Kimi The Builder

 

A kit which is both ugly and good

There are many great questions in this world that are still was left unanswered, like the if there is life after death or are we alone in this world. But there is one question in my mind that still haunts me right after I build this kit, “why didn’t I pick this up as it came out at the end of last year?”

Because this kit turns out to be REALLY GOOD.

Oh btw, Kimi here and I’m back again this week with my Final thoughts of the HG 1/144 MSK-008 Dijeh!

But before we get to the meat of it all, let us first talk about the History and Development of this awesome MS!

History and Development of the MSK-008 Dijeh

Model name:

• MSK-008

Classification:

• Prototype Ground Mobile Suit

Weapon systems:

• 60mm Vulcan Cannon,
• Shoulder mounted Shield,
• Beam Nagiata,
• BR-M-87 Beam Rifle,
• AE/ZM.C-BAZ-531 300mm Clay Bazooka

Height:

• 23.0m

Armour Material:

• Gundarium Alloy

Powerplant:

• Minovsky Ultracompact Fusion Reactor (1892kw output)

Total Thrust:

• 2 x 28,000 (Rocket)
• 18,000 (Rocket)
• 74,000 (Rocket Total)
• 2 x 7,900 (Jet)
• 15,800 (Jet Total)

Effective Sensor Radius:

• 11,700 meters

Crew:

• 1 pilot (in Panoramic monitor/Linear seat cockpit in the head

When one talks about the Karaba and their many contributions during the Titans/A.E.U.G Conflict, the one MS that would always come up in these discussions is this the Karaba’s natively developed MSK-008 Dijeh. The monoeye MS that was said to be piloted and developed by one of the most well known Earth Federation’s One Year War ace pilots; Amuro Ray.

The Dijeh really is one of the most interesting MS’s that was developed during the AEUG and Titans conflict. It was an MS that was developed by Karaba natively which used many of the parts taken from the Rick Dias’s and Nemos that was left behind by the AEUG during their assault on Jaburo, as the basis for their first homegrown MS.

Since the Karaba would be mostly focused on ground-based operations on Earth, which is why for their first MS; the Dijeh was developed from the ground up to be a ground-based MS to be used for their operations on Earth. Even though, yes, Karaba used the leftover AEUG’s Rick Dias and the Nemo to create the Dijeh but it had more Rick Dias’s DNA then the Nemo’s. The only thing that was used taken from the Nemo was the Avionics system, the reason for this is because the Rick Dias’s Avionics system was a bit more complicated to configure to for it to be used on earth so they decided to have the much simpler system in place for the Dijeh.

Thanks to its affiliation to the AEUG, Karaba as well managed to receive a lot of help from former Zeon MS Engineers to help develop the Dijeh. Which may explain why this MS looked a lot more like Zeon suit. Then again, since they are doing all of this without support from the Earth Federation in their fight against the Titans (which was getting a lot of support from the Earth Federation at this time) it kind of makes sense to develop a suit that looked like a Zeon Suit, it does adds into the rebellion part.

Regardless, they managed to create something that was quite impressive, which when tested the Dijeh managed to outmaneuver and outgun most of the EFSF and AEUG MS’s at the time. What makes the Dijeh more impressive is the fact that the MS was using many of the same parts that were used in all the other MS.

It could be because Amuro Ray was involved at some point in helping to develop the MS, with the development team having one of the very best pilots on board to test and give his honest feedback on how to further improve the overall design. That might be the reason why the MS was turned out to be really impressive. It was even said that one of the Dijeh’s most interesting feature, its ability to have weapons mounted on its left shoulder was the result of Amuro’s suggestion to have it installed there.

Unfortunately, as impressive as the Dijeh might be. The MS was just too expensive to be mass produced so there isn’t wasn’t a lot of the Dijeh’s that was produced during the conflict. But the ones were produced was proven to perform excellently during the many battles that it was involved in. It was proven to be a quite a capable mobile suit that manages to outperform many of the existing MS’s and it even has proven to outperform modern MS’s too. Despite its look, it was an MS worthy of its legendary status.

With that ends the history bit of this now, let us move on to the review, shall we?

The Review

Out of all HG kits that I’ve worked on, there is nothing that has yet come close to be as good as the HGUC Moon Gundam was. However, there is one kit that I would say that is coming quite close to how good the Moon Gundam was and it would be this: the HGUC Dijeh.

It might be a bold claim by me here, which is why I will explain why I do feel as such with this kit, and at the same time explain to you why did I take two weeks to complete this particular HGUC kit.

Let us first talk about my overall experience building this awesome kit. The HGUC Dijeh might be one of the kits that I’ve built this year that really makes me re-think what a “snap-fit kit” means in this day and age.

