Bandai Hobby #5 Gundam Astraea 1/100, Bandai Gundam 00 Actio

メッチャかっこよかった！バンダイさんつくってくれてありがとうございました。（6歳　小学1年男子より）

ガンダムアストレアは、エクシアの前身と言える機体のため、パーツのほとんどがエクシアと共通しています。異なる点は、頭・胸部アンテナ、腕部と脚部のハードポイント、背中のスリースラスター等です。武装はGNビームライフル・GNランチヤープロトGNソード・GNビームサーベル×2(刃は長・短、各×2)・GNシールドランチャーとソードは左右両腕に付けられる上に追加装備開発のために使用されたという設定のため、エクシアの武装と互換性があり、脚部のハードポイントにはデュナメスのビームピストルホルダーも装備できます。造りが細かい00シリーズの中でもアストレアは肩装甲裏や、ライフル・ランチャー内部のメカディテールがMG並にしっかり造ってあり、武装だけでもかなり価値があります!エクシアとあまり変わらないだろうと思っている方もいると思いますか、買って損はないと思います。

1/100エクシアの余剰パーツが出まくりです。とりあえず、キットの出来としては、首が埋まっており、プロポーションはいいほうではありません。可動範囲は1/100エクシア同様いいのですが、MGエクシアが出た今、MGアストレア用に買うぐらいしか用途がありません。結構簡単に再現できるらしいので、投げ売りされてたらお買い得だと思います。

The Astraea is the father of the well-known Exia Gundam of the Gundam 00 series. Not just in look, but in canon. The Astraea was the prototype for the Celestial Being Mobile Suits. So how does this kit do in the real world of Gunpla?Head: The head is much nicer than the Exia's in my opinion. The Ear pieces come back farther and are even described as some to be like bunny ears. The V-fin is smaller and shorter than Exia's and sports one sticker on the center that is green. The sides of the head do not have the Exia's transparent pieces however, and the cheek pieces are smaller with less detailing. However, the simple look really intrigues me. The head sits on a ball joint that is anchored into the body via hinge joint allowing for the chicken bob motion along with nodding and 360 rotation. However, the 360 rotation is nearly impossible to get because the ears always collide with the shoulder antennas.Body: The body is, in my opinion, sturdier than the Exia's. Though they look the same, the Astraea's has a thicker and more aerodynamic design than Exia's. On the Exia, the back of the body ends with a cone-shaped piece that represents the Solar Furnace. On the Astraea there are instead three wing-like protrusions with three green stickers. on in each, that surround a flattened solar furnace. This gives a wonderful aerodynamic claw sort of effect. The shoulder antennae on the Exia could move because they were on hinges and were easy to break, however the Astraea's antennae are fixed in place but easy to remove (more on that later). Like the Exia, the pectoral armor is a part of the shoulder joint and moves back and forth with the joint. There is no chest joint for bending at the stomach but there is 360 rotation at the waist.Arms: The arms are rather simple in design. The shoulder armor is smaller than Exia's but still impressive. They are separate from the arms and can move independently slightly. The arms themselves are not special and are double jointed. However, the armor restricts this so the only joint you seem to get is one. For the hand, there are only two choices: A pair of open fists for holding items and a pair of open hands for dramatic poses. Both are full hands so the hands have to be popped out at the wrists to be changed. Even though there are a total of four hands, there are only three white hand covers, so one hand will always be short a cap.Legs: The legs are pretty much like Exia's. The knees have that same double joint where the second joint is hidden in the shin and the first joint is higher up. There are a total of 12 points of articulation on the feet. The feet have one ankle joint and one toe joint each. The two and ankle joints are not so impressive, but the knees (as always with this build) are. I counted the flaps on the feet in the articulation as they move up and down independent of the also-articulated ankle armor. On the back of the legs (the butt of the kit) are two beam saber hilts that point out sideways. They are on hinges that can be rotated up, but there is a piece that covers the hinge upon completion of the kit (though it is easily removed and the kit still looks complete without it). The hips are able to move all the way forward and to the side. There are no side skirts to hinder articulation and the front skirts move easily. The back skirts, though they are short, do hider movement backwards due to the back skirts are just one piece that holds the beam saber hilts. The cap for the hip joint (the white cap) will pop off if moved too far to the side. Also these caps are loose on my kit and I may have to glue them on to keep them from falling off.Accessories: As with the Exia, the Astraea could open its own weapons shop. This kit comes with many accessories.-Protosword- The signature weapon of the Exia is also the signature weapon of the Astraea. Though unlike the Exia's, the Astraea's has a handle in the blade that pops out, there is no mini shield and there is no pistol in the handle. It is a simple swing out sword. And I like it better.-Shield- If you took the Exia's shield and then cut off the pointed parts on the top and bottom of the shield, you get this shield. It is attached into the arm and can rotate.-Beam Sabers- There are two beam sabers and the beams are very long. With the blade inside the hilt, the saber comes up the the half-way mark on the shoulder. The ssabers also come with two smaller beams for beam daggers. When these daggers are put into the hilt, they simply come up the the knee. Very nice.-GN Beam rifle- This rifle is pretty cool. It pegs into the arm as do the GN Proto Sword and the shield. It also slips easily into the hand. When it is pegged into the forearm the hand can still move because there is a double hinge joint that allows for the wrist to move and wiggle. The gun itself has two parts after its completion; there is the gun with the handle and body and then a core part that also has the muzzle. It is kind of pointless but still cool.-GN Launcher- This cannon is pretty big. It is what the Seravee was based off of and pegs into the shoulder. To peg it in, you remove one of the shoulder antennae and clip in the back of the cannon. The cannon has three joints, two of which help with securing it to the body. The clasp is attached via rotation joint. The rotation joint attaches to the cannon via sliding hinge joint, so when the cannon is idle, the cannon is parallel to the body and folded down with the handle pushed to either the left or the right due to another hinge joint. When in use, the cannon folds up and you push the back over the hinge and arm and slip the handle into the hand.Because the Proto Sword, shield, and GN Rifle all tab into the forearm, it is not possible to have all three equipped fully at the same time. However, you can have the Proto Sword attached to one hand, the shield in the other and take the arm off of the GN Rifle to equip it to either hand. In that way you can even have the GN Launcher on the opposite side and have the Astraea equipped with all the weapons (except the sabers which are stored on the butt)PROSA lot of weaponsUnique take on the Exia's designSturdier buildProto Sword is unique when compared to ExiaLovely headUnique weaponsBeam Sabers have two different blade sizesCONSWeapons have to tab into forearmHip joints are kinda loose (the Joint and the caps)Ankle articulation is lackingBeam Sabers are not held in the hand in a sturdy wayOverall this is a wonderful kit for starters. There is no inner frame like other 1/100s but the build is still very sturdy. The Weapons are lovely and go well with the kit. This isn't a must-have, but is pretty high up on the list.

Let me start off by saying that if you plan to paint then the model kit has a lot more options as there are leftovers from the Exia gundam.Disclaimer: I have yet to paintWhat I like: (considering I am painting the gundam)+ You get two V-Fins, Two head/Helmet configurations, two skirt configurations, two leg accents, 4 hands, and a small armory.+ The beam Dagger/Sabers can be held reverse blade.+ The firearms, shield and proto GN sword attach not using the hands+ The rifle and Bazooka have internal details that are unfortunately hidden most of the time.Dislike:- No cone GN propulsion as not all the parts are there.- Polycaps (I hate the things for numerous reasons)- the beam sabers can not be held normal style with any confidence.Is it worth getting?Considering that I like the idea of a test model and it has a boat load of weapons that are detailed both inside and out Yes.