Series: High Grade Universal Century (HGUC) 1/144
Title: MS-09F/trop Dom Tropen
Release Date: 11/2000
Suggested Price: ¥ 1500
No. of Parts: 104 + 19 polycaps
Plastic colors: Germanic mauve, dark purple, red, light gray, dark gray
Gimmicks: functional trigger finger, extra ammo clips stored around waist

Introduction

Contributor: Clem-Master-Janitor
Date: August 14, 2007

Part two of Bandai's attempt at a “Unified Complete Equipment Plan,” the Dom Tropen. Will it be a more solid attempt or another sub-par model kit?

Head

Nothing too fancy here, again. The head can swivel good but has a mono-eye that is nothing more than a sticker. Nice details, though.

Torso

Lots of good design hidden in the dark colors of the Dom Tropen's chest.  The scattering beam gun will need to dab of paint to be visible. Lots of room to swivel around with so you can do some poses. Heat saber fits nicely in its recharge rack behind right shoulder. Unfortunately this tends to line the saber with the place Bandai wants you to locate your spare ammunition on the skirt armor. Tends to either block movements of the upper body or just drop the spares off the kit.

Arms

Like the Gelgoog Marine, this kit has universal left and right arms. The shoulders aren't universal, but you can swap them either way as they mount identical to the Gelgoog Marines. This leads to the same problem as before, the loose attachment points and the cracking sound when you mount them. The sleeves hiding the pegs the elbows attach to seem a bit too loose, making them want to stay put when you try to turn the elbow for shot or saber poses.  

On the other hand, both hands have functional trigger fingers. Though the peg is small, the fingers flow smoothly from ready to shoot to saber wielding. Not many kits I've come across in the HG land have this option, except for the Xeku Eins. Both have large hands that allow for the design.  The 880mm RB-T27 bazooka slides in and out nice and holds well. Just enough flex allows the arm to hold it without seeming cumbersome like the HG Gundam MK II and its hyper bazooka or needing a special hand molded like the Zaku I. This is nice and allows for a quick swap at any moment between the two.

Legs

The legs use the same universal parts system like the Gelgoog. It's a pain but works slightly better due to the Dom Tropen's larger size. As expected from the design, the feet are enormous. This works perfect to balance the kit and its larger weapon load out.

The skirt armor flexes pretty nice. Not much resistance to the leg movement like some kits can have. Carved into each piece of skirt armor is a slot for loading up extra ammo. This is a cool little addition as the clips all have letters indicating where the should go (F for front, R for Rear, and S for Side). Only bad part is there's a bit of conflict with the heat saber and the clips as they tend to sit best right where the blade of the saber rests. Not much you can really do about it, so oh well. The look goofy anywhere else just because of the curve of the clips.  

Weapons and Accessories

You get a 880mm RB-T27 bazooka and a heat saber as your weapon options with the aforementioned clips. That's it. All are nicely detailed and fit well enough in their respective places.

Conclusion

I like this kit. The Gelgoog Marine didn't pan out as nicely as this kit does. You know what the kicker is? It says on the armaments section of the instructions that this is loaded out with sturm fausts, 90mm machine gun, the 880mm RB-T27 bazooka, a Zaku bazooka, and a heat saber. You only get the 880mm RB-T27 bazooka, extra clips, and heat saber. Usually you get all the armaments listed in the instructions if you buy a kit. For some reason, they opted not to give it to us. If you go after the Dom Tropen Desert Colors version, you get a bonus of the 880mm RB-T27 bazooka, a 90mm machine gun, heat saber, sturm faust, and extra ammo clips for the 90mm machine gun. Lots of extra clips. This is a hell of a screw over by Bandai but makes sense if they want you to buy both kits. Damn them for being so crafty. The Devils. Basically, get this version if the bazooka interests you and you don't mind the lighter purple color. Get the Desert Colors if you want all the little added extras.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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