Kit Review

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Size comparison with HGUC/MG.
It's right in between.

Upper body

Head

Super Robot War ART-1 - Various weapons. The color separation on the white parts of the shield is impressive. (1/3)

Various weapons.
The color separation on the white parts of the shield is impressive.

Backpack section

Legs

The color separation on the legs is great too.

Quite a variety of weapons..

The HG Revolver mounted on the side has a foldable grip.

This weapon is called the Chainsaw Thumper.

You swap it out by removing the structure on the forearm and replacing it.

Includes 3 sets of hands: fists, weapon-holding hands, and open hands.

Being a transforming unit, the arms and legs fold quite a lot.

Super Robot War ART-1 - Boosted Rifle action (1/4)

Super Robot War ART-1 - Boosted Rifle action (2/4)

Boosted Rifle action

Super Robot War ART-1 - Chainsaw Thumper action (1/3)

Chainsaw Thumper action

Super Robot War ART-1 - Metal Blade action (1/3)

Metal Blade action

A dedicated stand and connector parts are included.

Super Robot War ART-1 - HG Revolver action on the stand (1/4)

Super Robot War ART-1 - HG Revolver action on the stand (2/4)

HG Revolver action on the stand

Tansformation

Super Robot War ART-1 - First of all, since this is a parts-swap transformation at its core, you'll need these separate parts

First of all, since this is a parts-swap transformation at its core, you'll need these separate parts shown above to transform it.

You detach several parts of the body to transform it.

Fold the shoulders 90 degrees..

Then swap in the folded-foot parts.

Super Robot War ART-1 - Normally something like that would just be done with a folding mechanism.. but they stubbornly went w

Normally something like that would just be done with a folding mechanism..
But they stubbornly went with a parts-swap to keep the proportions looking good;

After swapping the feet, fold the knee sections this way and that.

Then rotate the crotch armor 180 degrees.

Separate the backpack into 4 pieces, then reassemble them into flight configuration.

Spread the wings..

The center torso section needs to be swapped out entirely with the flight-mode parts.

Super Robot War ART-1 - The torso section of the flight parts. The torso folds up in all sorts of ways, and on the R-1 there

The torso section of the flight parts.
The torso folds up in all sorts of ways, and on the R-1 there were serious durability issues with this..
So perhaps that's why on the ART-1 they just went ahead and swapped the whole torso out in one go (;;).
Thanks to that, the stability improved dramatically..

Super Robot War ART-1 - The forearm structure can plug into 2 different holes, so for flight mode you need to move it over to

The forearm structure can plug into 2 different holes, so for flight mode
you need to move it over to the side hole.

Transform each of the separated body parts individually, then reassemble them..

After securing the arms and wings to the flight torso,

attach the transformed back unit.

Plug in the shield, legs, and HG Revolver..

Super Robot War ART-1 - Then fit the 180-degree-rotated crotch armor on top, plug the Boosted Rifle in on the upper left, and

Fit the 180-degree-rotated crotch armor on top,
plug the Boosted Rifle in on the upper left, and transformation complete!

After transformation, you're left with the torso and feet as leftover parts.

The transformed look. Pretty convincing, right?

Super Robot War ART-1 - Various angles (1/6)

Super Robot War ART-1 - Various angles (2/6)

Super Robot War ART-1 - Various angles (3/6)

Super Robot War ART-1 - Various angles (4/6)

Various angles

View of the center underside..

The ART-1 is essentially a successor to the R-1.

Comparison with the R-1 in flight mode.
The structural transformation method is nearly identical.

Together with the Hückebein, which shares a similar design concept for some reason.

It looks even more like the Hückebein II and III.

Super Robot War ART-1 - A group shot with the similarly-styled Hückebein series. A lineup that really shows off Hajime Katoki

A group shot with the similarly-styled Hückebein series.
A lineup that really shows off Hajime Katoki's design sensibilities.

It's been a while since a transforming kit came out for Super Robot Wars, and like the R-1, this is a Real Personal Trooper Type unit. The full name is Advanced Real Personal Trooper test type-1, commonly abbreviated as ART-1. As the name suggests, you could think of it as an upgraded version of the R-1..

As you can tell just by looking at it, the mecha design itself is the work of Hajime Katoki, who also designed the Hückebein series. So at first glance it looks like a Hückebein-type unit, but it's technically in the R-1 lineage and shares the same transformation style and weapon characteristics as the R-1. (Of course, the R series is also a Hajime Katoki design..)

The design similarity means the assembly feel is quite close to the Hückebein series.. but since it transforms like the R-1, there's a bit of a difference in that you're putting together transformation gimmicks. And with the 1/144 R-1, the transformation mechanism was so flimsy that transforming it was a pain and the stability was absolutely terrible — so to avoid that, the ART-1 switched to a parts-swap approach for almost everything. When you think about it, the R-1 wasn't a full transformation either and already used some parts-swapping, but the ART-1 has gone fully parts-swap all the way.

The fact that they even made the feet — which arguably didn't need to be swapped — into separate replacement parts shows just how committed they were to stability and proportions. The end result is a level of stability that's worlds apart from the R-1, and the body joints are nice and tight both before and after transformation. Rather than doing a half-baked full transformation that ends up all floppy, I think going all-in on parts-swapping like this is a much better approach for both stability and proportions.

As you'd expect from Kotobukiya at the top of their game, the color separation is quite impressive right out of the box. The white markings on the shield being reproduced through color separation in particular gives it a really sharp look. The rest of the body also has decent color accuracy through parts separation throughout, so even a straight build looks really beautiful. The purple molded color of the body could easily have looked cheap, but for a Kotobukiya kit it came out with a surprisingly stable and well-balanced color tone.

By going with a parts-swap approach to maintain stability, the articulation in robot mode also improved, and action poses are much easier to pull off. A dedicated stand is included and supports both robot mode and flight mode, making it great for display. Above all, the flight mode with its rock-solid stability looks really cool~^^

In conclusion, it nails color separation, articulation, and joint strength all at once, while making great use of Kotobukiya's parts-swap transformation to perfectly recreate the transformed look — and that's why I want to give it high marks. With Hajime Katoki's refined design, striking color scheme, and a sturdy transformation to boot, I think this is a great transforming kit you can build without worrying about quality. The one sticking point is that the price comes in at ¥4800, which feels a bit steep for the volume you get — probably because so much effort went into the transformation gimmick.. ^^;

Super Robot War ART-1 | 2009. 7 | ¥4,800

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.