Hobby Talk: Model Kit Review, MG ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam 2.0

Link to revised review here.

Probably the most anticipated kit of 2016.  The first kit of the CE century to get the 2.0 upgrade.

Why this kit
Talking about gundam seed, Kira Yamato and his imbalanced Freedom and Strike Freedom will come to mind.  I really have been holding back on getting either kit from 2004 and 2006.  They're kits from older gunpla generations and doesn't offer the details and mechanics unlike newer 201x kits.  Which leads to not so positive review from builders.

When this kit was announced during 2015 Gunpla expo world tour Japan, I was indeed very excited.

This is the first kit I ever pre-booked prior to the release, and my.. it's worth the long 12 years wait for the 2.0.

Kit Details
The Freedom 2.0 kit was released in April 2016, a D1 box kit with 18 runners and 353 parts. You also get 1 sheet of stickers and 1 sheet of dry transfer decals.  This kit is priced at RM 175.

Build / Difficulty
(Score: Neutral)
The build wasn't as fun as I thought.  Probably the after effect of building a more amazing Sinanju.  The build is quite easy and straight forward.  The plus side is you get to put together a quite impressive inner frame and testing out how the mechanic works during the build.

The kit is very-very panel lining heavy.  If you don't do panel lining, you're probably better off with a much simpler Freedom 1.0 kit or other colorful kits from the seed universe.  Panel line this kit up, you can directly see how much details were put into this kit, especially on the white armor.

Since this is not a ver ka kit, stickers and decals are not overwhelming but enough to cover the empty white areas.

The one concern I have during the build is that the inner frame doesn't feel very solid during the build.  There's quite similar feeling of building transformable kit like the Aegis and Fenice at certain parts of the body.  Let's see how it holds up when everything is put together.

Looks / Details

(Score: +2)
This is a fantastic looking kit with lots of details going into this kit.  The kit looks busy.  Huge V fins, huge waist skirts, huge backpacks.  I have done fair amount of panel lining on all my previous kits.  This kit tops even the great Nu.

Truthfully, freedom lacks in terms of color variation.  Less red and yellow compared to older Strike.  Blue, grey, white and bits of red all over the kit.  With the big wings folded up, the freedom doesn't look much different compared to other kits.  Spread those wings open... my god! It is an awesome looking kit!

Accessories
(Score: +1)
You get a very well detailed laminated anti beam shield, a lupus beam rifle and 2 lacerta beam sabers.  Again, not that colorful but has a lot of play-ability.  There are waist mounted xiphas rail gun and shoulder mounted balaena plasma beam cannons but those aren't exactly accessories

Articulation / Pose ability
(Score: +2)
This is a poser's kit.  The inner frame is an engineering marvel.  No policaps means the joints are very tight to move, similar to the Sinanju but can hold its pose really well.  Do take care as to not break the fragile inner frame as reported by many builders.

Remember earlier I said about the frame being not solid enough?  Slap those white and blue armor on and it is solid as rock.  This kit is better than it's bigger brethren like the Nu or Sinanju in terms of absorbing shake and bumps.  Parts hold well together and is not falling off randomly.

The downside, it is very back heavy.  The kit always fall backwards when it is on its feet.  It's almost impossible to pose this kit on the ground with wings wide open.  But heck, Freedom is a space MS.  It's not meant to be grounded.  The box has an action base included so put it up in the air and you're in a treat to have this kit pose in whatever style you want.

Shelf presence
(Score: +1)
This kit is a bit taller than all other model kits from seed universe but it is still a dwarf to those big UC kits.  But thanks to the big wings, this kit promises you an awesome air show on your shelf.

Bonus
(Score: +1)
There's a beam effect and ver ka sticker kit that can be purchased separately at RM150.  This will turn your Freedom into the full burst mode.  But putting these beam effect parts on, you'll be stuck with just one pose, of Kira going nuts.

Summary and Rating
(Total Score: +7)
The build for this kit isn't too exciting.  It's very well detailed but doesn't have the colors to outshine its competitors.  But despite that, opening the flaps of the big wings, all is forgiven.  You'll see how impressive the freedom looks.  This is a very solid, good looking kit and has a lot of gimmicks to boot.

Plus it's a very pose-able kit as well, providing that you utilize the action base.  The only thing I feel falls short of a perfect 2.0 kit is the absence of the individual articulated manipulators.

Gundam: Freedom Gundam
Code: ZGMF-X10A
Series: Mobile Suit Gundam Seed
Pilot: Kira Yamato
Faction: ZAFT, Orb Union
Weapons: M100 Balaena Plasma Beam Cannon, MA-M20 Lupus Beam Rifle, MA-M01 Lacerta Beam Sabers, MMI-M15 Xiphas Rail Gun
Release: April 2016
Box: D1
Runner: 18
Parts: 353
Price: 4500 yen

Pundit: This is a must have for Gundam Seed fans.  Until Bandai decided to release SF 2.0, this is the best Seed MG kit you can get.

