I want to say I'm happy that my Leos have arrived, but man, work is such a downer... And this is on top of the RG Tallgeese too. Man, I hate it when life bleeds into my imaginary toy world. Anyway, after a long wait, I finally have my hands on my 1st Gunpla Evolution Project. Onwards!
Here's to hoping that we get new variants soon and hopefully we finally get a Mercurious and a Vayeate that's neither crap, resin or a Tamshii Exclusive Robot Damashii.
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| for someone who claims his life is just work, you sure do complain alot about work... |
Gunpla Evolution Project (GEP) is Bandai's way of identifying kiys that are milestones in engineering. The 1st was the Zeta Revive, which is weird since the backpack parts separation was so bad they have to release a P-Bandai version where the red parts of the backpack are now molded in plastic. It's followed up by the release of RG Unicorn, which boasts full transformation while being solid. The 3rd is PG Exia, which is excellent and features updated LED tech and new engineering but costs me a month's salary... if I don't eat. Finally this kit. So what's new on the build process and he engineering?
Aesthetics
Ahh the Leo. A grunt among grunts. There were so many stock footage of Leos getting murdered that it's dubbed the weakest fodder grunt suit in the Gundam metaverse. And since the Leo is pretty plain, expect the model kit to also be very plain.
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| the guy who's writing this review is also pretty pathetic |
If you're not a fan of the design, then nothing in this kit will even attempt to convince you to buy one. It's as plain as mass produced white bread.
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| bread is never plain you know |
The parts separation is excellent and you are not given any stickers at all. The thrusters, the joints, the red in the head, all separate pieces.
The lack of stickers is great except for the Monoeye. It's just clear yellow plastic inserted to the green bezel. If you plan to OOB this, look around for any chrome sticker and place it under the eye.
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| Left no sticker: Right with sticker |
If you've seen the line art, then you know that Wing grunts tend to have these hollow spaces between the joints inked in black. And the kit captures those blocky chunky joints very well.
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| he's pretty chunky too, like Ral is only in real life |
What makes it a GEP kit? Well for one, it uses only the SD Gundam type of polycaps... which means it'll become loose as hell if you play around with it too much (which I did). The key feature is the elbow and knee joints. Instead of the joint providing the movement, it's the assembly method that gives the articulation. It does that by simply clipping on to the parts. It's surprisingly solid so far... only time will tell if it gets loose. This also means painting is will be a breeze as you can remove the seam without modding the joint.
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| His 1/100 Alteisen is still 30% complete |
Overall, it's a pretty plain kit. But that's the design of it so it's not the kits fault as well. The point of this kit is that it's cheap enough that you can buy several kits and build a squad, or even army build. The box art and promo shots actively encourage that.
Articulation
For something so blocky, you would expect it to not move too much. Well spoiler is it has good range except for the obvious part, which is the head.
The head is actually mounted on a ball joint, but the design of the suit itself actually means that it should not even have movement at all.
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| his head is also pretty poor these days... an it's not the movement that's the issue |
It compensates by having more articulation elsewhere to emote. The torso uses the SD ball joints. Provides good articulation but it does get loose very quickly.
The movement of the torso and waist compensates a bit for the lack of head articulation.
The waist is actually pegged in. The swivel is a bit limited by the design of the waist.
Since the Leo can only fire forward, the arms needs to have enough articulation to hold its gun with 2 hands. We get a pull out joint in the shoulder to help. The connection is also on a ball joint so you can pretty much swivel it anywhere.
Since there's barely a shoulder armor, the shoulder needs to look decent while providing articulation. So the round joint has a cutout that's a bit limited, but it does not matter since you can just rotate the whole arm instead.
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| it's has a lot better range than he has with his flabby arms |
The rest of the arms are pretty standard. Despite only having 1 joint on the elbow which clips in, the design allows it to bend deep. Standard bicep swivel and ball-jointed wrist are present. Knees are also double jointed.
The crotch swivel is also present and it swivels front to back. The construction nicely hides this joint.
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| you should see how pathetic his crotch joint is |
The hips are on swivels, but the way it connects to the thighs uses the SD polycaps. It's tight at first, but the more you move it, the looser it gets. Mine already wiggles
The ankle joint also clips in and the feet is connected via a ball joint. The ankle armor is also on a ball joint and is incredibly loose. The overall foot articulation is decent, but is limited compared to kits with ankle rockers.
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Overall, it's pretty decent. The limited head means you need to articulate the body for it to look anywhere, which was the case in the anime. It does have the joints for you to do that so unless you need a leo posed very dynamically, then it should be fine. I mean it can kneel.
Weapons and Extras
This kit represents the standard ground based Leo, as such it only has the most basic accessories. It's actually on par with your average UC Gundam.
You get a machine gun, 2 beam sabers and a shield.
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| don't be fooled by the picture, there are 2 beam sabers |
The sabers store behind the shield. I implore extreme caution as the pegs are thin and the connection is tight.
Also since the shield is already here, it's mounted to the shoulder mount via a ball joint. It's plastic on plastic so do be careful. Mine already has some stress marks. There's also a handle so you can hold it instead of just flopping beside the shoulder. Really, some Gundam Wing suits have useless shield mounting locations
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| Looking at you Altron Gundam and your build divers equivalent |
The rifle's ammo drum can be removed and the handle (on the drum that is) can swivel. This is also where the only color inaccuracy is present as the muzzle needs to be black.
The drum handle swivel, plus the shoulder joints allow you to pose it into it's most iconic pose: The Leo firing a gun stock footage pose.
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| BWAAAAAA tutututututu |
We expect accessory packs for the Leo though none has been announced yet. There should be shoulder cannons and the Dober Gun for the shoulders. The circle on the back can be removed to reveal a single port which you can use to a variety of backpacks. this plastic cover though is incredibly loose and it just falls out.
The one thing I wish it has is an open hand. Not an action-y type of hand, but just one that's calmly opened so we can pose it being destroyed.
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| You can't have just 1 now can you |
Size Comparison
Since the Leo is a super simplified Tallgeese, you expect it to be shorter than it. Well the Tallgeese is still in the box so you'll have to wait for me to build it.
But compared to the shorter Gundam Wing suits, it's pretty much on par with the AC sizes. It;s a hair shorted vs the Wing Zero.
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But since it's a 16 meter suit, standard 18 meter suits are obviously taller compared to the Leo.
And on a random note, here it is next to Hasbro's Weirdwolf. Weird wolf cost about 2 dollars higher than the HG Leo.
Summary
As a GEP kit, you expect some ingenious engineering here and on some parts it does deliver. The new clip on joints are interesting and makes the whole painting process that much easier. Only time will tell how durable these joints are. The SD polycap joints are a pain back then and a little bit better now. The kit itself is very easy to build (only has 3 runners). Most of the kit is molded in color. If you just panel line and top coat it, and it'll look great. If you don't like plain looking mooks then yeah it's not for you. But if you're a Wing fan, then you have to get it. It's the only Leo kit there is that's available at retail (unless you count the LM grade). My only issue is you can't just buy 1 now can you?
Good:
- cheap so you can buy 3 for the price of an RG
- no stickers at all
- articulation is good for what it is
Bad:
- you can't just buy 1...
- if you don't like plain, then it won't be for you
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