As the post says, this is just about one arm - specifically the left arm - since that was what came up next in the random build order.
This is the third and final body part that uses an Advanced MS Joint. In this case it makes up the entire arm frame:
Previous Advanced MS Joints on this kit included a small hinge for the leg and the foot assembly, neither of which felt like the old ones from the early Real Grade kits. This is the one exception. The photo above shows the piece in its original form. To make it into an arm, you have to:
- Pull out a random ball joint that ends up being tossed away
- Rotate a piece a full 180 degrees
- Bend the pieces so that they resemble the actual shape of an arm
- Rotate a small clip (You can see it on the bottom, pointing straight down) and secure it to the rest of the frame
That is what I remember having to do on my old RGs. While impressive, it is also kind of a pain, and I hope the joints do not become floppy and noodly over time.
Anyway, here are all the pieces needed to build the arm:
It both does and does not feel like a lot of parts.
The assembly of the arm is quite unlike any I am familiar with. You start with these pieces; the two parts on the elbow snap onto each side, while the other three simply slip into place over the frame:
Notice the yellow piece - to attach it, you have to slip it on, then rotate 90 degrees to lock it into place. I suppose that is the only way to fit a thin, perfectly circular piece like that without it falling off.
The same thing is true of the shoulder joint. It is attached facing outward, but rotate 180 degrees to face inward:
No idea if this is also for the sake of securing it.
In order to apply the gold trim on the shoulder armor, the kit uses this werird piece that looks like something you would catch a ball with:
Then you attach the white candy shell around it, and the effect looks rather sharp:
Not much else to show about the arm other than the fact that it can seriously flex:
Finally, here is the assembled arm with some of the decals applied. Front:
And back:
I tried to limit the amount of red going on here. I figured it was okay in the back since there are a lot of red markings I kept on the verniers.
Hands
The arm was so easy to build that I went ahead and assembled all of the kit’s hands. But before we look at them, we need to have a little history lesson.
Pretty much every model kits of every grade comes with some number of simple, rigid hands molded into a fixed position, such as “closed fists” or “trigger finger extended”. Real Grade kits also came with Back in the early days of Real Grade, all of the kits came with these babies:
Here we have a hand in which the thumb and trigger finger are separate pieces from the rest of the fingers. Not only that, but all three appendages have another additional point of articulation. This means you can do things like a thumb’s up:
Or a finger point:
Or even throw up the finger guns:
But as soon as you try and do something serious with it - like, say, hold a weapon - you will inevitably wind up with this:
The fingers simply will not stay attached to the palm. For this reason, I find these hands to be less than useful, no matter how cool they may be.
The reason for this history lesson is because the Tallgeese does not come with these fancy hands. To make up for it, it comes with plenty of standard, rigid hands:
First we have left and right open palm hands:
Left and Right closed fists:
Lastly, you get one pair of left and right closed hands (with openings for weapons), and one right trigger finger hand:
I suppose one could argue that on principal, the loss of the fancy hands is a sort of reversion of the Real Grade line into something simpler and High Grade-esque. In practice, however, I think Bandai made the right choice. Unless they can figure out a new advancement that allows them to stick together more easily, I think they are an example of impressive technical prowess that is nevertheless too small to work at this scale.
Besides, the number of rigid hands that come with this kit is far higher than what you get in a High Grade. Sometimes you are lucky to get even two varieties of left hand - this one has three. With this assortment, you should have everything you need to pose the Tallgeese properly.
Other Thoughts
- It may not be easy to see in the photo, but the two yellow pieces on the arm are two different colors. The wrist piece is more of a straight yellow, while the shoulder piece is more of an orange yellow. This is similar to how it also uses two different shades of white, one for the body, and one for the verniers. I admire the “premium” touch this gives the kit, but I also question how much it will actually show on the Tallgeese.