod88.blogspot.com/2013/07/gundam-review-mg-1100-gundam-astray-red.html

I got this from the recent ToyCon. My favorite hobby store http://www.greattoysonline.com/ has a booth there and this kit immediately batted my eyes. They were selling gunpla for low prices, I was so shocked XD I wanted to get a lot but I only have a limited amount of money that time so weighed the pro's and con's and eventually deciding to just get this guy. The price I got him for is pretty much a steal already XD 

I present to you one of the big MS in the Gundam universe. The Psycho Gundam. An iconic Gundam from the show Zeta gundam, the sequal to the original Mobile Suit Gundam show. I recommend the show if you're just getting into the whole Gundam craze.

Pretty much everything in the UC era is a must watch.. not all but most of them :D

The Psycho Gundam is piloted by Four Murasame. I'm not gonna dwell too much on her character but long story short she is somewhat Kamille's love interest in the show.

If you wanna more about the MS, click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psyco_Gundam

I'm here to discuss the kit XD

Boxart:

A comparison with HG 1/144 Sazabi box. Sazabi has a really big box.. The Psycho Gundam's box is way bigger. 

Sides of the box shows more info and gimmicks with the kit.

Unboxing:

Even though its a HG 1/144 kit, the parts are damn big to fit my table. I used my bed so I can show all of them in one shot.

Get ready for a lot of screwing. 

The stickers you get are pretty much for details since most parts are in color.

Manual:

It's pretty much your standard HG manual but in a book form like MG kits. The only other kit that I can think of that has the same style is the HG 1/144 ZZ Gundam. 

Leg Assembly:

Very simple. Just a lot of big parts. The inner part can be considered as inner frame if you like. It's mostly for the transformation though. Did minimal painting on the side panels. The tiny red trims could have been actual parts.. Bandai just got lazy, I presume.

Lined the inner parts, they look good during transformations XD Gives it more mechanical detail.

Head assembly:

A very big head but very simple assembly again. They will give you a soft rubbery material for the V-fins which is a good things since you're gonna move it during transformation. It would be a shame to brake it.

Also, the mouth opens, where the cockpit is but it doesn't fully open, just the first door. I wish this came with a tiny Four figure. The EZ8 got a Shiro pilot, why not this one D:

I also colored the front and back camers with my metallic pink marker. Kinda weird for bandai to leave that part out of the sticker sheet.

Did a bit of inking on the forehead cannons. It brings out the details.

Waist assembly Part 1:

Lot's of big parts again. I colored the vents on the crotch area red. You'll see in the coming pictures.

Torso assembly part 1:

Very simple again. You'll do your first screwing on the inner part of the front torso. This will also connect to the front part of the waist armor. You can see here the painting of the vents I mentioned earlier.

Torso/waist assembly part 2:

The shoulders connect to the back part of the torso.

Connecting the current parts:

Here come's a lot of screwing.

The somewhat inner frame, mainly for the transformation or some toilet humor if you please haha!

You can then connect the front torso and waist. Just flip the tube part inwards the body. The front torso and waist will clip in and will use a pivot system. More on this in the transformation later.

Here's a size comparison with your average HG 1/144. It's the Grand daddy Gundam against the monster of a mobile suit Psycho Gundam.

Arm assembly:

By far the most complex part of this build. Gotta love those PG style hands. 

Awesome outcome. Did some lining with the inner parts as well. Lining the fingers is up to you. Since they're segment and are individually separated, I lined them as well. The emphasis on the parts looks nice.

This is why I love PG style hands

Two arms is better than one.

yeah, Rock On!

Backpack assembly:

I'm amazed that they gave this guy a backpack XD But then again, it's not a gundam without a back pack :D

Shield assembly:

Very big shield. Don't confuse which part goes where since there's two of them, they mirror each others assembly. You get 2 connectors. You only use 1 for shield mode.

Pretty much the only accessory you get since he just fires lasers from everywhere XD

Complete assembly:

Despite it's simple design and color scheme, he looks pretty bad ass. The black and red motif really makes him a robot of death. The yellow stickers do their job well in bringing out the details. I was suppose to paint them but they turned out nicely in the final output.

You can also see the red trims I painted on the legs. It's nothing major but it adds more detail and it completes the overall look of this MS.

Let's go to the transformation:

Transformation:

Remove the shield.

Flip the v-fins and push the head away and down towards the torso then flip the shoulder panels.

Rotate the head cover from the backpack.

Open the hatch in the torso and pull down the tube part to hold the torso in place.

Pull the legs down and collapse them.

