Series: Mobile Suit in Action!! (MSiA)
Title: MSN-00100 Hyaku Shiki w/Mega Bazooka Launcher
Release Date: 08/2004
Suggested Price: ¥ 1575
No. of Parts: 1 Hyaku Shiki figure + 7 parts
Plastic colors: gold, blue, dark blue, red, green, gray
Gimmicks: Mega Bazooka Launcher, beam rifle, beam saber (2), hands (5)

Introduction

Contributor: hydrogenizedsoy
Date: February 5, 2005

The Hyaku Shiki was featured in both Zeta Gundam and Gundam ZZ. It managed to survive both the Gryps conflict, most of the Neo Zeon
War, and was host to a number of pilots (most notably Char Aznable working under the alias “Quattro Bajeena”). This MSIA is actually a repaint and repackaging of an earlier MSiA, re-released for the advent of the Zeta compilation movies. The original Hyaku Shiki MSiA was very much a product of 1st generation MSiA development: lacking in articulation, accessories, and sporting a so-so paint job. How does this “newer” version stack up?

Head

The head is a single piece that stays true to the design, and is well
proportioned to the rest of the body. The main camera and eyes though, are slightly faded. It would seem that the new metallic paint that they’re using as a base disrupts any top coats. Too bad, while not a huge detractor it’s still distracting.

Torso

The chest is well-painted and detailed. The backpack is of solid
construction and the movable wing binders are attached to it by ball joints,
a nice touch. The waist also has a healthy range of motion, being able to
pivot 360 degrees. The skirt armor articulation is nonexistent. The front
skirt armor is a single lump of plastic and while attractive in detail
doesn’t allow for any sort of kicking or crouching. The same is true for the
side armor and the rear. Attached to the rear armor is a beam saber rack.
Unfortunately, the sabers are irremovable, simply being molded onto into the armor.

Arms

The arms are a mess. While they are attractive in design, they lack
even a minimum of movement. The newest MSIA releases all have multiple hinges and joints that make for a realistic range of motion, but the
shoulder armor on the Hyaku Shiki simply just slides over the arm’s ball
joint. This makes for a very loose and floppy fit. The elbow joints are
satisfactory, but max out at 90 degrees. The hands are another matter.
Instead of upgrading them to a ball joint scheme they let them remain simple slots. Therefore they suffer from a limited range of motion and hang limply in their slots.

Legs

I’m not sure what the point was in articulating the knees. Since the
skirt armor restricts any sort of movement it’s no good to have knees that bend as it’s impossible to place it in any sort of pose. Anyway the knee articulation sucks, they can bend less then 90 degrees. The ankles are just single ball joints, so you can’t coax any sort of movement out of those as well. While the legs are pretty much useless, they are well detailed and painted.

Weapons and Accessories

Beam rifle- the beam rifle is tiny, almost as small as the Rick Dias’s beam
pistols. In comparison to modern MSIA weapons it appears to be both anemic and anorexic. And it doesn’t fit well in the one trigger finger hand.

Beam sabers- The two beam sabers are tiny and resemble hors d’oeuvre
toothpicks. They look silly when the Hyaku Shiki holds them.

Mega Bazooka Launcher- The Mega Bazooka Launcher is the only thing new with this anachronistic figure. It’s enormous, a little over 7.5 inches in
length, when fully extended. It is well detailed and has a pleasing paint
job. The design is highly intuitive, you could figure out how to transform
it into the firing mode without any sort of instructions. Almost everything
on it extends or slides out, and it is both serviceable and easy on the
eyes. There are vents, camera sights, and thrusters all over the body. The
only flaw in the design is that you need the Hyaku Shiki to hold it. This is
a problem because…. It can’t. The crappy hand slots simply don’t fit snugly enough in their sockets to withstand the weight of the launcher, they fall out. Also the two hand triggers are much too large for the hands, they’re very awkward. I don’t know how they got it stand up in the picture on the back of the box but I suppose it had something to do with glue, tape, wire, duct tape, and some liberal amounts of spit.

Conclusion

What a waste. Seriously. The Hyaku Shiki (and us the poor
consumers) deserve better than this. This “Mobile Suit In Action!!” was more of a “Mobile Suit In Inaction??.” It’s a pretty plastic gold statue, nothing more. Since this is basically a repaint of a figure released back in 2001, it would have taken the Bandai engineers a minimum of effort to replace the old joints and redesign the skirt armor. However it seems all their time was wrapped up in the Mega Bazooka Launcher. It’s one of the two good things going for this wreck. While it is a monster and practically an action figure itself, it’s not enough to salvage the whole package. The second good thing about this release is the new paint scheme, but who cares about some kanji on the shoulders and a metallic sheen if the bloody legs don’t work? If you already have the 2001 release, don’t get this one. If you don’t have the 2001 release wait for the Hyaku Shiki ver. 2. Sure it may take a couple of years for a ver. 2, but it would be worth the wait. The final score reflects the following calculation: 0.2 points for the new paint job, 0.3 for the a detailed sculpt, 3 points for the Mega Bazooka Launcher, and -2 points for Bandai repackaging and reselling an outdated MSiA design.

Overall Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

<<back to Gundam