u/BearfangTheGamer

I'm working on a matched pair of customs that will fuse the Death Scythe Hell and the Heavy Arms Custom into two paired suits. This is the first finished leg.

So, this was a RX-121 bootleg I didn't order that came with a Motor Nuclear Jihu that I did order. I decided it would be a test bed for a whole bunch.

It was my first time using:

Pour type markers to panel line

Alcohol to clean up

Metallic Gundam markers for the lenses and the golds

Flat topcoat.

All in all it came out pretty well!

I wanted the claws to read as Industrial metal, and weather which said "used" but not "half wrecked in battle.". Then I used flat coat to kill the shine. Not bad for a 10 dollar HG!

I notice there aren't as many text reviews for 3rd party kits. Not everyone feels like watching a video, so I put this together.

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Colors: Really good. Doesn't require paint, but the finish would take primer well if you want to go that route.

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Plastic quality: Solid overall. The only caveat is the inner frame runs slightly softer than the outer armor. Not a dealbreaker, but worth knowing if you're heavy-handed with nub removal or panel lining.

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Fit: About 8/10. A couple spots wanted a single drop of glue to stay put, and most joints actually benefitted from loosening rather than tightening. Standard third-party fettling, nothing that fought me.

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Build/posing: Sturdy and poses well. No flop in the joints once dialed in, and it holds dynamic stances without sagging.

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Instructions: Clear and easy to follow.

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Accessories: All look great. No complaints on completeness or molding. Waterslides, stickers, and foil stickers all included.

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Verdict: 8/10 as a bootleg. Measured against real kits it's more like a 6/10, so set expectations accordingly depending on what you're comparing it to. That said, I'd genuinely rather build this than the Crossbones Full Cloth, which is a Bandai kit I own and would not call a better experience.

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Happy to answer questions if anyone's on the fence.

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This build started out fun. The head was great, the feather antenna. The core fighter was very cool. The whole thing really fell apart when it came time to do the Full Cloth. The chest armor sits loosely held down by the cockpit hatch, it requires tac to hold. The suit can't support most of the weapons without the addition of tac as well. It's not the end of the world, but it sucked to have things start well and then fail in the home stretch.

Platform(s): PC, Windows 95

Genre: Top-down shooter

Estimated year of release: 1996-1997

Graphics/art style: Sprite based, 2D, top-down. Graphics were notably clean for the era. Required manual display setting to and from 256 color or 16-bit before launching, but I don't recall which was the target for the game.

Notable characters: You pilot a ship. No memorable characters.

Notable gameplay mechanics: Free roaming rather than a vertical scroller. Collected weapon upgrades as you explored. Moved between areas through gates or portals.

Other details: The environment looked like a jungle on an alien planet, green organic terrain. I had this as shareware on a blue/purple Gravis Game CD, likely the 1996 or 1997 revision since the disc also included Seek and Destroy which released in 1996. Other titles on the same disc included Terminal Velocity, Jazz Jackrabbit, One Must Fall 2097, Raptor, and Outer Ridge. The game is NOT any of those, and NOT Zone 66, Major Stryker, or Traffic Department 219. I don't believe the disc I had included commander keen, or if it did it wouldn't boot on my system. I do remember Hocus Pocus so I'm wondering if only a game or two got swapped.