A very orange Christmas Gunpla review

Merry Christmas to all of you awesome peeps! Yes, yes I know that the review for this came quite late…however I will explain further of why you are seeing this instead of our usual Let’s Talk Gunpla post later on, but for now let us first talk about my final thoughts of the HGCE Heine’s Destiny Gundam…because to be really frank…

I am really impressed by this.

Because this might be the one kit that I’ve built this year that made me feel like this is the perfect representation of how far the Mainline HG kits have gone. There are many reasons for this, which I would explain further in this review of the HG 1/144 ZGMF-X42S-REVOLUTION Destiny Gundam Heine Westenfluss Custom (HGCE).

But before we get to that, we will first do a brief dive of the history and lore surrounding this very interesting Destiny Variant, shall we?

The History of the ZGMF-X42S-REVOLUTION Destiny Gundam Heine Westenfluss custom

Model name:

ZGMF-X42S-REVOLUTION

Classification:

Concluder-use General-Purpose Mobile Suit

Weapon systems:

MMI-GAU26 17.5mm CIWS

MA-BAR73/S High-Energy Beam Rifle

M2000GX High-Energy Long-Range Beam Cannon

MMI-714 Arondight Beam Sword

RQM60F Flash Edge 2 Beam Boomerang

MMI-X340 Palma Fiocina Palm Beam Cannon

MX2351 Solidus Fulgor Beam Shield Generator

Anti-Beam Shield

Height:

18.08 m

Armour Material:

Variable Phase-Shift Armor

Powerplant:

Hyper Deuterion Engine (Unkown Output)

Total Thrust:

Unknown

Effective Sensor Radius:

Unknown

Crew:

1 pilot

This is not going to be a long history bit because to be frank the REVOLUTION variant that we are seeing here is basically is just the same Destiny Gundam but with some tweaks done to the MS to fit the requirements set by the Pilot, Heine Westenfluss to his Destiny Gundam and its orange colors scheme of course.

So if this is just the same Destiny Gundam, why do we even bother to do a history bit for this MS? Well after reading through the lore for this, we do learn a great deal more of the Destiny Gundam and it as well helps to finally explain something that we all here were quite bothered with.

Why does this supposedly custom prototype MS still gets the ‘General-Purpose’ MS specification despite claims by ZAFT previously that this was an MS that was specifically tuned and designed from Shinn Asuka’s combat data.

Seeing that tag associated with this MS makes us feel like the late Chairman Durandal has some interesting plans for the Destiny MS line up. That was all merely just speculations however after the acknowledgment by the ZAFT side on the existence of a Second Destiny unit, it does help to shed a clearer light into the late Chairman Durandal’s ultimate plan.

Because we all here feel like the acknowledgment of the existence of this MS confirms our suspicion that this MS was meant to be distributed to ZAFT’s chosen Faith members. For the longest time, we kind heard rumors of the late Chairman Durandal intentions of creating an MS team that was consisted of just Destiny Gundams, which would be mostly made up of members of ZAFT’s FAITH Special Forces team as its pilots with Athrun Zala leading the pack.

However due to the death of Heine and as well the subsequent defection of Athrun Zala to the 3 ship alliance, kind of messed with the late Chairman Durandal’s plans. Which is why that plan was scrapped entirely and the why ZAFT only ended up relying on the Minerva’s MS team to be the main backbone to his plans.

This is a bit of a shame because seeing how well a single Destiny performs in the battlefield does make us wonder how would a group of this MS perform in battle?

I wouldn’t be surprised if it managed to turn the tide into ZAFT’s favor. Maybe if it was completed earlier, maybe Heine won’t be biting the dust like the way he did.

With that ends the history bit (well its more like the SEED Conspiracy bit), let us now move on to the review, shall we?

