BB Senshi Sangokuden Asurao Moukaku Gundam, Syukuyuu Gundam, Kyoshin Elephant Set Part 15

Awesome so long as the chest armor stays put
The last posting for this second chapter of the review on BB Senshi Sangokuden Asurao Moukaku Gundam, Syukuyuu Gundam, and Kyoshin Elephant Set will be about the action poses of the Kongou Ashura Armor configuration. ^^








With support using Soul Stage Act 5 Action Support Type for Mechanics Clear Ver.


With no solid part beneath the hips for the display stand's clip to hold on to, it's a matter of very delicate balancing between the different components to show the model off the ground. ^^;




A couple of parts to form option hand units and attack effects for Kongou Ashura Armor.


Two option hand units: a forward-facing right spread palm, and a chop-type right palm. The latter is the only one that requires assembly.


A peg on the spread palm corresponds to a slot behind the semi spherical attack effect part.


The parts' combination forms one of Kongou Ashura Armor finishing moves called Kongou Hadouken (金剛波動拳).


A rectangular tab behind the chop-type right palm corresponds to a slit on the beam blade effect palm.


The parts' combination forms the other finishing move called Bakunetsu KongouKen (爆熱金剛拳)


A separate ball-type polycap is required for either one of the option hand units, according to the instruction manual (right image), but since the polycap on the default right closed fist isn't going to be used in any way in this mode, I prefer swapping it onto the option hands instead.
















The two option hand units can obviously be attached to Kongou Ashura Armor without the attack effect parts, but their peg/tab that are exposed in plain sight might be distortive to the look. ^^;

An alternate configuration of the armor pack that I tried and quite like:


With the blades/tusks removed from the shoulders and attached to their original positions on the elephant head/chest armor, the shoulders' bulk can be seen more obviously, and the body has a more "dangerous" look to it as well.


Luckily, the blades/tusks' light weight poses little risk in dragging down the chest armor, which is currently holding on to Moukaku Gundam via a patch of double-sided tape (see the previous posting). ^^;



The tusks in front of the body reminds me of Kyoretsu-Oh (キョウレツオー) from "Engine Sentai Go-onger" (炎神戦隊ゴーオンジャー), which also features a mammoth forming the upper body of the sentai robot. ^^
Image is from Sinyaman Sakura Blog.


Size comparison with Choko Zaku III from the same series.



The sheer size of Kongou Ashura Armor is amazing. ^^


Size comparison with Gundam RX-78-2 from HGUC Operation V Set.


The comparison with a regular-sized High Grade kit is helpful in determining the size of Kongou Ashura Armor among other Gunplas and not just the BB Senshi Sangokuden line alone, and from the two images above, its size is still pretty impressive I would say. ^^

Despite having close to 20 ball-type polycaps on various components (see Part 11 and the previous posting), the posability of the model is surprisingly limited. ^^; There's no waist movement, understandably so with Moukaku Gundam inside the armor pack; the design of Kyoshin Elephant's hock joints, now the knee joints of Kongou Ashura Armor that can't be bent to the back is a severe limitation of the legs; the shoulders can't be tilted upward on either side of the body as well, with Moukaku Gundam's own shoulder armors in the way. ^^; The shoulders' connector arms which allow the arms to be bent forward/backward would have to be the most impressive articulation point design on this model in my opinion. Along with the ankle joints, and Moukaku Gundam's own neck joint, these three movable components enable most of the poses shown in this posting. So, in terms of posability, I'll probably give Kongou Ashura Armor just a pass. ^^;

Overall, Kyoshin Elephant is a pretty fun model kit in terms of its assembly and tri-mode configuration. There are many creative elements behind some of the parts' design that I like, particularly the versatile part-swapping of Kyoshin Elephant's three hind leg pieces to form the needed components on all three modes. Among the three, Kongou Tank is my favorite for its unique look and cannon turret gimmick. ^^ The Kongou Ashura Armor mode would be the last of the three, (no) thanks to its poor chest connection and mediocre posability. ^^;

One more kit to go before the review on this bundle Gunpla set is complete. ^^ Since Syukuyuu Gundam can use Kyoshin Elephant in all three modes, the multi-mode elephant will definitely reappear in the future. ^^