Bandai MG Hyaku-Shiki 2.0 and Dragon Momoko MG Akatsuki Gundam comparison and review.
A few members were on the fence on whether or not to get these kits so I went ahead and took the plunge to see how good Bandai and Taiwanese Dragon Momoko did gold finish Gunpla.
Gold Finish
Both the Dragon Momoko Akatsuki and the Bandai Hyaku Shiki 2.0 are very visually pleasing gold finished kits. However despite being both gold finish, they are achieved in different ways.
The Dragon Momoko Akatsuki is a two tone gold Gunpla with a traditional gold finish throughout the suit and with orange-gold accents in the shoulder armour, vents, and wrist guard. It seems to be injected and painted with a color similar to Tamiya Gold Leaf. The underlying piece is a yellowish gold plastic. The gold finish is VERY durable and you won't ruin the gold finish unless you slice it with a knife. I was touching the pieces and the gold with all my strength while building and the piece didn't break or scratch off. The Akatsuki Gold for the most part is pretty even and the colors are on point. The gold runners make up 2/3s of the kit and you get double the gold runners as the Hyaku Shiki due to the Oowashi and Shiranui packs it comes with.
The Bandai Hyaku Shiki 2.0 is a gold plated kit that is achieved through a plated finish over the part. Unlike the Akatsuki, the finish is achieved through a chrome/silver plating and sprayed with clear yellow and a lot of gloss coat to seal in the gold. Due to this, the gold finish is a little more prone to scratches than the Akatsuki and there are some uneven areas where it looks slightly more chrome than champagne gold. Overall once the suit is built it isn't that noticeable at all due to how light reflects off the glossy surface. I would recommend gloss coating the gold runners in Future or Mr. Hobby Gloss coat before building the kit so that you can retain as good of a finish as possible. There are 3 large gold runners that come with the suit.
Color Separation
The Gold, red, and grey are separated very nicely on both suits and both have very good color separation with very little need to panel line or extra paint detailing. Parts that need to be panel lined are the red pieces for both suits such as the vents.
You do get black foil stickers for added depth in some places like the wings and maybe parts of the legs but I don't find some of the stickers entirely necessary.
The colors have a nice contrast and the red and grey pieces do not look cheap. It works well in my opinion and both companies do enough to keep it flashy while not being garish.
Articulation
Both kits can fully bend their arms and legs and maintain their positions. You'll be able to move all four limbs forward, back, side to side, and rotate them 360 degrees.
The large shoulders on both kits do not get in the way of posing and do a good job of getting out of the way. The Akatsuki shoulder is similar to other Strike models but with added flexibility. The Hyaku Shiki Shoulder armour is actually clipped on after attaching the arm so you won't have to place it in between the shoulder and the peg.
The Akatsuki, due to how it is designed, is a stiff kit in the sense that you won't have loose joints at all. If you pose with a beam rifle, saber, shield, anything this Akatsuki will hold it up in place and won't sag. The only area of issue are the weak ankles which pop out occasionally. This can be fixed by painting the ball joint for the foot and ankle so that the joint is stiffer. A minor issue as the rest of the kit stays put.
The Hyaku Shiki has no loose ankles or hands at all. Both kits have no issue with fully extending their arms and holding their weapons.
The hands on the Hyaku Shiki are fully articulate and are much better than the MG Sazabi Ver Ka, Unicorn, and Nu Ver Ka. These are the best hands in terms of build in my opinion due to how sturdy and flexible the hand is. I hope most MGs get these type of hands in the future.
The Akatsuki comes with both articulate and premoulded hands. The premolded hands are way better than Bandai's and are amazing. They are double jointed hands and they hold all your weapons with no issue. You get 4 sets of premolded hands to use with the kit: holding, trigger, fist, and open hand. The articulate hands are the same articulate hands you see on most 3rd party kits. These are fucking crap if you screw up making them. It's so easy to lose a piece or accidentally break a finger while rotating them because the ball joints on these hands are TOO stiff. They would be great if you were successful in building them but I had the unfortunate event of breaking a thumb on one and an index finger on another. I wish I could use them but I can't. Thankfully I have 8 other hands to use with this kit.
The waist on the Hyaku Shiki 2.0 can rotate 360 degrees and it is able to bend back and forth, side to side. The Akatsuki is a little bit more stiff and has some trouble rotating it's torso because of the armour. If you built an MG Strike or GATX suit, it's the same thing there.