The review

As a fan of the Destiny Gundam, getting this really is a no brainer for me. Because this was really one of those kits that I will get, regardless of how well or how bad it was rated by the builders. That is how much I love the Destiny Gundam. Even with that said, I was quite impressed with Bandai’s effort here. I honestly didn’t really expect a mid-tier mainline HG kit like this to make me experience the same feelings that I have like I did with building some of the best gunplas this year.

Again, I do admit that I’m really getting ahead of myself here without really explaining why I feel as such. But it is hard to not start this review without acknowledging that and don’t worry, even though I am a fan but I assure you guys that I will not be doing a fanboy review here. haha.

Let us start with the things that I like here. Like for an instance, my building experience with the HGCE Heine’s Destiny. Towards the end of my time with the kit, I do find this to be one of those HG kits that managed to be both fun and easy to build. Everything here snaps fits quite well, and I as well find that the nubs/sprue/gates for the kit were really easy to deal with here.

Plus the kit here is as well really easy to build, eventhough there is alot more process to go through here to complete a section but it is not something that a newbie would have an issue with. Not to mention too that most of the section comes with stickers so if you are not confident enough to paint the kit up, worry not because the sticker option here is quite decent…that is as long you take the time to apply it properly of course.

Even if you are aswell thinking of trying out painting for the first time, well know that most of the section that does require painting isn’t that had to work on. In fact, you will find that learning to paint using this kit as a base is a good kit to learn the ways of the paintbrush (or airbrush) on.

Secondly, there is as well the matter of the HGCE Heine Destiny Gundam’s gimmicks. I do find the gimmicks of the kit to be quite interesting, like this might be the very first modern mainline HG kit that I encounter this year that comes with an arm unit with 3 separate segments, which admittedly does give the arm with better articulation on its arm unit. What’s more, I do as well like how all the effect parts of the HGCE Heine Destiny Gundam’s looked on and off the kit. This might be one of the best looking Destiny effect parts that I have seen in any line up which features the Destiny Gundam….period.

Lastly, I’m as well a fan of the looks and the articulation of the HGCE Heine Destiny Gundam. Eventhough it may not have the same level of insane detail that we’ve seen with the RG version, but somehow rather they still managed to make this look good while retaining that simple anime-inspired look of most HG kits. I really commend Bandai for pulling this off the awesome look here so well with this HGCE kit.

But the good news doesn’t stop there, because the articulation of this kit is as well by far one of the best that I have seen in a modern mainline HG kit. It is really one of those HG kits that you could really have it posed in almost anything that you may have in mind, and best of all it would be able to pull it off without ever breaking a sweat.

Oh yes before I forget, I was as well really impressed by the overall stability of the kit because to those that is familiar with building Destiny at any scale you will know that Destiny Gundam does come with a pretty heavy backpack unit. So every time we worked on a Destiny kit this is one of the very first things that we are all concerned with. But yet even despite it carrying a very heavy backpack, the kit still manages to stand well without a need of a stand to support it.

I think this may be due to the way that the joints were designed here and as well it may be as well due to the way that HGCE Heine Destiny Gundam’s feet were designed. Even though it doesn’t have the huge and funny looking ‘clown’ feet like the ones seen on the RG Destiny, but the much more tasteful design of the HGCE Heine’s Destiny Gundam’s feet still has a pretty good ground clearance. Which may explain why the kit was pretty stable.

Yes so far all you have read here is just me singing praises of the HGCE Heine’s Destiny Gundam, but it is not to say that the kit is without flaw. In fact, there are a few things that I do notice during my time building the kit and another after the kit was completed which does disturb me a bit with.

So let us talk first about the thing that I noticed during my time building the kit.

You may notice that I never talked about how the seam lines were for this kit, well that is because there is one part of this kit that had one of the worse Seamlines that I have seen in a long time. I encountered it while I was working on the head section of the HGCE Heine’s Destiny Gundam.

I really don’t know how they managed this. Because funnily, the seam lines that I encountered in other parts of the kit weren’t as bad as what I encountered with the head. Looking at it I do feel that they really botched the design of the HGCE Heine’s Destiny’s head unit because the seam line here looked really distracting.

