I don’t have any photos of the runners, but if you’ve read any of my Planet Armor builds then you should know the drill by now (and if not, here you go). Let’s just look at how the whole thing came out.
Real Type Core Gundam
I like it! If you swapped the clear yellow chest piece with a clear green one, I’d say it reminds me of a Lego M-Tron ship. But M-Tron or not, those rich dark colors are a nice contrast from the more traditional colors on the classic Core Gundam.
A few more notes. As you can see, this Core Gundam comes with yellow beam saber blades, and a black and white shield:
As well as a dark black gun (with yellow camera sensor to match the eyes):
Just a great color scheme all around.
Support Mecha
I’ve always liked the rather clever ways that the weapons are mounted to each Support Mecha to make them look naturally integrated into the aircraft. That’s … not what we get with the Mars Armor:
You’ve got swords up top, while the Heat Rev Sword is just hanging around off to the side. And the axe is just buried in the ship’s backside!
I’m not saying that they didn’t try or anything, nor do think I could do any better. It just doesn’t look very flattering. Despite how much I like the colors, this might be my least favorite Support Mecha since the Saturn Armor (which also had an issue with its weapon being a bit of an eyesore).
Ah well. Let’s throw the armor on and see how the Marsfour Gundam looks. I should note that I took most of these photos with the armor attached to the standard Core Gundam, rather than the Real Type version, as I wanted to mimic how it looked in the show.
Marsfour Gundam
I really like how this thing looks. Maybe it’s just because the red and black color scheme is such a far cry from the blue tones and other cool colors that dominate most of the other Planet Armors, or maybe it’s because it uses such a particularly bright and bold red, but the Marsfour really feels like it is making a statement.
That being said, I have two critiques about the visual design:
- The shoulder armor looks a little too similar to the Earthree’s. The white blades in particular could have been made a little more stylized or vicious-looking, if for no other reason than to differentiate them.
- Just like on the Support Mecha, the way the swords are strapped to the backpack looks a little slapdash.
But you know what? That’s okay. With all the blades and claws on its body, Marsfour looks perfectly capable even without its weapon pack. Which means you can take lots of cool photos with just the mobile suit itself:
I could easily see putting this thing into G Gundam and having it duke it out with Mobile Fighters.
To be clear, not every Planet Armor is like this. Some look rather underpowered or unexciting without their weapons equipped. The fact that the Marsfour still looks good “bare” is a high mark in its favor. Plus, it means that even if you can only get your hands on the mobile suit, you’ll still have something fun to play around with.
With the Real Type Core Gundam
Before we get to the rest of the action poses, I wanted to show you what Marsfour looks like with the Real Type Core Gundam:
I wish this pairing would have shown up in the show, because these colors are a fantastic match. It makes the Marsfour look even more fierce and fiery (especially with those glowing yellow eyes)
Action Poses
With four bladed weapons, each of which can be combined in different ways, there are a lot of possible weapon configurations. In fact, I actually forgot about some of them during the initial photoshoot, which forced me to go back and take a few more shots. I know I still missed a couple of them, but I think I covered the main loadouts.
Let’s start off by trying to replicate it’s iconic “Sunrise Stance” pose.
Sadly, it’s not that easy. The model just doesn’t have the cross-body range needed for a two-handed grip. Also, the head isn’t positioned right, because everything kept falling off as I was trying to get everything to look just right. This is the best I could do:
At least the legs were sufficiently flexible.
This one is pretty good too, except the blade is upside down and the legs are in the wrong positions:
Anyway, let’s move on and look at some more poses.
I think the dual swords may actually be my favorite loadout:
I don’t particularly love their shape, but they’re plenty long and lethal, and with two of them it looks like Marsfour is going to mow down its enemies.
Perhaps less exciting is when you combine the two:
It’s not a bad idea, but it’s so obvious that it’s two swords stuck together.
And don’t forget you can stick a beam saber blade in there too:
It’s a real shame that Marsfour wasn’t featured more in Build Divers Re:RISE, as it means that it never gets a chance to use most of these different weapon gimmicks. I can imagine so many scenarios where it cuts through swathes of enemies, and every time they think they’ve destroyed its weapons, it ends up pulling a new trick out of its sleeve.
Conclusion
Our penultimate Planet Gundam build is no doubt a winner. A great color scheme and some fun accessories make for a great experience in the lightbox, and a good looking model on your shelf. And since it looks great even without its swords, it’s also one of the best values of the bunch too. I’m still going to say that, pound for pound, the Jupitive is the best kit of the bunch, but this might be tied for second.