Gunpla Review: 1/144 HGBF Transient Gundam Glacier

You know how sometimes reality punches you in the face and you get reminded of how ... no wait. This isn't the blog for emo angsty stuff. This is a toy blog. So I'll be taking a look at something that I was not planning on getting. This was gift number 2 over the Christmas season. Let's take a look at the recreated version of the original Transient Gundam: The Transient Gundam Glacier.

He already deleted his old emo blog. What he actually needs is a psychologist.

If you read the bio of this kit, it states that this was created in Homage of Wilfrid Kijima's original suit but improved with ice powers. That said, the base kit is a recycle of the original Transient Gundam. I'm pretty sure this was designed just so Bandai can recycle the kit. It's going to get salty and negative moving forward.

Aesthetics

The original Transient Gundam was clean and sleek, like a white Lamborghini Huracan or a white Audi with all the straight lines. This version sprouts spikes and clear parts and honestly, one of the reasons this kit was not on my radar was because it's ugly. It's ugly mainly because it lacks coherence. Sad considering the Wing Zero Honoo ended up looking so much better.

He calls it ugly. He should look at the mirror

The backpack in particular is extremely busy with all the spikes sprouting from more spikes. The weird backpack also ends up making the kit back heavy. And unlike the Exia Dark Matter, those extra bits do not become weapons.

He does not have an Exia Dark Matter btw. He's pulling this out 

I mentioned that it's recycled from the original Transient. The original shoulder armor's migrated to become part of the backpack (the top bit). Part of the hinges for the original weapons' also now a backpack. A knee armor is now a butt skirt and parts of it also migrated to the butt. Basically the older parts are now backpack and butt pack.

While we're into the things I don't like, the head itself is something i'm not particularly a fan of. While it looks decent posed, it looks too wispy and thin. It reminds me of one of my most hated enemies in skyrim: The spriggan. 

He hates it as his magic defense in Skyrim is pitiful

There are a few stickers for the kit. The sticker sheet is smaller than expected: the cameras, the eyes, the grey on the V-fin, a grey on the lower abdomen and purple on the front skirt. Interestingly enough, you do not get silver stickers to stick underneath the clear parts. I had to paint mine silver to make the condenser bits pop.

The feet are tiny and, well not particularly pretty. The 2 claws are in clear parts and looks weird. It also makes the kit difficult to stand.

Is there anything I like? The color is very pleasing as I'm one for colder color pallets. It's a nightmare to photograph though as my camera tends to end up taking yellower images than what it actually looks like. 

Overall, it's something I'd pass given the chance. It just looks off. While the Wing Zero Honoo manages to look coherent and pretty, this one just tries too hard to be cool (heh!) with all the spikes, backpack, clear parts and others. I also wish the clear bits have those sparkly glitter like on the Denial to represent the particles. Not going to blame you if you like it though.

Articulation

I don't have the original Transient Gundam to compare with so I'll judge it as a stand alone product. 

It does feature a full suite of the now standard articulation points.

Head is on a double ball joint. The wispy design means it can move pretty freely except looking up.

The shoulders in theory should have a mechanism so you can pull it forward, but in reality, said joint is very limited. Not that you need it though.

The arms are pretty much unhindered.

There's a middle ab crunch that's a bit looser than I like, but I'm glad it's there for one reason. There's also a waist on ball as standard.

The legs can split pretty well hindered a bit by the skirt armor. The ankles for some reason do not tilt as much as I expected since it's actually a ball joint. Not a swivel as what the HG 00 Gundam had contrary to how the joint looks.

There's a mechanism that can swivel the hips up and down.

The  knee can bend pretty well as well. One thing though, and it'll be the theme of this kit, is that the legs can't close together due to the knee armor. If you want to do that legs pointed down in a Wing Zero way, you have to move one foot forward since the sides of the knee prevents the legs from closing up together.

The backpack does feature pretty good articulation. The top bits can swivel side to side. Not up and down though.

The lower spike can also swivel as their mounted on the same peg. The bit that contains the purple spike can also swivel and move a little since it's on a deep ball joint.

The 2 main purple spikes can move and and down. The smaller spikes are on a double hinge based on how the original Transient's weapon. The smallest spike can also swivel. The bottom spike can also swivel the same way the top spike can. Plenty of joints for the backpack.

The problem lies on the lower part of these backpack. It does not swing up or down, which means it'll 100% get in the way of the butt pack. You can fiddle around with the given ab crunch, but overall it'll still get in the way. It's incredibly annoying as the butt plates are pegged rather shallow-ly onto the butt piece. Who though this was a good design? The butt pack doesn't even have thrusters!

Salty AF

Still, it's only the waist that's hindered by the design. The rest are still relatively unhindered despite the spikes and clear bit protruding all over the kit. I'm really tempted to just remove the butt pack.

Weapons and Extras

The original Transient features a stand and 2 2-piece GN Partizans. The original partizans can open up to fire a beam. This kit has 2 GN partizans, 2 holding hands on top of the fists, the stand in clear black and an extra hand with no hand guard. Not bad as it's technically 4 swords.

The partizans cannot open unlike the original. They still can split though. And they can mount onto some grooves on the forearms. You can only mount 1 partizan though and it should be split. Also, as I have not read the manga, I don't know if these can function as bits.

The combined partizans also tend to be difficult to pose with due to the backpack. The clear claws on the feet also means that the stand isn't tall enough. It'll hit the floor unless you slightly move the legs back a bit... several strikes already caused by these unnecessary spikes.

That's pretty much it. Wish they provided a hand plate for the open palm, but I feel the overall feature of this kit are all those clear parts. I do like the new weapons vs the transients though, but you do need to mind the backpack when swinging this thing.

Size Comparison and Other Comparison

It is a rather sizeable kit though. It stand a wee bit taller vs the Kimaris head wise, but you want see that the shoulder is considerable higher than what's on the Kimaris.

VS a standard 18 meter suit. They're backpack mates.

Summary

If you look at it from say plastic volume. You're getting a lot for your money as it features the same content as the original Transient Gundam plus a lot more for the new bits. But this new bits and the new design isn't really my cup of tea. It's overly designed vs the original Transient. The backpack and butt pack gets in the way of the weapons and the waist swivel. While the overall concept of it looks ok in lineart form, it doesn't translate well into kit form. Buy this kit if you like it's looks, but otherwise I'd skip it. 

Good:

- Plastic for the buck.

- Weapon options are pretty decent

Bad:

- Ugly. Looks like a Spriggan.

- That backpack... what were they thinking?

- Nubs on dark and clear pieces needs careful trimming

- did I mention it's ugly?