MSiA ZGMF-X42S Destiny Gundam

Height: 10.5cm to top of head, 11.5cm to top of stored weapons on back.

Articulation: 32 total points of articulation: Ball jointed neck; 6 points in arms- double-jointed shoulders, pre-elbow swivels, double-jointed elbow, ball-jointed wrists; ball-jointed waist; 6 joints in backpack for posing of wings; 6 points in each leg - ball jointed hip, triple-jointed knee, double-jointed ankle.

Accessories: MA-BAR73/S High Energy Beam Rifle, MMI-714 "Arondight" Sword with removeable Beam blade, M2000GX High Energy Long-Range Beam Cannon, RQM60F "Flash Edge 2" Beam Boomerang/Saber with removeable blades x2, Folding Shield, Beam Shield, Extra hands x8

Colors: Molded white, blue, red, gray, dark gray, olive green, light blue, translucent blue, and translucent pink. Painted red, blue, dark gray, medium blue-gray, black, light blue, yellow, and green (eyes and cameras).

Release Data: Released June 30th, 2005 in Japan at a price of ¥1600. This item is no longer in production as of this review (October 14th, 2005).

Gallery: 12 images.

Author: RAC

The Figure

The Destiny Gundam is a most ambitious design. In addition to carrying the weapons of all three of the Impulse Gundam's Silhouettes, it sports a Beam Shield and a pair of palm-mounted beam weapons for close-up use. As an MSiA, this ambition is carried out pretty well in the larger features, but falters on some of the smaller details.

The Head

A Gundam head. It has a pretty distinctive face, with the two red streaks putting me in mind of Mazinkaiser. Without the two black slits in the front of the faceplate, though, the face comes off as a bit washed-out. I never realized before how much difference those can make. The neck has a good range of tilt and swivel despite the high collar in the back. It takes a little bit of force to turn the head 360 degrees, but I can't see why you'd really need to anyway.

The Arms

The few problems that the figure has are all in the arms. The shoulder armor does fairly well, but sits closer to the torso than some other recent figures', meaning the shoulder hinges don't have the range they could have. A minimal gripe, that- the big problem here is the tiny peg that's supposed to hold the multifunction Beam Boomerangs- the pegs face down, and the Boomerang grips plug in underneath. Gravity does get the better of it sometimes- it just doesn't hold as well as I'd like. The elbows work just fine, and the forearm has a gauntlet-like design with a hardpoint for the shield to attach to.

The biggest problem is in the hands, or on them- while fine otherwise, they feature a piece of detachable knuckle armor that is designed to be transferred from hand to hand as you switch between the Open, Rifle, Saber, and Fist handsets. Which would be fine if those knuckle pieces actually attached to the hands securely, but they don't. The pegs which should do the job are more like small bumps which merely suggest a connection. Your only alternative to those is to use the one set of optional fists intended for use of the Beam Shield, which have a big hole where you're supposed to plug in that part. It's really a very frustrating and disappointing aspect of an otherwise good figure.

The Torso

Destiny's torso, like the head, pretty much uses standard Gundam colors and shapes. The waist has a good degree of tilt, though the swivel is pretty much restricted to the front arc. I'm pretty sure that's intentional- the side skirt plates, while high, don't seem to interfere with Destiny's waist anywhere that I can see, so I suspect the restriction is probably inside the torso with the raised ball-joint. The skirt is MSiA standard, so it can warp, but it's minimally restrictive, and if Destiny's legs are touching the scalloped edges of the front skirt there's almost no resistance at all.

The back is where you'll find most of what makes Destiny Destiny. First, the wings, which feature three hinge joints: the first allows the wings to move forward and back, and is pretty adequate at keeping them out of the figure's way. The location of the weapon mounts does restrict their overall range somewhat, though. The second hinge allows you to raise and lower the wings, and seem adequately strong for the relatively light wings for now. I say "for now" because the left wing seems a bit looser than the right and may become prone to drooping in the future. The final hinge allows you to spread the wings by lifting the outer section, which even without the "Wings of Light" effect used in the show is fairly imposing-looking. The wings are helped greatly in their weight by the use of lighter, harder plastic on the outer sections, much the same as was used on Strike Freedom. Between the wings, the main thruster is somewhat adjustable, though the range is minimal.

That leaves the mounts for Destiny's weapons- I'll discuss the weapons themselves under Accessories. They're mounted on double swivels, which do the job pretty well, though they strike me as being potentially easy to break- they're quite thin. Both weapons hold to their mounts very well, with the sword being marginally easier to remove and put back. Which makes sense, since I'm pretty sure the cannon's designed to stay attached to the back at all times. As it is, I wish you could get the cannon to swing a little further forward, but Destiny can hold it, so it's not too bad.

The Legs and Feet

The legs are very square and solid, reminding me of Hajime Katoki's work. However, the shins and ankles still have that swept-forward look which is a trademark of Kunio Okawara. Destiny's leg joints all perform pretty well: the hips have a good range, the triple-jointed knees do all they possibly could, and the ankles, while not as good as some recent releases, aren't bad. The ankle armor is a simple hinge and has as much range as the foot will allow, and the thrusters on the back of the calves are hinged as well, having a bit more range than the main thruster on the back.

