Cybuster

Intro

Cybuster is a mecha from various Super Robot Wars games and other Banpresto titles. It was featured in the Super Robot Wars Original Generation Divine Wars anime. Cybuster and its pilot Masaki Andoh (supposedly named after the famed singer Masaaki Endoh) come from an alternate universe known as La Gias. Masaki is chasing after his nemesis Shu, but ends up helping the main characters fight on several occasions.

Contents

Beautiful Yuji Kaida Box art (Glyos included for scale)

The various runners of parts still bagged. A total of 15 runners molded in various colors, polystyrene for all parts except for the polycaps.

Construction

This kit was early in Kotobukiya’s SRW line and it shows. Molding and detail is excellent and parts are super sharp. Anybody who has built a few Kotobukiya kits should know what I’m talking about here. Some parts are easily sharp enough to draw blood, and care needs to be take not to bend fine points. Color reproduction is good, and not much paint is needed. Spure placement is not great, but the colors of plastic for this kit are somewhat forgiving and the marks clean up well.

A lot of the parts don’t fit quite right and need fiddling with and glue to be assembled. Seam placement is pretty good. I only painted the black detail and the handle of the sword gold. The polycaps for the waist and wings are very loose and frequently the parts come apart on their own or when you are trying to put the figure into a pose. This is extremely frustrating and you end up getting stabbed by all the pointy bits in the process.

Features + Accessories

There are no notable gimmicks for this kit. The mecha is supposed to transform, but Kotobukiya decided to omit this feature. The only included accessories are open and closed fist hands, sword holding hand and sword.

Articulation

The articulation of this kit is okay, but not great. The design does limit the articulation somewhat, but I still feel that Kotobukiya could have done a better job. The feet and legs articulate pretty well, but there really isn’t much you can do with them unless you have a stand for flying poses. Otherwise it can be difficult to keep a standing pose with the weight of the wings.

The wrists, ankles, hips, wings, and waist are ball jointed. Everything else is a combination of standard joints.

Balance is actually better than I would expect due in part that the legs actually had a heavy solid plastic piece inside of them. Unfortunately the upper half of the figure leans back, and the waist joint frequently decides to pop apart on its own. (as seen above)

Conclusion

Overall this is okay but with a fatal flaw, bad joints. Just trying to photograph for this review the figure fell apart several times. Even if you get it into a solid pose and leave it be, it randomly decides to fall apart on its own. I really can’t recommend it to anybody, unless you are a glutton for punishment.

Kotobukiya has made great improvements since this kit was originally released. Also to note they recently announced a new version of this kit due out in November. It will be part of their EO-Tech line in 1/144 scale and also able to transform.