BB Senshi Sangokuden Shin Koshin Gyan Part 1

A "Shin" begining
Back to some Gunpla-ing after the review on Nendoroid Kirino Kousaka. ^^


Released in February 2010, this is Koshin Gyan (胡軫ギャン) from the BB Senshi Sangokuden "Shin" (真) series. While the series was meant to push for kits when the TV anime came out, many characters from the initial plamo-comic series were re-released under it as they did appear in the show. There are however, a couple of differences between the kits' new and old incarnations:

(1) different shades of molded colors,
(2) different stickers for the eyes,
(3) added glossy finishing to the plastic,
(4) new packaging, new comic story (but with reduced coverage unfortunately),
(5) new weapon parts for a couple of selected re-releases

Looking back at the "Shin" series as a whole, majority of the releases were in fact rehashes from the initial line. ^^; Koshin Gyan however, was an exception. Released alongside Shin Ryubi Gundam, Shin Chouhi Gundam, and Shin Kanu Gundam, he was the first new character to appear in the "Shin" series. ^^ For the close resemblance it has to its actual Mobile Suit design - YMS-15 Gyan, albeit a pretty beefed up one (or perhaps it's just the BB Senshi Sangokuden proportion that made the kit look more muscular ^^), I picked him up almost immediately after its release, which doesn't really mean much now, since I waited so long to start working on it anyway. ^^;

For me, the "Shin" title is not really important. All the regular releases were of the same design; there were a couple of very unique bundled sets in the initial, and "Shin" lines; while there were new characters in the "Shin" series, many more from the first plamo-comic line didn't get a re-release, as they didn't appear in the TV anime. For many of the characters I like, for example Koumei ReGZ, Shiba-I Sazabi, and Shusou Doven Wolf, I already built them once, so I don't need to work on them again just to get another representation of the characters because of their slightly changed color schemes. Plus, honestly speaking, even with the renewed molded colors and added gimmicks, most of the kits still demand a great deal of paint working and detailing to realize their designated color scheme anyway. ^^;

The only exception I made was for Sonshoko Gerbera. ^^ I like the character so much I got both the first release, and the "Shin" version. ^^ Then again, since the character's design is a lot simpler than others, most likely due to her smaller overall size, I don't think the repeated detailing work between the two kits would be too much of a big deal. ^^



Introduction of the kit on the box sides.


Content.


The comic/instruction manual.


Apart from an image of the character from the anime series, the actual MS representing the title character, in this case YMS-15 Gyan, is also shown on the manual. ^^


Only two pages for the comic section in this "Shin" line of the BB Senshi Sangokuden series. ^^;
Beside the title character, Ryubi Gundam in Sanmiittai form (三位一体, Trinity) is also shown.


With the number of pages reduced, and Ryubi Gundam in Sanmiittai form "hijacking" a quarter of the overall coverage (XD), Koshin Gyan is shown to be killed (in his own model kit comic ^^;) just a few panels after his powerful debut. ^^;


All the runners of this kit.
A look at the different runners in this kit:


Runner A1


(Left) A one-piece part for Koshin Gyan's helmet.
(Right) The character's name molded on the bottom of the feet parts.


Runner A2


Very intricately molded details on the shoulder and skirt armor parts.


Minus the pair of curvy details in the middle, the shield is almost identical in design, and color to that wielded by the actual Gyan. ^^


Runner B


(Left) Very interesting one-piece parts for Koshin Gyan's legs. The design is the same as that adopted by the Master Grade version. ^^
(Right) Due to Gyan's unique cross-shaped goggle design, the character that forms his first name on the forehead has been split in half. ^^ Koshin Gyan is the only character in the entire franchise featuring such "unique" treatment for his forehead detail I think. ^^


Foil sticker and polycap set.


Looking at the sticker piece, it seems that the middle area of Koshin Gyan's goggle can accommodate a normal-sized mono-eye for BB Senshi Sangokuden kits. The DIY mono-eye sticker last used on Giga Taifu Shiba-I Sazabi can come in handy for this kit I beieve.


All removed parts are organized and stored in individual paper containers.
Will start working on the detailing and paint work in the next posting. ^^