Paint and Decoration

Destiny's deco is pretty clean and sharp, with sloppy paint mostly restricting itself to places where it won't readily be seen, like the thrusters. There's a lot of paint, but there are quite a few molded colors due to the variety of colors seen in Destiny's weapons and accessories. There's a slight difference between the painted and molded red, which can be seen mainly on the wings, but otherwise it looks quite good.

Articulation gets 8/10

Sculpt and Deco get 8/10

Accessories

-MA-BAR73/S High Energy Beam Rifle

In addition to all its other hardware, Destiny comes with a plain old Beam Rifle fairly similar to the Impulse Gundam's. Somehow, it looks almost out of place compared to Destiny's other weapons. Still, it's easy for the figure to hold, one- or two-handed, stores on the rear skirt under the wings and weapons, and has a swiveling foregrip and camera. Not much else you can ask for- it's a good Beam Rifle.

-MMI-714 "Arondight" Sword with removeable Beam blade

This large sword folds neatly and stores on Destiny's back. The hinge is good and strong and slides out just a bit, allowing for a tight folded package and a secure sword. The Beam blade is also an improvement over previous versions of this type of weapon- the tabs have been shaped specifically so that it can only be installed the right way. It can be used two-handed, though the grip strikes me as kind of short for Destiny to do so effectively.

-M2000GX High Energy Long-Range Beam Cannon

The Cannon is the tidily-folded weapon over Destiny's other shoulder. Intended to stay attached to the back while in use, the Cannon's hinge is every bit as good as the sword's. The problem being that it just doesn't swing far enough forward for my tastes. Destiny can hold it, but it's a tight fit, even with the swivel-and-hinge combination on the handgrip. And it's even a bit harder to get the knuckle attachment in a good position when holding the Cannon. It's not perfect, but it does pretty well.

-RQM60F "Flash Edge 2" Beam Boomerang/Saber with removeable blades

It reminds me of an electric carving knife, somehow. These are great when in use, less so when stored. The grip fits the hand just about perfectly, and both the short, angled Boomerang blade and longer Saber blade fit fine. The Saber blade's peg is angled so that you get a straight sword- you'll know pretty quickly if you've gotten it backwards. The problem is storage, as I outlined above. There's also the chance of warping the handguards on the Boomerangs from having to press them onto the peg so firmly all the time.

-Folding Shield

When folded, this shield is roughly 3.5cm long- smaller than even the 08th MS Team shields. Unfolded, they're about even. Like Impulse's shield, the folding mechanism is reproduced by means of a removeable piece. As simple as it is, I think a slide would've worked, but that's a small gripe, as the part-swap does its job well enough. The large gripe is the tiny peg holding this shield to Destiny's arm, which really doesn't. It's the worst shield connector I've seen on an MSiA in years, and there's no handgrip to back it up. It can fall off of whichever arm you'd prefer, however.

-Beam Shield

However, Destiny doesn't use its regular shield much that I've seen, thanks in large part to this little wonder. Mounted on the knuckle guard, this clear plastic piece fortunately has its own separate pair of hands to attach to- Bandai knew full well the detachable pieces wouldn't bear the weight and I applaud their wisdom in this. It attaches firmly to the appropriate hands, and it's a pretty attractive piece.

-Extra Hands

Ten hands in all, tieing, I believe, with Burning and Master Gundam for Handiest MSiA. Which is fitting, since the "Palm Fiocina" Beam weapon put many, myself included, in mind of the Shining/Burning/Darkness Finger. Destiny's hands are a bit better sculpted than any of those, in my opinion, and it does have a very nice open set that would match any of those attacks nicely. Also included are the Beam Shield-mounting fists, as well as the normal pairs of Rifle, Saber, and Fist-type hands. They all fit the wrist well, and when accessories are involved those are also held well. But those knuckle guards don't fit a single one of the eight hands which can use them to my satisfaction. It's odd and frustrating that every single arm-mounted accessory for Destiny, save the Beam Shield, malfunctions in some way.

Accessories get 7/10

Closing Remarks:

Destiny Gundam is less disappointing than Strike Freedom, which is odd since everything Strike Freedom does it does pretty much right. Where that figure is not ambitious enough, Destiny is overambitious. It's sad, because Destiny takes some things which could be difficult- a folding sword that's stable in both modes(!), for example- and does them perfectly. And it's the first MSiA to have a Beam shield, and that feature was implemented painlessly! The things it lacks are things Bandai can and has done right before- arm and shoulder accessories that stay on properly. It's baffling.

I paid $18 or so shipped for Destiny, and while its arms frustrate me I'm still glad I got it. It's a Very Good figure for the most part. If the parts-fit issues were corrected in some way, I would call it Excellent.

-RAC 10/14/2005