MG OZ-13MS Epyon (Daban)

Hi guys, I am now officially venturing into Gunpla selling and would concentrate in GoGo / Daban / GaoGao / TT Hongli for the time being and presenting to you one of the 1st batch of stock I am selling in place of Takumikun, the Daban MG Epyon :)

I will be getting a pretty big shipment by end of the month so stay tuned for announcement, but without further ado... here's my review :)

Manufacturer: Daban (Another subsidiary/alias of Gao Gao/TT Hongli)
Scale: 1/100
Grade: MG
Origin: Gundam W
Price: RM85 (Those who are interested can contact me)

Please take note that I did minor detail coloring i.e. Gold for inner side of the thrusters, and for some inner lining so please do not expect that to be pre-colored on your kit ;)






Section 1: Runners

Detailing is very close to the original. The plastics is not as hard as GaoGao and TT Hongli but they are not brittle as Dragon Momoko which is a good thing.









Section 2: Decals

This kit comes with a piece of dry-transfer decal, a piece of dry-sticker, and the usual foil sticker for the sensors. The quality of the decals are pretty good and close to Bandai's quality as compare to the earlier days :)

I'm sure you could observe that the lower right corner of both decal sheets have been cut off... I bet Daban rushes for production and did not remove the Bandai logo therefore they cut them off instead :p





Section 3: Weaponry

I did this again... assembling the weapons before the actual kit :P

The Heat-Whip

The whip looks simple but in the contrary, is pretty tedious putting together the 10 sections together... on the plus side, there's ball-joint connecting each section therefore the pose-ability for the whip is pretty amazing!



The Beam Saber

This is not ordinary beam saber in the series... By drawing power from the mecha power source directly, this can be turned into a super beam saber ;)

The parts resemble the power cable is actually iron rod coated with black wraps so it is pretty steady ;)




Section 4: Backpack

Still feel like playing around so I did the backpack instead :) The mechanism synchronizing the open/close mode of the wings are pretty nicely done but with 1 flaw in the design... the connector for the wings to the backpack is a bit too small and it get loose pretty easily... do handle with case doesn't matter you are playing with the original or the substitution :P






Playing Around with the Wings

This is what I meant by playing around... putting the wing onto my Gao Gao Deathscythe Hell Custom ;)





Section 5: Skeleton Build

Now, the usual ;)

The Legs

The hips and knee articulations are pretty amazing, but the ankles are hindered by the thick shins :P Those thick shins can also be bended slightly to resemble he neck of a dragon in jet form.

All in all, pretty solid legs ;)



The Waist

Very nicely done, good detailing for the inner part of the skirt armor but I can already see some movement hindrance with the skirt...




The Chest

The pull-out mechanism would allow the shoulder joints to be pulled out for more dynamic posing. The neck employed a dual-joints similar to Wing Zero Custom so the head could tilt upward and downward pretty well ;)




The Shoulders

Part of the upper arm is connected to the shoulder armor.



The Arms

Great articulations for the arms :) There's no inner frame for the forearm so I have to assemble part of the forearm in this case :P



The Head

Pretty nicely done on the parts separations :)




Completed Skeleton

Very solid inner frame! I felt that the plastics quality is better than the usual Gao Gao/TT Hongli.




Drunken Fist! Great Articulation



Another Playing Around with the Wings





Section 6: The Legs

Pretty nicely done! No movement hindrance after applying the outer armor ;)





Section 7: Waist

Parts separations are very well done for this section. The skirts are individually connected to the waist but the angle of flipping up is kinda limited so I am seeing a certain degree of movement hindrance when the kit is fully assembled...





Section 8: Chest

Pretty straight forward build. I would recommend using a little bit of super glue for the red and the the white parts in the middle of the chest ;)





Section 9: Shoulders

Pretty nice parts separation here :)




Section 10: Arms

No hindrance of movement here but I would recommend super glue the small piece on the upper arm.




Section 11: Backpack and Heat-Whip with Decals

Looks way better with decals ;)





Section 12: Completed Build

Standing Pose ;)









Posing with the Action Base










Posing with the Wings of Deathscythe Hell Custom










Section 13: Twin-Headed Dragon Mode

The transformation is pretty simple and it resemble a twin-headed dragon after the transformation. Unlike Zeta and Delta series, I prefer the Gundam mode with Epyon :P

















Quick Review

Plastic Quality and Detailing

The plastic quality is better than the usual Gao Gao/TT Hongli quality. The detailing are also nicely done. The only issue with this kit, which Bandai shares the same, is the weight of the Heat-Whip causing the pull-out shoulder joint falling out of place. This is a design flaw and not a fault of Daban.


Articulations

Articulations are pretty good!

• Head/Neck: Excellent!
• Shoulder: Good!
  
• Arm/Elbow: Excellent!
  
• Wrist: Normal+.
• Hand: N/A - fixed exchangeable hands instead.
• Waist: Good.
  
• Skirt Armour: Normal-.
  
• Hip/Tight: Excellent.
  
• Knee: Excellent.
• Ankle: Normal.
• Feet: Normal.
• Wings: Good.
  

Looks and Feels

The detailing of the inner frame does not meet up with my expectation but they are not bad at all... just me having high expectation for Daban :P The inner frame come close to 85% of the original!

As for the outer armors, it comes as close as 95% of the original with just a little isolated flaw on one or two pieces that have a little excessive plastics that I need to scrub off ;)

The snap-fit is done with high precision that not a single part not fitting well with another, and I do enjoy assembling this kit ;)

Overall, this comes very close to 95% of the original kit so I highly recommend this kit to those less diehard fan of the series, or those of us who love to safe a few bucks ;)

Still, for those of you who can afford, do buy original ;)


Additional Section: Simple Fix to Shoulder Pull-out Joint

The advanced inner frame used for Epyon employs pull-out joint for the shoulder for better pose-ability but unfortunately the weight of the heat-whip will cause the pull-out mechanism to deploy causing the arms to fall down... There's a simple fix for the issue which I'm going to illustrate in the following few pictures.

Firstly, let's understand the mechanism...

The shoulder joint at its original place.



The shoulder joint is pulled out to the front.



The shoulder joint is pulled out to the front and down.

Due to the weight of the heat-whip, the shoulder joint will became this form...



Simple Fix

Cut a piece of plastics (I'm using the harder plastics from my cough lozenge) measure 1cm long x 0.5cm wide.



Push the small piece underneath the armpit for it to prevent the deployment of the joint. This is a simple fix but however, it would not hold if the angle of slanting is too much to the front.




Fin ;)