MSiA ZGMF-1017 Miguel's GINN

Height: 10.5 cm to top of head, 12 cm to top of crest

Articulation: 24 total points of articulation: Ball jointed neck; 6 points in each arm - double jointed shoulder, pre-elbow swivel, double jointed elbow, ball joint wrist; 6 points in backpack - ball jointed wing binders with one hinge joint in each upper and lower cowling; Swivel joint waist; 5 points in each leg - ball joint hip, double jointed knee, ball joint ankle, hinged front ankle covering.

Accessories: Missile pods x2; Machinegun; "Barrus" heavy ion cannon; MA-M3 heavy blade; Extra hands x4

Colors: Molded orange, off-white light grey and dark grey; Painted orange, green, red, black, pink, dark grey, off-white, and dark green (panel lines)

Release Data: Released September 9, 2004 in Japan at a price of ¥1200. This item is still in production as of this review (October 14, 2004).

Gallery: 12 images.

Author: ExVee

The Figure

I'll just come out and say it. I like orange. I really, really like orange. I have multiple orange shirts that I wear very often. In fact, if I could find some, I'd very likely wear orange pants and orange shoes, too. And I drink Mountain Dew Livewire as if it was going out of style. ...wait, I think it is... So anyway, naturally an MSiA whose primary color is orange immediately registered as a must have. Now don't go thinking I'm biased, I bought the normal color GINN, too. I just wouldn't have gotten the recolor at the same time if it weren't orange.
Okay, so let's talk about this figure a bit. This is the custom machine of a minor character who died in the second episode of the Gundam SEED TV show after approximately 22 and a half seconds of meaningful screen time. However, the character seems to have gotten decent coverage in the SEED Mobile Suit Variations, including a brightly colored custom unit that didn't appear in the show (it was in the shop during the Heliopolis operation), so yay for Miguel Aiman. We may never have got a bright orange GINN if not for the character dying!

-Head

Some say the GINN is a total take-off from a Zaku. I dunno about that, but the head is fairly similar, in the mono-eye, square "snout", dome head kind of way. The figure's head is an accurate representation of the animation model, with exception of the colors, of course. There's good articulation at the neck. The designers reached a good compromise of head shape, neck length, and collar height which results in a head that can tilt a good ways to any direction and turn freely.

-Arms

The arms are what is quickly becoming standard on MSiAs, with the back to front swing joints in the shoulders in addition to the regular ball jointed shoulders. Mind, the shoulder armor restricts the swing joint motion a bit, but the little bit extra flexibility comes in handy anyway. Also like is becoming normal, the shoulder ball joints have a limited range of outward mobility, which is a bit of a shame. The shape of the forearm also limits the range of the double elbow joints, much like on the transforming MSiA Epyon. Regardless, you can get some very nice poses with the machinegun and the sword. Not as much freedom with the big ion cannon, but I'll talk about that down there a ways.

-Torso

The torso itself is larger and blockier than those of the SEED Gundams released so far, and lacks the slight side to side and forward/backward tilt the Gundams feature. To make up for this, the waist can turn very freely, something the Gundams haven't generally managed. Most of what's good and/or special about the torso is on the back side. Part is the skirt armor, back and both side panels, which have slots for mounting weapons. The machinegun is meant to store on the rear skirt plate, with the sword sitting on one side or the other, but the slots are sized right so that you can put the sword on the back and the machinegun on the right side skirt panel, if you like. Also, since both side pieces have slots, you can give a GINN a pair of swords if you've purchased an extra figure. Otherwise you can just put your sword on whichever side you want. Nice touch, I think.

The big thing on the torso is the big old backpack unit. It consists of a solid base piece, and a pair of aritculated wing binders on the sides. The whole unit pegs into the back securely, so you can easily pose the binders without worry of accidentally dislodging the backpack. The binders are each jointed at the solid base with a ball joint that has quite a nice amount of flexibility, and there's enough room between the binders and the back and shoulders of the figure to allow for great posing. Additionally, both the upper and lower cover pieces are jointed with simple hinges, so they can open quite a ways, or close almost entirely. I'll also note that since the backpack unit can be removed and replaced so easily, a High Maneuver GINN would not be beyond the realm of possibility at some point down the road. We can but hope...

