Sinanju

The Sinanju appears thanks to Bluefin Distribution.

You can get yours at Big Bad Toy Store or wherever Tamashii Nations products are sold!

The Sinanju is one of the prominent mechas in the Gundam Unicorn OVAs; these OVAs take place in the UC setting of the Gundam franchise. The majority of Gundam Unicorn’s story takes place well after the events of the Char’s Counterattack movie, which featured the climactic battle between Amuro Rey and Char Aznable, piloting the Nu Gundam and the Sazabi respectively.

The data from the Nu Gundam and the Sazabi would lead Anaheim Electronics to create the Sinanju Stein, a prototype mobile suit built for the UC Project. The Sinanju Stein was fitted with Psycho Frame similar to the one that would be used on the Unicorn Gundam and a Psycomu System. Unfortunately, this powerful prototype falls into the hands of Neo Zeon, who scrubbed away many of the ionic Gundam features of the Sinanju Stein and turned it into a Mobile Suit fit for a Zeon ace pilot. The Sinanju would then serve as the personal mobile suit to Full Frontal, the man rumored to be the second coming of Char Aznable.

A few years back the Sinanju was released in the Robot Spirits line. This year, Bandai released the Robot Spirits Sinanju Animation Edition, which adds some extra accessories to the previous release. Also, from what I gather, this new edition has a slimmer midsection and is a different shade of red.

The Robot Spirits Sinanju Animation Edition does a pretty darn good job at capturing the profile and details of this regal mecha’s appearance. All of the Zeonic trimmings of the Sinanju are present on this toy: from the cables around the waist that harken back to the grandfather of Universal Century mobile suits to the Neo Zeon logo the defiantly sits on the chest of this mecha which once looked like a Gundam.

You may notice that Sinanju is leaning forward a bit. This is because the figure has a difficult time standing upright on its own. The back heavy design of the mecha needs some extra weight in the front to counterbalance the weight of the large flight pack and propellant tank. Luckily, throwing a weapon or two into the hands of the Sinanju will alleviate the weight imbalance of the toy.

The fit and finish for the Sinanju is very good. The only issue I had was with the left cable that connects from the rear skirt to the front skirt. A ball at each end of the cable connects to a socket in each one of the skirts. The issue is that the ball in the front skirt came out of place. I popped the cable back in place several times only to have it come off time and time again.  So if you notice a shot or two in this review where that left cable is out of place, you know what happed before I took that shot.

Anyhow, let’s move onto the articulation. The mighty Sinanju can take a knee without any issues.

While the knees are double jointed, the bottom joints’ range of motion is limited by bulky design of the leg armor.  However, Bandai did do their best to make the knees move as much as possible. The red kneecap even separates from the black piece underneath it as the leg is move backwards, allowing the knees more freedom of movement.

The Sinanju even pulls off a pretty decent aerial kick.

The legs’ side panels with the thrusters on them can move independently of the legs.

The panels are on a hinge/ball combo joint.

Two panels in the back of the leg can lift up. The top one reveals a thruster.

The upper part of the toy also has its share of articulation.

The torso can twist substantially.

The shoulder pads can lift up to free the arms up a bit. Or you can just turn the shoulder pads upside down if you want to pull off a Shoryuken.

 The shoulders can even hinge forward for even more range of motion.

You can twist the midsection substantially thanks to a ball joint.

The thrusters on the flight pack have a cool feature.

When you separate the bottom and top panels, the thrusters will extend out. I am a sucker for pieces that move like they do in the show, so I really liked how Bandai added this little touch to what was already a great toy.

 Even the propellant tanks are on a ball joint, so that you can move them as needed.

At first I thought the Sinanju was going to be somewhat limited in in ability to move. However, Bandai has pleasantly surprised me with how they engineered this toy to overcome the bulkiness of its design.

 But Bandai has more surprises in store with this toy, which packs plenty of firepower.

The Sinanju comes with two Beam Axes for holding. 

Each Beam Axe can be fitted with two blades of different lengths.

The Beam Axes can also be joined at the hilts to form a Beam Naginata.

The Sinanju comes with 2 beam sabers.

One set of armguards have slots on them for attaching the blades of the Beam Saber and forming the Sinanju’s Beam Tonfas.

The Sinanju also comes with a Beam Rifle with a long range sensor, perfect for sniping. 

Like with the RD Gundam Unicorn Destroy Mode, the Sinanju’s guns feature moving parts. One of the scopes on the Beam Rifle can move in and out of position with the other scope.

The Sinanju also comes with a Rocket Bazooka, which features a pull-out handle on the side and a moving handle at the front of the bazooka.

The Rocket Bazooka can be mounted on the Beam Rifle to make a BFG. 

While the picture on the box shows the Sinanju holding this big gun one handed, very much like the Sinanju did in the OVAs, the same is not really possible with the toy. Here on earth, where our souls are weighed down by gravity, our toys are subject to said laws of gravity. So a one-handed wielding of this weapon is bit hard for the toy, if you want it pointing the gun at something other than the ground.

 In my case, I used the other hand to prop this big weapon up.

One of the awesome additions for this release is that it includes an extra damaged face for the Sinanju, to recreate the scene where it was damaged in the third OVA.

The part of Daguza Mackle will be played by Call of Duty Minifig.

I really hope that Bandai does more damaged faces and/or body parts in the Robot Spirits line. It is good being able to display your favorite Mobile Suite after it has taken a few hits.

The Sinanju also comes with a cool shield that does more than just shield the Mobile Suit.

The shield has two beam axes attached to the underside.

These axes can be fitted with the beam blades and moved to a forward position on the shield to make for an extra deadly shield.

Take that Call of Duty guy!

Attaching the Rocket Bazooka to the underside of the shield is a pretty easy process. The only prep work that is required is removing a piece of the Rocket Bazooka’s barrel to shorten it. 

You can also attach the Gatling guns, which are included with the Unicorn Gundam Destroy Mode, to the underside of the shield. Just like when you attach Gatling guns to the underside of the Unicorn Gundam’s shield, the process for attaching it to the Sinanju shield requires some patience. It is quite easy to knock one of the guns off while you are attaching the other.

It is great to have the ability to combine some of the weapons between the Sinanju and the Unicorn Gundam. Too bad they didn’t standardize the connection points between all of the guns, because then you can have even more fun mixing and matching weapon parts.

When you are not using the Beam Rifle or the Bazooka, you can store them on a clip on the back of the figure. However, you do have to take the scopes off the weapons and also shorten the Bazooka in order to be able to attach the guns to the back of the toy.

 Besides the extra already mentioned, the Sinanju comes with all this great stuff!

In this pic we have:

• Seven hands
• Two armguards with pegs for attaching the shield to it. The peg on one armguard is fixed, the peg on the other one is on a swivel.
• Two armguard with the slots for the Beam Tonfas.
• The damaged face
• A piece for attaching the shield to the spiked shoudlerpad.
• A clip for attaching the figure to a stand.

All in all, this is an AWESEOME companion piece for the Unicorn Gundam.

It’s got a lot of fun extras. So if you own the original release, it really boils down to whether or not the inclusion of the Bazooka and the extra damaged face will warrant a purchase of this toy. If you don’t own a Robot Spirits Sinanju and have been looking to get one, then this is the version to get!

The Sinanju appears thanks to Bluefin Distribution.

You can get yours at Big Bad Toy Store or wherever Tamashii Nations products are sold!