Armored Core Variable Infinity

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Drango
Class A Shinki
Posts: 121
Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2009 9:27 am
Shinkis owned: 12
MMS owned: 11
Favorite MMS/Shinki: Howling
Location: England

Armored Core Variable Infinity

Post by Drango » Wed Dec 02, 2009 2:58 pm

I know I've already posted a couple of pictures of these in my Shinki thread in Show and Tell, but I'd figured I'd give a more detailed review here:

To kick the thread off, I'm actually going to go with my recently obtained Weapon Unit 015 pack that I bought, as reviewing the AC itself would require me to get the thing down and dust it off... (it's a pain to stand up as well due to the ankles but I'll go into more detail about that when I actually review it)

So, back to the weapon unit 015:
The pack contains 2 sprues, both the same colour, which is a sort of slightly brown, dark metallic grey, and assemble into Arm Unit GAN01-SS-WH.E which is a hand gun and Back Unit 061ANSC which is a back mounted, folding cannon. Since these come from AC4 (or later) I cant really go into too much detail regarding them in game. I'll go into better detail of each of these weapons now though:

The GAN01-SS-WH.E is a 6 round revolver, and is intended as a side arm/back up weapon for an AC. It is very nicely detailed: The revolver section itself can rotate around and the 6 bullets are moulded in. There are small holes in places that are supposed to be were the rivets/screws are, and even has what appears to be a laser sight as well as the regular sight you'd find on a real gun on the top. A little useless for a giant robot, but I nice feature I'm glad they added. In regards to Shinki, yes they are big, but they can still hold them very nicely, and personally, I don't think they look oversized, but more just really bulky instead. Assembly is pretty simple, as long as you do certain parts in the correct order, you wont have any problems putting them together (literally just 3 steps to assembly), and they hold nicely as well, so no glue required at all. Over all, a very nice piece, and considering it's the main reason why I got the pack, I'm really satisfied with them.

For the 061ANSC, however, I do have a couple of complaints, but I'll get to them as I come to them. As stated, it's a back mounted folding cannon that's some what typical of an AC set up, where the AC will kneel down, as the barrel unfolds and locks in place in order to fire it. The only ones able to move and shoot it at the same time being those with caterpillar track legs. There's what looks like a clip sticking out of the side of it suggesting it uses solid ammo. Detailing is very nice again, the previously mentioned clip has an open end where you can see what looks like the ammo waiting to be fed into the firing chamber (hence my assumptions of it being a clip), only part of it's appearance that irks me are the folding mechanism (which I admit, cant really be helped for what it is) and the mounting arms which are hollow and only one piece, so there are huge gaps in the inside of it... Admittedly you're not likely to notice it while it's on the AC, but they could have done it so there were no gaps. The folding mechanism irks me for a number of reasons to be honest, first is how visible it is in the folded mode, but again this cant be helped, second is how one part locks at a 90 degree angle, but the other half doesn't which can result on an untidy fold, but this is due to the gap needed for it to lock in place when straightened and as long as you make sure you do the full 90 bend on the half that does lock there it will lay parallel and tidy. However, even when 'locked' the front half of the barrel is still a little loose and can still be knocked up 90 degrees (though there is enough friction to stop the full 90 degree bend from happening accidentally, that slight movement is still there). Assembly is fairly secure, save 2 parts, the fold part that doesn't lock when straight feels a little flimsy and loose, and the clip isn't as secure as I'd like and might require glue. There are a few bits that are a little fiddly when assembling but for the most part it's simple enough that you wont be spending much more than 10 mins tops putting these together. A good part about the pack is that the clip can go into either side with a part to cover the other hole, and it does come with 2 mounting arms allowing it to be mounted on either side of the back, which is very nice especially considering how the AC I have doesn't allow for either of the back mounted parts to be switched around without modifying them first. Although I'm not entirely happy with it, and there are areas where I think they could have put a little more effort in to cover these flaws, the clip can easily be remedied with glue, the mounting arms can be filled in if they really bug anyone enough (though they will need to be painted then), and I can live with the issues with the folding arm, as due to the design of it, there really isn't much they could have done to prevent these. The pegs on the mounting arm that go into the back look a little small for the size of it, but they hold it secure enough (I checked when I first assembled it). In regards to Shinki... Out of the packet, they're not compatible at all, there's nothing for the Shinki to hold and the peg on the mounting arm is far too loose to fit in a Shinki sized hole, however, a slight modification using some green stuff you should be able to alter the mounting arm enough to get it to fit a Shinki peg, which is something I plan to do soon when I get some.

