Kit Review

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Aldnoah Zero KG-6 Sleipnir - Detail shots (1/4)

Aldnoah Zero KG-6 Sleipnir - Detail shots (2/4)

Detail shots

The weapons included are a machine gun, handgun, and knife.

Aldnoah Zero KG-6 Sleipnir - The machine gun splits into a grenade launcher section and a magazine section — and the top of t

The machine gun splits into a grenade launcher section and a magazine section,
and the top of the magazine even has bullet details molded in.

A total of 5 different hand types are included.

Aldnoah Zero KG-6 Sleipnir - The massive wing units mounted on the sides of the knees have over 10 articulation gimmicks, all

The massive wing units mounted on the sides of the knees
have over 10 articulation gimmicks, allowing them to be configured into a variety of forms.

Aldnoah Zero KG-6 Sleipnir - The process is pretty complex and hard to explain in words and photos alone, but anyway, you can

The process is pretty complex and hard to explain in words and photos alone,
but anyway, you can work the various articulation gimmicks to set it up in the "ground travel mode."

Aldnoah Zero KG-6 Sleipnir - The look of it recreated in ground travel mode, almost like wings attached to a backpack. In rea

The look of it recreated in ground travel mode, almost like wings attached to a backpack.
In reality, they're still fixed to the sides of the knees.

Aldnoah Zero KG-6 Sleipnir - Spreading the wings back out and lowering them gets you the "hover mode." (1/3)

Spreading the wings back out and lowering them gets you the "hover mode."

The hover mode look.

The articulation is pretty good overall.

There's also a gimmick that lets you move the hip joints up and down.

Aldnoah Zero KG-6 Sleipnir - The feet are on the small side, but the ankle joints are fairly flexible, so the ground contact

The feet are on the small side, but the ankle joints are fairly flexible, so the ground contact feels solid.

Aldnoah Zero KG-6 Sleipnir - The kneeling pose comes together naturally. (1/3)

The kneeling pose comes together naturally.

Aldnoah Zero KG-6 Sleipnir - Ground travel mode + handgun firing pose (1/4)

Aldnoah Zero KG-6 Sleipnir - Ground travel mode + handgun firing pose (2/4)

Ground travel mode + handgun firing pose

Aldnoah Zero KG-6 Sleipnir - Ground travel mode + knife action pose (1/3)

Ground travel mode + knife action pose

Aldnoah Zero KG-6 Sleipnir - Hover mode + machine gun action pose (1/3)

Hover mode + machine gun action pose

This kit is a plastic model of the "Sleipnir" from the anime "Aldnoah.Zero" — Sleipnir being the name of the eight-legged white horse from Norse mythology that Odin rode.

Aldnoah.Zero is a mecha anime that aired across two seasons from 2014 to 2015. It got a lot of attention for its unique premise of overcoming military disadvantage through strategy, but it also became quite controversial among fans due to the divisive ending (with the "not a fan" camp seemingly far outnumbering the other side...).

Anyway, the Sleipnir — the main mech of Aldnoah.Zero — has been turned into a plastic model by Kotobukiya, and it comes across as a pretty standard, no-frills Koto kit overall.

The color separation is done well enough that even a straight build gives you a decent color combination, but the orange molded color looks a bit cheap, which is a shame. It'd probably look great with a proper paint job, but as a straight build, it's not a color scheme I'd really recommend. Everything else — the parts breakdown and overall construction — is pretty solid, and thanks to the excellent articulation, even demanding poses like kneeling come together naturally. That said, true to Kotobukiya kit form, the assembly feel isn't the smoothest, and the joints have more of a stiff, resistant feel rather than a fluid one, so it still feels quite different from a Bandai kit.

The highlight of the Sleipnir is the large wing units on the sides of the knees. You can work through about a dozen moving parts to get them into ground travel mode or hover mode. The transformation process is a bit complex though — even looking at the manual or the review photos above, it's hard to get a feel for how it actually works. Even for me, having handled it in person, it's tough to explain in words. Honestly, it's the kind of transformation where you're better off just feeling your way through it by bending things around intuitively... ;;

The weapons include three types — machine gun, handgun, and knife — and the machine gun's grenade launcher and magazine sections are designed to be detachable. Each weapon also comes with its own dedicated hand parts, and including an open hand and a fist, there are 5 types and 10 hands total.

Overall it's snap-fit, meaning you can build it without glue, but the manual does recommend gluing certain parts in place. Beyond that, there are a few spots where you'll want to reinforce with glue for stability, though roughly 80% of the parts seem to hold together just fine without it.

As is always the case with Kotobukiya kits, the price (¥6,800) feels steep for something that's a touch smaller than a Bandai MG. Since it's essentially a kit made as a gift for fans of the source material, you could argue that just getting upper-mid-tier quality for a Koto kit is something to be grateful for. Either way, for Aldnoah.Zero fans, this is a fan-service plastic model you definitely don't want to miss. :-)

Aldnoah Zero KG-6 Sleipnir | 2015. 10 | ¥6,800

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.