Series: 1/100
Title: SYSTEM ∀-99 (WD-M01) ∀ Gundam ("Turn A Gundam")
Release Date: 04/1999
Suggested Price: ¥ 2000
No. of Parts: 122 + 34 polycaps + paper stickers
Plastic colors: off-white, blue, yellow, gray, red, clear pink, clear yellow
Gimmicks: beam rifle, beam saber (2), shield, separate Core Fighter

Introduction

Contributor: Andrew "lalahsghost" Dasilva
Photography: Elliott "Hiddenpower" Solomon
Date: November 26, 2003

I got this kit on sale for half price. Nevertheless, I still would have bought it for full retail...Come on! It's the Turn A!

Head

For consisting of only 7 pieces, the Turn A's head is visually efficient. They give you a sticker for the eyes, although I did not use it, and painted the details. It connects to the body via a ball joint polycap, and has average movement capabilities. The highlight of the head is the "V" moustache. It is made out of a pliable plastic similar to the polycaps, which allows it to slightly move instead of breaking.

Torso

This is where the eight missile bay in the chest is. Six of the "doors" open and close to show the missiles, while the bottom two have to be replaced to re-enact opening and closing. With this opening door missile bay system in place, there is no upper torso polycap like in the 1/144 kit, which allowed more detailed vertical movement. On the Turn A's back, there are optional "brackets" to hold the shield and beam rifle. The skirt it comes with is very moveable, and also has a little pre-molded pilot in the seat, covered by clear plastic. The front skirt armor is able to come off to look like the Core Fighter was ejected (although the front skirt armor cannot be used as a Core Fighter). There are tons of panel lines all over the torso, which would look great with the washing technique.

Arms

The front shoulder armor is very different from most models. It is on a bracket that goes on the arm peg before the arm. It is kind of hard to explain it due to not seeing it used before. On the back of the shoulder, there are the two unlit beam sabers in their adjustable holsters, also wing-hinged plate of back shoulder armor under them. The forearm is where I personally feel the model is flawed in. It has less poseability than the 1/144, and seems kind of bulky. Other than that it has the hand, which is on the basic ball joint polycap, and has a moveable trigger finger, and the other three connected fingers move also.

Legs

The Turn A probably has the tallest legs out of any 1/100 Gundam. They are 5/8 of the height of the model! They have great poseability, and are quite flashy with detailed panel lines. On the back of the legs there are "louvers" that can be pulled out and pushed in. Having only seeing nine episodes, I don't know the purpose of them, but they give lots of detail to the back of the model.

Weapons and Accessories

This model has the basic amount of weapons. Beam rifle, unlit beam sabers (2), activated beam sabers (2), shield, Core Fighter. The beam rifle is highly detailed, visually. It has a folding hand-grip, and an extending hilt. The two activated beam sabers are made of clear pink, even the saber itself, so they had to be painted. The shield has a folding/unfolding setup so it can be attached to the bracket to the back of the Turn A. The extra Core Fighter unit isn't anything to exclaim about...it has stickers for the yellow portions, and another clear cockpit cover. The little pilot is also on the extra Core Fighter.

Conclusion

All-in-all this kit is the quality of a HG kit, but in 1/100 scale. Owning the 1/100 and 1/144 Turn A makes me almost like the 1/144 better, although I couldn't resist seeing how this kit compared to it. If the arms were better, I could easily turn (haha turn...) the other way about the chest not having a joint at the top like the 1/144. These two flaws sound small, but it's a drastic amount of difference between the poseability of it and the 1/144... if I didn't own both kits I probably wouldn't be complaining about this though.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

<<back to Gundam