Kit Review

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Upper body

Head

Back section with fighter jet tail

Frame Arms SA-16 Stylet - Arms with various weapons (1/3)

Arms with various weapons

Legs

Rear feet shaped like landing gear

Frame Arms SA-16 Stylet - You need to remove the knees and feet from the existing Frame Architect 001 and attach the new part

You need to remove the knees and feet from the existing Frame Architect 001 and attach the new parts.

For the torso frame, remove the front/rear structures as well..

Frame Arms SA-16 Stylet - The arm connection joints are swapped and reattached to each side. So it seems like rather than jus

The arm connection joints are swapped and reattached to each side.
So rather than just attaching all the armor directly onto the frame,
it seems like sometimes you have to reassemble or modify the frame itself.

The leftover parts from Frame Architect 001 after the build.

Frame Arms SA-16 Stylet - Excellent articulation. The armor itself barely restricts the limbs' range of motion at all. Howeve

Excellent articulation.
The armor itself barely restricts the limbs' range of motion at all.
However, the waist area ends up almost completely locked up..

The wings on the shoulders and legs can also rotate.

Frame Arms SA-16 Stylet - Action poses. You can get some pretty dynamic poses out of it. (1/4)

Frame Arms SA-16 Stylet - Action poses. You can get some pretty dynamic poses out of it. (2/4)

Frame Arms SA-16 Stylet - Action poses. You can get some pretty dynamic poses out of it. (3/4)

Frame Arms SA-16 Stylet - Action poses. You can get some pretty dynamic poses out of it. (4/4)

Action pose.
You can get some pretty dynamic poses out of it.

Frame Arms SA-16 Stylet - Aerial floating shots using the Kotobukiya display stand (1/4)

Frame Arms SA-16 Stylet - Aerial floating shots using the Kotobukiya display stand (2/4)

Aerial floating shots using the Kotobukiya display stand

Frame Arms SA-16 Stylet - Gatling aerial firing pose (1/7)

Frame Arms SA-16 Stylet - Gatling aerial firing pose (2/7)

Frame Arms SA-16 Stylet - Gatling aerial firing pose (3/7)

Frame Arms SA-16 Stylet - Gatling aerial firing pose (4/7)

Frame Arms SA-16 Stylet - Gatling aerial firing pose (5/7)

Gatling aerial firing pose

Together with the base Frame Architect 001.
Swapping out the feet made it significantly taller.

The Stylet has been released as the first kit to make use of Frame Architect 001. It's an original design based on the Frame Arms concept, and at first glance it looks like a transforming robot — kind of like a Valkyrie fighter jet — but no transformation feature is included with this kit.

For starters, you can take advantage of over 90% of the base frame's excellent articulation, so the range of motion in the limbs is really impressive. That smooth, snappy way the joints fold and extend is something you just don't get from a typical Kotobukiya kit. That said, it's a shame that the waist — which showed great articulation in frame-only form — ends up almost completely fixed once the armor goes on. I suppose that'll be put to better use in other Frame Arms releases?

Overall, the armor attachment is reasonably solid for a Kotobukiya kit, so parts don't seem to fall off all over the place. However, since the frame's own assembly joints are a bit weak, you'll want to apply glue to certain parts of the frame to keep things durable. The upper leg section that connects to the hip joint in particular absolutely needs to be glued. If you skip that, the leg frame will come apart inside the armor and you'll end up having to pull the armor off and reassemble it over and over again.

The Frame Arms concept of dressing a shared high-articulation frame in different armor sets to create a variety of mechs seems well-executed... but the critical downside is that the color separation isn't great for a Kotobukiya kit, and the molded colors look a little cheap. So it's honestly a bit hard to recommend this one to straight build folks. ^^;

Anyway, the overall look is pretty nice — honestly, it would've been even better if it came out as a transforming kit with proper color separation. That's the Stylet for you. :-)

Frame Arms SA-16 Stylet | 2009. 10 | ¥3,000

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.