Inside the box with Ichabod Presents

Robot Spirits Gundam Deathscythe Hell from Tamashii Nations/Bluefin

 "I am the god of Death"

 Gundam Gundam Gundam. So I used t be WAY into Gundam back in the day. I had every 1/100th scale Endless Waltz kit, imported from Hobby Link back when they only took checks and you had to order by mail. Those were the days. I also had a variety of other Gundam Wing Gundams, including the 1/100 HG scale kit of this guy. Getting this toy in the mail was a huge nostalgia hit for me.  Covered in his active cloak beam disruptive barrier, he is kinda boring and chunky. Though that red and white paint over the black looks tremendous and crisp.

 That bulky cloak opens up! Really smoothly, actually. It also stays up, with it being a nice smooth joint and not floppy at all. Now we can see the mech underneath it, and it also gives him two unique silhouettes, which is cool.

 The active cloak comes packaged off of Deathscythe, and just pegs onto those bits about the shoulders. Same with his backpack, also removable. 

 The detail here is superb, with nice crisp paint work, and properly anime colored plastic. The contrast of the black cloak, and the dark navy armor is really nice. Also the white lines in the helmet are just stunning in person. No bleed over happened on mine, and the lines are cut into the helmet. They eyes catch light very well, and look like they almost glow. It replicates the look of the show model very well, and even homages the model kits, with their translucent green eye pieces. The rest of the detail is just as good as the Head. With cut lines into the legs and arms, and even the little silver bits painted on the feet.

 The backpack is big, but doesn't get in the way of the motion, and even the thruster has a joint. Neat. While less detail back here, the sculptors still give it a lot of love.

 His joints are almost all a absolute joy to move. The elbows have a great range, and the shoulders also have some good upwards motion, but it is slightly hindered by the cloak bits. The outward motion is not hindered at all.

 The legs are where I have some slight issues. But we'll get to that. The abdomen has a crunch, that is useful but not huge. The wait is also able to rotate, but the geometry of the lower body makes it slightly difficult to move. The knees have a fantastic range, and the skirt armor pieces move out of the way to allow for most  anything you'd want to do. The ankles have some issues with the ankle armor, it bumps into each other making the ankle joints more limited.

 The knee pads are on their own joint so it can move. As you can see here, the feet are also on a joint, but it ended up being more frustrating to mess with than useful.

 My main issue here is the hips. Mine were kinda loose, and with the Top heavy tendency this figure has due tot he cloak, it made posing him a bit more of a chore than I wanted. This might just be a fluke on my end though. And don't get me wrong, his leg joints are great, they just run into some issues.

 Moving onto his weapons, the Buster Shield here is fantastic. I always loved the coffin motif on this thing. It pegs into the arm, and both arms have a spot for it. All the paintwork is great, and the blades even open, no need for a separate piece.

 This Blade rules. It is huge, too, much bigger than I remember the model kit's being. It looks like Duo could just gut other robots with it, which is what he did. I love it. 

 Also it has a peg hole on the back to be attached to a tamashii arm for the launching ability it had. Very cool little touch there.

 It has a little slot cut out of one side to make sure you know which way to peg it into the shield. Very thoughtful.

 While he doesn't have a ton of hands, the selection is at least useful. Some open hands, some scythe holding hands, and some thumb out braced against the scythe staff holding hands. Also fists.

 They pop on and off at a ball joint on the wrist. The connection is just tight enough you know they will never accidentally pop off.

 The Scythe. It has three options for a staff. a Short one for storage, a long one for normal display and a special one. Also the head of it is jointed so once again you only get one scythe head, but it does what you need it to. The joints are all tight too, so no floppy scythe. We're all thankful for that.

 He looks amazing with a Scythe, but I am a sucker for long bladed beam weapons on my robots that aren't normal swords.

 That special handle? It has a in motion curve to it! I freaking love this! It is so damn dynamic, and a great way to convey that motion you saw in the show. 

 Compared to the straight handle, it is subtle, but in person it looks much more dramatic of a change in sculpt.

 The other little accessory is the Peg clip. Just a little clip to peg onto the backpack to be uses with the tamashii stages. It goes on securely, no worries of it falling off the backpack.

 He is a bit short. This is only my second Robot Spirits figure, the first being the Rebuild of Evangelion Unit 01. (Amazing figure, by the way) so I'm not sure if them being this short is a Gundam Wing thing, or a Robot Spirits thing. Either way, the height shouldn't sway you from this. I'm sure with other figures from the line he looks great.

Such Sass, wow. Honestly this is a great figure. I genuinely had fun doing this photo shoot, he is a fun dynamic little toy that is pretty well made. I really should invest more into the RS line. Average price for this guy seems to be from 40-50 bucks, and the build quality on him is a sign of that. He is really well made, except the loose hips issue mine had. Head over to Amazon.com here to grab your own or your local comic store if they go through Bluefin.