Rotate a few parts to get this effect.

Align the legs properly.

Flip the hands inside the arms.

Rotate the elbows in a 90 degree angle and align the panels from the shoulders and forearms to create a cover.

Separate the shields and attach the at the leg with the connectors.

He still looks big in mobile armor mode. Looks pretty awesome though, really hides the gundam parts well. I just really wish there's a tiny Four figure.

Comparisons:

As you can see, he towers over my MG 1/100 Gundam RX-178 Titans ver. The Hyaku Shiki on the other hand is another HG 1/144 kit. Overall, this kit is massive.

You can view Hyaku Shiki's review here: http://gunmod88.blogspot.com/2012/03/gundam-review-hg-1144-hyaku-shiki.html

My MG 1/100 RX-178 Titans doesn't have a review yet since he was built prior to this blog so I might do a quick review someday haha.

The MG 1/100 Crossbones looks like a 1/144 kit here next to the Psycho gundam and Sazabi, one of the larger MS in UC era. The SD's small size is really emphasized here.

You can view Crossbone's review here: http://gunmod88.blogspot.com/2012/02/gundam-review-mg-1100-crossbone-gundam.html

You can view Sazabi's review here: http://gunmod88.blogspot.com/2013/01/gundam-review-hguc-1144-msn-04-sazabi.html

You can view SD RX-78-2's review here: http://gunmod88.blogspot.com/2012/03/sd-rx-78-2-gundam-review.html

A size comparison with another recent build of mine. The Psycho Gundam pretty much makes small MG kits look like 1/144 kits XD

You can view Red Frame's review here: http://gunmod88.blogspot.com/2013/07/gundam-review-mg-1100-gundam-astray-red.html

Size comparisons with your average transformers. Voyager Class Starscream from DOTM and TF gen. Deluxe class Thundercracker.

You can view Thundercracker's review here: http://gunmod88.blogspot.com/2013/04/transformers-review-transformers.html

Starscream is of my pending reviews. Just stay tuned ;D

Lastly, a size comparison with my Sci-Fi Revoltech Iron Man Mk. III. No review of that figure at the moment but stay tuned, still doing a lot of figure reviews XD

In summary, the Pyscho Gundam is one huge robot. He makes everything look small XD I still have to get a PG gundam to see the actuall size difference.

Time for some final thoughts:

Verdict:

Detail: 10/10 - It's a huge kit, they didn't skip on the details, especially the somewhat inner frame parts, so much mechanical detail. Up to you if you want to ink all of that. 

Almost everything is in color. They did skipped out on a few small trims but it can be done by painting them, if you're not lazy though :D

Artitclation: 10/10 - Pretty decent for such a big kit. There's nothing much to hamper is movement anyway. The shield is somewhat heavy so the left arm tends to sag and sometimes affects the whole body. You can always remove it if you want.

One of the big pluses are the PG style hands. It adds a lot of posing options. The shoulders only rotate and doesn't come forward so no crossing of arms here. The legs and feet are pretty nice, has a lot movement since the waist armor is pretty small.

No waist articulation though, it's removed for the transformation. It's not really needed anyway.

Most of the joints are tight. the upper legs are little loose and the weight of the shield doesn't really help. 

Accessories: 9/10 - He doesn't really need any to begin with. He just has his big ass shield. He has laser ports from his head to his crotch to fingers. You can't really ask much since this is how he really is. I just really wish they included a tiny Four figure. Is the plastic really expensive to make her? XD

Parts: 10/10 - Solid parts, everything fits nicely and no bad nubs in sight. Just be careful when trimming the nub marks to avoid discoloration. The mechanism for the transformation is really nice and it's very smooth and flawless in transition. 

Everything is solid. 

Conlusion: 10/10 - Another must have kit if you love UC stuff. I've been eyeing on this kit for a long time now. The only thing holding me back is it's price. Luckily I got this at ToyCon for a really decent price with discounts :3 

As a UC fan, this thing is an instant must buy for me. I love the Zeta series, I love Four and pretty much its design. It's the closest thing to a PG kit for me haha!!

Already one of my "Holy Grail" kits in my collection. Despite being a HG 1/144 kit, you're really not gonna feel that. It felt like a simple MG kit. It's hard to explain, maybe it's the size but it's a really really fun build. 

So yeah, if you love gunpla in general, do try this one out! I still plan to get the other big 1/144 kits like the Kshatriya and Dendrobium.. It might take a while before I can buy the Dendrobium but it would be awesome to own it one day.

I hope you guys enjoyed my review and stay tuned for more!

One more thing...