Variants
Two other variants of the Freedom to choose from.
1) Strike Freedom (2006) - the upgraded freedom.  But the puke gold turned down most of SF fans.
2) Freedom 1,0 (2004) - there's basically no reason to get this one anymore unless you're really not into panel lining and not willing to fork out extra cash for the new kit.

Dalong's Review
Dalong's Score: 114

Up Next: RX-78-2 ver 3.0

Hobby Talk: Model Kit Review, MG MSN-06S Sinanju Anime Version

Link to revised review here.

The red comet of Zeon.  One of the most highly rated model kit.

Why this kit
I have long heard about the awesomeness of this kit.  But I have not been paying much attention to mono eyed MS until recently when I built the legendary Zaku II.  And just like that, I have had it in my backlog.

Originally I intended to keep this after completing the Freedom 2.0.  But 2 weeks before the new kit arrived, on a long weekend where my fiber broadband was down, I opened the box and started sweating.



Kit Details
The Sinanju kit was released in March 2013, a huge D4 box kit with 23 runners and 477 parts. You also get an option of 1 sheet of black gold stickers or gold water slide, 1 sheet of sticker decals and 1 sheet of dry transfer decals .  This kit is priced at RM 270.

Build / Difficulty
(Score: +2)
Building this kit is a lot of fun.  The kit is not that complicated but contains a lot of curves and rounds, adding challenges to the build.  Panel lining is on the minimal side as most of the curves and angles are well detailed with vents, thrusters and gold Zeon stickers.

This kit is pretty sticker heavy.  I used the gold Zeon stickers instead of the water slide (the latter is way better) because I'm too lazy to work on the water slides.  The kit isn't too heavy on decals.  If you're keen on decals, you can opt for the ver Ka which is essentially the same kit but with a lot more decals.

Looks / Details
(Score: +2)
Sinanju looked fantastic.  One of the best looking kit I ever built.  It is also very well detailed.  Separate yellow vents throughout the body, lots and lots of thrusters and the red looks magnificent.

Accessories
(Score: +1)
Weapons department.  If you get the Anime version, which I did, you'll get an additional bazooka on top of a beam rifle with grenade launcher, a huge shield, 2 beam saber and 2 beam axe.  There's a bunch a playability with the weapons as you can combine 2 or more weapons to become a super weapon but from the looks department, the weapons are a bit lacking in color choices.  Just all grey to be honest.

Articulation / Pose ability
(Score: +1)
Big and bulky is the first impression.  But the sheer size doesn't stop the pose-ability of this kit.  The movements are excellent.

When building this monster, I can feel every part of this MS is rock solid.  But things started to go a bit wrong when everything is put together.  As a complete MS, several part of the kit feels shaky and does want to fall apart.  The spring loaded pipes at the waist pops up a lot.  And several other connections like arm to shoulder pops up a lot.

This is among a few kit that does not have policap joints.  That makes moving the joints a bit hard.  Yes, if you like posing then the pose will stick but the joints feels too tight at hips, knees and shoulder makes it difficult to pose.  And you'll need to apply more force trying to move these joints and once you do that, things started to pop off.  Other parts like ankle or wrist, on the other hand feels too soft.

One major complain about this kit is the waist connection.  The waist is weak... extremely weak for a rock solid kit like this.

The kit is well balanced right until you slap the big backpack on and it started to feel a bit back heavy.  And having a weak waist doesn't help at all.

Shelf presence
(Score: +2)
One, this kit is big.  A regular master grade kit typically measures around 17 cm in height.  The Unicorn Gundam in destroy mode measures 20 cm.  This kit towers all of them at 21 cm.  Only Nu Gundam ver Ka can match it in size but the Sinanju also has bulk and huge ass weapons.  This kit is a Shaquille O'Neal to all other MG kits.  But probably just Yao Ming, cause there are kits like Sazabi or The O that is more Shaq.

Two, it's red, black and gold.  The colors of destruction is really eye catching.

Bonus
(Score: Neutral)
Not much to add for this kit.


Summary and Rating
(Total Score: +8)
If you're looking for a  kit that looked good and badass straight out of the box, this is the kit.  It is well detailed, but requires a lot more effort to build and to pose.  There are a few weakness such as some small parts tends to pop up a lot, when you move the really tight joints the red armor tends to pop up a lot, disturbingly weak waist considering this kit is quite back heavy.

But despite that, this is a very good looking, fun to build, a joy to look at kit.

