Kit Review

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Upper body front and back

Unique head

Knights of Sidonia Tsugumori - Body and legs (1/3)

Body and legs

Deployment of the Heigus Spear mounted on the head

Deployment of the toe claws.

Articulation is actually pretty good — better than you'd expect.

The ankles rotate side to side, so posing isn't too bad.

The back unit can be extended in length.

Back unit articulation and tail binder movement

Knights of Sidonia Tsugumori - Deployment of the retractable artificial Kabizashi on the forearm. The red spike part has to be

Deployment of the retractable artificial Kabizashi on the forearm.
The red spike part has to be inserted separately.

The arms tend to pop off pretty easily during posing..
The polycap design is a bit sloppy ;;;

The forearm armor is swappable.

Knights of Sidonia Tsugumori - Aerial action pose (1/4)

Knights of Sidonia Tsugumori - Aerial action pose (2/4)

Aerial action pose

Knights of Sidonia Tsugumori - Kabizashi action (1/3)

Kabizashi action

Retractable artificial Kabizashi action

Knights of Sidonia Tsugumori - A set of uniquely shaped "couple" hand parts — kind of like they're playing a clapping game — i

A set of uniquely shaped "couple" hand parts — kind of like they're playing a clapping game — is also included,
They're meant to recreate the Jyoui pose (hands linked and lined up) using two Tsugumori kits.

To transform, you just rotate the lower body 180 degrees at the waist.

The high-gravity walking form.
It's really just the lower body rotated and then laid face-down.

Kotobukiya, who loves turning unique mecha into plastic kits, has this time released the Tsugumori (Gardes unit) from the manga "Knights of Sidonia."

First off, "Knights of Sidonia" is a manga by Nihei Tsutomu, and with a recent anime adaptation it's been rapidly building up a dedicated fanbase — it's a cutting-edge SF manga. The setting goes like this: mysterious alien lifeforms called "Gauna" wipe out the Earth, and the Tsugumori is the weapon built by the refugee colony ships that fled into space to fight back against them. The overall story is reminiscent of Macross and Evangelion, and it's been generating a lot of buzz thanks to its unique yet deliberately unfriendly (!) worldview — so if you're curious, definitely go check it out..

Anyway, it's a mecha with a kind of washed-out color scheme that's all angular and lean, but it has a distinctive design that's somewhat reminiscent of L-Gaim. For weapons, you get the elongated spear-shaped Kabizashi and the retractable artificial Kabizashi that mounts on the forearm — the Kabizashi is set up in the story as the only weapon capable of defeating the Gauna.

Articulation is better than you'd expect, but the feel of the joints isn't great, so it's not the easiest kit to pose. It's hard to describe — the joints aren't loose, but they don't move smoothly either. The balance of joint strength is particularly off, and the arms popping off too easily during posing is a bit of an annoyance.

On top of that, a set of couple hand parts is included for the "Jyoui" pose where two Tsugumori units interlock hands — but since you need two kits for that, I wasn't able to photograph it, just so you know. The high-gravity walking form transformation is also reproduced, but... the transformation process is so simple that it's almost embarrassing to even call it a transformation ^^;

That said, in terms of snap-fit quality and mold/structural design, this is one of the better-made Kotobukiya kits — it actually feels pretty close to a Bandai kit. If anything, for a Kotobukiya release, it feels like a kit where unnecessary parts have been kept to a minimum.

To sum it up, the real value here is that a unique, cutting-edge mecha has been turned into a reasonably clean plastic kit, and it does a nice job of recreating the little in-universe details like the Kabizashi, the Jyoui, and the high-gravity walking form. For a Kotobukiya kit, the size-to-price ratio is also on the generous side, which is a plus. Articulation is solid and the joints aren't loose, which is great — but the poor feel of the joint movement is a shame.

At its core this is a niche product aimed at fans of Knights of Sidonia, but it might also be a good excuse to dive into a manga with a whole new worldview. I looked into this manga for the first time while doing this review, and it's surprisingly charming. Especially recommended if you're an Evangelion fan!

Knights of Sidonia Tsugumori | 2012. 7 | ¥5,800

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.