Gafran
Review by The Enthusiast
Gafram is an Unknown Enemy mech from the recent Gundam Age series, here realized in the Robot Spirits line.
Gafram comes in a typical, understated window box. Accessories are mostly dedicated to the alt ‘dragon’ mode.
Gafran has a more pared-down, organic quality than the usual Gundam designs. He’s sleek and sinewy. I like the proportions. The finishes are a little plain for my tastes, though. I’d appreciate more depth in the color scheme. As it is, the figure looks muddled.
Sculpt and articulation are par for Robot Spirits, though the wing and tail attachments limit posing. I like the uniquely symmetrical hands.
Gafran has two beam sabers which plug directly into its palms.
The tail piece can swing over his shoulder as a weapon.
The character’s gimmick is a dragon-like alt-mode. You swap out the feet and head, extend the tail attachment, unfold its wings, and bend back the legs. The transformation is dramatic, and really gives the figure a different flavor. The bio-mechanical styling is refreshing in the sometimes staid Gundam universe.
This mode also lends itself to a crouching, almost dog-like position. The wings and feet in the dragon modes are a pain. The wings are too loose and droop down, and the feet fall off with minor posing.
Altogether a handsome piece, but not a slam dunk. The design is fresh, but still too plain for my tastes.
| Posted 10 March, 2012 - 16:46 by The Enthusiast |
Comments
5 comments postedI was thinking "meh" til i saw it has different modes. Thats pretty cool stuff. It reminds me of some other mechs i just cant put my fingers on which ones. Cool review
Now THAT I like! See, to me the Gundam is plain. You just see so many of them and they have the same design at thier core no matter the weapons (most times). This isn't plain to me! Well, the paint and details are plain, but that's a plus for me as well - I've always loved the plain grunt suits better than most of the main character suits. I'll certainly have to pick this one up.
This is a nice overview of the toy and I have to say, the quadruped mode doesn't look quite as good to me now as it did in prototype shots. Still, it's nice to see some variety in the enemy mobile suits; though I don't think people gave 00 enough credit for having unique designs.
I've always found it funny that people complain about Gundams looking too similar because they have the same face but nobody ever seems to get tired of the Valkyries from Macross.
I had no idea Junya Ishigaki was doing the enemy designs for AGE. He always brings a very unique style to any property he works on, especially a Gundam series. Demon robo dog is certainly up there with the crazier flying designs from Gundam X or that one that snowboards XD
"but nobody ever seems to get tired of the Valkyries from Macross."
Do ho ho~
I imagine it's because most of them transform in many different ways into very different looking airplanes. Maybe it would have been different if we'd have gotten less variation like in Macross II, but I like to think Kawamori shakes things up with enough enough radically different designs so that we don't notice the obvious VF-1, VF-5000, and VF-11 similarities :3
I do like the fresh desing though it does take from the dog mechs of seed a bit, however this is more organic and akin to a dragon then a dog.
My figure was the opposite of yours, Everythign on it was extremely tight especially the legs, first I ever exp. with a damashii fig actually.
Its a shame that these mechs start becoming more gundamesque rather than going the tranforming route more. Yeah, they arent quite gundam (definitely more unique look) but they do loose the transforming ability (though I saw an image of some bigger dragon mech which I have no idea when or where it makes an appearnce in the show since i havent watched any of it.)
Good review otherwise.