Frame Arms Girl Materia Normal Version

I fell in love with Frame Arms Girl series since the Gourai I have built. It had alot of faults and I think it is expensive, but when I saw this for $35 I have decided to try it again. This kit does not have the armor or weapon. It is just the girl.

Starting from the box art, it has that beautiful picture or artist rendition of the girl.

Manual is the same in the front.

And inside it shows the built figure in various poses.

It still comes with the eye stickers. Unfortunately no panty stickers.

Here are all the parts. Not alot for $35 kit.

Here are the extra parts. 3 set of pre-painted faces, and the underwear part is pre-colored.

Unlike the original kit, they changed the hip joint. The original one had alot of problem where the ball joint would just pop out.

This time they put a sliding peg on middle

And on leg it has double jointed attachment. Its bit more complicated, and it loses that beautifully rendered panty. (Which I think it was the main point of the original kit since it was the only part that was detailed.) but this design is much more solid and it works.

Here is the out of box built kit. No painting. just straight build.

I have to say... she lost her charm with that new hip design.

The thing about the hip joint is that it slides down

Like this so it can bend more, but it still does not bend all the way.

But still it has enough movements to pose properly.

It can pose properly but it needs a stand. It is unable to stand on its feat due to small and light feet.

However the main problem is the waist joint. It pops out all the time. I don't know who designed this but I have to wonder if they actually tested the kit out before putting it on the market.

 The hair part is a main problem as well. The gap is large (which can be forced closed) and some stamp marks which needs to be cleaned... In fact this whole kit has alot of parts that needs to be cleaned before it can be acceptable.

AND... here is the fully painted kit.

The skin part was done by sanding lightly and was shaded using pastel. Other parts are painted using Vallejo paints. The grey part is painted using Vallejo Metal color. Hair is also painted using mixed Vallejo paint and shaded using Pastel.

I saw someone using pastel shading on normal kit and it came out looking great. I tried it and I have to say, even the basic shading, it make the kit stand out and beautiful. I just had to sand it down a little to lose the reflective surface.

This was my first time using pastel shading but it came out great. Especially that hair.

Yup I put that there.

and yes I put 'warning' down there.

Unlike the Bandai kit, This Kotobukiya kit is expensive and not that high of a quality compare to Bandai. The plastics are brittle and parts needs alot of clean up to be presentable.

Still I think Kotobukiya got something here. If they just bring the price down. This kit is just too expensive.