The reason being for me to be thinking that is because at just how well some of the individual parts are for the HGUC Dijeh was designed here. As I was working on the HGUC Dijeh its parts don’t feel like I was doing a snap build kit, to be really honest I really find that working on it felt more like I was “snap sliding” the parts together most of the time. The parts were so well designed here that at no point that I find myself needing to force the parts in together at all.

Though what I find even more surprising is that, even though I do find the parts just sliding themselves together that doesn’t mean that the HGUC Dijeh’s parts feel loose or whatever. In fact that I would go as far as to say that the parts feel even tighter here even when compared to the more traditionally designed parts. Which I admit baffles me when was working on em, in which I do I have to give it to the Bandai’s Design team for this. 

Why?

Well, it’s because of all the well-designed parts here really made working on the HGUC Dijeh feels like a breeze and not to mention that it as well makes me enjoy my time working on this kit. Another thing that I really like here is just how everything was gated here, for something that doesn’t really have a lot of parts that were undergated. I was quite surprised by how easy it is to deal with the nubs and even if you do encounter bad ones, the bad nubs were usually located in places that would be hidden as soon as you have the parts assembled together. Which makes it less necessary for you to paint the nubs up if you are annoyed by em.

Again, this is only made possible by how well they designed all of the HGUC Dijeh’s parts.

Not done with the awesome build experience that I was having here, I was as well quite impressed by how good the articulation and detail is present here. For something that I was kind of expecting to have very limited movement due to how the Dijeh looked, I have to be honest, I was really taken aback on how good the articulation is on the HGUC Dijeh.

Even though it has a lot of chunky bits here and there, but that doesn’t hamper its ability to pull off a lot of awesome poses. This was only made possible with the HGUC Dijeh’s very well designed joints system which allows it to be able to pull off a lot them awesome poses, and even with its chunky bits.

However, there are still some limitations present, like the on the HGUC Dijeh’s head unit. Due to the size and design, you can’t really tilt the head up at all. Though that is not really a bad thing since, even with what you can do you still can pose the kit up and make it look badass.

So it’s not all that bad I guess.

Next was the detail, which was another bit here which was well, quite impressive here. Even though it might not have the same insane amount of detail as what we see with the HGUC Moon Gundam. However, I like the restrained amount of detail that we actually get here and the fact that it looked more like a Remastered anime version makes me really love the HGUC Dijeh’s look.

Plus I as well like the fact that they as well gave this HGUC Dijeh the ability to mount the Clay Bazooka on the shoulder armor. Which makes the HGUC Dijeh look pretty BADASS when you have the Bazooka mounted there, instead of on the backpack unit. I don’t think there is any Gunpla kit that you could have a weapon mounted on a shoulder like that, which does make this Gunpla kit quite unique.

Which is why I took longer here than I normally do with all the other HGUC kit, it wasn’t because it was a challenging kit, no. In fact, I think if you were to spend your whole day with this kit you might be able to finish it all in a single day. It was because I really wanted to really go at it slowly, really take my sweet time to enjoy going through the process of building this awesome kit.

Which is really the best way to enjoy an awesome kit like this.

So, you probably are thinking by now, so what’s the deal here. Why did you say that this kit was ALMOST as good as the HGUC Moon?

Well, despite me liking the HGUC Dijeh A LOT, I admit that there are some bits here which is a bit lacking when compared to the HGUC Moon Gundam, which when we get into the looks department. Yes, I know its a bit petty thing to talk about, but hear me out, because whilst the HGUC Moon ticks every box flawlessly but the HGUC Dijeh, however… it’s not one that I say good looking.

Don’t get me wrong, I love how the HGUC Dijeh looked and I’m sure some of you here do too. But when you want to have someone outside to be interested with the hobby the Dijeh isn’t the poster boy that you use to promote the hobby with.

To put it simply, yes, the HGUC Dijeh is really one of the best HGUC kits out there, but it is not the really the best-looking one. Even with that said, I still highly recommend one to get this awesome kit regardless if you are new or a veteran of the hobby. It is a mid-priced HGUC kit which is one that you would definitely find a lot of fun building if you don’t mind the ‘only a mother could love’ look of the HGUC Dijeh.

With that ends the review for the HG 1/144 MSK-008 Dijeh (HGUC). What do you think of both the kit and the review for this awesome HGUC kit? Do you share the same thoughts with us or do you think that this kit could’ve been better?

I honestly had a lot of fun with this mid-priced gem and after building this one am already itching to work on a new HGUC kit! This really is one damn good kit that I’m really glad that spend my two weeks working on it. Definitely one of the very best decisions that I have made yet this year!

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 a new unboxing or review! 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!