Thanks to Ascentic (a.k.a. Nicholas Chua), I get the pleasure to build and review this newly (?) manufactured bootleg based on Kotobukiya's D-Style models :P
I don't know what this company is called in English, but the stamp at the lower right corner resemble the color scheme of TT Hongli/Gao Gao.
Manufacturer: 迪尔模型
Scale: None
Grade: D-Style
Origin: Patlabor
Price: RM25 - RM35
Part 1: Runners
Similar to the original, it comes with clear parts for the eye shade and some dual-colored parts. The plastic quality could not match the original (around 65% - 75%) but the detailing is pretty nicely imitated (around 80% - 90%) except the underwater thrusters.
One small surprise is that the manufacturer included a simple 2-pieces stand for better posing possibility ;)
The Instruction Manual ;)
Part 2: Legs
Snap-fitted without any issue :) The original kit has no articulation for the knee so same here with the bootleg, however, there is a small degree of movement for the feet.
Part 3: Waist
The waist is a straight-forward build, with ball-joint for the hips and torso. Snap-fitted with no problem.
Part 4: Upper Body
Snap-fitted without any issue, just that there is a very obvious seam line on the chest due to the left-right part separation of the mold which isn't the bootleg's fault if you ask me :)
Combining the Upper and Lower Body ;)
Part 5: Arms
The arms are pretty nicely articulated as you could see from the picture below :) The only flaw here is the strange design of the shoulder joint by Kotobukiya that greatly reduce the pose-ability of the arms... the arms could maximum go horizontal up to about 40 degrees only.
Part 6: Arms with Shoulder Armor
No to the fault of the bootleg, as this is another failure of Kotobukiya making the shoulder armor attached to the body instead of the arm... the shoulder armor greatly hinders the vertical movement of the shoulder/arm, making it impossible to "put up your hand" pose!
Part 7: Head
The best part for any Deformed mecha, the head ;) Parts separation is nicely done, the there are enough room for those who would want to do LED mode. Snap-fitted without any issue.
Part 8: Complete Griffon
Despite the couple of flaws made by Kotobukiya, this is still a nice looking D-Style kit :) The 2 options for backpack are included within the package so you could choose to display with the jet backpack or the underwater backpack, or better still, one of each ;)
Jet Backpack
Does this looks like Master Gundam, or Master Gundam looks like Griffon?
The Small Pleasant Surprise :)
Underwater Backpack
Quick Review
Plastic Quality, Colors & Detailing
The plastics quality is so so, comparable to those of TT Hongli so I would give it a 70% for plastic quality.
Parts separation is as per the original so I'm not going to rate it.
The quality of color is pretty bad... the original resemble a very glossy finish but this kit just look bad but can be easily fixed with industrial gloss topcoat ;) I would rate it 60% in terms of coloring since the quality is very obvious on black.
Detailing, however, are being recreated nicely ;) Except the underwater thrusters, I see that the detailing are as close to 85% - 90% of the original. I would rate it 80% due to the underwater backpack.
I must comment that the snap-fitting is done very well, and I managed to assemble the kit without any issue.
Overall, this is still a bootleg with 70% likeliness to the original with good snap fit. A good option for those who don't mind a bit of suffer to the quality in order to save money ;)
Articulations
There's not much articulations to be mentioned here since this is somewhat an SD :P
- Head/Neck: Normal, of an SD... you can't expect much from a big head :P
- Shoulder: Terrible! Kotobukiya screwed up.
- Arm/Elbow: Very good for an SD.
- Wrist: Good
- Hand: None
- Waist: Good
- Hip/Tight: Normal
- Knee: None
- Ankle: Normal
Looks and Feels
On the 1st look, I can see that most detailing are there. Actually touching the parts, I can feel that the plastic quality and the color is not as good as the original, and this was expected.
This kit is what the original would be with a lessen quality on plastic and color, so it inherited the flaws of Kotobukiya which I have mentioned earlier on, on the design of its shoulder.
To really make the kit looks nice, I would recommend industrial topcoat (very much cheaper than the modelling topcoat) but it is still nice to display this kit straight-built ;)
I do recommend this kit since it gives more than 50% savings but if you have the money, support the original ;)
Fin ;)
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