When the Chinese company BSC first announced their ‘third party’ 1/35 scale Unicorn bust kit I threw all my money at the screen. If you weren’t aware, I’m a big fan of the Unicorn design. Despite various ups and downs with third party kits I just had to have the it in my collection. To my surprise, I had very few issues with the kit. Granted, I was a bit daunted by the LEDs and have yet to attempt them, but other than that things went together well. One day, maybe, I still hope to give it the paint and detailing job it deserves.
Fast forward to BSC announcing this, their 1/35 scale Sinanju. Holy shit I threw money at the screen like Scrooge McDuck throws himself into a vault of gold coins. After what feels like a long wait the kit finally showed up and I couldn’t be happier.
So, where to start?
The most obvious place, when it comes to third party kits at least, is how pieces fit together. I could nitpick a few areas, some pieces are to easy to fall off while a few parts of the base don’t quite stay squeezed together, but I would be doing this kit a disservice. For a third party kit this thing goes together like butter. A few tighter joints here and there, but nothing that required any cutting or widening. Unlike CuteCube or Mechanicore at no point did I want to throw this thing across the living room in anger. Instead it was love, love, love.
The red armor of the kit is a sexy glossy red that makes the kit look more like a CGI render than a hunk of plastic. The red runners, and the larger red pieces that come free-floating, came wrapped in Saran Wrap in addition to the expected plastic bags. I couldn’t figure out why at first, but my current through is that they did this to protect the plastic from scratches during shipment. That’s attention to detail.
The gold of the kit is pretty straight forward, no reverse wash needed here thanks to plastic inlays ala the RG Sinanju. There’s also a nice selection of metal bits, like springs and shiny tube pieces for the conduits around the waist, and darker gunmetal thrusters (which are apparently a limited benefit). All these fit amazingly well, no need for glue or adjustments.
Then there’s the LEDs. While their Unicorn build came with a pile of cables and a bunch of unconnected bulbs, the Sinanju’s set comes preassembled. This simple change makes things a lot easier and I was able build it out of the gate with the LEDs. Assembly was generally easy though you have to use a bit of intuition. None of the LED leads are cut so there’s a bit of bending into/out of place that needs to take place. There are also slots for the various connection pieces to orient into but it’s not always obvious in the guide.
The LEDs are powered either by a USB hookup or a battery pack that takes a pair of AAA batteries. There’s also a remote control that’s supposed to turn them on and off, though I could not get it working. I suspect it's the cheap, probably dead, watch battery that shipped with the kit. Nor could I get the RF receiver to orient and fit into where it was supposed to go. There’s a physical switch on the back, so no big deal for me. They also made the button on the remote a Haro, so that’s nice.
There’s also a “mechanical hangar base” that comes with the kit. It doesn’t actually connect to the rest of the bust in anyway, which is a shame because it would be a lot easier/safer to move around. My one real complaint about the kit is that its center of gravity is a bit high. I haven’t had much issue with it falling over, but it’s something I’ll have to pay close attention to avoid until I can figure out where to place this behemoth.
Regarding size, did you notice it’s huge? It’s over 15 inches tall not including max wing deployment and weighs over 5 pounds! I need to get my RG Sinanju built just for some mind numbing comparison shots, but a regular ol’ MG will have to do for now. It’s worth noting that some of the proportions have changed, namely the wings, which are taller and not nearly as long as they should be per original design.
The wings have a unique gimmick, basically a new flap that opens up with some green psycho frame pieces lit by some green LEDs. I suppose some folks will like it, but I’d prefer if they just kept things original as I can’t get the flap to close 100%. You can also open up the shoulders a bit but there’s not much to see in there without some custom paint work.
Lastly, the head does move around but sadly the monoeye does not. And, lest I forget, the aforementioned mechanical base has a whole bunch of holes that are sized, presumably, for the stands from Bandai action bases. You could prop a whole fleet of Sinanju kits up on this base without before it'd start to get top heavy!
Now the moment you've been waiting for, more photos of the kit. Please ask if you have any questions!
To wrap things up, if you haven’t picked up on this just yet, this kit is great. Probably one of the best third party kits out there, easy the best bust, and an absolute must have for Sinanju fans. Well, Sinanju fans with a bunch of free display space!