-Legs and Feet

This is where the figure really shines. The articulation is numerically pretty standard, but some combination of skirt flexibility, lower leg shape and ankle jointing has conspired to make something truly outstanding: The first MSiA that can properly kneel down on one leg. It's really an amazing thing. You can sort of get kneeling with some recent figures, but they're always sort of pointing upward. Not so here. This looks almost totally natural. Now of course since this depends on bending the front skirt armor, you won't want to leave the figure posed that way for any length of time, but for those brief moments you can have some really cool poses with the big guns.

As I said, numerically the articulation is pretty normal, but you do get great articulation from that just because of the GINN's design. When you first take it out of the package, you might have to spend a few minutes fiddling with the legs to get a natural looking stance that you're happy with, but once you get used to how the joints move, no such problem will exist.

-Paint and Detailing

The painting is pretty much excellent, though the majority of the figure's color is from plastic colors which reduces the chances for painting mishaps. Still, the color matching is quite good. It's difficult to tell painted areas from bare plastic, except for differences in glossiness. Likewise, the panel line inking is nicely done, mostly kept thin and sharp, with only a small misapplication on the left kneecap where it goes outside the panel line.

Articulation gets 8/10

Sculpting and Deco get 9/10

Accessories

-MA-M3 Heavy Blade

Pretty simple. A short, slightly techy sword made from a single piece of soft plastic. It has a small flange on one side of the hand guard so it can peg into either of the side skirt pieces, or even on the rear piece. Though if you do that, you'll wanna watch how you pose the wing binders, since you've got a good chance of bending and potentially warping the sword.

-MMI-M8A3 76mm machinegun

A nicely sculpted, if a bit small seeming, machinegun. It's also a single piece weapon, and is fairly sturdy. It can be held quite well in either left or right gun hand, and doesn't suffer the old problem of always being crooked in the hand. This also has a small flange and is meant to store on the rear skirt armor. However, it can also store adequately on the right side skirt armor. It can probably work on the left, but it'd be much more awkward.

-Missile Pods

Nothing much here. A pair of three tube missile launchers that mount on the legs. The flanges are articulated, though, and can swivel 360 degrees, that way no matter how you have the legs posed, you can point the missiles forward, or up, or however you want. It's a very handy little touch, and is much appreciated. One thing that's not appreciated is that the missile tips on one of the pods my GINN came with were glued in crooked, so they look like they'd be firing all over the place. Oops.

-"Barrus" Heavy Ion Cannon

The only unique weapon to this figure (the standard GINN comes with the regular bazooka), and the largest. It's pretty much a giant rifle, meant to be balanced over the shoulder. Unfortunately, this doesn't really work here because of the wing binders. They stick up too far, and so the only decent way for the figure to hold the ion cannon is to prop the back end over the right arm and have it point off to one side. This doesn't exactly look *bad*, but it would have been nice somehow to have the figure be able to hold it like it looks like it was meant to without having to point downward. Oh, and there's a hinged forward grip a little ahead of the main grip, and it's pretty much required that the figure use it, otherwise it'll try to sag between its weight and length. This is also the only weapon the figure can't store some way or another.

-Handsets

The GINN comes with two extra sets of hands. One open to hold the sword, and one set of gun hands to use either machinegun or ion cannon. Since there's a left and right gun hand, the machinegun can be used just fine in either hand. But since the ion cannon basically requires a two handed pose, it's stuck in the right hand only so the left can use the forward grip. The hands attach with the now-standard ball and socket connection. It's a little stiff switching between them at first, but the sockets in the hands get very slightly looser when you switch the hands a few times, and they change easier, but without being loose. It's a good balance.

Accessories get 8/10

Closing remarks

Although largely possessed of standard articulation, it uses it exceptionally well. Sculpting and paint are great, and it has a wonderful range of accessories. This can be a little expensive, though, easily costing upwards of $20 shipped, depending where you buy it. For a figure that would cost between $6 and $9 if it was released in North America (which there are currently no plans for this specific figure), it may be a bit more than you want to spend. However, it's a fine figure, and well worth the cost if you can get it for under $15 including shipping.
I'm very pleased with my purchase, and if I find the right price, I'd readily buy a couple more standard GINNs to make a full MS unit for Miguel. It's one of those molds that's really worth having multiples of. I give Miguel's GINN an overall rating of Excellent.

--ExVeeBrawn - 10/14/2004