Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan, we’ve been sent a toy from Gundam Unicorn to review. Specifically, the Robot Damashii Sinanju. In addition, to give the toy some context, we’ve also linked some gameplay footage of it in action from Gundam Musou 3 and Gundam Extreme Versus at the end of the review.

Casval Deikun has had a selection of pseudonyms over the years, from Char Aznable to the highly comical Quattro Vagina. He’s always been one of the two main pillars of the universal century narrative, with Amuro Ray being the other. Casval has also been reincarnated a few times too; from the likes of Afranshia Char in the non-canon Gaia Gear to the more recent, though similarly comical, Full Frontal in Harutoshi Fukui’s Gundam Unicorn novels.

In the novels, Full Frontal is more of a memory clone than an actual clone but in the anime things are somewhat different. It appears that Casval may well still be alive after the events of Char’s Counterattack and that Full Frontal is indeed the same man back from the dead. Either way, he’s piloting a red mobile suit that travels three times faster than anything else. It seems the eponymous Red Comet is here to stay.

What’s especially fascinating about Full Frontal’s new ride in Unicorn is that it’s been penned by Hajime Katoki. Normally, Katoki’s aesthetic approach is one of hard edges and clearly defined angles. This often made Katoki’s skillset ideal for penning Federation mobile suits, whereas Mika Akitaka would handle the sleeker and curved Zeonic mecha. Not this time though, whilst Akitaka lent design support on the NZ-666 Kshatriya the remainder of the mecha in Unicorn were done almost exclusively by Katoki himself.

The design of the MSN-06S Sinanju is equally brilliant and utterly uncharacteristic of Katoki. Sleek curves everywhere mixed with Zeonic ornamentation. It somehow manages to capture the menace of Yutaka Izubuchi’s much loved MSN-04 Sazabi, whilst also trimming it down to make it look positively muscular. As such it’s a deceptively complex design and one rife with numerous potential pitfalls when it comes to toy and kit manufacturing.

Well, the Robot Damashii incarnation does not fail to disappoint. Whilst on the surface the Sinanju may appear to be a rather gimmick free design, much of what makes the mobile suit so scary in the novels and anime is what it conceals. Subsequently this toy has a lot of very interesting extras and gimmicks that make it worth the price tag.

Toy: Robot Damashii Sinanju
Price: 5000 yen
Size/Weight: 22.4 x 19.5 x 5.2 cm / 290g

The sculpt and articulation are pretty much flawless, allowing for some great poses. However, due to the weight of the boosters at the rear some of the more dynamic poses will need the Tamashii stand (sold separately). In terms of what this toy has tucked away; the shield can either be affixed to the arm directly or from a separate shoulder clip, the shield also houses the beam axes that can be detached and turned into a pseudo-beam naginata (a la the classic MS-14S Gelgoog). The forearms also house in-built beam sabers and the beam rifle can also be disassembled and separated, with its grenade launcher being attached to the underside of the shield. The legs also house independently pivoted boosters on the side and at the rear, though the main boosters’ hinge setup is most impressive. As opening them up has the internal boosters slide out.

Overall, this is an amazing toy of a very complex and difficult design. It is also remarkably sturdy and well built despite being almost wholly made of plastic, something that would normally cause issues in the joints on other toys. This is also one of the best Robot Damashii entries we’ve seen thus far as well, by quite a margin we should add. If you’re at all a fan of Katoki’s work or just like red mecha then this Sinanju toy is worth nabbing. Considering the detailing and sculpt, let alone all the gimmicks, the price tag is surprisingly reasonable. Here’s hoping Bandai follow this up with a suitably beefy Kshatriya.

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2FTKe4_3bM]

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCZVCCz5OP4]