I was first surprised that the first Gundams in the turned-out-to-be-lousy Gundam SEED DESTINY were all transformable units. But what surprises me is that bipedal-to-quadrupled transforming Gaia Gundam. It was painted in black, has a girl as pilot, and has cool transformation; a nice recipe for success!! And being a LaGOWE look alike, it is quite logical that the unit was then transferred to former LaGOWE pilot Andrew Waltfeld and painted with his signature colors. I have hard times choosing between this unit and the original color scheme Gaia and Murasame Andrew Waltfeld Custom...but then I bought this one because black parts are hard to be located when they fall off and the Murasame looks like to be another Zeta Gundam-type kit.
Head
Standard 1/144 HG head with two parts to forms the helm, one part for the
face, and two parts for the white double-V fin. The color scheme of the head is quite strange and cool at the same time: red-orange helm with gray face plate topped with yellow lining under a blue color. It simply looks nice :)
Torso
A standard HG torso with no out-of-ordinary variations. It has the standard cockpit hatch and the standard cooler vents. Heck, it doesn't even have the movable shoulder of the cool Astray Red Frame HG. It's standard through and through.
The waist parts are quite different though. This unit has now front shield-skirts, and its side shield-skirts are long enough to cover both upper legs and lower legs. the back shield-skirts is large and has a tail-like part.
The backpack is not quite a backpack, as it is a three parter: the mobile
armor mode head, and the two storage packs for the wing blades joints and the rotating beam guns.
Arms
This is where Gaia Gundam breaks from your traditional Gundam design. This unit doesn't have any shoulder covers!! What it has instead are shields attached to the upper parts of the side of its upper arms. Other than those shields, the arms are quite standard with an upper part consisting of the upper arms and pseudo shoulder covers, the joints that connect the upper arms and lower arms, and the lower arms themselves.
The lower arms actually comes in two sets: the mobile suit mode arms and the mobile armor mode arms. The mobile suit mode arms are your standard lower arms to be configure with hands. the mobile armor mode arms are not arms, they are actually lower parts of gaia front legs.
Legs
Gaia Gundam is so bulky on the top and so thin on the leg parts. The legs
are thin and quite looks-like they can support the bulky mass that is the
upper body part. The feet add pain to injury as they are designed to be
like that: thin and narrow, causing instability when posed standing tall.
Add the fact that the legs don't have knee protectors, and this unit is not
visually designed to be posed standing. This model can stand tall nonetheless, but a slight tremor will cause it to fall.
Weapons
and Accessories
MA-M941 "Vajra" beam saber- Mountable on the hips, with their own
pinkish beam saber parts. Their mounting on the hips are quite unstable
really and they tend to fell off, so i keep them stored on the box.
MA-BAR71XE high-energy beam rifle- Provided as black-only, needs a serious dose of painting.
MMI-RS1 mobile shield- Complete with its own gripping handle (to be used
in MS mode) and torso attaching grip (to be used in MA mode).
MA-81R beam assault cannon- Looks like two beam saber handles sticking out of its backpack, can be tilted up and down around 75 degrees.
MR-Q17X "Griffon 2" beam blade- Looks like wide-spanned dragonfly wings that has pinkish beam saber on one side, add coolness to this
otherwise standard mobile suit.
Transformation- Since this is a transformable mobile suit HG model, a transformation procedure must be available. With this model, the transformation is not direct, because you need to replace the mobile suit's lower arms with the mobile armor lower arms first, and then replace the mobile suit mode shield's gripping handle with mobile armor attaching handle.
With the replacement made, the transformation can then be done. First you need to turn the mobile suite head to completely face backward,
and put out the mobile armor head from its fold. Then you attach the shield to the waist so that it will cover the entire body and the mobile suit head. Next you fold the arms so that it can be positioned as two forelegs of a beast. And finally, with the upper legs in their straight position, you fold the lower legs forward so that it make the upper parts of the hind-legs of a beast, and fold the feet forward so that they make the lower parts of the hind-legs of a beast. The Beast is ready to be posed with its saber-wings wide-spanned. In this mobile armor mode, Gaia Gundam has its coolest look!!
Conclusion
One of the transformable Gundams from DESTINY is nicely reincarnated in its 1/144 scale HG model complete with rather limited poseability in MS mode and quite a bit more poseability in its cool looking MA quadrupled mode. I just wish it didn't need to have its forearms and shield handle
replaced in order to be transformed into MA mode..
With MS mode lack in standing pose stability, the much cooler look of its MA mode, and the replacements needed, you will want to keep this unit in its four-legged, beam saber-winged, double laser-gunned, mean-looking beast form !!
