HMM Desert Shield Liger

[vishus]

Well this is the first review I have ever done, so bear with me

Here goes:

I know there has been other detailed and pic-heavy reviews of the Koto SL, most recently by mervin, so I will try to keep it short and sweet.

By the time it hit me to review this Zoid, building was well underway. I didn't time myself, as that has already been reported. Let's just say this suckers going to take you awhile! It took me several days, as I only had time to work on it a bit at a time. To sit down and complete it all at once..I imagine it would take 7- 12 hours, depending on how fast you work. Oh, did I mention this thing has 419 PIECES...PHEWWHH!

I found that Vaseline will be your friend, as some of these pieces are a little bit difficult to fit together. Also, the plastic quality is not so good on some of the pieces..it is the snap,crackle, pop variety. Be sure to look over each step of the process before doing it and make sure you have all the pieces in proper places and order, because it is a ***** to try and get it apart if you make a mistake. Also be very careful trimming, as it is very easy to mistake a peg for flash with this one. This is definitely the hardest, most labor intensive model I have ever done!

The points of articulation are vents, canopy, jaw, back mounted cannons, side missle box arms, tail. There are four articulation points on the back legs and three on the front. Very well thought out.

Simple but beautiful box with Yuji's sig


Instruction manual


Translucent sprues, 2 OF THEM!


I tried both canopies and decided the clear was more fitting for it's desert mission camo, plus a Zenebasy canopy on a Helic Zoid made no sense

What do you guys think?

Body


The caps are hard plastic, not rubbery. They also have a slot that has to be fitted just right.


This is the dreaded foot piece..these suckers are HARD to get on and keep on!


These were the pieces(gold) that got me steamed. They were so brittle that they all broke upon cutting them from the sprue. Seriously..you can't even look at them wrong or they will break. I ended up having to glue them back together. Now, I can't hardly move the front legs, for fear they will break again. C'mon Koto, you can do better than that


One of the things I love about this Zoid is the level of detail, with all the pistons and such






Weapons deployed


Vents open


Wanna play?


Helping me put stuff away


All in all, I am quite pleased with this Zoid. It's got such cool colors...way better than the Game Limited DSL, IMO. I much prefer it to the standard blue Koto Shieldy. The detail on this is awesome, and it has the potential to be super posey. I say potential because as mentioned earlier, I cannot move the front legs very much without risking breakage. This dissapoints me greatly, as the main reason I got this kit was to do all sorts of cool poses No matter, it is still a great kit. I am anxious to receive my LC Wolf to see how it compares. I only hope Koto can give us better plastic quality on the upcoming Bladey and Geno kits.

The good:
Beautiful detail
Articulated
Challenging

The Bad:
Some of the plastic quality is very brittle
On the expensive side
Challenging

The ugly:
The "creative speech" I used during construction ;D

[Snowflake]

If it's really that hard to build and pieces keep breaking.. I might just give these a miss til they work the kinks out and get more used to making this kind of model...

[Xehn]

...I really could have sworn I posted on here.

Snowflake, I haven't had any of the problem's he's mentioned, so I'm assuming there are batch issues.

My gold pieces were fine, as was the plastic of the rest of the kit. >>

[zed]

The engineering of HMM's are simply awesome. Thats a double edged sword, as the precision and detail is what makes them so hard to build. I'm surprised about the poor plastic quality, I had no problems with my Blue Shieldy.

Its the first time I've seen the clear canopy used, and I don't think it looks a good on the Desert Sheldy as the green canopy. Also, in hindsight it would have been nice if they added some extra parts to the Desert Shieldy, like they have with the Empire Wolf.

Still a great kit, in itself - zed

[vishus]

zed, the more I look at it, the more I agree with you on the canopy. A green canopy on a desert operations Zoid makes no sense...but danged if it doesn't just look nicer than the clear. Canopy changing operation commencing in....3...2...1 ;D

From the sounds of it...I guess I just got one from a sub-par batch. Oh well, I still really like him. I just hope the LC Wolf(and Geno&Bladey), is better quality than this one.

[Maethius]

I haven't purchased an HHM kit yet, but have the E-Woof on order. I think I'm holdingo out for the Geno. This is a nice looking kit, and I'm not sure if I would get the blue or desert SL (hard to justify both, unless I get a good deal on ebay). I do have to agree about the canopy... though I would probably prefer smoke gray (polarized to filter out harsh light and UV).

Your plastic issue sounds exactly like what happened to me with my PK... super brittle pieces to the point where I won't even risk turning it on. Everyone else I spoke to about it said there was no trouble.

[Snowflake]

I still feel like the point of the clear canopy is so you can tint it yourself and make a custom, but I really doubt anyone (even the amazing people here) could actually apply paint to a HMM kit and change its color scheme to something else. If that were possible though, Snowflake would like a silver, black, and burgundy empire version with a scarlet cockpit

[Tilly]

There was a customizing thing for the Shield Liger a bit ago in Japan that featured tons of painted ones...they're no different than any other Zoid, just lots of articulation points to consider.

If I didn't hate the Shieldy's head, that sounds like something I'd paint...but with shiny red D:.

[Maethius]

Oh, I would customize the heck out of it..... yes, I would!

[Tyrannotaur]

On the Blue Sheildy the gold parts are silver. They constantly break. I am still working on mine. I built everything but the back legs. I hope to finish it tomorrow.

I dunno how you got the parts on the foor to stay on. I am just going to glue it I think because they refuse to stay on.