Kit Review

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack.
It's quite a bit larger than your typical SD kit.

Upper body.
It looks less like a White-Glint and more like... a Grey-Glint;

D Style White-Glint - A big, cute head. The clear parts for the eyes match up nicely with the silver painted surface inside,

A big, cute head.
The clear parts for the eyes match up nicely with the silver painted surface inside, and it actually looks pretty convincing.

Detail on the back of the head.
There's something about it that feels a little... hollow.

Arm section

D Style White-Glint - The legs. The detail is decent enough — it's just the lack of color separation that holds it back. (1/3

D Style White-Glint - The legs. The detail is decent enough — it's just the lack of color separation that holds it back. (2/3

D Style White-Glint - The legs. The detail is decent enough — it's just the lack of color separation that holds it back. (3/3

Leg section.
The detail is decent enough — it's just the lack of color separation that holds it back.

Shoulder weapons

The back panel has a nice sense of depth to it.

The weapons are just molded as a single piece — how thoughtful.

The neck and waist rotate just fine.

The arms bend about 90 degrees, but the knees are fixed.

D Style White-Glint - The leg and hip articulation is pretty limited... the forward/backward range is minimal, and it's espec

The leg and hip articulation is pretty limited...
The forward/backward range is minimal, and it's especially hard to spread the legs out to the sides,
so pulling off that signature Katoki Hajime-style stance is basically impossible. It just kind of stands there quietly...

D Style White-Glint - The biggest frustration with this kit is the hip joints — move them even a little and they just pop rig

The biggest frustration with this kit is the hip joints — move them even a little and they just pop right out.

Unlike the previous Ingram, there are quite a few spots where you can see that hollow, SD-typical look.

The arms pop off occasionally too, but they're much better than the legs.

Action pose

D Style White-Glint - Shooting pose. Don't expect anything particularly impressive in terms of articulation. (1/4)

D Style White-Glint - Shooting pose. Don't expect anything particularly impressive in terms of articulation. (2/4)

D Style White-Glint - Shooting pose. Don't expect anything particularly impressive in terms of articulation. (3/4)

D Style White-Glint - Shooting pose. Don't expect anything particularly impressive in terms of articulation. (4/4)

Firing pose.
Don't expect anything particularly impressive in terms of articulation.

The Overboost deployment is recreated through a disassemble-and-reassemble swap system.

The large upper Overboost can also be extended using the same disassemble-and-reassemble method.

The cover doesn't open — you swap the whole thing out instead.

D Style White-Glint - Whoa... small as it is, the Overboost mode still has serious presence. (1/5)

D Style White-Glint - Whoa... small as it is, the Overboost mode still has serious presence. (2/5)

D Style White-Glint - Whoa... small as it is, the Overboost mode still has serious presence. (3/5)

Whoa... small as it is, the Overboost mode still has serious presence.

Mounted on the Kotobukiya display stand.

D Style White-Glint - Small but cool. (1/7)

D Style White-Glint - Small but cool. (2/7)

D Style White-Glint - Small but cool. (3/7)

D Style White-Glint - Small but cool. (4/7)

D Style White-Glint - Small but cool. (5/7)

Small but cool.

Together with the previous D-Style Ingram.

D Style White-Glint - Together with the 1/72 White-Glint. The 1/72 was never fully white either, but you can clearly see that

Together with the 1/72 White-Glint.
The 1/72 was never fully white either, but
you can clearly see that the D-Style version leans even more toward gray.

The second entry in Kotobukiya's D-Style line — a cute alternative to Bandai's SD style — is the White-Glint, one of Armored Core's most popular units. Since the Ingram and White-Glint are such completely different machines, it makes sense that this kit turned out quite differently from its predecessor in a number of ways.

For starters, unlike the Ingram with its clean, efficient parts layout and careful paint applications, the White-Glint feels more like a typical Kotobukiya original kit. The parts count is much higher, and it seems like the focus was on squeezing out as much detail as possible at SD scale rather than overall proportions. Probably due to the design itself, there are plenty of spots that really need paint — but they've all been ignored and left as single-color molding. -.-;

The only painted area is the silver section inside the eyes, which does look great paired with the blue clear parts — but since all the bits that should've been painted black were skipped, the whole thing ends up looking a bit washed out overall, and there's not much you can do about that. Articulation is also hard to score highly compared to the Ingram — the range of motion is narrow, and the hip and shoulder ball joints pop out so easily that it's almost annoying to handle.

The highlight of this kit is that it supports Overboost deployment mode, even at SD scale. It's done through disassembly, reassembly, and parts swapping, but the Overboost mode as seen from the back is genuinely well-realized with a solid sense of depth. It would've been even better if they'd included a D-Style VOB as well — that's one thing I'm left wishing for.

Overall, it's a bit of a letdown compared to the previous Ingram — and I think that's largely because the D-Style Ingram set the bar so high. If the White-Glint had come out first, it probably would've gotten much better reception, but unfortunately it has to stand next to its predecessor... (sad)

The fact that it's called White-Glint but is basically gray in practice could be a turn-off — though ironically, that grayer tone actually gives it a stronger presence on the shelf. Either way, it may not have the same emotional quality as the Ingram, but for a small kit it's got a surprisingly good sense of depth and detail, and on top of that it supports the spectacular Overboost mode — so all things considered, I'd say it's a pretty decent kit. :-)

D Style White-Glint | 2010.6 | ¥2,000

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.