TT Hongli/Gao Gao HG 1/144 Cherudim "Fighter" GNHW/R Review - Part 2

This is a continuation of part 1!

Nothing much to say to intro the second part but it shall feature, action and more action! There's also a beam spam-full omake at the end. Enjoy~

Note: All photos were taken with a Samsung Champ(ion) phone camera @ 1.3MP since my camera is away for servicing. My old camera is a pain to work with since it has a few aging problems (main reason why I bought the new camera). ^^;

EDIT (11/1/11): Added more comments in the conclusion.

Part 0: Note

There's a extra excess tab on the hand piece. You may want to cut it a little bit to make holding weapons less tight. Don't cut it all the way like I did though or else it will be too loose. ^^;

Part 1: Comparisons

To a mint bottle which is not empty yet.

Part 2: Up, Left, Down, Right!

I'm quite impressed with the level of accuracy on this bootleg. It is much better than before, what with the flat matt finish (a bit rough) and small minor details are also intact this time. It is not exactly the same as the original but it is much closer now, at a around 90%~95% level of accuracy. Plastic quality isn't the same though but it is quite tough. Do note that bootlegs DO NOT use ABS plastic as far as I've seen so any ABS dependent connection will get loose much faster or does not work as well as you'd like. Luckily, this setback does not apply to this model kit.

Part 3: Some "Close-Ups"

Part 4: Articulation & Gimmicks

Those who have read or owned the normal HG Cherudim will know most of the articulation and gimmicks on the model kit already. Nonetheless, I'll repeat, in a sense. ^^

Shoulder can move back and forth.

The neck joint is a little tight so you might want to fix that with a little sanding if you decided to get this model kit.

The connection for the bits are quite good especially for the shield bits. As per the photos above, the shoulder connection can move up and down and forwards to back by pulling the connection out a little.

Waist can turn around and forwards to back a little. Something that I just noticed is that the waist joint is reinforced, similar to Hi-Nu, since it was designed to hold remote weapons and lots of them. How smart of Bandai.

Rear backpack parts can move up and down and wiggle a bit on a polycap ball joint.

The GN Drive with the GN Sniper Rifle Bits on cannot really stay up well enough without some support. ^^;

Added balance support for the feet. The pieces works well.

To make my life easier, I used the action base for these two shots.

Part 5: Action!

I just realized that almost all the shots were on the action base than on the ground. It can stand alright on the ground but if you have a base, its best tot use that. ^^;

"NERAI UTSU!"
Note: I used the base from the Robot Damashii 00 Qan[T] and it doesn't really fit that well and took me a while to set up in fact so I don't advise you to try this one. There's a better way to set it up although you won't be able to set the shield bits in shooting mode. Shield bits are held up using the base from the HG Gadess.

The now obligatory "Quantum Burst" moment.

Change to black backdrop... even though you can clearly see the increase of noise as it goes on. ^^;

Obligatory box-art pose.

Finally was able to do these shots once again as I've just fixed the legs of my Arche Gundam. :D But sadly I won't be doing much dynamic poses with it anymore. :(

The ultimate set up?
You need to have the HG Gaddess base for this as well.

Holoscreen.

Some in-manual poses.

Part 6: Gao Gao VS Bandai

The one with the green clear pieces is the original HG Cherudim... although that's obvious sine it doesn't have the GNHW/R armaments.

The connection of the bootleg shield bits need a little modding to make them connect better. (Left = Original) If you can't see, there should be a small gap in the hexagon connection but the bootleg one is a complete hexagon.

Part 7: Omake

Jut a bit of randomness here... XD

Ali Al Saachez VS Lockon Stratos... The End?

Virtual Training Room

Green = Lyle Dylandy

Purple = Tieria Erde

Red = AI

Part 7: Conclusion

Pros

• Best HG bootleg from TT Hongli/Gao Gao yet.
• Very, very close to the original.
• Main body is sturdy, it just doesn't fall apart when being played with! Unless you put in too much force that is. Not applicable to when armed and equipped with bits, it goes downhill from there, unfortunately.
  
• 100% color accuracy.
• Matt finish.
• Can be built without much problems.

Cons

• Bits do not really stick that well but can hold together well enough if you're not posing it too much. The sniper rifle bits is the one I'm mostly referring to for this one. The shield bits stay on very well on the side binder but not on the knees. They also can't stay on the Gaddess base securely at all unless the one from Gao Gao one works for it better instead (since mine is original).
  
• Some parts need added force to put together... pretty usual but I feel that it has improved on the "hardness" for this now.
  
• Some parts do not really go in all the way but the gap is not too obvious now. Mostly affects parts with two halves.
  

Overall, this bootleg is pretty good. Normally it was a good idea to avoid bootleg HGs like a plague but this time, I'm surprised to see that it isn't so anymore. It isn't perfect but it is close enough to the original. Sure, buying the original is a better idea but if you couldn't, I can say this is the best substitute you can find as well as being a good place to find replacement parts.

Another thing I like to make clear is that it is better to buy bootlegs with "less things going" on as the armaments will tend to pop off more than the original, obviously. The main body is actually quite sturdy. Of course with a bit of extra work, if you wish, you can make any bootleg look nice in the end.

Other than that... I might do something with this one later on but I'm still in need of materials to make a "full set". Will I be able to do that this year? :O

Until the next post~