Kshatriya

If you are a diehard Gundam fan, you may hate this review. You may scream and cry that I don’t know who pilots this suit, or if its a “good guy” or a “bad guy”. I may not know the power output of each of it’s beam cannons, or if there’s any of that newtype stuff going on here. I thought about looking it up and faking it, but come on, let’s be serious. Those of you who are Gundam fans will crave much more detail than I can provide, and those who aren’t will enjoy a review of a beautiful toy.

I first saw this thing at Toy Fair in the Bluefin Tamashii booth. I’ve always stated that I liked Gundams that don’t look like Gundams, and this one fit the bill. It had a unique look with those shell-shaped wings, and I knew if one came through as a sample I would grab it, depriving the more Gundam-inclined reviewers on the staff. Well one did, and well – sorry guys.

Kshatriya arrives courtesy of Bluefin Distribution, and is available from BigBadToyStore.com and Amazon.com.

Kshatriya is a Sanskrit term referring to a class of warriors and protectors. That’s pretty cool, and an apt name for such a fierce looking suit. And if the name wasn’t enough, the suit’s number is NZ-666. I don’t think I have to explain that one.

The toy is number 157 in the Robot Spirits line and comes in a large window box with the standard Robot Spirits markings.

Kshatriya comes equipped with four large wing-type armored shells that surround the figure. Each articulated wing contains two mega particle cannons (the yellow circles), six “funels” (those launching thingies on the underside) and an articulated extra arm.

Each wing is articulated with a swivel hinge at the end of the wing that connects to an arm, which connects to a shoulder connector.

The center sections of each wing open and swing outward.

I’m going to remove the wings temporarily so we can get a better look at the core figure. I don’t think these separate in the show.

The core figure looks great on its own, with crisp paint details and neat yellow pipes traveling throughout the body.

Articulation is great with nothing really impeding the figure from your standard poses. The knees are a bit odd as they consist of these large, multiple jointed panels where i’m not sure what the proper position is.

One nitpick is that the back skirt falls off easily.

You need to remove the upper back panel to get at the peg that needs to be removed for the stand. The stand is a necessity for this figure, and sadly it’s a poor implimentation.

The stand is your standard two-part Gundam stand which usually comes with higher-end items like the Metal Build Gundams. The toy’s name is stamped on the base.

My issues with the stand are twofold. For one, the connection is loose and the toy will slide off of the peg easily. It happened many times during this review. Also, when attaching the stand, the rear skirt often gets in the way, falls off, or severely impedes the range of poses you can achieve.

See how the figure is off-center on the stand? Any weight on one side or the other will cause the figure to tilt like a scale. It should be tighter. I know i can fix it with tape or nail polish or something, but I shouldn’t have to.

It does look great though.

Here you can see all the small sub-arms that come out of the wing. The fold out and slide out – a surprising amount of movement actually.

Kyshatria comes with three beam sabers with detachable hilts. Two are green, one pink. Sabers can be held in the variant saber-holding hands.

Normally Gundams have a place to store the Beam Saber hilts on the sides or in the arms, this one has no such storage.

On the underside of each wing are two articulated rocket boosters. You can add an effect part to each of these boosters to make them look like they are active.

Also under each wing are six removable funnels that can be removed and attached to effect parts to give the appearance of launching. This is a great effect. There are various clear tubes of various lengths and styles that you attach to the openings where the funnels were. At the other end is a ball which snaps into the effect part which then attaches to the funnels.

This results in an endless array of display options for this attack. Keep in mind there are only 14 clear arms and 12 effect parts, so you can’t (sadly) launch all 24 funnels at once.

It’s such a great effect. I’ve got this figure on my desk right now displayed with it’s full compliment of weapons deployed!

Even Wraith Pheyden runs in horror from the assault!

Despite the flaw with the stand, overall it’s a fantastic looking figure. Maybe someday i’ll get around to watching Gundam Unicorn to see what this suit is all about, but for now I’m just going to admire it as a great looking toy with lots of play value.

Kshatriya arrives courtesy of Bluefin Distribution, and is available from BigBadToyStore.com and Amazon.com.