Kimi The Builder

A value of an old rare P-Bandai MG kit, is it worth it? 

How much would you invest in a kit?

How much would you pay with your hard-earned cash for a P-Bandai kit until you would consider it to be too much?

Do you think that buying an expensive P-Bandai MG kit would guarantee that you would be getting a kit in a good condition?

I know its strange to start the review off with a question, but frankly, this was the kind of questions that I constantly ask myself whenever I go out to buy a retail or a P-Bandai kit. I even ask myself then even to those MG kits that I was commissioned to, I always constantly finding myself asking the same question, especially to the ones that are insanely rare and expensive like the one I have here now.

The one that I will give my final thoughts on, and the one that I will as well try to answer on whether this P-Bandai MG 1/100 MS-09R Rick Dom Dozel Zabi Custom (MG) is worth investing your hard-earned cash on.

But before we get to that, let us first go through the lore and history of this quite fascinating MS, shall we?

The History and Development of the MS-09R Rick Dom Dozel Zabi Custom 

Model name:

• MS-09R

Classification:

• Custom Commander-use Space Mobile Suit

Weapon systems:

• Scattering Beam Gun
• Large Heat Hawk
• H&L-GB05R/360mm Giant Bazooka
• Ex-T2-2 Beam Bazooka
• Heat Sword

Height:

• 18.6m

Armour Material:

• Steel Alloy

Powerplant:

• Minovsky Ultracompact Fusion Reactor (1,199 kW)

Total Thrust:

• 2 x 22,000 kg
• 9 x 1,000 kg

Effective Sensor Radius:

• 5,400m

Crew:

• 1 pilot

Seeing how badly the war was going for the Principality of Zeon and as well seeing how their earth invasion forces was slowly being pushed back into outer space, Vice Admiral Dozel Zabi had to consider having something more advanced and powerful to counter the technologically advanced Mobile Suits of the Earth Federation’s march into the Principality of Zeon’s territory.

In which is why he decided to commission some of the Zeon Engineers to help construct the Big Zam, a powerful Mobile Armor which would enable him to defend the Principality from any invasion attempt from the Earth Federation.

However, looking at how fast the Earth Federation forces was moving made Vice-Admiral Dozel Zabi quite worried that the commissioned Mobile Armor wouldn’t be completed in time for the possible Earth Federation’s invasion. So he decided to as well have another backup MS just in case of this possibility.

Which is why Vice Admiral Dozel Zabi decided to settle with the MS-09R Rick Dom. One of the newest and as well the most modern Mass-Produced MS that the Principality had in its disposal.

Just like his Zaku II custom, the Vice-Admiral Dozel Zabi’s version of the Rick dom as well had alot of fancy things done to it which made it stand out amongst the rest of the Rick Doms in service. It was aesthetically designed to look more akin to the Vice-Admiral in real life, which is why there was spikes installed on the Rick Doms main body unit since the Vice-Admiral does love em spikes.

There were as well alot of gold embroideries lined up on the MS it was because the Vice-Admiral’s Rick Dom would be as well used for ceremonial purposes.

But does that mean the MS is only strictly would be used for ceremonial purposes only? Well not really, because the MS is really quite formidable when it comes down to Close Range combat. Unlike the normal Rick Dom units, the Vice Admiral’s Rick Dom weapons systems was developed to focus more on Close Quarters MS on MS. Why the large emphasis on the Close Quarters Combat? Well, the reason being is because of the Vice-Admiral does prefer a much more up-close and personal combat style.

Which is why the MS was equipped with spikes on its manipulator unit and as well given a much-improved version of the Large Heat Hawk that was used on the Vice Admiral’s custom Zaku II.

Despite the large emphasis on close-quarters combat, the Vice-Admiral’s Rick Dom is still able to field the same mid to long-range weapons that was used on the normal Rick Dom.

Sadly enough, even though the MS was equipped quite impressively however the MS itself didn’t really see action in the hands of the pilot that the suit was intended to be used. This was mainly due to the fact that the Big Zam managed to be completed in time for the defense of Solomon, and the only time the Vice-Admiral was recorded piloting his personal Rick Dom was only during the inspection of the Zeon defense forces in Solomon, well before the battle.

However, there were reports of the machine being used during the Zeon forces evacuation of the Solomon Fortress. It wasn’t certain on who was the pilot of that particular MS. But it was speculated that the MS was used to boost the morale of the retreating Zeon Forces. But it was uncertain what happened to the machine afterward.

With that ends the History lesson, now lets us get to the review bit, shall we?

