I know not the first thing about this mech – from what I understand it’s a Super Robot from the Super Robot Wars Original Generation (SRWOG) series, though that’s about it. Given that it’s a Super Robot I’m assuming it operates on hotblooded willpower and gutsy screaming. Even the name sounds Super Robot-y…
I received this kit as a commission from a client online, who had seen my works on Gunpla and was a novice modeler himself. He sent me the kit fully built and requested that I work my magic to clean it up and paint in the details for him, which is exactly what I did.
I left the kit itself in its original colors, as per request, and went ahead and filled in the thrusters, added some white/black details, and lined the thing. I had to disassemble the entire model in the process though; the owner wasn’t very proficient at nub removal at the time.
I don’t have many qualms with the design of the mech itself; the cyan color scheme is nice, and the green gems placed all over the place remind me of the suits from 00.
Granted, this was the first time I played around with a Kotobukiya kit, and while you’d think they’d be nigh-identical to Bandai as producers of plastic model kits, the plastic itself is actually pretty different. Can’t say for sure which feels more durable or brittle (really can’t remember, since I shipped this back to the original owner months ago) but it’s definitely not the same stuff I’m used to in Gunpla.
An interesting little thing that Kotobukiya does is that they don’t appear to make use of stickers; instead, small color-corrected pieces are painted for you and anything else that you’d normally think would be sticker-worthy is left blank for your paint of choice. (i.e. Soulgain’s eyes were pre-painted whereas on Gunpla you’d normally get foil stickers)
You get a good selection of optional hands with Soulgain; the ones I made the most use of were the jazz hands/repulsor ray palms. You could get some crazy stuff outta them. The green gems in the palms reminded me so much of Iron Man…
Soulgain wouldn’t be a super robot without ROCKET POWERED FISTS. Seriously, for some reason I found this to be the most typical weapon/feature of super robots compared to real robots like Gundam.
Included are two really nice semi-clear blue spiral effects to maximize the shooting of the fists.
Overall Soulgain is a pretty neat little plastic model kit; I can’t really spot any clear advantages it has structurally compared to Bandai despite it being my first Kotobukiya experience. Super Robot Wars fans out there can rejoice; I think this mech was done justice, ‘specially with the essential fist effects.
