Kimi The Builder

Not the best HG kit to start the year with, but it sure managed to me smile

Since it has been awhile since I’ve built another HG Super Fumina, I have to say that this kit is a kit that has a very special place in my heart, it is one that until today is a kit that I considered to be one of the very best things that I’ve built since I started working on this blog. If I were to be perfectly honest with you guys here, if it wasn’t because of this particular kit, I don’t think that I would be interested enough to take on the Koto’s Megami Device kits or will I think that I’d be introduced to this awesome world of building a Mecha Girls kit.

So, yes, in a way this kit does play a big part in opening my eyes to venture off to try something that I wasn’t completely aware with and introducing me to that bigger plastic model world, hence why this kit up until this day had a special place in my heart.

However, as I was coming in to start work on this kit, I realized that I do need lower my expectations of the kit since I feel like it’s a bit unfair for to compare this kit to all the others (i.e the kotobukiya kits) that I’ve worked on.

So even with that said, is the kit still as good as I remembered it to be?

Well, that is what I would be discussing here today! Btw, before I forget, its Kimi here and this week I will be doing a review on the long overdue HG 1/144 SF-01 Super Fumina A.E.U.G Maid Ver. (HGBF)!

But before we get to the review bit, let us first get into the lore and history of this awesome Mobile Suit…thing, shall we?

The History and development of the SF-01 Super Fumina Titans/A.E.U.G Maid Ver.

Model name                      : SF-01

Classification                     : Custom General-Purpose Mobile Suit

Weapon systems             : Beam Saber, Shield, Beam Shield Blades, Gatling Gun, Large Rifle, Beam Machine Gun

Height                                  : Unknown

Armour Material              : Unknown

Powerplant                        : Plavsky Particles (total output: Unknown)

Total Thrust                        : Unknown

Effective Sensor Radius: Unknown

Crew                                     : 1

After the reveal of the 1^st variation of the Super Fumina back in the Meijin Cup Open Course, Minato Sakai actually already had plans to create a bolder variant of the Super Fumina for the upcoming Meijin Cup, which was to be the Axis Angel version. However, seeing that he might not have enough time to create the ultimate version of the Super Fumina line up in time for the upcoming Meijin Cup, he decided to shift his focus in creating different colored Super Fumina variations instead.

Hence the creation of the Super Fumina Titans/A.E.U.G Maid versions.

But despite its very impressive name, the super Fumina Titans/A.E.U.G Maid ver. itself doesn’t really have anything new added to it. Technically it was basically the same old version with a different color scheme done to it. The Titans/A.E.U.G version doesn’t even have its own unique set of weapons or anything. But even with the lack of new hardware that is seen here on the Titans/A.E.U.G Maid ver, there is something that Minato added to this variant that is unique to this version of the Super Fumina kit.

So you might be wondering, what additions that Minato made to the Super Fumina that made this version unique then? Well, in his infinite wisdom thought that it would be nice to convert the already maid-ish look of the Original an upgrade, with giving it parts to make the Super Fumina look more Maid-gothic-lolita-ish, with a touch of cat and bunny ears to it.

Yes, my dear friends, he took his obsession with Fumina into a whole new level of cringe.

In which Fumina clearly showed to him when he unveiled this variant during a trip to the Yajima Labs. In which does ends well for him…eventually.

With that ends the history lesson, let us now move on to the…well the review, shall we?

The Review

Honestly, you really don’t need me to tell you guys here that this kit obviously its just a kit that is basically just the same HG Super Fumina in a different color. Heck even from the history bit you already know that this is just really basically the same thing.

Even though, yes it is tempting to just end the review at that note, but fortunately, there is more to talk about here than to just end this review with the ‘Yes, it’s just basically an HG Super Fumina with different color scheme”.

So, let us start with the basics, shall we? Let us start with talking about what I like about this particular HG Super Fumina variant, while at the same time we will as well answer the biggest question that you may have about this kit. The question being, so what makes this version so different than the original variant then, besides the obvious color change?

Well, firstly despite the fact that this version of the Super Fumina builds the same way as the original version, the parts here still is a joy to be put together. The old fumina parts still work/ assembled as I remembered it to be and newer ‘Titans/ A.E.U.G Maid Ver’ parts, at most parts fit well on the ‘original’ parts quite well. So good in fact that it looked like it really belonged there.

Well for most of them anyways.

Another added bonus that I noticed with the introduction of the ‘Titans/ A.E.U.G Maid Ver’ parts (particularly the shoulder unit), is that it helps to conceal the very distracting part gaps that were present on the original version’s shoulder unit. Some of the new addition as well helped to improve the overall look of the HG Super Fumina so much so that I honestly feel like this is definitely the better-looking one when compared to the original version.

Plus not to mention the A.E.U.G color scheme here does work in making this kit look quite appealing.

What is even more amazing is that the articulation of the kit wasn’t hampered at all with some of the new additions to the kit, in fact, their addition makes the same action scene that we pull off with the original Fumina looked even more badass here. Plus it should be said that all of these awesome additions do make the plain jane looking Super Fumina look…well, really cute.

