Inside the box with Ichabod presents:SUPER REVIEWS WARS DX

Bandai Master Grade Jesta From Gundam Unicorn by @dreyga_kun from CollectionDX

Hello to all of the fine listeners, viewers, and readers of Preorder66!This is Dkun AKA @dreyga_kun from CollectionDX here to bring you a special review for the Preorder66 site. Now I wanted to review something that would be both a little bit different, but also relevant to the interests of the general audience of the podcast, so I figured this would be a good time to do a tangent of my own and tell you a little bit about my latest experience with Bandai's Master Grade model kit line.

Now, I haven't had the best time with Master Grade kits. I tend to consider them to be over-engineered and at a size that is too large to adequately handle the engineering and overall mass of the finished products. Plus a lot of this has been influenced by the last Master Grade I built, which was the Unicorn Gundam. Which despite being an amazingly lovely and ambitious mechanical design, it is actually one of the most infuriating things I've ever built in my life.

But that's not what we're here to talk about today! Today I'm here to tell you about the kit that has managed to get me back into Master Grades, and that is none other than the Master Grade Jesta.

The Jesta is a design that comes from Gundam Unicorn, and the way that I usually describe it is that it's basically a SWAT-team giant robot (which if you think about it for a second, is the dumbest thing in the world). It's sleek, in dark colors and just oozes an aggressive coolness that made my fall in love with the design. Seriously, I have like three different Jestas in my collection.

 The building process for the Jesta was actually very straight forward. Of course there's the standard internal frame that all Master Grades are known for, but it was much more simplified with less focus on tiny frustrating parts and instead featured larger and chunkier pieces to make the process go a lot faster. This kit actually only took me about five hours as far as just basic assembly goes!

 With any Master Grade kit the first thing people often wonder about is the articulation, and I am pleased to report that this is one of the most articulated MG kits I've ever seen. The arms have all of the standard articulation points: bicep swivels, double-jointed elbows, and ball jointed wrists. In addition to that, the shoulder armor can rotate and swivel.

 There's also an additional pull-out joint built into the torso to allow the arms to swing outward.

 The head is on a simple balljoint, but there is a very wide range of motion to it that makes the suit very emotive.

 The cockpit also opens and if it wasn't so damn dark in there, you'd see a pilot too.

 The legs are where things get really interesting though. The hips are on universal joints, but they also are on a swiveling disc on the inside. What this basically does is that it allows for a wider rotational range of motion along the hips so you can get a greater variation of stances. It's a little fiddly, but a very good idea for articulation improvements.

 The ankles are also on gigantic ball joints for a huge range of motion. This also means the if the figure isn't properly balanced, it's possible for it to topple over, but most standard posing should be fine

 Now despite all of that, I seem to have missed a major point of articulation. Can you guess which one?

  That's right, it's the hands! Now, the way these hands work are kind of mindblowing. They come printed and molded on the sprue fully assembled and jointed. So all you have to do is pop them out and BAM! You're good to go.

Every single joint and digit is jointed in this with either tiny balljoints or swivels. So you can have this guy do anything you want with this hands very easily, like say hello, give a peace sign, or pretend he's rocking out/being Spider Man!

 Also because it's mandatory:

(Editors note: HI VANGELUS  -Icha)

Since the Jesta is a pretty sleek and streamlined mobile suit, it's weapon load is simple but effective. He comes with a beam rifle and a shield, along with a few built in armaments. I really like the Jesta's beam rifle. Honestly it just looks like an actual assault rifle, especially given its giant silencer and removable magazine clips. 

The poseable hands hold the gun very well thanks to the help of not one but TWO pegs that attach into the handle. 

Once in hand, the Jesta looks like a proper badass. The inclusion of the small additional handle allows for a wider range of posing options as well. 

 The hands actually have an additional pull-out joint that lets you angle and tilt the hand down, which is great for angled rifle shooting poses along with some beam saber tilting action.

 Like I said earlier, the Jesta is a very streamlined mobile suit, so it doesn't have time to carry around or wait to get more guns. So there are actually more magazine clips that are built into his forearms. These can easily be popped out and replaced with the ones on the actual rifle. Tiny attentions to detail like that absolutely rock.

The gun does store on the back of the skirt armor as well.

 In addition to the magazines stored in its right arm, the Jesta has a beam saber in its left arm. It locks into the hands the same way that the beam rifle does so it has a very secure connection.

 The last accessory that the Jesta comes with is its shield. Now most mobile suits have to hold or peg their shields into their arms. Not the Jesta though! The Jesta's too sleek and cool for that. He has a robot-arm attached to his backpack do that for him!

The robot arm is jointed in a multitude of points and lets this arm go any-which-way it wants to. So you  can have the Jesta storming forward while using its shield for cover, or use it while in beam saber melee as well. 

 For size comparison, here's a bunch of A-holes.

And that's the Jesta in a nutshell! I have to say that compared to previous Master Grade experiences, this one was surprisingly pleasant and the end result was super satisfying. I still prefer 1/144 scale High Grade kits to Master Grades, but I'll probably end up picking up a few more down the line. Plus, I would totally be all over a Jesta Cannon.

Thanks again to Preorder66 for letting me post and share this with you guys!

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