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Roy's Toys Shelf
Description; ah, biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig Gundam.

This deluxe version of the RX-93 is not only 11" tall but a very hefty piece of work; you can feel the weight of the figure, it is not flimsy by any means. 

The Nu Gundam high-lights oodles of articulation, as always, and a solid, although not spectacular, sculpt. 

Accesrroies abound; the standard shield, sabers, beam-rifle and hyper-bazooka are all accounted for, PLUS the fin funnels all actually seperate from the weapons pack.  Woohoo!!!
11" Deluxe RX-93 Nu Gundam- MS Gundam; Char's Counter Attack, Bandai
Meat and Potatoes; 4.8
Perks; 5.0
Homer Factor; 4.7
NEVER call them dolls.  EVER.  Y'all know that cardinal rule.   What's the diff?  You ever see Barbie walking around with a beam-saber and lop someone's head off?  Can you imagine Ken carrying a 90mm auto-cannon and lay the smack down on the fool who parked in his space?  Didn't think so.  DOLLS are around to look pretty.   ACTION FIGURES kick butt and take names.  Which brings us to this new piece, the 11" Monster Sized RX-93 Nu Gundam.  Yes, I'm sort of cheating since I've already reviewed it's 'little brother.' However, the figure does bring up a pretty important question; is bigger necessarily BETTER?  The 5" figure rocked, so something this huge HAS to rock... right?  Well... sort of...

Meat and potatoes come down to one thing; THIS THING IS BIG.  You don't understand.  Think of it this way; you ever watch the NBA on tv and see Tim Duncan, the power-forward for the San Antonio Spurs play?  Pretty big dude; about 7 feet, over 200 lbs, big guy.  Then you see SHAQUILLE O'NEAL PLAY.  About the same height, BUT ALMOST 300 LBS of pure muscle, grace, power.  Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiig difference.  Same here; you know it's 11" tall, then you take it out of the box and realize this thing isn't just tall, it's pretty freaking wide and hefty.  Fortunately, like it's shorter brother, bigger didn't mean sacrificing details; assorted panel lines, maneuvering thrusters, the whole smash are reproduced very well on this figure.  On top of that, the articulation is also first rate; incredible range of motion on all the joints, ankles, you name it.  I wish there was more detail as far as panel lines and that sort of thing, but considering this retails for about $30 as it is, let's not push it.  Think of it this way, a MSIA figure with it's extra paint costs MUCH more then the similar US version.  Even with the import tariffs, we're still talking a lot of extra money for some black lines.  Now imagine what would happen on something with a $30 price-point.  Ouch. 

Perks are also a winner; you have the usual set of weapons PLUS the fin funnels actually detach and can be turned into attack mode.  Coooooooooooooool.  Oh, one warning; you have to put the weapons together.  If you think it's not a big deal, think again.  If you're a model-building person, it's not.  However, if you expected to just pop this thing out of the box, think again.  ALL the weapons have to be assembled, including all six fin funnels.  Each fin funnel is composed of 15 pieces.  Nothing too hard to put together, even for a novice like me, but it did take a good 90 minutes of clipping pieces, filing rough edges down, and really paying attention to instructions,  to get everything together.  Oh, two bits of griping; the plastic used for the beam sabers is kinda flimsy.  Can we put some REAL plastic in these things?  Second, the weapons pack makes this thing back-heavy, so if you want to display the RX-93, you better lean it against something to get it to stand.  I was able to jury-rig a coat-hanger to act as a stand for the Gundam.  Ok, not the most aesthetically pleasing thing in the world, but it works.

Homer factor... ok, here's the problem.  Personally, I really enjoy the piece; it's huge, does a good job of recreating the Nu Gundam, blah, blah, blah.  However, the ONLY thing this thing does that the smaller figure doesn't do is the fin-funnels actually separate into their individual pieces in the 11" version.  Granted, I don't expect a huge song and dance for the bigger scale, but a bit more would be nice; maybe lighting-effects in the Gundam itself, perhaps a firing gimmick in the hyper-bazooka, the cockpit opening and closing, SOMETHING.

Over-all?  Well, it really depends on what you want.  If you're a Gundam fan, you really do have to get this; the figure is huge, lots of fun to mess with, and if you're not intimidated by the assembly, the fin funnels are really neat to separate from the figure.  However, if you're satisfied with your smaller Gundam figure and could care less about having an 11" behemoth on your shelf, you may want to consider savings your money.