Gundam: Sinanju
Code: MSN-06S
Series: Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn
Pilot: Full Frontal
Faction: Neo Zeon
Weapons: Beam Saber, Beam Rifle, Beam Axe, Rocket Bazooka
Release: March 2013
Box: D4
Runner: 23
Parts: 477
Price: 7500 yen

Pundit: I can't forgive how Sinanju was defeated in the anime but for the MG kit, it is absolutely recommended for serious builders.

Variants
Two other variants of the Sinanju to choose from.
1) Sinanju ver Ka (2008) - exactly same as this one but with lots more decals.
2) Sinanju Stein (2013) - a white gundam-ish looking Sinanju.

Dalong's Review
Dalong's Score: 112

Up Next: Freedom 2.0

Zer0's Tech Talk: That Expensive Smartphone People Buy

Now that Google has announced their latest and greatest Pixel smartphone, buyers are slapped with a very hard choice of which religion camp to invest in.

Google Nexus has always been a very good choice for users who opted to choose a stock android experience at a very reasonable price.  But the Pixel changes the story.  It's basically a Google's iphone equivalent.  Pixel is exactly one overpriced phone that an iphone already is for ages.

Android fans are now given their test of faith.  Their years of making fun of apple's religion is over.  Would a self proclaimed apple hater or android hardcore fans swallow the bullet and splutter his/her guts to buy what Google is selling to him/her?  We'll find out.

If you're still living under a rock....

Google's Pixel is priced exactly where all the bad boys are.  Here's the breakdown.

Pixel 32GB/128GB is $649/$749
Pixel XL 32GB/128GB is $769/$869

Does the price looks familiar to you?  Yes! It's the iphone7's price.  It's the Samsung Galaxy's price.  Android fan's argument of spending less for more is now invalid.

So the conclusion of the day.  You want something good, you got to pay.  Like Jeremy Clarkson says, there's no such thing as cheap and cheerful.  There's only cheap and nasty or expensive and cheerful.

Now, I am eyeing the smartphone market for a while cause my old faithful iphone is at the penultimate year before it'll officially EOL next year.  So if you're on the market of buying the best smartphone in the market, read on.  I'll try not to be bias.

I am going to group the choices into 3 categories.  Apple, Pixel and Samsung.

The reason, Apple, cause it's apple.  People will compare everything to the apple smartphone.

Pixel, cause it's the Google's golden child.  It's used to be Nexus, but Nexus is no more.

And Samsung, cause Samsung is probably the best 3rd party android device.  Yes, there's LG, HTC, Motorola and so on but those are just stripped version of the galaxy.  So it's essentially what feature you want, at which price point.  Samsung has everything, that's why it's the top of the line premium 3rd party android.  Remove the curved display, you'll get the Moto Z or the LG V20.  Remove the aluminium unibody, you get something else.  You get the idea.

Also note that all price are approximated in US dollars.  It should be priced around the same price range plus tax in your respective currency.

The smaller sibling. Starts at ~$650, you'll get the 32GB version of iphone7, galaxy s7 and pixel.  A $100 bump each time for additional storage or the s7 edge.  Price topped at ~$850.

The larger sibling. Starts at ~750, you'll get the 32GB version of iphone7+, note7 and pixel XL.  Again, a $100 bump for additional storage.  Price topped at ~$950.

In case you want to splash those hard earned money, you'll need to be damn sure what you bought is well worth it.  So here's my thoughts and comparison of all the available choices.

1. Design
This is subjective.  People can buy smartphones for the aesthetics alone.  That's why gold or diamond plated smartphones exist.  If you pay that much money, you have to tell yourself what you bought looks damn good.  But the choice of design boils down to whether you want the smaller or larger variant of the phone.  Smaller for easier handling, larger... cause bigger is better right?

2. Power and performance
All 3 are powered by top of the line SOC.  So processing power is not a question here.  Comparing A10 fusion with snapdragon 821 is like comparing s class Mercedes and 7 series BMW.  Both are top class, the difference are minute.

The other side of power, the battery.  All 3 have a decent battery that will last you for about a day.  All 3 have rapid charge.  Apple does not officially say their iphone has quick charge but we all know you can use the ipad charger.  The only difference between the 3 is that Samsung have wireless charging.  But please be reminded that almost 99% of smartphones out there doesn't have wireless charging so that's a premium you pay for getting a samsung device.

3. Repair-ability
The processing power should able to last you for many years but the battery might not.  A lithium ion battery's life span averaging 2 years though excessive usage and abuse.

So the repair-ability of the phone is also very important.  Do checkout the ifixit channel on youtube who did teardown and repairs of modern smartphones.  So you'll know how complicated the surgery procedure on your phone is and the likely hood of  the phone surviving the knife, and screwdrivers.

Apple is scoring better in this department.  We'll find out how Pixel fare on the repair-ability.

