Greifen

Ever buy a toy because it looks kool? (Yes that’s how I spell it.) Even though you know nothing of the series it comes from or have never even heard of it before?

That’s what I’ve done here.

I’m back to reviewing from a short break of laptop problems and hospital stuff.

The box is quite nice. You get a view of the Frame you build the kit onto through a box window. The nice fellow I bought this from told me that the Frame is standard across the line. It reminds me of a Centurion figure, Power Extreme and such, awesome 80’s cartoon for those who haven’t seen it. On one of the longer sides of the box you have a few poses pictured, though one is posed with weapons not included in this set. The other long side has safety information and what looks like an add-on kit. I don’t read Japanese so I’m not sure. The smaller sides have the same product shot of the figure and its info.

Inside is the Frame, instructions, and a bunch of bags with parts. This is only the third model kit I’ve built so forgive my newb gubbins.

The frame is a nice little figure in itself, really well articulated, double elbow and knee joints, and a stomach joint. The temporary head looks like an uncoloured Master Chief helmet. I managed to get the Star Wars Battle Droid pose with the Frame.

I won’t go into too much detail of the build, the pictures are mostly of the completed parts from each stage of the build. The first piece is the chest followed by the back.

The head is in eight pieces, two for the forward and upward sensors, two for the shell that covers them and four transparent green covers over the sensors and the sides of the head.

I have to highlight the shoulder pieces because I love the fact they have articulation with a little flap on top, i love little flaps…

The arms have built-in articulated sections that I’ll get into later. The figure comes with three sets of hands you have to build: closed fist, holding fist, and open hand.

ROCKET BOOSTERS!!!

The legs took the longest time to build, made worse when I realized I’d made a mistake and assembled the knees the wrong way round. They have that nice “Chicken Leg” look that everyone is so fond of, and they have ROCKET BOOSTERS!

Now that the figure itself is complete, some poses look odd due to it having large heels that robot loving brain wants to be feet.

The final parts are the two four-barreled rocket launchers that can be pegged onto the arms at the wrist or be held over the shoulder with a handle attachment.

These attachments easily peg in and out and have enough friction not to fall off all the time.

No giant robot is complete without ROCKET BOOSTER BUM CHEEKS.

Greifen is around six and a half inches tall, but this depends on how high you pose the legs.

Those arm attachments I mentioned earlier are also on the legs and each has an articulated claw. They kinda remind me of a snake’s mouth with the peg looking like a big fang. The arm claws have a better range of motion than the legs’.

For anyone wondering or hating on the chicken legs you can turn the waist around and pose the legs with normal knees.

The rocket launchers can be posed on the back. The box shows this, but I had trouble re-creating it and there is no guide. I managed it by equipping the handle attachments on the rocket launchers then threading them into the arm pegs, but this limits arm posability and it took me ages to get the figure into a pose that didn’t fall apart before I took a picture.

I’m not very good at painting figures like this so the figure here is basically out of the box with no work from me. I did find an English translation of the paint colour guide, but I’m too lazy to paint it now its put together.

I got this figure at the PLAY Expo in Manchester this weekend. I bought it from the owner of a UK-based Gundam selling site. I offered him a plug on my review, so go to Gundam Mad and buy some things and tell Jessica sent you.

Here’s a final pic of Greifen with the standard “Master Chief” head. Also, if anyone knows anything about this series, let me know.