The Astray Red Frame Inversion is complete, and I’m curious to see how well it fares in the spotlight. It’s a bit different than the Universal Cenutry models I usually build, both in form and function.
How Does it Look?
All in all, it doesn’t look half bad, though I assert that does look a little confused. At least in this “inverted” color scheme, it looks both skeletal, and muscular, and robotic all at once.
Honestly, it kind of looks like a character from Warframe.
It definitely feels appropriate for the Halloween season.
Missing Piece
I ended up throwing away the clip that attaches the sheath to the hip. I ended up having to glue it on to the skirt armor, which is working better than I expected so far.Accessorize!
But how does it look with all of its accessories? There are a lot of them, and we could be here for a while just swapping in and out different combinations of gear. Let’s just stick with a few “major” one.
Articulation
Let’s see what this thing can do.
Starting from the top, the head has full range of rotation, and can move up and down just a smidge:
On to the arms, where we get a slightly better than 90 degree elbow bend:
And an equally poor arm lift:
Though the extra joint in the shoulder gives it excellent cross body range:
Considering it has a sword as its main weapon, I was hoping for (and expecting) better out of the arms.
Moving down to the midsection, we get full torso rotation:
And a bit of ab movement:
Down to the knees, we get a decent enough knee bend:
But we do get a full split!
And a solid reach back:
Lastly, while there is no proper toe bend, there’s enough range in the ankle for it to simulate a rough stepping motion:
It also works laterally, so you can get a good wide stance:
The overall level of range is not what I wanted it to be, but it may still be “good enough” for most poses.
Action Posing
I’m not really feeling a lot of things right now, including long, drawn out photo shoots for my Gunpla. That’s why I got just a handful of shots for this model.
To be honest, I feel a little bad, because this kit has quite a sense of poise and presence:
Even a slight tilt of the head changes the tone and personality of a pose:
Unfortunately, it’s also a bit of a hand grenade. By my count, the side skirts, the holding hands, and the shoulder joints all pop out if you so much as breathe on them. That’s an issue for a mobile suit that uses a sword as its primary weapon. You need to be able to adjust the hands and arms to get cool sword poses, and it quickly became too much of a pain for me to deal with.
Still, the poses I did get look pretty sweet. There’s a sense of effortless cool going on here that I really appreciate.
Conclusion
Don’t let the lack of photos fool you. This was a fun build, and the end result is more rewarding than I expected. I don’t think I’d build an Astray Red Frame in its original colors, but this one works as a spooky, demonic looking variant.
Oh, and Happy Halloween!