1/100 MG Gundam Astray Blue Frame Review

Ah~ The Gundam Astray Blue Frame. The astray with the Huge-Ass sword, The Tactical Arms 2, which is also its flight unit, a gattling gun, a flying bird(?!) and many other stuff ^^

Front shot

MBF-P03 Gundam Astray Blue Frame is piloted by Gai Murakumo, a mercenary from Serpent Tail. To know more about Gai then go read the Gundam Seed Astray manga(which I have not read yet xD)

Side shot

This master grade release is of the 2nd Revise of Blue Frame aka Gundam Astray Blue Frame 2nd L. It costs around 4800 yen and was released on October 2009.

Back shot

Here’s the technical specifications for the Blue Frame 2nd Revise:

Profile: Model Number: MBF-P03 Second L
Developed from: MBF-P03 Gundam Astray Blue Frame
Launched: January 25, 71 C.E.
Manufacturer: Morgenroete, Inc
Operator: Serpent Tail
Known Pilots: Gai Murakumo

General Characteristics:
Head height: 17.53 meters
Max Weight: 64.4 metric tons
Power-plant: Ultracompact Energy Battery
Accomodation: Pilot only, Cockpit in Chest
Armor: Foaming metal

Armaments:
– 2 x “Igelstellung” 75mm multi-barrel CIWS
– 6 x “Armor Schneider” combat knife(2 on each foot, 2 hand carried)
-Tactical Arms 90mm Gatling Gun
-Tactical Arms Sword

Alternate side shot

Here's something nice. They engraved the Astray name on the body just behind the neck

Weapons & Accessories:

These are all the weapons & accessories included in the box

Tactical Arms 2 and a blue action base 2

Effects for the blade tonfa mode

Small blue adaptor to attach Blue Frame to an Action Base

Unpainted figure of Gai

The 2 hand carried "Armor Schneider"

2 ammo magazines for the gatling mode

Here's how Blue Frame looks like fully armed

No beam sabers, No shields and no beam rifles?! Who cares! His Tactical Arms 2 can do all of those! LOL I really liked the inclusion of an action base 2 because the sword by itself is super heavy and Blue Frame wouldn’t be able to do any action poses without some kind of stand for the sword.

Articulation

The head can only turn that far if you don't want to risk the side cheek armors to fly open, but...

..if you pull the head up slightly, you can achieve a full 360 degrees rotation ^^

The neck has a small bit of articulation by going forward and backward..

..Like so. The movement is very subtle and not really noticeable

Arm can swing 360 degrees BUT! you have to be careful of the orange shoulder armor since it could obstruct the rotation sometimes

Arms can move away from the body that far

The shoulder joints can move forward abit

You can see that blue joint is the one responsible for the shoulder movement

Shoulder armor can move up that high

Those 2 small flaps can move back and forth abit

The back of the shoulder armor has a flap that can flip up 90 degrees

Obviously there's rotation below the shoulder, as all master grades have this if I'm not mistaken

Arm can bend fully since there's alot of joints

There's a hinge on the hands that allows it to move front and back(please don't mind the ugly paintjob on the fingers T.T")

Just like every other new master grade release, all fingers are on ball joints, thumb and index finger are separate while the last 3 are connected

Yes, the upper body can turn 360 degrees since it is connected to the waist by a ball joint

Upper body can rock side to side quite abit

There's this sliding gimmick at the back which will slide upwards when the body rocks forward

As shown here

This black piece is where the tactical arms can dock. It connects to the back of Blue Frame using those holes. The top one is a fixed position while the bottom hole will allow the black piece to rotate around

Body can rock forward quite abit too

Just like most master grades, the cockpit hatch opens(There's an unpainted figure of Gai seated inside)(Oh and those nub marks on the black is damn ugly!)

The back skirt moves back abit. All the skirts are on ball joints and can wiggle around abit. The whole "frame" for the skirt armor can swing up to allow the legs to do a super high kick

And here's how that super high kick looks like

Legs can move back that far

Legs can move away from the body at a 90 degree angle

The legs can rotate abit just above the thigh since it is connected using pegs to the waist

Legs can bend quite alot!

The foot connects to the ankle via a ball joint and the ankle connects to the leg via a ball joint too. This allows a wide range of wiggle motion and the foot can then bend sideways quite alot. Unlike Exia, Blue Frame's ankles are far more stable and sturdy

Awesome articulation all around! One of the best articulated master grades I think! Playability is high because of all the possible poses you can pull off.

Action Poses

Sneaky lil bastard! Has a knife behind his heel!

A knife on the front foot too?!

This is my favourite setup! He just looks so badass like this(In my opinion of course :P)

Go birdy! This idea is all thanks to bd77(IF I'm not mistaken) -.-" LOL

The final shot(also the shot that I took for the review's main picture)

Notes:
-Painted the head camera using clear green
-Painted the fingers with white paint
-Tried to put most of the stickers but failed some of them horribly
-Didn’t use much of decals since some of them were on uneven surfaces(omg wtf sinanju!?)
-The small green triangles on the shoulder armer(LOLWTF!?) are foil stickers -.-”
-The black isn’t exactly..black. They’re abit glossy and have some silver spots on them. This makes nub marks for them quite visible since they’re a diff coating from their base colour

Pros:
-Highly articulated
-Nice colour scheme
-Astrays are always awesome
-Tactical Arms 2.
-Knives on the foot? Count me in!
-Has an included action base 2, and it’s blue!
-Sturdy and stable for a high articulated model kit
-Lots of details which truly shows how awesome Master Grades are

Cons:
-On the expensive side
-Fingers didn’t come painted T.T”(all the fingers were just molded in blue)
-Black nub marks are ugly on shiny/smoky black parts
-I find his head a little bit weird(wtf?!)
-Tactical Arms is heavy while the handle is super thin and fragile!
-Can’t really pose much with the sword(Unless you’re super creative unlike me ^^)

Conclusion: This master grade is awesome! Get it! I mean you get a big sword, you get a free stand for the sword, and you get an awesome looking kit! He’s stable for such an articulated figure and I love that! If you don’t like the colour blue then I guess wait for the MG Red Frame Kai, which is basically a red version of this kit, with Red Frame’s signature Gebera Straight(2 of them!?) and his head design. Actually his shoulder armor is different too..Hmm maybe’s he’s not such a bad milking strategy after all…

If you love to pose your kits in different poses then get this kit! Highly recommendable! Only thing that’s not good about it is that the sword’s heavy and that the handle is thin. It’s not as expensive as say Sinanju or Sazabi but it’s still quite abit expensive. In the end you get what you paid for, Awesome accessories and awesome details, and finally an awesome model kit to round it all up.

Just be prepared to paint the fingers ;D

Short fight with Exia

Meh, I couldn’t think up of any story so I just took some random shots of Blue Frame with Exia. Don’t mind the suckyness of the shots. I know how random and disjointed they are @_@