MSA-011 [EXT] EX-S Gundam (HGUC) Review

A kit that made me sad of what Bandai has become

Hello and a very good morning to my fellow readers, I’m back with a review of this quite old school kit. Well, it’s not that old school, to be honest, but it was in HG terms quite an ancient kit, haha. With the current P-Bandai recent announcement, building this kit really does take me back to a time Bandai was releasing kits that were not even in the real mainline series.

Like this kit for an instance, oh how I miss that Bandai. Though this kit does remind me of a particular movie though, hmm….

All right, without further ado, let’s first get on with some history!

The History and Development of the MSA-011 [EXT] EX-S Gundam.

The history of the MSA-011 [EXT] EX-S Gundam is an interesting one because it is an upgrade to the already existing S Gundam. The S Gundam was build to be a prototype transformable mobile suit as well as the EX-S Gundam. The only difference between the two (besides the name)is that the EX-S Gundam was made to be as twice as powerful as the original S Gundam unit. Though the upgrades were only for more additional heavier armour and new and more powerful weapons. The upgrade also does change the way the EX-S Gundam behaves when transformed, instead of saperating itself to three parts like the S Gundam, the EX-S Gundam only transformed itself to only one form that is the G Cruiser (Which looked fucking awesome).

The S and the EX-S Gundam series, was built with the same Gundarium γ Alloy Composite but with the EX-S Gundam sporting a heavier added armour (to an already quite heavily armoured mobile suit) for extra added protection. Both of this units as well share the same main armaments that is the beam smart gun (the designs really remind me of the smart gun from aliens though). The Beam smart gun is a highly accurate particle beam weapon (a better particle beam weapon as compared to the what the FAZZ Gundam weilds) and it was made more formidable as compared to the one wields by the S Gundam because of the better power output. The best part is that unlike the S Gundam, it doesn’t have to sacrifice its two additional beam thigh cannons to operate the beam smart gun. They both as well sport the same beam sabers that was placed at the knee section of the mobile suit.

Them both as well was given the same INCOM system (a quasi Psycommu system, which doesn’t require the pilots to have newtype powers to operate), the EX-S Gundam, however, was given two more additional INCOM system for defence. That further increases the defense capibilities of the EX-S Gundam. Due to the extra power output that this has over its predecessor it even had installed 6 beam particle cannons on the unit, 2 of these was the same ones that was placed on the S Gundam; the thigh Beam Cannons. The other 4 of these beam cannons was placed on the back of the thruster system in which was more powerful as compared to the ones installed on the thighs.

Going back to the kind of protection this mobile suit had, the engineers of the Pegasus III don’t just gave it extra armour and the defensive INCOM system. They even give this insane mobile suit an I-Field generator (A minovsky particle anti beam system) really makes this suit into an insane mobile suit. Though the draw back to all this, is that it requires 3 pilots to operate this unit.

Though during the time of which this mobile suit was fielded (during the New Decides conflict), it was only piloted by a single pilot; Ryou Roots. To compensate with the missing two more pilots that are required to operate this beast, it was given an experimental AI combat system, the A.L.I.C.E (Advanced Logistic and Inconsequence Cognizing Equipment). It helped to compensate the lack of piloting skills that Ryou had during that conflict and have in many times saved his life by taking over the controls of the EX-S Gundam.

In many ways I do see A.L.I.C.E as the real pilot as she has proven to be more combat proven and a much more capable pilot then Ryou was.

Though the only time that the EX-S Gundam was fielded by the Task Force Alpha during the few battles over Ayers City on the surface of the moon. The Ex-S Gundam was used mainly in mopping up New Desides forces before suffering heavy damage in the final fight against the ORX-013 Gundam Mk-V. This, in addition to their need to field superior numbers rather than all-in-one firepower, leads Task Force Alpha to send out the individual components of the S Gundam in the decisive battle against the New Desides rather than repairing and fielding the Ex-S alone.

Though it was a powerful mobile suit, I do think the decision made by task force alpha was a sound one. The EX-S Gundam though powerful it takes too many resources to maintain and as well with them being stretched thin at the time, the existing S Gundam was proven to be more than sufficient to deal with the existing threats at the time.

It was an awesome mobile suit though.

So, with the Mobile Suit history done with let’s get into the review!

The Review

As you guys have already known, this is a pretty old kit. So in a lot of sense, there is no point of trying to compare with the newer kits that we have been getting recently as the newer ones have better articulation and even the molds and the PVC that they use for the newer kits were miles ahead then to what we get here.

