Phantasy Star Online was my first online love. From the day my best friend and I picked it up at Best Buy to the day the servers were shut down, PSO was an every day occurrence. When I heard that Kotobukiya had started releasing 5.5" RAcaseal model kits I was absolutely hyped to get my hands on one. Thanks to my father for this one. As I've practically grown up building Bandai kits I was a little nervous building a kit from a company I had never bought from before. This nervous feeling also had a nice amount of excitement as I popped open the box to explore the wonders inside!
Out of the Box
Being the first Kotobukiya kit I had ever opened it was still surprisingly simple by design. Instructions were easy enough to understand, much like Bandai's kits. The plastic itself is different then a Gundam though. I'm not quite sure how to explain it in detail. It's a "softer" plastic that feels a little more brittle then a Bandai kit. There were also alot of pieces for a 5.5" figure. I counted a little more then 200 pieces. These include the entire RAcaseal, 3 weapons, and 2 different MAGs. She also came with extra pieces that would of been included in other kits in the same line. I've mentioned before that Bandai does this as well. The cost of giving you a few useless pieces (or custom-pieces if you think the glass if half-full) does not seem to out weigh the cost of creating specific molds for each kit. This did become a little confusing during the build though, as many of the extra pieces share the same tree number. There was a moment where I was giving her human-like thighs but a black chest. 4/5
Coloring/Detail
I'll give Kotobukiya one major prop right here - this is the least amount of detail I had ever wanted to do on a model kit. All the colors of the kit matched the character and few detail lines were needed to make her look great. I can't say to much else about it though. A great kit for someone who doesn't like to detail.. unless you like detail on your weapons. Her MAGs and weapons come in one simple color and require a little painting. At the time of this review I had only painted one MAG. I didn't paint either large weapon yet as I did not have the colors I wanted. 4/5
Stability/Movement
30 points of articulation makes her as flexible as a RG Bandai kit. From awesome battle-ready positions to sexy poses this kit it ready for whatever pose you want. Keep in mind that family members may look at you strange, but if you're like me, you are used to the glares and shakes of disappointment. One of my favorite things about this kit is the fact that she comes with two large weapons (A Death Scythe & a large Spread-like gun) that she can actually hold without being a complete bitch. I'm looking at you MG Zeta Gundam. I did end up breaking two pieces during the build unfortunately. One was a black upper-chest piece (That I replaced with a white piece that I happily painted over) and the other was the extremely thin neck-join. Yep, I broke her neck. Yes, it happened exactly like it did in "The Mice In Men." >.> 3/5 Damn weak joint/Damn Monkey-strength.
Overall: Being different is not a bad thing. This kit was something of an adventure. Despite her weak neck joint the rest of her was sturdy and ready to go on the attack. Going thru memory lane as I played the PSO soundtrack during the build helped keep the mood that this kit put me in. Hopefully soon I will obtain one of the other 3 RAcaseal kits so I can give it another go - this time without shattering the poor girl's neck. 3.7/5 - Average.
