enerio pamiroyan has this! -1y 67%

Verified Purchase

Great but It has a LOT of Issues I've been eyeing this since it first debuted at the 2018 Wonder Festival and I was glad to have it as soon as Gundamplanet had it in stock. As I built it, however- there were many things that came up as issues.



1. Joint parts

A lot of the joint parts are standard building, especially for the left and right arms and legs. However, the instructions for these aren't so clear especially on specific orientation. If you're used to building primarily Gundam kits you're going to get a little confused since the images on the instructions don't directly match what you actually need to do. For example, I built the left and right joints for the arms and legs at the same time. Which is how I managed the catch how the image instructions have an incorrect orientation for what you're supposed to be doing. In reality, the first joint instruction image is correct for both left and right. It seems what happened was that the opposite joint was simply a flipped image instead of a true look at how the joint is supposed to come together.



2. Wing Joints

According to preliminary research on this issue, it seems I'm not the only one to experience it. On the connecting joint between the wings themselves and the actual body of Arsene, the joints are so weak (or brittle, I'm not quite sure how to describe it) that when you move to rotate the wing so as to put the final backplate, there is a strong possibility of the pegs in the joint twisting off as well. I made this mistake for one of the wings when I was attempting to twist it out of my way to put on the backplate and it resulted in the peg coming clean off the side of the joint. The quick solution was to drill through where the peg was previously and add a screw, but it's annoying and not as secure as an actual peg would be. My guess is that the plastic that made the joint peg is not suited for the kind of function is designed for, it's hard to put together (as it is two separate round joints that come together) and I believe the wings are too heavy of a stress to put on them. Hence why the pegs get stripped easily when you try to rotate them. I believe that one of the only easy solutions to this would be to buy an aftermarket joint part to replace both.



3. Injection Marks

Cleaning the parts themselves was a bit of a hassle since they don't sand cleanly, leaving white marks that distract the eye. This is more nit-picky than anything since it's more of an aesthetic issue rather than a functional issue- but nonetheless, the found solution was to simply put paint over it to cover the marks.



In spite of the issues I've had with it, the overall design of Arsene was well done and it's a nice kit for any Persona 5 fans to have. Especially if you have the skills/resources to solve these issues. There are some details that need to be added but that's to be expected with kits. I would find it comparable to a Gundam 1/12 scale HG model kit since it doesn't have the paint/plastic complexity that some of the RG and MG models have, but the mold of Arsene himself is quite nice.