Head on the Hyaku Shiki 2.0 is double jointed and can move 360. The Akatsuki is double jointed but can't move it's head much due to how big the head is. It will have some trouble looking down but can look up easily and slightly move head side to side.
Without the backpacks
-When those wing binders and packs are off, both of these kits are some of the most articulate kits I have built. The Akatsuki is based off the Strike frame so it retains all of the posability despite it's taller size and larger shoulders.
Backpacks on
-With the packs equipped, both kits become back heavy. The Hyaku Shiki slightly heavier while the Akatsuki is much more back heavy. Both kits can stand on their own with their packs equipped but the Akatsuki definitely has a harder time standing without an action base when equipped with the Oowashi pack and especially the Shiranui pack. With the packs on, you should use your beam rifle to act as a counterweight to help balance the kit.
The Oowashi pack is similar to the the Ootori pack on the Strike Rouge and the pack is able to fully move and extend it's wings. It has added railguns on ball joints and overall the kit is
You don't need an action base for both kits but to get the most out of posing, I recommend getting an Action Base 1 so that you can make full use of the kit articulation.
Accessories
The Hyaku Shiki 2.0 and the Akatsuki are given quite extras that justify it's higher price in comparison to other MG kits.
The Hyaku Shiki comes with a beam rifle, clay bazooka, and 2 beam sabers.. You get 2 3 extra eye pieces to put in front of the Hyaku Shiki's standard Gundam eyes. You get one for the Gundam eyes, one for a scanline effect, and one for Quattro's sunglasses look. You will have some leftover pieces, namely an extra ammo pack, extra Char figures, and an extra antenna for the head. You will also get optional pieces for the P-Bandai Ballute System.
The Hyaku Shiki 2.0 comes with your standard MG foil sticker, clear seals, and dry transfer decal.
The Akatsuki comes with BOTH the Oowashi and Shiranui backpacks. the Oowashi is your standard striker pack with railguns and missile pods. The Shiranui is the space pack equipped with 7 dragoons/funnels and is roughly 1.5x the size of the Oowashi. The weapons consist of two beam sabres which can combine to make a twin beam sabre, a beam rifle, a cool ass shield that blows the boring Strike shield out of the water. You are also able to attach the twin beam sabre to the beam rifle and give it a beam bayonet similar to the Unicorn Banshee.
The beam effect parts are not your standard beam effects that bandai gives. You get 7 beam effect parts to attach to the beam sabers. These beam effects are HUGE and you get short ones, long ones, motion ones, and a bayonet part.
You will have plenty of extra parts such as extra hands, extra armour piece, a shit ton of extra PCB parts you can use in case you lose some for other kits, and it comes with a foil sticker sheet and a full set of waterslide decals. Water freaking slide decals.
As mentioned earlier, if you have a Strike Rouge you will be able to combine backpacks with the Strike Rouge Ootori pack and create a bigger, over the top, Striker pack. If you don't have one you'll have to make do and find a way to display your extra backpack.
Ease of Build and Quality
Both gunpla kits are solid and I don't see any issues with breaking pieces or bad plastic quality. These kits are as good as you make it though. You will need to take your time building it so that it looks as good as possible. The nub marks and issues will only be worse if you rush through the model.
The Hyaku Shiki is your standard MG, straightforward build in that it is very easy and streamlined. The plastic is up to standard and overall the build was a very fun build. Most of the kits are undergated but not all of them.
The Akatsuki in particular surprised me with how solid the pieces and build was to the point where I could say that sometimes the kit feels a little TOO durable. Almost every piece in this kit is undergated, even the non-gold parts. Dragon Momoko did a great job in this aspect and I wish Bandai undergated all their pieces too.
Almost all the pieces are without any defects at all and are almost Bandai quality with how durable the finish and plastic is. The plastic quality is good and durable and it might be a little harder cutting out pieces because the plastic Dragon Momoko used isn't as soft as Bandai's. The plastic is pretty hard but not brittle. The biggest issues are with building the head and snap fitting.
The head's issue is that the eyepiece is molded improperly so you will have to sand the eyepiece down so that it will fit into the head itself. You will have to sand this part so that it will fit at all. The rest of the head is straightforward but due to the gold finish you will need to use a SHIT TON of force to snap fit together unless you sand some of the gold finish off the connecting pegs.
That brings me to the snap fitting. HOLY FUCKING SHIT This kit requires a fucking ton of force to snap fit together without lightly sanding connection parts. I say LIGHTLY sanding because if you do too much it will become loose. Sand only a little of the gold off. The non gold parts are a tight snap fit and it isn't a big issue but the gold pieces were hell on my thumbs.