The Review

To have an opportunity to work on one of the rarest and as well one of the most expensive (thanks to the many gunpla scalpers online and offline) P-Bandai MG kit does make me feel really happy and as well lucky. It is not every day that you would be presented with this kind of rare opportunity to work on something like this.

However, after working on this. It does make me wonder if some of the rare and expensive P-Bandai MG kits is really worth the asking price?

Which is why I started this review by asking those questions that you see before.

I was in a way reflecting on those questions because I was struggling to find an answer to that question after I was done with this P-Bandai MG kit.

Although, even with me asking these questions it is in not any way that I’m implying here that this MG kit is a bad kit, oh no. In fact, I do think that this kit is probably is one of the best MG kits that I have built this year.

One of the main reason why that I feel why the kit was so good, its because this kit was based on the MG Rick Dom. Since I really have no prior experience with building the MG  Rick Dom, I really did find myself enjoying the process. For a kit that is based on a very old MG design, I was quite surprised to see that the design holds up quite well to today’s MG standards.

Because even though this might be an MG kit that was based on a design that was made 20 years ago, I really didn’t notice the difference when working on the kit. The way it was built, felt to me like I was working on a Ver.2.0 MG kit then an old kit. Seriously it was that good.

It was so good, up to the point I wouldn’t mind working another MG Rick Dom if I were given a chance to do so.

What’s more for something that was based on an old design, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this MG kit has something modern attached to it…like the ‘Ver.3.0’ styled manipulator system. Not to mention that for something this bulky, I was surprised to see that the kit had a pretty decent articulation.

Even its P-Bandai parts and stickers, it was a joy to work on. Not to mention too that the addition really makes the kit look really different than its retail peers. Plus despite what we said about some the Dozel MG Rick Dom’s parts looking cheap, but when you put all of them together it doesn’t really look that bad.

So you might be wondering, so what exactly is wrong here? All I have been doing so far here is just singing praises for this P-Bandai MG kit. So what exactly do I find is wrong with this kit, which makes me question the value of this rare P-Bandai kit?

Well for starters, let us go back to the build. Despite what I said about the design of the kit feeling modern. But the same cannot be said on how the kit was gated, because I did encounter alot of bad nubs here and there. I as well did find myself encountering some sections of the kit which does have some minor fitting issues, mainly on the leg section and some sections of the arm unit. But overall, that didn’t really hamper my enjoyment of working on this MG kit.

But what really kills it for me is the fact that that I can see some sections of the plastic here do look quite badly aged and frankly it was one of those kits that I can see wouldn’t be able to survive any painting process no matter what precaution is taken to prevent the parts being brittle.

This might be in part due to the fact that I can see this kit has been stored quite badly, which may explain why the parts for this kit aged badly here. Because of that fact, I do admit that I constantly find myself having to tread carefully while building this kit. Even with me being super careful, that didn’t stop me from breaking something up while posing the darn kit.

This might not be the case if the kit is fresh outta the factory kind of kit. But because it was something that was produced quite some time ago and it was as well a kit that I suspect wasn’t really stored properly… may explain why the kit was in the state that I found it in.

Which is why I find myself asking the question of value. Because when considering all the facts I really don’t understand why there is a need to sell something that would eventually age badly at a PG price.

Maybe it was a kit that wasn’t supposed to be built, maybe it was one of those kits that was made to just collect dust? Regardless, of the rarity, or the reason of this kits existence. I do feel like no kit MG kit should ever be sold that that insane PG price. In fact the longer the kit was stored, the lower the price of the said kit should be.

Since it does seem like an unbuilt kit would be able to be stored that long.

Overall, this is one kit that I feel that you should just wait for P-Bandai to do a reprint. Because frankly, I don’t think the ones that are being sold online is going to be in ‘good build’ condition. Unless if you are in it to just let the kits collect dust, if that is the case then this might be one worth getting for you.

But to the rest of you here, if you are getting the kit with the sole intention of building it? Well, you better off just avoiding this altogether.

With that ends the review for the P-Bandai MG 1/100 MS-09R Rick Dom Dozel Zabi Custom (MG). What do you think of both the kit and the review for this P-Bandai MG kit? Do you share the same thoughts with us or do you think that this kit could’ve been better? This might be one of the most interesting kits that I have written about. Because it is not every day that I get to talk about a great kit that is hampered by its aged parts.

Which is as well was almost going to be my favorite P-Bandai kits too if I were, to be honest. But it was one that I ultimately cannot recommend, which is a damn shame.

Anyways, we will be back again with more Let’s Talk Gunpla Segment on the next coming Wednesday and Friday. This coming Monday Kimi will be back again with either a review or an unboxing, So do look forward to that!

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Ciao!