Kit Review

Coming soon.

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Size comparison with HGUC / MG

Upper body

That rabbit-like head

Decals on the chest

Back section

Backpack and arm weapons

Legs

The 4 verniers on the back can be opened/closed by swapping parts.

It's not even a color variant, but there are quite a few leftover parts.

Articulation is a standard 90-degree range.

Due to the design, the shoulders can raise out to the side about this far.

Armored Core Victoria Ver. - The hip joints are fairly free by design, so kneeling poses are easy to pull off. (1/4)

Armored Core Victoria Ver. - The hip joints are fairly free by design, so kneeling poses are easy to pull off. (2/4)

The hip joints are fairly free by design, so kneeling poses are easy to pull off.

Armored Core Victoria Ver. - Shooting pose (1/5)

Armored Core Victoria Ver. - Shooting pose (2/5)

Armored Core Victoria Ver. - Shooting pose (3/5)

Shooting pose

Armored Core Victoria Ver. - Just posing.. (1/5)

Armored Core Victoria Ver. - Just posing.. (2/5)

Armored Core Victoria Ver. - Just posing.. (3/5)

Just posing..

Armored Core Victoria Ver. - Together with Gaia. With nearly a 5-year gap between them, the quality difference is pretty notic

Together with Gaia.
With nearly a 5-year gap between them, the quality difference is pretty noticeable.

Together with the Crest Nine-Ball version.

Together with Uranus, which has a somewhat similar style.

A brand-new all-new-tooling kit for Armored Core has arrived — the Helios Victoria Ver. Rather than the usual metallic molded colors, this one comes in white, with gold (well, more of a mustard yellow, really) and red accents throughout, so even a straight build looks quite striking.

The Helios Victoria Ver. differs from the existing Armored Core lineup in several ways, and it really shows that the Armored Core kit quality is hitting its stride as it enters its fifth year. There are fewer unnecessarily tiny parts, the overall parts breakdown is a bit simpler, and assembly is noticeably easier. The snap-fit connection has also improved a lot — still not perfect, but much better — and the articulation is solid while the joint strength is very stable. The design is also cleaner overall with less fiddly detail, giving it a different feel in a number of ways. It's an Armored Core kit, but it almost feels like something out of the Super Robot Wars lineup.

Since the molded colors aren't metallic, there's a relative sense of stability to the finish, and the color scheme actually looks better than previous white-based kits like the Cronus Vixen Ver. or the Atlas Fox Eye Ver. In short, this is probably the Armored Core kit that comes closest to Bandai kit quality overall.

This new-tooling kit shows that the Armored Core line — which has had some quality inconsistencies — is finally settling into a more stable place. If you like the style, you can build this one without worrying about quality and just have fun with it. In particular, the reduction in fiddly little parts and the decrease in that stiffness typical of Kotobukiya kits are things I really want to give this kit credit for. :-)

Armored Core Victoria Ver. | 2010. 2 | ¥4,800

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.