MG Deathscythe Gundam EW

Ah, the Deathscythe, a mobile suit revered by many in the Gundam community. I never really understood why so many people loved its design, especially its Custom iteration from the Endless Waltz movie. I mean sure, bat wings are cool and all, but I personally never found it worth fanboying about.

I picked up this MG Deathscythe more for the sake of completing my MG EW collection than anything else, but it turned out to be a really aesthetically pleasing kit. I went ahead and custom painted the thing like many others to match its TV colors more closely. Too much white on the original, and I would definitely not stand for that stupid dark blue they give you in place of the rightful black the Deathscythe should be.

Pretty much no black plastic was given with this kit; it was all midnight blue. Nubs looked horrible on that shade of plastic, and I always thought the EW Deathscythe looked ugly with its regular color scheme. So I decided to modify it a bit to resemble its original appearance.

I didn’t bother conforming too much to its TV color scheme, but went ahead and painted over all the midnight blue with flat black, as well as the head and waist armor. Added a flat coat to seal the deal. One of my first successful spray painting jobs ever.

Decals were a nightmare on this thing. The particular decal sheet I got was a knockoff brand I got on eBay, and they don’t like staying on the plastic very much. Trying to get them to stay before I put mark-setter on gave me headaches.

I think the flat black works really well with the Deathscythe, and some areas such as the head definitely look much better. Also went ahead and painted the crotch light clear green, painted the eyes as usual, and used silver and red for the four thrusters on the backpack.

Deathscythe serves really well as a beautiful display piece, but I found its playability rather lacking. Maybe its just me, but the scythe is rather unwieldy and hard to work with. The loose hands (interchangeable fingers specifically) don’t help much with the issue.

Articulation is in no way bad, but I found Deathscythe rather hard to pose, or make it look natural swinging that big green hunk of plastic around. I just couldn’t think of anything interesting for it to do, contrary to most other kits. Kinda explains why this photoshoot will be rather small and lacking in dynamic angles for the shots.

HYYYYAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!

It’s my first time actually playing around with a mobile suit with such an unorthodox weapon, a scythe. I believe one of the only other suits to sport such a weapon is the Forbidden from Gundam Seed.

The scythe itself is pretty darn long, and has grooves on one end of the shaft so you can plug the hand slots into ’em. The beam is also stupidly huge and pretty detailed…you don’t see that much effort put into beam effects often.

One problem I have with this thing’s main weapon, other than the difficultly of coming up with menacing-looking poses with it, is that it’s just…unwieldy in the hands and arms. Since it’s so long, getting a two-handed pose to look decent with the scythe is an absolute chore. It’s nigh-impossible to get two hands on the thing, and swinging the entire stick with one arm just looks kind of…off.

I’ve had to resort to using the open hand fingers to brandish one length of the scythe to make it look decent. To be fair though, plugging the scythe into one hand keeps it pretty stable, despite its impressive length.

I can’t really say for certain if Bandai’s new “finger swapping” gimmick with the recent Master Grades is an effective system. I feel like it’s much less of a chore with the individually articulated fingers in the past. Even with the loose pegs on the fingers that plug into the hands, you don’t get that much increased stability.

The Buster Shield, Deathscythe’s secondary weapon that, as far as I understand, can only be used once. Kinda a waste of resources don’t ya think…that entire contraption can be sent off into an enemy, and you’re more than likely not gonna get it back. That’s a whole shield for one attack.

The claws on the end can extend and open up together; connected by gears so if you open one, the other opens as well.

It’s nothing remarkable, though you do get one hella long beam effect that pegs in right under the tip of the shield. I swear this thing isn’t even a launching weapon anymore with the beam on; Duo can just use it as a makeshift sword given its length.

One of my only quirks with this thing is that it kinda gets in the way of wielding the scythe when its attached. Since it extends further than the forearm and left hand, it can be difficult getting the scythe and shield to work together. I don’t have the decency to put it aside either, since it’ll feel like such wasted ‘pla.

Scythe and shield make Deathscythe a pretty legit suit. Like many of the other Wing suits, I never had much appreciation for its design until I built the Master Grade. Gotta be sure you’re good at coordination with a scythe though; I’m clueless as to how this weapon is actually to be handled…

Deathscythe certainly has its fair share of quirks, and I gotta say its ground stability isn’t the best…the ankles aren’t very impressive. I’d say put this guy on an action base if you have one. Other than that, some unnecessary parts move about and around, like the backpack blocks and toe spikes…kinda pointless, but there if you like it.

As for the question of, should one get the EW version or the Hell Custom, I’d say it all depends on your personal preference on wings or not. I personally don’t like the Hell as much for the fact that it has such giant bat wings (I know, shoot me now) but display space is a factor I consider when looking at kits. I’m personally also more for the EW version for its nice black/white/yellow breakdown, as opposed to the almost complete lack of white and abundance of light gray/purple on the Hell Custom. At the end of the day though, they’re basically the same kit, all down to which design you prefer more.

Overall, I gotta say, I love this kit. It doesn’t have particularly significant play value, but as a display piece, it’s one of my favorites. I’ll say this though: the original plastic colors of the midnight blue were downright ugly. I can’t stand the Deathscythe being anything put pure black. I’m particularly proud of a relatively clean and smooth paint job on a kit for once.