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MSiA RX-121 Gundam TR-1 [Hazel]
Series:
Mobile Suit in Action!! (MSiA)
Contributor: White Wolf
The head of this Mobile Suit is sculpted very well with some very fine details like the vents and cameras sculpted in. Along with that, the paint applications on it are great! The whole head is blue with the top being just a small shade darker than the bottom and is separated by a yellow line. The crest of the Suit and vents are white with the chin being a typical red color. Its eyes are green with black outlines and the cameras are green too. Also, there’s a bit of slop where the yellow command antenna meets the middle but it’s not really noticeable. The head is connected by a ball joint to the neck which, in turn, is also connected by a ball joint. Not much movement from neck to torso but the head can move a great deal so it’s good.
The upper torso is all in dark blue with that lighter shade of blue in various areas. There’s a small green camera on the left and the vents are yellow along with the “V” on the crotch area. The cockpit door and below are painted red and the boosters on the sides of the crotch area are yellow. On the back, the main thruster unit is white with yellow boosters and details along with black inside some of the thrusters. On the rear of the Mobile Suit is white armor with a “TTT” logo on the right side and a Titans logo on the left in baby blue and dark blue. There are also several yellow thrusters in that area. Now, in terms of articulation, the Hazel does OK. The upper torso connects to the lower torso with a ball joint which gives it 360 degree movement around and a tiny bit up and down. The backpack on the Suit is removable and reveals a gray area with very little details. There’s also a thruster unit connected to a hinge which is connected to another hinge so that if you attach a Shield Booster to it, it can move a great deal. The booster has a very small green camera on it and a big one underneath it. The thrusters there are connected with ball joints and are pretty secure in there. Also, there are areas next to the head where the multipurpose launchers are stored and are fairly easily removed which can be a bad thing seeing as they are so small. However, the pegs to which they fit on are slanted inwards toward the head so that you cannot mix up the pieces and put them on the wrong sides. Moving to the lower torso, there’s a little bit of detail in front and on the sides is where the Hip-Mounted Magazines for the Beam Rifles are stored and each side is a different shaped hole so that they cannot be mixed up either. On the back, there is non-removable armor with some boosters sculpted in for detail.
The arms on this M.S. are connected to the shoulder joints with ball joints and the joints connected to the shoulders with a horizontal hinge to allow more movement. The shoulder armor merely snaps onto the connector and of course the arms swivel near the top and are double-jointed at the elbow. Also, the hands are connected with ball joints to add pose ability. The arms are dark and light blue; depending on the area. The shoulder pads have yellow lines on them and various Titans Test Team logos. The connectors and joints are gray and the wrists areas are white. The hands are dark blue with gray fingers and red fingertips. Also, the boosters inside the sides of the shoulder armor parts are black.
The legs connect to the waist with a ball joint and have a swivel joint right under that to allow the legs to spin 360 degrees. The knees are double-jointed and the feet are ball-jointed. Now, the uppermost parts of the thighs are actually sculpted very well despite being mostly hidden. Another wonderfully sculpted area is on the knee. The big, bulky knees look cool with their detail and even the knee joints have a bit of detail to them. Also, on the feet, the hydraulics at the front actually work when moved much like the EMSiA Gundam Mark II. On the feet, there is also that foot guard that is connected via a ball joint and swivels a bit. Paint-wise, the legs and feet are various shades of blue with white on the knees and yellow and black for the thrusters. There are cameras on the knees that are green, the joints are gray, and the boosters on the bottoms of the feet are unpainted sadly.
Hands- There are Fists, Closed hands, Open hands, Trigger hands, and Open Palm hands. They are all sculpted well but due to the small thumbs on the design of this M.S., the Trigger hands cannot hold the guns worth a crap and fall out when touched. There are ways to wiggle them in there and I’m sure if you don’t play with it you’ll be fine but it is kind of annoying. Also, like we first saw with the RX-78-2 Second Version, the Open hands have the thumb and pointing finger molded together for a tight hold on the Beam Saber but this makes it where it is difficult to grasp the Multipurpose Launchers when in High Mobility Form. Aside from that, the other hands work quite fine and they all look nice! Multipurpose launchers- There are 3 2-piece sets of these; Closed, Open, and Activated. The Closed ones look good and obviously don’t do anything. The Open ones have black in the middle and are pointed diagonally. The Activated ones are typically used to be grabbed when in high Mobility Form so Hazel Gundam can stabilize itself when in flight although, as mentioned earlier, the MSiA’s hands prevent this somewhat. Beam saber- The Hazel Gundam only comes with one Beam Saber, much like the actual M.S. This Saber has a removable blade that is molded in transparent pink and the handle is a bit flexible so it doesn’t warp when in a 2-handed pose. The handle is molded well and fits into the recharge rack well. XBR-M84a beam rifles- These two Beam Rifles look awesome but are a bit of a letdown. First of all, as mentioned earlier, they cannot be held well thanks to the hand sculpts. The other downside of them is that the e-pacs are not removable. Paint-wise, they look OK but have very little detail being just light blue, gray, and yellow. The camera is left unpainted but the handle swivels at least. Both rifles can be stored on Hazel’s hips if you remove the Hip-Mounted Magazines and fit well. Hip-mounted magazines- These look great on the Hazel’s hips and have a fair amount of detail being painted gray with white and yellow clamps. They can be removed and replaced with the Beam Rifles too.
Shield boosters and connectors- These Shield Boosters are big and accurate to the Manga. They can be stored on either arm and pop into a hole on the bottom of each arm with the help of the connectors or can be connected on the sides of the arms for different poses. One can also connect to the rear thruster to complete the trio. Chest and waist armor- This white armor was included so that you can make the Hazel Gundam Full Armor Form. They look OK but don’t really have much detail. The waist piece merely fits onto the waist and the chest piece is connected after removing the arms completely and it snaps over the shoulder joint and when you reconnect the arms, it makes it where it cannot fall off. Good gimmick to keep it secure but it might wear out the arm joints if used a lot.
Well, it is a good MSiA but they definitely left room for improvement. The lack of a good grip on the Rifles and Multipurpose Launchers was disappointing and the arm and legs joints can get loose since the knees and Shield Boosters are a bit heavy. Other than that, it was pretty good and worth picking up if you’re a fan of it.
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