It’s Christmas Eve folks! It’s time to cozy up, turn on the Christmas lights, put Eternal Wind on your music queue, and take the Den’an Gei for a spin:
About the Visual Fidelity
This may not have the articulation or the gimmicks of a Master Grade, but in terms of sheer visual detail I am extremely impressed:
It’s got lots of little details and excellent color separation, and while it did require some amount of painting, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I anticipated.
Could it be even more detailed? Sure, just about any model could. But this captures the essence of the Den’an Gei without any compromise.
About the Visual Design
The Den’an Gei has a few things going for it. It feels like a logical, effective evolution of the Bad Guy Mobile Suit Designs of the Universal Century. Compared to a Zaku, it’s got more onboard weaponry and bigger thrusters, making it feel less like cannon fodder and more like an effective military unit in its own right.
It’s also visually reminiscent of the Zaku - you can see it in the shape of its legs and (right) shoulder armor. But it doesn’t feel like a slavish copy either.
However, there is one thing the Den’an Gei does very differently than the Zaku. While Zakus can look tough, they can also be made to look very … cute.
Yes, cute.
Case in point - if it wasn’t cute-able, then Bandai wouldn’t be able to make something like this:
But you’re not going to make the Den’an Gei look adorable. Not when it looks like this:
There’s no bones about it - the Den’an Gei is meant to be scary. By invoking the gas masked troops of the World Wars, it is meant to invoke the horror and inhumanity of war.
Listen, I know that a lot of terminally online Gundam fans think that the franchise is/should be as morally grey as possible, but I don’t think that’s always a good idea. There’s a reason why stories of good versus evil have been popular since the dawn of storytelling. Sometimes - not always, but sometimes - you need something that says “We’re the badguys. We are here to destroy”. And that’s what the Den’an Gei and the Den’an Zon accomplish, moreso than the Zaku or any of their other predecessors.
Articulation
It’s not great, but I guess it’s good enough. I really wish it had a toe bend; considering that even some High Grades have that, I feel like we should see it here.
Size
I must admit that I still find myself surprised at times at just how small miniature mobile suits like the Den’an Gei actually are.
Here it is - a 1⁄100 scale model - next to a 1⁄144 scale High Grade:
It’s barely more than a head taller!
And here it is next to its arch nemesis, which is technically a miniature MS as well, but is still not quite as small:
The more you know!
Oh, and since it’s so small, it fits comfortable into the System Base:
Action Poses
In general I’m not great at coming up with action poses, but I’m even worse when it comes to grunt suits. I admit that I didn’t try too hard this time:
I love the look of beam shields, but sadly they don’t work as well in real life as they do on screen. Most Gunpla shields are on some combination of ball joints and/or hinges, allowing them a decent degree of free range movement. Or, in other cases, the shield is simply small, so it doesn’t get in the way.
But Beam Shields are always large, and mount directly onto the wrist. They can rotate, but that’s literally the only motion you’ll get out of them. In other words, they tend to get in the ways, and it’s extremely hard to pose with them:
Sometimes I hate it when a kit doesn’t feel very poseable, but this isn’t one of them. It still looks incredible, so I’m happy to just do a couple shots and call it a day.
Classic Scenes
I wanted to recreate the scene where the Den’an Gei kicks off the head of a Jegan, but I don’t have a standard looking Jegan, not do I have one in 1⁄100 scale. Still, I made do with what I’ve got:
And now for the iconic scene where the F91 sorties for the first time:
As you can see, I reused the “getting cut in half by a beam saber” effect part that came with the Robot Spirits Gyan, which might end up being the best thing about that action figure.
Conclusion
I’m officially a Reborn-100 fan! Bandai, please keep making these things. I’ll buy them, especially if it means that more underrated mobile suits like this get some representation.
End of Year Housekeeping
It’s Christmas Eve, and while I cannot predict the future, I have a good feeling that this will be my final build of the year. My intention was to wrap things up with two other builds that I wanted to complete in tandem, but December got crazy and it didn’t take me too long to realize that that just wasn’t in the cards. I’ll try to get them done in January.
That being said, I doubt this will be the last post of 2025. I’m certain I’ll get some fun, Gunpla related gifts to talk about, some of which may lead to some quick little projects that I can knock out in the final week of the year. We’ll see though. For now, I’ll wish you all a wonderful holiday season, and thank you for reading.