MSiA RX-110 Gabthley (Second Opinion)

MSiA RX-110 Gabthley- RAC's Second Opinion

Height: 11cm (Head); 13cm (Overall)

Articulation: 32 points total: 7 points per arm - Triple jointed shoulder, pre-elbow swivel, double jointed elbow, ball joint wrist; Double jointed shoulder Mega Particle Cannons; Ball jointed neck; Ball jointed waist; 6 points per leg - Ball joint hip, mid-thigh swivel, triple jointed knee, ball joint ankle. In addition, 22 individually moveable thrusters plus various points of articulation pertaining to Mobile Armor mode.

Colors: Molded chocolate brown, dark green, grey, dark grey, black, clear yellow; Painted dark green, green, brown, red, yellow, grey, pink, black.

Accessories: Feyadeen rifle; Beam sabres x2; Transformed legs x2; Mobile Armor stand; Extra hands x4

Release Data: Released in Japan on October 26th, 2005 at a price of ¥1700. This item is no longer in production as of this review. (1/03/2006)

Gallery: 32 images.

Second Opinion: RAC



The Figure

In all things, a narrow perspective is unhealthy, in my opinion. In the case of toy review, where so much is subjective, multiple perspectives can be really handy when deciding whether to purchase a figure. With MSiAs, this is doubly good, as there's a certain amount of variance between copies of a single figure.

With all that in mind, we're instituting the It Figures! Second Opinion- it's our fancied-up name for a new review of a piece one of us has already covered. To start, I'm going to take on the RX-110 Gabthley, which was first reviewed by ExVee back in October. If you've not read that review yet, it's probably best to start there, since I'll be referring to it frequently.



The Head

The yellow collar part being attached to the head really is an odd choice, but it gives the head a great range of front-to-back tilt. The head has a fair turning range, but is restricted, as ExVee said, and a bit awkward in appearance when turned to an extreme.

The Arms

I spent a good deal of the past year raving about the effectiveness of the marriage of hinges and swivels on Star Wars figures. I really didn't think they needed applied to MSiA anytime soon. I was, of course, wrong, since the Gabthley's shoulders make use of this style of joints twice. At the shoulders, it provides the best vertical range yet seen on an MSiA. The line-standard hinge-only assembly might offer a bit more forward swing, but this has a better overall range, and I suspect the upcoming EMiA Gundam will have a similar setup.

The second example of the joint on each arm is at the small Beam gun at the top of each shoulder armor. As ExVee noted, they're not quite as mobile as the animation shows, but they're darned close. I wonder if a ball-joint wouldn't have been more effective- but even if so, I think the guns would've popped off frequently, which is definitely not the case here.

The elbows are standard double-joints, and but for the flared armor piece on the upper arm would fold flat without difficulty. That arm piece is designed to slide up for the Mobile Armor transformation, and feels a bit loose on my figure but will stay in either position without difficulty so far.

The Torso

The upper torso is relatively simple, with the only really unusual part being the "head" for Mobile Armor mode on the back. The skirt armor is attached to a swivel arm by a ball-joint, and can slide wherever it's needed for MA mode or posing. (Not to pick on poor MSiA Strike Freedom yet again, but this is pretty much the mechanism I'd hoped to see for its sliding skirt panels.) The waist has a moderate amount of tilt and swivel, but as ExVee says it's a bit restricted, which seems to be mainly due to the placement of the tailfin booster. There's really no way around it, as the legs are restricted by the position of the skirt, which is in turn restricted by that booster. It's not severe, though, and some good poses are certainly still possible.

One minor detail about the skirt impresses me: all the verniers are ball-jointed and movable, even the tiny ones over the hips, much to my amazement.

The Legs and Feet

The hip joint is tight to the point of squeaky, and the legs have been neatly positioned so as not to clash with the pelvic conduction cables. As previously stated the swivel is quite high relative to the overall length of the thigh. I figure this is so the swivel stays out of the way of the skirt for the most part.