Regardless, of that fact, I still love this kit to death. I actually bought this kit because it had a gun that looked like the smart gun that was in Aliens.

Let me first start with bad parts, first though most HG’S are not as color coordinated with its MG counterparts but the newer kits really try it best to be as similar to what you get on the cover even when completed it was still nice to display. Not this though, there is a lot of parts in this kit that really requires you to paint it was really a bitch when you complete it and still have more to look forward to. The runner parts look…….cheap as fuck. I have built a lot older HG’S before, but this is the worse mold I’ve seen on a kit before. Heck, the Xekueins that was released earlier had better mold runner color parts than this.

The articulation on this kit was as well quite shit, there is just so many shit on the legs that you can’t bloody bend it. I must say, that is my first kit that the only purpose that is there is just to keep the kit up. Even if you get a stand, it would probably be a waste of time, since you can’t really do anything awesome with the legs being how it is. Don’t get me started with the arm unit. That was even worse, hampered by the backpack and its long and unwieldy beam smart gun.

If you are thinking of doing awesome poses with this kit like I did before I bought this, forget it. You’d be disappointed in that area. It was just a kit that just there to look awesome. Even the freedom (from my last review) wasn’t as bad as this. Though there is one big issue that was bugging me for this kit, that when you bought the kit it was written there ‘Prototype Transformable’ Mobile suit. You could transform the MG kit so you would have a real good reason to get two of the kits. This one though? It can’t do that. They could do it with the older bawoo though, but not this and in my mind, I was asking why? Why do you even bother making this kit if it can’t do what it was meant to be able to do. It made me feel like they were just rushed into making this happen instead of giving it some real thought and time in crafting this kit into something really awesome.

I know, I know it’s a small issue, but I was quite pissed knowing after putting down so much time on this that it couldn’t transform and give me more reason to love this kit. That’s right, even with its glaring issues, I still love this kit to death. Only because of one simple fact.

With the recent announcements of the P-Bandai money grubbing kits (Pale Rider, MG Hazel) it really takes me back to a time where Bandai was more willing to give chance to strange kits the bawoo, Xekeuiens (I love this one the most), Zaku III etc. The time where I thought to myself one day I would be able to see all the AWESOME F91 mobile suits released in this new HG or MG form.

It was an awesome time for us all, Bandai was releasing awesome MG kits and strange never seen before HG kits. Though there is Premium stuff going on but it never went all bat shit crazy. Though I this kit felt like it was rushed through, but there is a sense of honesty that they were looking to appease the Gunpla fans with making something awesome for us all and making sure that they will continue making more for us.

Even with the issues that you get with this kit, it really doesn’t feel like they were trying to rip you off. It’s just at the time they don’t have the capability to make it awesome and they made it out with making the EX-S Gundam into an MG kit. So, you can still see them were trying to appease the masses still.

No matter how bad this is but you can feel it had heart and soul. It came from a time that Bandai really tries to make awesome kits. A Bandai that really cares for its fans. Today though not so much and that makes me sad. I want my old Bandai back, where has it gone to?

On the other note, The EX-S Gundam looks badass when its done though. It might not be able to pose well but it still able to look damn good. On recommending this kit though, I’d say save up and get the MG kit instead. You have the looks and none of the drawbacks (I’d hope, but then maybe in the future, I will find out).

So that’s all for my review/rant of the week. For next week we are going to touch on one of my favorite kits of all time! All I can say here is that it was my very first Gundam Seed Destiny kits that I ever owned! So, I’m really looking forward in the Unboxing and giving you guys my very second (Haha, because I made it before) impressions of it!

Oh, and I will be having another brief review coming this Wednesday, am quite excited with this one in particular! 😀

Anyways, I wanna say thanks to those that gave me birthday wishes last week, Really didn’t have the chance to say it in my last posting and I do want to take the time to say thanks to all of my readers here that gave me nice birthday wishes! Your support and wishes really put a smile on my face :D. It has been a real fun ride here! As ever I do look forward to your thoughts and opinions on this review of mine.

As well as ever you have my permission to share and as well you can show your support by liking this through any means this is posted through.

That’s all for this week, I sincerely hope you guys have an awesome Sunday ahead, and please do have an awesome weekend there! 😀

I’ll be looking forward to seeing you guys again this Wednesday! 😉

P.S : I just remembered, most of the mobile suit designed in this particular series was designed by Katoki Hajime! No wonder it looked so good. I do he come around and make a Ver.KA of this. I would definitely buy this.

Sources :-

http://gundam.wikia.com/wiki/MSA-0011%EF%BC%BBExt%EF%BC%BD_Ex-S_Gundam