Kit Review

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Size comparison with HGUC/MG

Upper body

Head unit. The head antenna are incredibly large and sharp. (Watch out — they'll poke you!)

Left arm with triple machine cannon

Right arm with revolver

Those chunky legs.

Super Robot War Altei s en - Only one set each of open hands and fists included. No extra weapons, and not many extra hands e

Only one set each of open hands and fists included.
No extra weapons, and not many extra hands either..

Super Robot War Altei s en - Articulation is, well, not great.. The legs in particular are so chunky that getting them to mov

Articulation is, well, not great..
The legs in particular are so chunky that getting them to move is a real struggle.

Super Robot War Alteisen's hip joints were notorious. Apparently a lot of people had their polycaps tear on

The Alteisen's notorious hip joints.
Apparently a lot of people had their polycaps tear on them.. OTL
The Huckebein got away with it since it's lighter, but the Alteisen's legs are big and heavy, so there were some real durability issues —
The revised edition has improved joint strength, so at least they won't tear anymore.
That said, the fit is still loose, so the hip joints are pretty wobbly. Lift it up and the legs just dangle.. T_T

Super Robot War Altei s en - Triple machine cannon action (1/4)

Super Robot War Altei s en - Triple machine cannon action (2/4)

Triple machine cannon action

Action pose with open hands swapped in

Super Robot War Altei s en - Without any separate weapons, the action poses you can really pull off are pretty limited. (1/3)

Without any separate weapons, the action poses you can really pull off are pretty limited.

Super Robot War Altei s en - Shoulder Square Claymore open. Now we're talking — finally some truly imposing poses. (1/5)

Super Robot War Altei s en - Shoulder Square Claymore open. Now we're talking — finally some truly imposing poses. (2/5)

Super Robot War Altei s en - Shoulder Square Claymore open. Now we're talking — finally some truly imposing poses. (3/5)

Shoulder Square Claymore open.
Now we're talking — finally some truly imposing poses.

Super Robot War Altei s en - Leftover parts. Among these, the white chest duct parts aren't actually leftover parts — they're

Leftover parts.
Among these, the white chest duct parts aren't actually leftover parts — they're included as white-colored parts for painting purposes. (How thoughtful of them..)

Super Robot War Altei s en - Together with the predecessors, the Huckebein and Weissritter. The Weissritter suddenly jumped u

Together with the predecessors, the Huckebein and Weissritter.
The Weissritter suddenly jumped up in quality, but then the Alteisen kind of dropped the ball a bit;

The third original model kit in the Super Robot Wars series is the Alteisen.
For anyone who knows their SRW, this was a unit with a solid fanbase, so it had some real hype behind it, and it was released looking great — with a hefty, weapon-like proportions that really capture that military feel, and surprisingly solid color separation for such a small scale.... But.

In terms of joints, this kit is a strong contender for worst of the bunch.
To be fair, given the sheer bulk of the thing, I wasn't expecting great articulation to begin with — but the polycap joint strength was a serious problem. The hip joint polycaps on the first-edition Alteisen were so weak that they frequently tore, and a blown hip joint made it pretty much impossible to even stand the kit up. It was a real mess.

Box art comparison between the first edition (left) and the revised edition (right).

So Kotobukiya scrambled to release a revised edition of the Alteisen alongside the Huckebein, and the polycap durability issue appeared to be resolved — at least on the surface. However, they still failed to get the tension right, so the hip joint polycaps are too loose and the legs wobble all over the place.. Pick up the body and the legs just dangle like a puppet. OTL

On the bright side, the revised edition polycaps don't seem to tear easily anymore, which is a relief.. And since there's no real problem when you just leave it standing still, it's something you can let slide to a degree. As for everything else — the shoulder Square Claymore opening gimmick, the overall color separation, the hefty proportions — I'd say it scores pretty well for a kit at the small 1/144 scale.

For Kotobukiya, the Alteisen served as a valuable lesson, and the kits they've released since then have generally had much better joint strength. (With some exceptions, of course..) For a company that still lags behind Bandai in snap-fit and polycap design and molding know-how, this kit at least taught them just how hard it is to build a chunky kit around small polycaps — and that's where its real significance lies.

Anyway, setting aside the joint strength issues, it's clearly a pretty nice kit in its own right.. And given that Kotobukiya kits tend to lean toward standing poses over dynamic action anyway, I'd say it holds up well as a display piece. :-)

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Super Robot War Alteisen | 2004. 12 | ¥2,800

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.