4. The Display
Big win for android camp for the display department.  All larger models is having 1440p display while the plus model for iphone still behind with 1080p panel.  Apple fanbois are defending saying your eyes can't differentiate anything above 400ppi.  Well, who starts all the retina display argument?

Of course I would love having more pixels but as a trade off, you'll need more juice to power more pixels.  Thus the larger battery capacity that last no longer than iphone.

All these displays are doing a very good job.  They're vibrant, bright, colors are very accurate.  What differentiate the display between these competitors are the gimmicks they offer.  Apple has the 3D touch, while Samsung has curved edges, always on display and s-pen for note models.  And pixel has, well it has a display.  Suddenly the high ppi pixel feels a bit too normal.

But those 1440p display are very future proof as they're VR ready.  Not that I care of hooking a chalkboard eraser on your face but VR is not a matured technology.  It's expensive, it doesn't have a lot of contents to go with, plus you look stupid with that thing slapped on your face.

5. The Storage
Android users bragged about expandable storage.  Right until Google shit on their face.  But many android manufacturers are bringing back the option, which is great.

Apple offers 32GB as a base model and can be upsized to 128GB and 256GB,  The only one here that offers the whooping 256GB at a whooping $950.

Pixel offers 32GB and 128GB models and offset the need for 256GB by offering unlimited online photo and video storage for pixel owners.  Good if your internet connection is fast.

Samsung and most 3rd party android doesn't offer such large internal storage.  Their range topping note7 has 64GB.  But they provide expandable storage.  Micro SD cards are pretty cheap, ~$50 for 128GB. But do take note that the access speed to SD are slower compared to internal flash and they are prone to broke down.

6. The Camera
These 3 models probably has the best cameras in the smartphone business.  Pixel claims to have the best of them all.  But we need to wait for a few days for real life test to pop up in youtube.



iphone7+ is the only big 3 with dual camera lens.  Other models like Huawei P9 and LG V20 has it as well.  I'm expecting more 2017 flagships to adopt dual lens setup.  If dual lens is your thing, then there aren't many choices as of now.  Still, all flagship phones takes very decent images with their camera.  Nothing to divide here.

7.  The software
Software is a hot topic.  People debate the open-ness of android vs the restrictive ios.  But both OS has their pro's and cons.  ios can do some stuff better than android, and vice versa.

The real loser here is the 3rd party android.  Samsung's touchwiz, HTC's sense, Huawei's emotion... all are just another layer of bloat-ness to android.  Plus all the bloatware that you probably could not remove.  That's why vanilla android is so good.

Let's take a moment of silence to remember the passing of nexus.

8. The software updates
Now, another topic of software is the length of support.  For apple, the average software support for an iphone is 5 years.  That means if you purchase iphone7 now with ios10, you can expect to enjoy updates and enhancement on your device up until ios14.  This is a very big win for apple compared to android.

Speaking about the devil.  Android's software support is a bit shorter.  3 years for flagships and 2 years for lesser models.  So if you bought a pixel with nougat now, you can expect to receive further 2 updates of O and P dessert.  Nexus 5 won't get nougat, Nexus 6 will most likely won't get android O.  Nexus 6 owners, fingers crossed.

If you decided not to splash money on flagship androids, you will probably get 1 major update, some minor updates and then you're on your own.  xda developers are probably your best bet but don't expect everything to work out of the custom ROM.

The problem is fragmentation. iphone users can get the latest ios as soon as it's announced.  Although really not recommended.  Android, nexus/pixel owner maybe 3-4 weeks after it's announced.  3rd party android, probably 6 months after.

You probably asked why software update is so important.  Yes, getting latest and greatest features are great.  What's the point of Google making a big fuzz about Nougat if mass majority of the world won't get to enjoy it?

The better reason is security.  You must have heard of stagefright.  If you don't, shame on you.  Stagefight should have evolved the industry in delivering security updates to android devices.  Should have. But as of now, it looks like a major failure.  You got to think twice logging into your bank account from these devices.

9. The conclusion
So in the end, none of these phones are superior to the other.

Apple probably have the best ecosystem but their hardware are average at best with a few nifty features.

3rd party android devices always wins on the hardware department.  When apple rumors comes out on what is coming to their next iphone, they're the first to release a phone with the said feature.  Force touch, dual camera, fingerprint scanner, retina scanner (rumored) are just some of them.  The downside, is the software department.  Fragmentation.  Bloatware.  Un-optimized.  Android has been hit by the same problem for years with no closure in sight.

Nexus/Pixel devices on the other hand provides the best android experience.  No bloatware, first in line for new software upgrades and the lots that Nexus owners are enjoying.  But bad news, it's now priced like an iphone.

I was actually expecting the pixel to retain the current pricing scheme or at least having a super souped up spec like triple camera, 4K display, hologram or tourbillion when priced like that.  But well, Google turns out to be just another apple.