In love with a plastic kit

Hello! Kimi here and I’m back again to finally give you guys my final thoughts on the Kotobukiya’s Megami Device 05 ASRA Ninja. Which is my real first attempt at building a proper full-fledged Kotobukiya PLAMO kit. Prior to this, I honestly didn’t know what I was expecting when I decided to build this.

However I was ready to expect to either to feel disappointed if this turns out to be bad or good if this turns out to be brilliant, but towards the end, I found myself feeling neither of those feelings.

But before I get to that, let us talk about the kit, shall we?

Oh wait, wait, waaaaait a minute, before we get into the review, you may notice that this week we won’t have the lore section up since there isn’t any lore or history on this line of kits that I could find, plus there isn’t any anime or manga that is based on this series that I know of. However, if they do eventually have a proper anime/manga series of this, I promise that we will revisit the lore section of this review.

With that short disclaimer done, let us get to the review, shall we?

The Review

When I decided to build this, I was prepared for two eventualities

The first being that, the kit sucks, and then I can rag about the price point for this kit is just too absurd to justify. Heck, it’s even more expensive than most P-Bandai kits out there.

The second, that the kit would be good, but the price is still too absurd to justify getting, not to mention this is probably the hardest kit to get currently really manages to be a kit that feels and look like a proper premium kit, unlike the P-Bandai’s

You may notice in those two instances, the only constant thing that I was ready to criticise this kit for is really on the price (and P-Bandai), and before I go into the review, I just wanted to be honest with you guys that in my mind I still think the HGBF Mecha Girls is probably the better choice over the kotos FA Girls/Megami Device when it comes down in terms of value, quality, and fun. I really thought that there is no way that the Kotos might be able to be as good, or as good value for money like the Bandai HGBF Mecha Girls, not to mention fun to build as the Bandai’s version.

I really couldn’t comprehend at first why people are attracted to this kit but mind you, this is me before I started with the Koto kit.

Now, however, I fully understand why the Kit was priced as such and why there were so many people that loved this awesome, yet elusive line of kits.

You could say now, I have seen the light of plastic enlightenment.

Let me explain why.

There are four things that I take into account when it comes down to building a PLAMO kit, especially when I take on something that I have no experience building. Firstly, all the parts must be made to fit well, two the kit should be able to do it’s most basic required movements or articulation, thirdly the kit must try to look as close as it was advertised or better and finally, the kit must be fun to build.

Those were my requirements set for every kit that I work on, no matter if it’s a Bandai kit or not. Usually, for every new line or brands that I take on, they only manage to only cover one or two of the checkboxes. Even then I feel that its good enough to get a praise from me.

So imagine my surprise when the ASRA Ninja kit manages to tick all four checklists I had here. Really trying to find faults with the ASRA was really a huge undertaking for me.

While building this, I was trying to find faults on its parts, however here all the parts are all made to fit well with no obvious seam lines. Really, you really have to look to really find it, even if you do manage to find it, it is not really one that you would find it to be annoying or out of place. It looked natural and never to be a cause for sore eyes.

As well it wasn’t helped with the fact that the ASRA Ninja is probably the only kit that I had that is the most poseable. Not just content with that, the joints and parts are well made and designed here that there were really no instances where I would not be confident with posing the ASRA Ninja in any way that I want. It is really one that is able to do whatever I asked it to do. It really never fails to amaze me it is able to do something and not fall apart into a million pieces.

The look for this is aswell, just….just brilliant. Really this is the very first kit that I can honestly say, that you don’t have to do anything to make it look good, all you really needed to do is just build it and nothing more.

See why I said it was hard to find any faults?

I honestly really enjoyed both looking at it and building it. If I would be able to gauge the experience I got from building this I would say the experience is akin to the time I spent building the MG Sazabi Ver.K.A recently. This is one kit I never wanted to stop building and really wish that I have more time with. Really, I can’t imagine something like this to be this good

Though I could say Kotobukiya really put everything that they’ve learned from their past to be able to make something this great, I really feel that the Megami Device line of kits is the perfect representation of all of that experiance put into practice.

Which made this kit, felt almost perfect.

After spending my time with this I now fully understood why it needed to be priced as such because now I really feel that all the money spent on this is worth it and hey even though the ASRA Didn’t need a stand for it to be able to stand well. Kotobukiya was nice enough to still include one for all of us, so we can really make her do some pretty awesome poses with her attached to the stand.

However, like I said before this kit is almost perfect. After spending some time with the ASRA Ninja I did manage to find some issues with it, for an instance, the parts and the joints do need some breaking in, the reason being for this? The joints are pretty stiff when you first put them together. If you don’t do so before you have everything locked in together, its really going to be a bit of a bitch. However, this is because it is a new kit and unlike the Bandai kits, here they didn’t come with soft plastic parts for the joints so you can expect the parts would be quite stiff if you don’t break it in.

Another issue that I encounter is with the manual, there were many occasions I was confused and find myself wasting time to look for some of the parts for the ASRA Ninja. Not to mention some of the parts are a bit fragile, so do take some caution while working on this kit.

Though even with those issues there mentioned, it never once hinders my enjoyment building the ASRA Ninja, in fact, I have learned to appreciate its faults even more now. With the knowledge that I have now after building this, now I know what to expect on my next adventures with either the Megami Device or FA Girl kit.

It was foolish of me to think that I could compare this to the Bandai’s Mecha Girls HGBF series because really I find that the Koto’s Megami Device kit is so much more superior to the Bandai’s Mecha Girls HGBF kits. Really after building this, I really, I don’t think I could go back to building the Bandai’s Mecha Girls HGBF kits without comparing it to the Koto’s kit. Honestly, how can you when you have built something this awesome?

I really feel that Bandai really needs to learn a lot from how kotobukiya does it if they plan to keep making HGBF Gunpla Girls because honestly, Kotobukiya is doing it well better than I ever expected them to be.

As we come to a close, now I can finally tell you guys here what I was feeling when I finally manage to complete this kit, as you guys already known at the start of this, I wasn’t feeling happy nor disappointed with the ASRA Ninja. Instead, however, I was feeling sad. Sad to know that it would take me awhile to get another variant of this kit somewhere in the future, sad to know that why didn’t get to this sooner. But mainly I was feeling sad that I completed this kit, and never again would be able to experience the same kind of excitement for a long while.

It does make me wonder though, have I fallen completely in love with this kit?

I think I might have. Goddamn, I’d better start getting myself preordering the future kits so I would not miss any one of them anymore and I think I should really go out and hunt for the ASRA Archer now.

Wish me luck guys, I prolly need all your prayers here.

With that ends my review of the Kotobukiya’s Megami Device 05 ASRA Ninja. This is that really manages to blow my mind through and through. Really, I never imagined it to be this good. Though, what do all of you yourselves think of this kit? Do you enjoy it as much as I do or don’t? Do let me know here (or on Reddit) if you felt the same way.

Anyways, we will be back again this week more Let’s Talk Gunpla Segment on the coming Wednesday and we will be back as well this Sunday with a new Unboxing and First Impressions! So do look forward to that!

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We hope by sharing our love and passion for Plamos and Gunplas here, it’ll inspire you to pick up the hobby or reignite your love for em!

Anyways, we shall see all of you again next week, and we hope that you all have an awesome week and weekend ahead! Have an awesome Gunpla building time there as well and until next time!

Ciao!