Kit Review

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Weapon accessories

Base body without additional parts

First, you can open the back of the head and attach the hair-shaped heat radiation effect parts.

The fairy wings on the shoulders are also reproduced as swappable parts.

The Demolition Gun can reproduce both the folded and unfolded forms through separation/combination.

The Boxer 2 weapon features a removable and repositionable shoulder stock.

One side of the weapons has some noticeable sink marks..;

Weapons mounted on the back and rear skirt.

D Style Laevatein - The monomolecular cutter is normally stored in the knee, and when you pull it out, you transfer the white

The monomolecular cutter is normally stored in the knee,
and when you pull it out, you transfer the white cover part over to the blade-shaped part.
It would've been nice if they'd just included an extra set of white cover parts...
It's an awkward setup to keep swapping back and forth, and the fit is loose on top of that, making it a bit of a frustrating part T_T

D Style Laevatein - Pre-painted areas on the eyes/head/legs. The paint quality is very clean. (1/3)

Pre-painted areas on the eyes/head/legs. The paint quality is very clean.

There are a few leftover parts, but not too many.

Articulation is similar to a typical D-Style.

D Style Laevatein - Due to the structure, raising the arm causes the shoulder armor to pop off easily, which is pretty annoyi

Due to the structure, raising the arm causes the shoulder armor to pop off easily,
which is pretty annoying when trying to pose it ;;

D Style Laevatein - Monomolecular cutter action (1/3)

Monomolecular cutter action

Boxer 2 + monomolecular cutter action using the Kotobukiya dedicated stand

D Style Laevatein - Aerial action 2 (1/4)

D Style Laevatein - Aerial action 2 (2/4)

Aerial action 2

D Style Laevatein - Demolition Gun action (1/3)

Demolition Gun action

Together with the D-Style Arbalest.

Following the Arbalest and Gernsback, the Full Metal Panic Laevatein has now been released in D-Style as well. Unlike its predecessors, this one has a bold, primary-color design, and with clean pre-painted details applied in several areas, it's a kit that looks pretty great even as a straight build. Sure, looking at the official color scheme, there are spots here and there that could use some additional black paint, but either way, the straight build is far from plain.

The various detachable gimmicks unique to the Laevatein are faithfully reproduced — the hair-shaped heat radiation effect parts on the back of the head and the fairy wing parts on the shoulders are both done as swappable pieces, and the monomolecular cutter's knee storage gimmick is included along with the kit's own weapons like the Demolition Gun and Boxer 2. The Demolition Gun and Boxer 2 feature folding gimmicks and movable shoulder stock mechanisms reproduced as detachable parts, and the monomolecular cutter's knee storage gimmick is nicely done as well. However, with the monomolecular cutter, there are separate parts for the knee version and the blade version, and you have to swap the white cover part between them — and that part doesn't hold very well. When attached to the monomolecular cutter it keeps popping off, giving the impression that the mold tolerances weren't quite dialed in ^^;

On top of that, due to the shoulder articulation structure, raising the arm will pretty much always cause the shoulder armor to fall off — it's a strange design. The ball joints on the main body aren't too bad in terms of holding poses, but the shoulder armor that just drops off the moment you try to strike a pose is a quiet source of frustration ;;

These minor drawbacks are worth pointing out, but as a D-Style kit, I think the straight build quality and overall look are excellent. The one thing that gives me pause is the price — at ¥2200, it's ¥400 more expensive than the previous Arbalest/Gernsback kits, which is probably due to the PVC soft-material heat radiation effect parts. Either way, if you're a fan of Full Metal Panic and love the Laevatein, this would make a great addition to your collection :-)

D Style Laevatein | 2012. 8 | ¥2,200

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.