Gundam Fenice Rinascita

Gundam Build Fighters brought out a lot of cool variations of existing mobile suits. One of them was the Wing Gundam Fenice by Italian champion Ricardo Fellini. When the Fenice got wrecked, Ricardo rebuilt it into the Fenice Rinascita. The previous asymmetrical fencer look was ditched in favor of a sleek reimagining of Kunio Okawara’s original Wing Gundam. I’m not a big fan of the latter, but this new take on the design made me eagerly anticipating a kit release.

Inside the box are 10 runners and a sticker sheet. Rinascita retains one effect parts runner, a clear part runner, the polycap runner and one large joints runner from the Fenice, of which the latter three both kits inherited from the HGAC Wing Gundam.

Interesting to note is that these circular yellow parts present on most Wing Gundam variants usually came molded separately, but on the Rinascita they’re molded directly into the white shoulder parts and require stickers or paint.

The completed kit stands about 13 cm tall to the top of its v-fin. Its primary colors are green, yellow, red and cream white. Some careful leg positioning is required to make it stand up straight without toppling backwards from the weight of its wings.

What few parts the original Fenice shared with the Wing Gundam have been completely replaced.

Great overall articulation as is usual for post-2010 kits. One thing to note though is that the shoulder armor joints are incredibly tight to the point where pivoting the arms independent of the shoulders is a chore to do.

The bottom of the feet is probably the one big sore spot on the kit. Why are they so hollow and sparse on details? It’s not like they needed that much space to allow the foot to bend.

The model can kneel but you’d have to tilt and twist the wings in extreme angles out of the way due to their length.

The arms have a couple of oddities about them. For one thing the claws are meant to be displayed outwards in mobile suit mode. It doesn’t disrupt articulation in any way but I noticed that several online reviewers glossed over that point and left the claws collapsed in. What is disruptive however is the chunk of armor jutting out from the lower arm below the fist. This piece prevents straight accessory handles from slotting down all the way into the fist and forces you to pop the fist off altogether if you want to make adjustments.

The wings can rotate at the base and pivot at two points, while the flaps can move sideways.

The Rinascita comes with only one pair of holding hands and a back connector piece that lets you attach parts from other kits like the Star Build Strike’s Plavsky wings.

The shield has a folding handle that goes through the fist, but getting it in is more of a hassle than it should be thanks to the folding cover over it.

The top of the shield has a long fin that can move slightly but the purpose of this function eludes me.

The Rinascita comes with a customized version of the Wing Gundam’s Buster rifle. Thanks to the tight shoulder joints the model has no problems holding the gun up.

The best part about this version of the Buster rifle is that it can mount a wicked beam bayonet. There are simply not enough mecha with beam bayonets going around.

A feature not visually documented in the manual and is either hidden in the text or not mentioned at all is the hole on the back of the model where you can mount the Buster rifle when not in use.

The main body of the rifle is the same as the one from the original Fenice but the bottom attachment has been changed from a smaller rifle to a different rifle that can split down into two parts: a handgun and a high output beam saber.

The large beam saber handle is the only accessory you need to open the hands up to insert and as you can guess its rotation is severely hampered by the “wrist guards”.

Rinascita also loses Fenice’s beam rapier in favor of a traditional beam saber stored in its shield. Sadly however the model’s shield cannot replicate the storage gimmick.

Not completely abandoning the fencer theme, Rinascita retains the beam mantle and now has one on both sides.

For transformation to Flight mode, a number of changes have been implemented to stop the somewhat loose feel that plagues transformed Wing Gundams. The first of these is a piece that attaches below the model’s crotch to lock the thighs together.

The side skirt armor tabs into the lower leg armor.

And finally the main wing body tabs into the back of the shoulder armor. Note that this iteration of the Wing Gundam doesn’t have to rotate its entire lower body.

Instead of attaching to the shield, the rifle halves are connected to the forearms.

The sleeker wings really help the Flight mode pop out as a cool looking aircraft.

This was a really fun kit to build despite a few niggling flaws and I wholly recommend it to Gunpla builders whether they be Wing fans or Build Fighters fans, plus it can do a good gerwalk mode in a pinch if you’re a Macross fan.