The normal set of legs is quite flexible. The hinged knee is supplemented nicely by a ball joint above and below, and gets a range better than most of the other single-hinge figures I've dealt with. The combination of ball-joints, also used on the EMiA Zaku, does help poseability, but makes the leg feel somewhat wobbly to me. It's not a problem now, but if Bandai chooses to make heavier (or even merely top-heavy) figures with this combination, it may be a bit unstable. Due to the single hinge, Gabthley's knee doesn't fold into a tidy "U" as most current MSiAs' legs do, but makes it as far as a "V"- which can result is some dynamic flying poses. The ankle could have a bit more range for my taste, but the ball-joints do offer a bit of wiggle room since you can redirect the calf slightly.

It was wise to make the transformed legs a separate part, since both sets do their individual duties well. The claw legs are very well-articulated, with what would be the inner workings of the leg and the outer armor being independently flexible. I agree with ExVee that the claws could use more articulation, but I'm glad they at least made the effort, and hinges would probably be unfeasible at this size.

One word of warning about both pair of legs: the kneecapes are separate, hinged pieces, and one of mine was detached (but thankfully present when I got the figure. You need to be very careful, as it's tiny, and difficult to attach. Be especially careful when changing legs- I managed to pop a kneecap off and shoot it across the room somewhere.

Mobile Armor Mode

The Gabthley's MA mode is compact, insectoid, and menacing. The leg swap is the hardest part- the rest is just sliding and angling, and of course pulling the MA head off the figure's back and plugging it onto the front of the torso. Once the Feyadeen Rifle is applied, completing the mode, it's attached firmly. You can pick the Gabthley up by the rifle barrel with no signs of loosening. My only minor gripe about this mode is regarding the arms- it'd have been nice for some way to fix them in this mode instead of loosely hiding the wrist ball-joints up under the armpits.

Paint and Detailing

Some designs need panel inking, and some don't. Gabthley is one of the fortunates that doesn't suffer from the lack of ink in the least. The red of the numerous verniers and the pink of the cameras help flesh out the color scheme nicely, and the paint is crisp and neat, even on the startlingly tiny verniers on the hips. It looks really good.

Articulation gets 9/10

Sculpt and Deco get 9/10

Mobile Armor Mode gets 9/10


Accessories

-Feyadeen Rifle

The Feyadeen Rifle is long and slender, and looks quite menacing. It's made entirely of ABS, and will never warp. The two halves of the folding stock have a tendency to separate and come loose from the weapon, but you can kind of feel it coming and tighten them in time, usually. The Gabthley can hold the Rifle easily whether in rifle or emergency Beam Saber configurations, and it attaches firmly to the Mobile Armor mode's mounting bracket.

-Beam Sabers

Typical. Hard plastic blades, soft grips, and they fit in the appropriate hands very snugly. In fact, it may take a little bit more force that normal to slide them in.

-Extra Hands

Six in all: a pair of fists and one pair for each handheld weapon. All hold to the wrist nicely and fit their intended accessories very well. In an odd move, the Beam Saber-holding hands are molded with the thumb and forefinger linked, so they're unusuable for a secondary grip on the rifle.

-Stand

The standard stand with yet another new head. Rather than unsuccessfully fighting gravity, as the useless Hambrabi stand attempts, this stand uses gravity to its advantage. You slide the handguard of the Feyadeen Rifle back on the stand, and when it reaches the spot where the stock thickens, it stops, with the Gabthley pointing slightly upwards. The stand is well-balanced and shouldn't tip over backwards unless you force it. Because of the nature of the design, the minor splitting that usually afflicts the heads of these stands shouldn't affect its effectiveness at all.

Accessories get 9/10



Closing Remarks:

Not much of a dissenting opinion, eh? I find ExVee's assessment to be pretty much spot-on. Additionally, I think I should mention that unlike ExVee, I have no special fondness for the Gabthley as seen in the series, but the figure has convinced me that I ought to go back and view Gabthley-related episodes again. That speaks pretty highly of it, I think.

The Gabthley does everything it sets out to do well, with no personality quirks to speak of outside of the kneecaps. The fact that it does so as a transforming design makes it even better. Even despite the minor issue of my Gabthley still missing a kneecap (Good thing they're all but invisible on the claw legs, so I had a "spare"), the figure is still undeniably State of the Art.

-RAC, Zeta Project Part II