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[attachmentid=3727294][attachmentid=3727293][attachmentid=3727292]

Pros:
1. Guns, guns, guns !! This kit looks awesome when fully loaded. The additional red from the missiles and grenades add some much needed colour variation to an otherwise two-toned kit.
2. I always thought that the massive boosters look silly, but seeing them in model form actually changed my perspective. They look brilliant and add stability to a kit with tofu-like ankles. The redesigned mini-stands look and work better than the MG’s garden fence.
3. There’s enough handguards for all the manipulators, unlike some HGUC kits where they give only 2 handguards but various different manipulators and you have to keep switching them.
4. Price. Yes, it’s not entirely cheap at 3000yen for a 1/144 kit, but you get a lot of plastic. A lot.
5. Extra original Unicorn bazooka is a nice add-on, especially when the FA version only comes with two (with the Jesta’s grenade launchers on the barrels). Bandai also threw in extension barrels for the FA bazookas when they could just give you short bazookas to attach to the backpack since you can’t dual wield unless you do some mods (see Cons #1).
6. Somehow my FA Unicorn has stronger shoulder, elbow, and hand joints compared to my Banshee which is older. Hmmmm… I doubt it’s a deliberate improvement by Bandai, probably just luck.

Cons:
1. The manipulators – Only the right side comes with the trigger finger, hence you can’t carry any firearms on the left hand. The regular “fist” manipulators do not work with the bazookas or the guns unless you modify the handles. I had to cut off the trigger of the bazookas to fit the regular manipulators and yet because of this they do not grip tightly.
2. Loose joints. The ankles are the main culprits, more so in FA mode where they have to support a very top-heavy torso. The manipulators are not very secure either and will tend to sag with the heavier weapons, especially if you mount the missiles on the bazooka making it front-heavy (this is more prominent on my Banshee than my Unicorn).
3. Gatlings do not spin. Well at least the barrels won’t sag down as they are moulded together with the rest of the gatling gun body.
4. Forearm beam sabre handles, beam sabres stored in the backpack, and the backpack hole to peg the shield/rifle/bazooka are held together with friction and tend to get loose very easily.
5. There’s a major flaw in the backpack design. The backpack frame connectors for the rear booster are located too closely to the rear gatling mount, hence if you use a shield with its fins deployed, the fins get in the way of the boosters. In fact you can’t even attach the boosters at all! It works fine with the undeployed shield but Bandai will need to design a new frame for the FA Destroy mode. The fully loaded backpack is also pretty heavy and if you don’t use the mini-stands e.g. airborne poses with action base, it will pull the waist backwards and possibly detach the backpack from the torso where the connection is not the most secure.
6. Leg grenade racks do not fit into the Destroy mode. Another design problem for Bandai when they release the FA in Destroy mode.
7. Despite having green stickers for the weapons’ cameras and the Unicorn’s eye, Bandai somehow decides not to give an extra green piece for the head camera behind the horn. Not a big issue since you can easily cut one yourself, but why?
8. No beam halberd unlike the MG. It’d be sweet if they added this in but I’m not too fussed since I think the halberd looks weird and will be hard to pose with due to its over-complicated handle. The FA Unicorn already has too much toys to play with.
9. Huge thick nub at the tip of the Unicorn’s horn. If RGs can come with pre-sharpened V-fins, HGUCs should too. Take your time sanding the horn, a rushed job might end up causing an uneven looking horn.

Final thoughts:

The Full-Armour is quite a misnomer since it doesn’t come with any additional armour bits. It probably should be called Fully-Armed Unicorn but the Japanese often use funny English names anyway, e.g. Full Burnern (wtf).

From the above it seems like I have lots of complaints about this kit, but ultimately I have to say I absolutely enjoyed the assembling process. For 3000 yen it’s a very good deal for a kit with such a huge arsenal, even though you’ll need some minor mods to fully utilise its gear.

Where to from here? Obviously the FA Destroy mode, but as mentioned above Bandai probably will need to redesign certain parts. There’s the Phenex (silly spelling with even sillier puke-gold), and I wonder whether the Banshee Norn will have new toys when it transforms.

I think Bandai has been treating the Banshee unfairly in the OVA – Marida got a beam smartgun which doesn’t seem to be any more powerful than the crazy beam magnum, and an out-of-place vibrating claw. Norn gets an underwhelming big shield, revolving ammo canister, and an ugly sticker-laden backpack.

I’m actually looking forward to the modified Sinanju mobile armour. Hope they don’t fck it up. They’ve already removed the legs and added on a huge skirt. T_T Sinanzeong?