~ This is a contributed review by David Bauer ~
minor editing by Gundam_Base

Model Specifications

Capsule
Well now, getting this kit was more of a journey than just a simple purchase. Once I heard that Bandai was releasing the Dom Tropen I knew I must have it. I had always loved the Dom. After a few weeks of searching I went to my local hobby shop and found it at the back of a pile of new kits unnoticed. They wanted $26 dollars for the kit. Sure it was a rip-off, but I just had to have it. So I drop the cash and hurried home with my prize. Now the moment of truth, would the kit live up to my high expectations? Let see.

Parts fit is top notch, no gaps; I must commend Bandai on the molding quality and design. There are hinges and poly-cap joints everywhere. As the kit is being built you realize that Bandai made every effort to make this kit articulate. I am rather picky about my models but I have no reservations about saying this is the best HGUC kit I have built.

Kit Details
In General
The Dom is by any definition is a bruiser. It’s a design that looks as tough as they come. Large hulking legs, small simple head, broad muscular chest and large armored skirts all contribute to the Dom’s menacing appearance. Add to this a massive 880mm bazooka and you have one heavy hitter.

The kit comes molded in five colors on six sprues, lavender, red, blue gray, dark gray and a blackish blue. The color combination is very nice; they contrast each other without looking too loud. The kit looks great even unpainted; every part is molded in the appropriate color. If you don’t want to paint you really don’t have too (I plan to paint mine though)

Head Unit
The head is a simple three-piece assembly. The head itself, the mono-eye visor and the conduction cables/poly cap socket. The head is a single large oval shaped helmet. Bandai used the poly cap neck with ball socket. This is supposed to help make the head more poseable but the shape of the head limits this.

One of only a few problems with the kit involves the mono-eye. The kit provides a green sticker for the eye (Yuck!) This is so you can reposition the eye but it just looks so cheap. I wonder why they just didn’t give us one of those clear plastic ones. I drilled a hole in the head and installed a LED. This wasn’t difficult because of the shape of the inside of the head is flat.

Body Unit
The upper body looks more like a bodybuilders chest than a mobile suit. This is on of the easiest parts of the whole kit, five parts including the poly-cap neck.

The lower body in contrast contains a large quantity of parts. This is due to the fact that there are a large number of positional armored skirts. This is where my other problem with the kit arises. Once the skirts are installed they form a lip around the waist that interferes with the waist turning from side to side. This is not really the kits fault. It’s the design of the mobile suit itself. If the waist was a little more round however this could have been avoided.

There is a backpack, its little more than a place for the booster nozzles and to store the heat rod, nothing fancy.

The armored skirts have a series of square slots in them where you can pose a set of three extra bazooka clips. The backs of the clips are hollow and can’t be interchanged with the bazooka. There are several extra slots so you can position the clips in different places if you want. (Maybe add some more?)

Arm Units
Ah the arms, this is where this kit really shines above the rest. The arms are without a doubt the best I have ever seen on any 1/144 to date. If you have ever built a Master Grade you will feel right at home. Bandai borrowed very heavily from Master Grade when designing this kit.

Each arm is composed of no less that eleven pieces each excluding the hand and shoulder. Once completed no poly-cap is visible. I found I could make the arms do things like flexing a muscle, twisting it at the elbow and crossing the arms-neat stuff!

The shoulder pads are attached to the kit in a rather odd way, the shoulders are simply set over the arms onto the peg where the arms are attached. I find when I raise the arms in certain position they fall off. Why Bandai didn’t just use the arm poly-cap in the arm to attach them to the body is a mystery to me. It would have been just as pose able. This is not at all hard to fix. I just glued a small strip of plastic around the open slot. It’s completely hidden with the arm on anyway.

The hands are another part of the kit that are really thought out and well done. Each hand is made up of four pieces. One of these parts is a possible trigger finger. The other area deserving notice is the inside of the hand.

Usually in 1/144scale kit the hands are simply two halves. This leaves little more that a square slot to insert the weapons. In the Dom Tropen’s case Bandai even provides a detailed palm to insert in this empty space. The hands are again near Master Grade quality.

The hands have a ball and socket arrangement where they connect to the arm. This will help in posing the kits trademark bazooka later on.

Leg Units
The legs are large and bulky. This makes for a stable kit. They remind me again of Master Grade offerings I have built before. Most all of the seams are broken down along natural panel lines. To top it off the parts fit very tightly and once completed it’s hard to tell the difference between a panel line and seam.

The legs articulate very well like the arms, no poly-caps can be seen when completed.

The feet are large multi-part assemblies. There are large sand filters on the outside of each foot for the nuclear engines. They add quite a bit of visual interest to the kit. The bottom of the foot has quite a bit of detail too.

Weapons & Accessories
Not a lot here, but what is given is very nice indeed. The main attraction of this guy is the massive 880mm bazooka. The weapon itself stands nearly 15 cm tall when completed. The bazooka is composed of ten pieces and has very nice detail. The bazooka is made of two halves, a left and a right. The muzzle is molded separate and is snapped in place. This eliminates the seam on the end of the barrel (this kit is full of nice surprises) The handle for the weapon is trapped between the two halves and can swing back and forth. This helps in positioning the weapon later. It also comes with a removable clip and a removable blast shield.

The only other accessory provided is a heat saber. It fits in a small slot in the backpack.

I found one thing strange about this kit. There is a clip at the back of the waist designed to hold a MMP-80 machine gun. There are trigger fingers on the hand; Top this all off with the extra clip slots. Here is my question, Why no gun? Every other detail is present for it! I hope this means there will be some more Dom variants to come.

The Good
Excellent molding! Details are crisp and most parts are assembled along panel lines, parts fit is very snug. I didn’t use any putty at all.

The arms are highly poseable. The best I have seen!

The bazooka is just plain beautiful. It’s large and really sets the kit apart from the rest.

Ease of construction, Even though there are numerous parts this was rather quick build.

Hands are nicely detailed and cleanly molded.

Overall very nice design and looks menacing when completed.

The Bad
The armored skirts tend to get in the way of waist and leg motion. This is really to do more with the design of the Dom itself rather than a kit problem (Lets face it, the Dom is no Acrobat!) Bandai appears to have made every effort to make the kit articulate so it is forgivable. The skirts do flex so some really cool poses can be done.

There could have been more weapons, Panzerfausts? An MMP-80 perhaps?

That cheap mono-eye sticker.

In Closing
After building several HGUC kits as well as many others I can say for certain this is one of the best. Bandai really made an effort to get this one right and it shows. The problems with it are small and easily overlooked once completed. The bazooka is one nasty piece of business and it looks every inch of it.

Overall a wonderful kit, I have already bought several more (at a lower price of course!) I am that impressed!

Now stop reading and go get the kit!

~ This is a contributed review by David Bauer ~

Click here to see some pics of Gundam_Base's own DomTropen.

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