[gundam] MG F91 Mini Review

[Reynolds, Jason M.]

I thought I'd share my experiences with the MG F91 for those who are considering picking one up.  It is also of interest to people planning on getting the MG Crossbone because of the shared components.  It isn't a bad kit.  It has many exciting innovations and only a few flaws.  The head didn't seem as bad when I saw it in actual 3-D versus looking at the pictures online.    It still doesn't match Okawara's original design, but it isn't as butt ugly as my first impressions of the online pictures made me think.  I watched F91 again to compare the model to the onscreen version and was actually fairly impressed with its accuracy.  I would say that the chest is actually more accurate then the old 1/100 kit.  Something that didn't stick out to me until now is that the F and 91 on the shoulder armors aren't in the anime at all.  This never registered with me before until I was making a specific point of comparing the mecha to the model.   The Good News The internal leg structure is great.  It doesn't have as much kneeling flexibility as the recent OYW edition of the RX-78, but it is pretty close.  This structure has been imported into the MG Crossbone as well. The torso is beautiful.  There is lots of nice detail.  The only things being imported to the Crossbone are the shoulder connecters and the connecter to the lower waist. The actual beam shield piece is beautifully painted and much thinner then the old kit.   The only thing that irks me is if they can go to all the trouble of painting this green why couldn't they do the same for the Lafressia canopy? The bazooka and beam rifle are nicely done.  The peg system doesn't work perfectly but that isn't the gun's fault... The backpack thrusters are very well done.  Their multi part construction makes painting easy.  They really need to be glued otherwise they will pop out occasionally when the kit is handled, bumped, etc. The feet are fairly articulate and have been imported into the Crossbone. The pose-ability of the kit is very good by modern standards.   The Bad News The beam shield "generator" connection to the arm is difficult to extend and even worse to keep in place.  The shield ends up flopping around a lot unless you push the generator back towards the "storage" position.  It also tends to fall off easily when the beam shield is attached to the generator.  I think the simple removable peg on the old 1/100 kit was better.  Nice idea, horrible execution.  Luckily this feature is NOT being imported to the Crossbone. The elbow connection between the upper and lower arms tends to pop out when you are trying to pose the arm.  It stays in fine when the arm has been posed, luckily, but I don't know how well it will hold up in a few years.  This is mildly annoying, but not quite a show stopper.  Unfortunately this feature seems to have been imported to the Crossbone.  The upper armor tends to slip down when posing the arms, but it can be glued in place at the loss of showing off the internal frame in "Skeleton" mode. The upper leg armor tends to not stay tight.  They might need to be glued on the internal frame. The hip armor pieces that house the spare beam shield generator, and the beam sabers, do not fit down flush with the legs.  If you try to push them flush the beam saber compartment on the left hip skirt armor tends to stick out. As a result they tend to stick out at 45 degree angles. The hands suck.  The index finger is VERY loose.  It is hard to get the pegs to fit into the slots in the gun handles.  I blame the hand for this.  Unfortunately this feature has been copied directly to the Crossbone. The face switch requires flipping the mouth guard to the back of the head.  This ALWAYS takes the sticker off of the eyes.  I am going to paint the eyes, but I am worried that it will scratch the paint anytime the face is switched.  It isn't horrible, but considering how much alteration was made to the face to get this gimmick to work the least they could do is make sure that it wasn't going to rub up so much against the eyes.  Since the transformation isn't even close to anime accurate they would've been better off having removable face parts. The Lafressia base is a good concept that was done in a half-assed fashion.  If they went to all of the trouble to mold the guns separately, why not also do the same thing for the thrusters?  Painting them will be a pain.   The proportions seem way off.  It isn't horrible, but I don't think it was worth the extra cost.  Removing the peg in the butt of the MG F91, so that it can be mounted on the base, is a real pain in the butt so you will probably just leave it off if you plan on ever using the base. The Variable Speed Beam Rifles are actually pretty awesome with the exception of one potential show-stopping flaw. In the internal structure there is a rail that a square "ring" piece slides up and down on to extend the weapons.  Normally this would be handled by a polycap, but in this case it is handled by a regular plastic piece.  It is VERY hard to get on there without breaking the rail.  I ended up breaking one of mine and had to glue it as best as I could.  Since Bandai knew they weren't using polycaps they should have been more careful in their design for this particular part.   It feels very solid, but with how easily certain parts pop off it should be glued in a few spots.  Unfortunately this removes the ability to display the internal structure on its own.  I would give this kit 3 out of 5 stars.  There are some awesome new ideas hampered by bad execution.  Nowhere near as bad as the floppiness of the MG Zeta 1.0, but nothing spectacular either.  Hopefully the imported parts will work better in the Crossbone.