This admittedly is something that I was quite surprised with because most of the modern mainline HG kits that I’ve built this year don’t seem to have the same bad seam line issue on their head units or anywhere else that looked this bad. Which is something that I was really disappointed with. However, you can rectify the issue with filling it up the seamlines with putty or you can as well opt to go all old school by gluing it up and sand it until the seams are all gone. So to those planning to get this one, do take note of that.

Now let us talk about the other part which I was disturbed by which that I noticed after completing the HGCE Heine’s Destiny Gundam. Yes, admittedly it was quite interesting to see the HGCE Heine’s Destiny Gundam has arm units that have 3 segments, but it wasn’t all that nice when the bottom half of the arm unit keeps falling off when you decide to pose the HGCE Heine’s Destiny Gundam’s arms unit.

Although that only happens often on the side of the arm where the portable shield is on. I suspect it may be due to the fact that the weight of the portable shield may be the cause of the problem, so you may want to reconsider using it and since the issue only comes whenever you wanted to move/pose the arm, so, as long you have a fixed position in mind, the arms will stay put.

Regardless, these issues didn’t take away much of my overall experience. Because the good parts of the HGCE Heine’s Destiny here really outweigh the bad here. It really managed to hit the nail into being a good and fun kit overall. I as well find it to be a very newbie/beginner-friendly mainline HG kit, so if you are thinking of gifting someone a kit for them to start with their Gunpla journey. I would highly recommend getting this kit! Even to those veterans of the hobby would find this to be a fun kit to build!

Well if you are thinking of getting a Christmas present for someone, well this might be a good one to consider getting!

Well since this is pretty much based on the HGCE Destiny, regardless of which version you wanted to get, this review applies to both. So if you are a fan of orange and wanted an orange Destiny well this is the HGCE Destiny for you and speaking of being a fan of. This kit is as well is a good kit to have if you are as well so happen to be a Heine’s fan and thinks he deserves better then to be killed slashed from the back.

God, that is really some bullshit way to die man. He doesn’t deserve to die like that.

With that ends the by now quite delayed review for the HG 1/144 ZGMF-X42S-REVOLUTION Destiny Gundam Heine Westenfluss Custom (HGCE). What do you think of both the kit and the review for this HGCE kit? Do you share the same thoughts with us or do you think that this kit could’ve been better? You may be wondering why you are seeing the review now and not last Monday. Well, to be really frank, I found myself really taken with work recently and really didn’t manage to complete the review in time. This might be the first time in years that I started this blog that I find myself in this predicament. Hopefully, in the near future, I would be able to juggle both work and gunpla-ing better, haha.

So to those that was waiting long for a post, I do apologize for the lack of updates from me here. Things were really going out control for me this time.

So yes today the review of this will be taking over the Let’s talk Gunpla, but worry not my dear readers, this Friday we will have a new Let’s Talk Gunpla post up as usual, and the semi-daily posts schedule will be back as normal from next week onwards.

I would as well wanted to take the time to properly wish all of you awesome readers here to have a very Merry Christmas and may you all have a great time celebrating with your friends and family. May you all as well have a good one, and regardless of your beliefs, I hope that happiness will always find its way to all of you, my dear friends.

Anyways, we will be back again with more new blog posts on the coming Friday. Kimi as well will be back again on the next coming Monday (for reals this time) with an unboxing blog post, a very special unboxing post too… So do look forward to that!

Please do leave a like and comment if you enjoy this post from us here in the blog or you could as well do so through our R/ Gundam Subreddit posts and thorough FB or Instagram! Your support really means the world to all of us here in the blog and we as well sincerely hope that you all continue to support us along the way of this gunpla journey that we are all on. As well feel free to give us some feedback and comment if you think there are areas in the post that we can work on, to further improve our blog posts in the future!

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

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!