In which kind of makes it quite hard for me to now tell you all here that there are some serious nagging issues to be had here with this particular HG Super Fumina variant. Now we are getting into my grips with the kit, in which do involves some of the ‘Titans/A.E.U.G Maid Ver’ parts. Well, to be exact, particularly when one decided to convert the Super Fumina into the ‘cat’ variant.

 What problem did I encounter here?

Well the problem lies with the cat’s version’s tail attachment, I don’t know how Bandai / P-Bandai designed the part for this section because the part doesn’t seem to be able to fit together properly with the Super Fumina’s existing torso unit and I was left wondering why didn’t they just redesigned the whole torso unit to make both the part and the torso unit fit well, is definitely something that I myself can’t seem to be able to comprehend.

The only way to make the cat tail unit to work is to omit some parts off from the torso unit to make it fit, although by doing that does make the chest unit a bit tad unstable. Even though I admit by doing that the cattail is able to fit well but it is not something that I would recommend doing.

All the while I thought I was doing something wrong somewhere, I spent hours trying to figure out what’s wrong. I searched high and low in the manuals of any indication of what I did wrong here, but there wasn’t any indication that I was doing something wrong. Honestly, I don’t think that even the boffins in the P-Bandai/ Bandai haven’t figured on how to make that part work as intended too. Probably they did the same thing as I did and just omit some bits from the torso unit.

Which kind of explains why they don’t have the cat version pull off a lot of insane action poses here and there.

In which why I decided not to stick to the cat a mode and just go back to just using the bunny mode through and through. Honestly, as a cat-loving person, the fact that you can’t have the mode you want to be properly installed is quite disappointing, to say the least.

And this is not helped with the fact that the stickers for the Fumina are as shit as ever. Some of the stickers don’t really cover the whole section so when you do apply them to some of the parts on the Super Fumina, it makes the part looked like some amateur hour shit fest.

What made it even worse is when I spend HOURS trying to apply them stickers correctly on some of the parts only to find that they botched the whole printing process of the stickers, because that the length is not the same for each sticker part. Which in turn makes the sticker part not able to cover the said parts properly.

Hence why for the most parts here, I just decided to just paint the parts over and not be bothered to use the bloody things. The only bits that I didn’t bother with using the stickers are at the feet unit and the eye unit because to be honest, as shit as the stickers were, I admit that my painting skills are not THAT good to be able to work on creating a much more precise work. Hence why I still opted to use stickers on some bits of this kit.

But when I do eventually be able to paint well, rest assured that I would eventually come back to work on fixing this particular annoyance once and for all.

But despite my disappointment over the unusable parts and the damned stickers, strangely enough, I was still finding myself enjoying the time I had with the kit.

Yes, I was frustrated with the fact that this kit had a lot of problems but at the same time I wasn’t really expecting this kit to blow my mind over and to be frank, even after 2 years to come around to build this kit again I honestly still feel the same feelings that I had back when I first worked on it in the early days of this blog.

I still felt that this was the kit that turned things around for the Bandai HG kits line up. It was still the kit that I feel where the design team was really pouring out all their passion on creating awesome gunplas. Even though they didn’t create something that is able to compete with the best that kotos have to offer, but it was still one of those HG kits that I really feel like they put all their heart and soul in.

Honestly, it was still a kit that, in my opinion, that really defines the word ‘Gunpla is freedom’ for me. Despite its now quite dated design, it was still one that I really enjoyed building.

You guys might not agree with my statement here, and I can admit that there are better Gunplas out there that would better represent that particular phrase more than this kit. But for me, this kit is the one that made me feel as such and it would forever be that one special kit for me. The one as I mentioned at the start of this, that really sets me off in this new adventure.

In which that I will forever be grateful for.

So the question now, would I recommend anyone to get this kit?

If I were, to be frank, no. Not this version particularly, due to:-

1. It is hard to find nowadays, and if you do people might be selling at an insane price which if I may be honest, you might as well be spending that money at something better.
2. If you are a cat person, and really wanted a ‘neko’ Fumina.

Though what I instead recommend, is for you guys to just stick with the normal version instead. Despite all the new additions, it is still more or less the same thing. Honestly? You won’t be missing anything if you were to skip this one out. Only get this if you are a big fan of Fumina, or if you can get it for cheap.

If you can’t? Well just get the yellow one, and I promise you will have some good fun there. Well, as long you have bottles of paint with you that is.

With that ends the review for the HG 1/144 SF-01 Super Fumina A.E.U.G Maid (HGBF)! Not particularly the best HG kit to start the year with, but it is one that I still had some fun with. I do look forward to be building more awesome kits this year and hopefully, we get to be more HG masterpieces this year too! 😀

And I am still waiting for an MG version of the Super Fumina to come out. Dagnammit Bandai why are you taking so long to create the ultimate plastic waifu fer meeehhhhhh.

Anyways, we will be back again this week more Let’s Talk Gunpla Segment on the coming Wednesday and we will be back as well on the coming Sunday with either a review or an unboxing! So, do look forward to that!

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We hope by sharing our love and passion for gunplas here, it’ll inspire you to pick up the hobby or reignite your love for gunpla!

Anyways, we shall see all of you again next week, and we hope that you all have an awesome week and weekend ahead! Have an awesome Gunpla building time there as well and until next time!

Ciao!