Gunpla Custom Review: Super Fumina + HGBC Powered Arms Powereder (Star Wish, Phase 1)

Lets get this off first thing: this is not a straight-build. This is also only the first portion of my plan for the Super Fumina. Fortunately, I need only wait for the third kit, which comprises the parts for Phase 2, to arrive.

My plans for customizing the Super Fumina came out of the many YouTube reviews that I have seen. One thing that the popular gunpla reviewers seem to agree upon is that this kit is a weird, creepy one, however they also seem to applaud Bandai for its efforts in trying to make a Mecha Musume as an HG kit. Bandai is no stranger to Armoured Girls, but this is the first time they have ever designed a kit so... human.

And that's a large part of what makes it so strange and creepy, since you have to assemble a human young woman to complete this kit. Heightening the creep factor is the fact that there is no good way for a man to handle assembly of a female body. Thankfully, Bandai does not go for making it completely anatomically correct. But, it seems, just to increase the weirdness, we are talking about a model of a character who has, for the purposes of this model, been stuffed into a maid outfit. And if you use the lenses that go over its eyes, it seems to stare into your soul.

I know that in the series it's Sakai Minato who designed and created the Super Fumina (without Fumina Hoshino's permission), and I would question his taste. Besides putting her in a maid outfit, I keep wondering why he based so much of it on the GM Powered Cardigan, the first unit Fumina used, and one she quickly abandoned in favour of the Winning Gundam. The only elements that seem to come from the Star Winning are the pair of beam blades that attach to the mini-shields.

On the practical side, I can see that Bandai executed the kit in a flawed manner: reviewers say that the armour slats that attach under the apron skirt fall off, and I can believe that since they attach to open tabs. These armours, and the ankle armour, hinder the model's articulation. I have elected to skip them. I would skip the apron skirt too, but the torso mould is inhumanly thin. I know Sakai said the waist was 33% thinner, but seriously, it doesn't even match up with the upper body or hips. It's too thin.

Then you have the arm vulcans. Inside the housing there are two pegs, which take up all the room, leaving none for the vulcans to sit. A skilled modeller could probably nip one out and still find a way to have the top attach. I don't know if that would free up enough room for the vulcans. Substituting the vulcans from the Powered Arms Powereder kit is tricky because both the arms and the vulcans have pegs, but no holes, and the arms also have a curve, so it's not like you have a flat surface to which to cement the vulcan housings. To be clear, these parts are not compatible without modification, meaning you have to cut the pegs down, or cut them off. But, with two applications of plastic cement, I have something that works. I'm not quite certain how secure they are seated, and I am not about to tempt things by handling the model roughly. I would also recommend trying to cut the pegs so they can act as additional support and give you some more surface to which to glue the pieces. The whole process I went through with the cement became very messy for the model, because I had already painted the vulcans. Did you know that Tamiya cement smudges paint? Now you do.

The provided stickers are also mixed bag. The ear and eyes are fine (and they give you extra eyes, I guess in case you mess up), but most of the other stickers would need to be applied to curved surfaces, which rarely works out well. I elected instead to use gundam markers. I have the metallic set from Creos, and a Real Touch light pink, which I got for Fumina's bike shorts. I also used my fine-tip black gundam marker for her eyelashes.

A detail that should be mentioned is the Super Fumina's size. While the box says it's supposed to be 1/144, the fact that its head (and the rest of the body) is scaled up to allow for a proper detailing of the facial features, means that the Star Wish towers over my Cross Bones, and is even half of its own head taller than the Arios, my next-tallest gunpla. She also has the smallest feet out of all the gunpla, between a small bottom surface area and a lack of heel area. Combined with her height and the backpack, this means she is easily backheavy.

For general colour scheme, I chose to replace Sakai's colours with Fumina's uniform colours: blue for the main colour because that's the colour of her blazer, red for the neck ribbon, and black for the bottom of her shoes. I also livened up the shields a bit with some red and gold, because 'why not?' Further, I chose to give the powered arms for the shields another section to give them a greater range of motion and coverage.

Somehow I ended up switching the legs, but I think it still looks good.

The Star Wish, Phase 1 has very workable articulation, due to the uniquely-designed, larger white polycaps included with the kit. You can get your Super Fumina into pretty much any pose you would want it in, as long as you can use something, like the included stand, to support it. The stand even has a special head that you can use. It connects with the backpack instead of to the crotch, which is where other gunpla connect -- at least Bandai didn't go that far.

The result is a model that stands taller than any of my HG and RG models, and also which stands as unique due to having more human facial features. Humanoid mechs are one thing, this is another entirely. It makes for a unique and strange building experience.

[Drossel von Flugel (Fireball) by figma, demonstrating the Powered Arms.]

I would recommend this kit to builders who enjoy custom builds because the stickers that are included encourage the use of paints instead. As long as you have paint, you can do a pretty fair job with this, I think. And if you want working vulcan canons, you are going to have to substitute, say with the 'Powereder' kit. There are tons of possibilities when it comes to customizing the Super Fumina, yet the strangeness of the kit itself may be both an attractor and something that pushes people away from it. Your mileage may vary. I recommend looking at as many reviews as you can and deciding for yourself whether you would be comfortable with this kit.

Because not everyone will be.