The turn A wings actually don't look too bad but for 1700 yen is too expensive for two pieces of plastic.

The Norn's clear yellow looks ok, so far they don't seem to be overwhelmed by the dark blue armour. But the extra fins on the backpack seem like they'll be puke yellow. Hopefully not another sticker fest like the Unicorn mode Norn.

The black looks painted. Probably will still be dark blue, and hopefully the backpack fins will not be another gold sticker-fest.

This post has been edited by StarGhazzer: Feb 13 2014, 05:00 PM

Quick review of the 1/144 Buster Remastered version.

Pros:
1. Cheap as. Only 1000 yen and has fairly good proportions compared to the other HG Seed kits (Aegis, Strike, Freedom, and Raider have bizarre proportions). It also has one of the nicer head sculpts too with the long bunny ear V-fins. Colours are more or less spot on, apart from tiny parts such as the green orbs on the crotch armor, shoulder frame (stickers given), and rear shoulder vents (but see cons #3).

2. The remastered version replaces the grey parts with glossy gunmetal grey. Now this makes the guns look more striking, although the trade off is slightly more obvious nubmarks (not as bad as chrome plated parts).

3. The orange covers for the shoulder missile pod is plastic-on-plastic, yet it fits snugly enough even when opened. Much better than the Duel whose shoulder missile pod couldn't even be opened.

4. Pretty solid joints apart from the extending arms that support the guns. The feet, despite looking flat and chunky, have very decent articulation and since they are flat, they make the Buster very stable even in exaggerated shooting stances.

Cons:
1. Huge design flaw in the way the guns flip beneath the shoulders. They are just too big to fit underneath the armpits, and the lack of swivelling shoulders and short arms don't help. If you pose the guns separately the arms have to be twisted awkwardly and even so they don't grab the gun handles properly. However when the guns are connected (either way) there's no such problem.

2. The guns do not slide for the combination. They still connect without any problems but don't look as good as the MG, understandably.

3. Orange stickers are given for the cheeks instead of actual orange parts. Why?? There's already an orange plate ! The stickers do fit nicely but still, whyyyy?

4. Additional stickers - nice addition, although you can't use all of them on one kit since a lot of them are for other GAT-X and ZGMF gundams. The Buster's armour doesn't allow the fairly large stickers to stick on properly, unless you stick the X103 slanted on the shoulder flap as depicted in the manual. Looks ugly in my opinion, and I ended up using the decals on the skirt armour instead (not yet applied in the above pics).

Conclusion:
This is above average for it's relatively low price. The Buster is still one of the better, if not the best HG 1/144 of the Seed series with its near-accurate proportions, colours, and absence of huge stickers. In fact it's the cheapest of all the 1/144 Seed kits, hence making it the best value for money.

For those who adore the Buster, it's probably better to fork out the extra money for the highly-praised MG version; but for a quick and fun build, this is still worth your dough.

One thing to look out for when assembling - the eye stickers should be applied lower than the creases suggest to avoid being obscured by the big green head armour piece.

Next up... V2.

This post has been edited by StarGhazzer: Mar 9 2014, 08:19 AM

http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN959022/Act
840 yen for a robot damashi? wow.

Costs 2.70 instead of 27000.