To quote myself from last post:
Even before trying to pose it, I could tell that the Exia was going to be a bit of a hand grenade.
And:
I decided to just say “screw it”, and let the chips fall where they may. If something breaks during posing, so be it.
Now’s the time to see whether anything actually broke - and how well the Exia manages to pose.
Visual Design
This is a great looking model, even for a Real Grade. The amount of parts and color separation. The ribbons and clear green lenses. This really does feel like the Exia brought to life. There is a level of intricacy here that you don’t typically get in any sort of model kit.
Whatever else I might say about this model, let it be known that I think extremely highly of its visual design.
Articulation
Starting at the top, the head moves nicely upward, but not too far downward:
The head moves freely to the side, but the yellow Lapel Fins can get in the way depending on how they’re positioned:
The shoulder armor impedes upward arm motion quite a bit:
The shoulder armor also has a tendency to pop off. When it does, it will dangle in the air, attached to the holographic ribbon. You just have to pop it back in, but it’s annoying nonetheless.
The elbow bend is perfect:
The Exia doesn’t really have an “ab crunch” in the traditional sense. It has some joints at its hips that allow the entire upper body to move forward and back:
It takes a bit of getting used to, but it gives you all the range in the world.
(the torso also rotates without issue, for what it’s worth)
The Exia can’t do a full split, but it gets close:
Now we run into the biggest problem with this model’s articulation. The skirt armor, despite being so small and unassuming, does not move at all, and thus severely impedes forward movement of the leg:
You can take advantage of the hips to get a bit of extra lift, but only if you’re willing to bend the body backward:
For certain kinds of poses, that just won’t do.
In case you’re wondering, I did lift the front skirt armor all the way up, to see if that would make it any better. Unfortunately, the answer is no:
If you want to have any sort of substantial knee bend, your only viable option is to pivot the legs outward:
But again, this isn’t going to work for every kind of pose.
All in all, the articulation not great. This is a mobile suit that’s supposed to be running around swinging a sword, and yet the two areas with the most limited articulation are the legs and the shoulders. How the heck does that even happen?
In fact, it’s even worse than that. According to Gundam 00’s actual lore, the Exia is supposed to have more human-like movement than any of its comrades. In my mind, that makes these articulation issues extra damming.
Topple Prone
I don’t know if it’s the GN Drive or what, but Exia does not like standing up on its own two feet. I had a lot of issues with keeping it upright, to the point where I eventually just propped it up on an Action Base.
Early Real Grade Syndrome Strikes Again
Believe it or not, but Early Real Grade Syndrome struck before I could even finish taking photos.
By the end of the first photoshoot, I was already beginning to notice the arms and hip joints were beginning to sag. One the second night - which was only a few days later - they only got worse:
This can, to some extent, be solved by using an Action Base, but not when you want a limb to be in a very specific position. In that case, all you can do is try to set it, and hope it stays.
Bad Legs = Boring Poses
One thing you might notice about these poses is that I didn’t really do much with the legs. That’s because I gave up on them - they’re so limited in motion that there wasn’t much I could do with them. So they pretty much just hung around, knees slightly bent, like the Exia needs to take a dump and is struggling to hold it in.
The only way I could avoid this problem was to try and take photos that conceal the legs, but there’s only so many times you can get away with that:
Action Poses
I found it very hard to nail good action poses, for all the reasons I’ve already described. These are the best I could muster:
Even with an Action Base, there’s only so much one can do when the legs don’t look convincing.
Other Stuff
You can rotate the sword’s handle so that the Exia can hold it with a traditional grip:
As far as I can tell, there is no mechanism to lock the sword into position, meaning it can easily get “bent out of shape”.
Lastly, I am happy to report that nothing managed to break during posing. I’ll leave it up to you whether or not you consider that a minor miracle:
Conclusion
Here’s the thing - this is an old Real Grade, which means expectations have to be properly calibrated. If we do so, then the RG Exia comes out looking pretty sharp. The visual design and detail are astounding, and some of the accessories feel super premium. It’a articulation and stability are poor, but that’s par for the course for what it is.
However, if we judge as a model kit of the Gundam Exia, then it fails. If it can’t do cool action poses, then what exactly is the point?
More than any other early Real Grade, I feel as if the Gundam Exia deserves a redo. Make a new one, with a modern Real Grade frame, and I think you’d wind up with one of the best model kits in the entire product line. But as it exists in the real world, I think this was an idea that was too advanced for its time.