First I had a bad photoshoot with Airmaster. Then the Double X build ended with me being unable to recommend it. Suffice to say that these last two builds have been downers, and so I come into this photoshoot with even less motivation than ever.
But what’s this? I also fallen out of love with the design of the Double X? That makes things even worse!
I said before that the color scheme of this mobile suit is reminiscent of the Gundam Mk II. I still stand by that. But where I once saw that as a nice homage, I now see it more as a lazy copycat.
I also said before that the better mobile suit designs from Gundam X take the general aesthetic of Gundam Wing, but iterate on it to make something that has its own unique identity. The GX and X Divider do this for sure, and I think the Leopard does it to a lesser extent. But not the Double X.
With the wings on its back, and its bright red and white shield, it reminds me too much of Wing Gundam and Wing Zero. Maybe that’s unfair of me (I’m not actually sure if I’ve ever seen anyone else make that comparison), but that’s where I’m at right now.
So we have a mobile suit with a look I no longer love, with a less than stellar build, and then we add on top of that the fact that it isn’t very fun to pose:
Let me put it this way: in comparison, the Gundam X had a lot of fun gimmicks to play with. It’s gun doubles as its shield, it has an optional shoulder cannon, and you have to reconfigure the energy collectors to put it into flight mode:
In short, it has a lot of different configurations, which leads to lots of fun posing opportunities. But the Double X only has a standard set of Gundam weapons, and a single gimmick (that being its twin Satellite Cannons)
Combine that with articulation that’s decent but not great, and there isn’t much you can do with this thing:
And that’s really all I have to say right now. I’ll post a couple more photos below, and then I’m ready to move on.
Conclusion
I was going to build the X Divider next, but after two downer builds in a row, maybe I ought to take a break from the Gundam X kits and try something else. I’ll have to rummage through the backlog and pick something out.