Kit Review

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack.
This kit has a surprisingly solid build.

Detail shots.

Metal Gear RAY - Range of motion for the legs and arms. The design is so grotesque that the whole concept of articulation is

Range of motion for the legs and arms.
The design is so grotesque that the whole concept of articulation is a bit different from your typical robot model kit.

When you bend the waist, the back armor pieces each move independently — it's quite a sight to see.

The waist can also be tilted side to side to a decent degree.

The head is pretty flexible.

The arm sections fully spread out.

Metal Gear RAY - The head parts can be assembled in either manned or unmanned configuration — the difference is the cockpit c

The head parts can be assembled in either manned or unmanned configuration —
The difference is the cockpit cover on top and the small side wings.

Metal Gear RAY - You fit the hole in the foot onto the ball joint of the stand to display it — the connection itself isn't ba

You fit the hole in the foot onto the ball joint of the stand to display it..
The connection itself isn't bad, but you really need to get the center of gravity right to keep it standing straight.

Quite detailed figures of Solid Snake and soldiers are included.

Action poses~

Action pose 2

Metal Gear RAY - Jump pose using the Kotobukiya display stand. (1/3)

Jump pose using the Kotobukiya display stand.

You can also stand it upright like a robot — and it's quite large..

Swap out the knee landing gear and foot parts, and..

You can recreate the landing gear-down leg configuration like this.

Metal Gear RAY - Landed configuration. (1/3)

Landed configuration.

Swap out 3 head parts to deploy the head unit.

Metal Gear RAY - Head deployed pose. (1/3)

Head deployed pose.

Together with Metal Gear REX.
Both are mechs bursting with personality.

Following REX from the hit game Metal Gear Solid, RAY — with its even more unique design — has now been made into a plastic model kit. RAY is one of the mechs that appears most frequently throughout the Metal Gear Solid series. It may not match REX in popularity, but when it comes to personality, this mech is second to none. What a grotesque design..!!

True to Kotobukiya form, even a straight build gives you a pretty convincing color combination. On top of that, the signature camouflage pattern is provided as wet decals — though the sheer amount of them is almost too much for a mere human to handle.. ^^;

Looking at the design, the first thing you'd worry about is joint strength. The top-heavy build that seems to completely ignore the center of gravity, combined with those tiny bound-foot-like feet, looks unstable just to look at. In practice, the polycaps in each joint are solid enough that posing isn't much of a problem, and thankfully the tiny feet lock onto a separate clear base plate via ball joints, so ground contact itself isn't an issue. That said, the center of gravity problem is still very much there.

If you don't physically balance the center of gravity carefully, it'll topple right over T_T It's not so fragile that a light touch will knock it down, but the more you bring the legs together, the more unstable it gets. Of course, after repeatedly standing it up and knocking it over, I've gotten the hang of it — if you get the pose right, it'll at least stay standing on its own. Since this is a problem that comes from the original design itself, it feels like Kotobukiya did the best they could.

In terms of gimmicks, the way the small armor pieces on the back each move individually as you bend and rotate the body looks really cool. You can also swap parts to recreate the head deployed form, or swap the landing gear and feet to recreate the landed configuration. As a bonus, five highly detailed figures are also included.

The grotesque design is definitely going to be a love-it-or-hate-it thing, but since this was always aimed at a specific fanbase, it should be a tempting item for any Metal Gear fan. Compared to REX, which was detailed but had somewhat shaky joint strength, this kit is almost toy-like in its sturdiness. Sure, it'll topple if you don't balance the center of gravity properly — but flip that around, and it holds a pose well once you get it right.

Either way, as a mech absolutely packed with personality, this is something I'd definitely recommend to any Metal Gear Solid fan. :-)

Metal Gear RAY | 2014.4 | ¥8,400

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.