Without lightly sanding first, snap fitting gold pieces together required almost every ounce of strength I had in my thumbs to put snap them together. Building some parts like the base of the Shiranui pack and the head and what not were hell on my thumbs. I had to push in 3-5 times with all the strength in my thumbs to get them to fit and snap together. By the end of this fucking build I felt like I either broken my thumbs, burnt my thumbs, or the skin was entire peeled off my thumbs. It HURT and it was because I was a dumbass for not sanding some parts first. The parts are strong so you won't be breaking them if you're using all your force.
This is what I meant from being TOO durable. Like you would think that this Taiwanese company would have shitty quality plastic but no it's too strong and tight. It makes it a fucking pain to snap fit together the gold finish parts and to take them apart if you made a mistake. Good thing is that once this is built, this thing won't be breaking and will be damn stable. Like if I didn't break a piece trying to force it in, you won't be breaking it building after sanding. Make your life easier and sand some pieces. Please.
Parts that you need to LIGHTLY sand so you don't murder your hands. Please sand it lightly.
Eyepiece
Grey peg for beam sabre
Connection pegs for the fucking Shiranui pack
If it feels too hard to snap it, go lightly sand and don't try to force it like I did. Not every piece has to sand, only the ones above are a must sand. Everything else use you own discretion so you don't hurt yourself. Other than being tight, these parts fit in well and other than the eye piece you won't have any pieces not fitting at all. Once you forcibly snap fit, everything is in perfect.
Other than that this kit is good quality and SOLID. Just some small quality control issues that will be fixed through light sanding.
Gloss coat to protect the gold finish while you build. The gold finish is pretty strong either way but it doesn't hurt to give it an extra layer of protection.
Bad nubs
Due to being a gold finish kit, you will have some bad nubs. Thankfully most of the kit is UNDERGATED so your bad nubs are at an absolute minimum. You won't notice them at a distance and if you are really good at cutting and clean up, you won't be able to see the stray black nubs at all.
For the Hyaku Shiki, you will have some small nub marks on the wing binders, the beam sabres, and the antenna. The rest of the nubs are in some of the armour pieces are very minimal. Bandai has done an extremely good job on the nubs on this piece and clean up is a breeze compared to MG Full Armor Unicorn.
The Akatsuki will have some slight nub marks on the ankle, back of the V-fin, some wings, and some armour parts . These are very small nub marks and are for the most part unnoticeable especially if you do a good job taking your time cutting your pieces.
The nubs on the Akatsuki is less noticeable than the Hyaku Shiki but it isn't an issue either way.
Seam lines are not a big issue for me but you might notice some on both kits if you're bothered by them. They are a little noticeable due to the gold finish and the worst seam lines are in the Dragoons on the Shiranui pack.
Final Thoughts
Would I recommend both kits? I would definitely recommend both kits as both are about 55-60 USD shipped and are worth that value. However I would recommend these kits for people who are comfortable building MG kits with the gold finish of both kits. The Hyaku Shiki is much easier and much more streamlined to build than the third party Akatsuki Gundam. Would I say these kits are must haves? Well they are if you are a fan of the Hyaku Shiki and Akatsuki. The Akatsuki is a definite recommend despite the shortcomings and it is a great first third party kit. You might want to paint some non gold parts but overall both kits are gorgeous as straight out of the box builds. You might only need to just gloss coat the kit and paint some accent parts like the red and grey parts like the weapons.
However if you plan on repainting the kit and putting real work into filling in seam lines, removing EVERY nub marks, etc. you will have to put a lot of time into the kit stripping off the paint, filling in seams, and repainting your kit. It will be a very long project if you plan on doing these things.
If I were to give the kit a rating, the Hyaku Shiki 2.0 is an extremely good kit, a must have and I would say a solid 95/100.
The Akatsuki would be an 80/100 or a 90/100 for me depending on if you go in blind like I did or if you go in knowing what you're doing after reading a review. I would definitely recommend this kit for anyone who has an interest in it and it is a bit better than some Bandai kits. You'll need to do a bit of work sanding some parts for this kit so that pieces are easier to snap fit but overall it is great. I hope Bandai does make an MG of this kit and I would love building this again with Bandai's quality and streamlined builds.
I would definitely check out more of Dragon Momoko's gunpla as they are as close as you get to Bandai for a third party. Other kits they offer are the Sword Strike, Launcher Strike, Tallgeese III. They are also building a Destiny Gundam based on the Metal Build Destiny so if you want those spiky wings, go for that when they release it.