If anyone wants any pictures beyond the ones here, feel free to ask and I'll sort some out:

User avatar
Drango
Class A Shinki
Posts: 121
Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2009 9:27 am
Shinkis owned: 12
MMS owned: 11
Favorite MMS/Shinki: Howling
Location: England

Re: Armored Core Variable Infinity

Post by Drango » Mon Dec 14, 2009 8:07 am

Interior Union Y01-Tellus

This kit has a very striking appearance; off whites with navy blue is the main colour scheme. Pretty heavily armed as well. And I'm not sure if it was intentional, but on the shoulders it looks like there are faces there, and where the knee bends also looks kind of like the face of a helmet... But this could just be me... Overall I like the appearance of this kit, my only initial gripes are due to personal preferences to do with it's weapons, which I wont go into here. Since this is an Armoured Core kit, I'll break the review into it's individual parts like I did with the above weapon set.

Head: H01-Tellus
All the parts for the body are <insert part type initial here>01-Tellus, by the way. The head is quite nicely detailed. There's a large clear part where the camera would be, and the very design of it helps give the shoulders their smiley-looking appearance... It's a head, there aren't any gimics, but at this size there's not really any room for any. It holds itself well, and there are no complaints here. The neck is a single ball joint, but assembled movement is restricted by the armour to just over 180 degrees.

Core: C01-Tellus
It's an OB core, OB standing for Over Boost, and to match there are indeed two large booster engines located towards the back behind and to either side of the head which can pop up quite nicely... However... The covers to these boosters don't stick too well on their own so can pop off when trying to open the OB gimmick, a little glue should fix this, but I haven't used it as it's not a major flaw. There is another pretty major complaint here as well: The plugs where the back weapons attach, due to their location on the outside of where the OB gimmick is, the kit doesn't hold them well enough so that when you plug in the back weapons these will fall off, so expect to be using glue here to hold them in place. Beyond these two complaints, the core had lots of detailing all over it, and is otherwise pretty solid as is. Articulation wise, the waist is a single large ball joint, allowing for full 360 degree rotation, and due to the design, very minor bend. There are also too pairs of boosters attached via ball joints on the back of the core as well. These would be counted as separate parts to the core in the game, but there aren't any names given for them here and are just counted as part of the core.

Arms: A01-Tellus
HUGE SHOULDERS with smiley faces on them. Looking at these parts as they are being assembled, they seem like they'd be rather flimsy and fall apart all the time, especially around the elbow, however they do hold together very well, the only exception being in the wrists which have a very odd design for the poly caps there, which is a rubber ball with a square hole through it for the peg on the hand to go through, which then plugs into the forearm at the wrist... I ended up applying glue to the poly caps to hold them onto the hand peg. The kit does come with 2 sets of hands, either open or closed fists, and there are small, barely noticeable square holes in the forearms for weapons such as arm blades to be mounted onto if you wish. For the articulation, the shoulders attach to the core via a ball joint, but due to the size of the shoulders themselves, these can catch on the back weapons. There is another hinge joint between the shoulders and the biceps that allow a small degree of movement to the left and right as well, but there is no rotation allowed here. A single hinge joint a the elbow allows for just short of a 90 degree bend that locks straight and as previously mentioned the wrists themselves are ball joints. There is no articulation in the hand itself, which is good as this makes it hold the weapons better.

Legs: L01=Tellus
Where to start... Unfortunately I have a number of complaints about the legs... For the most part they hold together very well, and some parts that even look like they'd likely just drop off at the slightest touch, looking at the construction of them, hold on pretty well, however, there are parts, some in rather awkward to get to places after it's completed, like to come loose, whilst the parts getting in the way of you putting them back in easily refuse to budge without threatening to break in some way (one part that really likes to give me this problem is part D19). A little glue would fix these if you could get to them though. My other, and more major complaint, is to do with the ankles... There's a small combination of joints here, which in theory should make it easier to pose, however, these effectively make it rather unstable so while trying to pose it, if you're not careful it will end up falling over... a lot... The feet assembling into a single part makes things a little easier, but still... Stiffening the joints might help, but as is, it's a pretty big flaw in these legs as far as I'm concerned. There is quite a lot of detailing in these legs, and attached to the upper thighs are what look like assistant boosters, and the armour at the knee has two layers of armour, the second layer becoming exposed as the knee bends, and sliding behind the outer armour again as it straightens. So onto the articulation then... as mentioned there are parts attached to the thighs which are on ball joints which have about 45 degrees of movement as well as a full 360 rotation. The legs themselves are attached to the hips again by ball joints, and can swing just over 180 degrees from the front to the back, and can also move in and out a bit, with a very small amount of twist available as well. The Knee is a hinge allowing roughly a 90 degree bend. And as mentioned there are 2 joints in the ankle, a hinge and a ball joint, which allow the angle to hinge about 90 degrees, as well as some twist in various directions, and a movement similar to the 'chicken head' found on most recent Gundam kits available, and the feet themselves are a single piece, even if they're designed to look like there is supposed to be some movement between the front and back of the foot.

Due to the size of this post already, I'll put the weapons in a separate post.

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