Kit Review

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

1/144 Gesterben - Detail shots. The color separation is stunning~ (1/7)

1/144 Gesterben - Detail shots. The color separation is stunning~ (2/7)

1/144 Gesterben - Detail shots. The color separation is stunning~ (3/7)

1/144 Gesterben - Detail shots. The color separation is stunning~ (4/7)

1/144 Gesterben - Detail shots. The color separation is stunning~ (5/7)

Detail shots.
The color separation is stunning~

The stylish Blade Rail Gun

1/144 Gesterben - You can extend the length of the middle section, and the front blade can be detached and reattac

You can extend the length of the middle section, and the front blade can be detached and reattached further forward.
That said, the blade doesn't hold very well and keeps falling off..

1/144 Gesterben - The articulation is... not great at all T_T Due to the unique linked front skirt, the hip joint

The articulation is... not great at all T_T
Due to the unique linked front skirt, the hip joint can barely swing forward.

The wing units on the back move with quite a bit of flexibility.

1/144 Gesterben - A massive amount of leftover parts remains..;; Mostly parts from the Gespenst Mk-II — it's pract

A massive amount of leftover parts remains..;;
Mostly parts from the Gespenst Mk-II — it's practically enough to build an entire kit -_-

Action pose

Pose with the blade fully extended

1/144 Gesterben - Displayed on a Kotobukiya stand (1/3)

Displayed on a Kotobukiya stand

1/144 Gesterben - The styling is so good it looks awesome even in a casual pose~ (1/4)

1/144 Gesterben - The styling is so good it looks awesome even in a casual pose~ (2/4)

The styling is so good it looks awesome even in a casual pose~

Together with the Gespenst Mk-II.
The base is similar but the styles are quite different.

This kit is the Super Robot Wars Gesterben, released as a Dengeki Online Shop exclusive. This unit is the main mech from Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector, and while it's based on the existing Gespenst Mk-II, more than half of it is made up of new parts. Just looking at the contents, you'd think "whoa, this is a limited edition??" — it's a surprisingly generous package.

Once you finish building it, the first thing that hits you is the sheer amount of leftover parts. A good chunk of the parts from the large box and numerous runners just don't get used — enough to build a decent-sized kit on their own. I get that it's a limited edition where efficiency wasn't really a priority, but it does leave a bit of a bad taste knowing that all those leftover parts are probably driving up the price;;

Anyway, as you can see in the photos, the vibrant color separation and stylish proportions after assembly are absolutely top-notch. The SRW lineup always has this kind of feel to it, but I'd say this might just be the best-looking straight build in the entire lineup. ^^

That said, the articulation is surprisingly disappointing given how great it looks — the oddly shaped front skirt (written as "skirt," read as "apron") means the hip joint can barely move forward at all... So pulling off really dynamic poses is tough, but the styling is so good that even a simple stance looks great. On the plus side, the wing units on the back move with quite a bit of flexibility, which does add a nice sense of presence.

The Blade Rail Gun that comes with the Gesterben can have its middle section extended, and the front blade can be detached and moved further forward — but the blade doesn't hold well and keeps falling off. Honestly, gluing it in place might be the better option for your sanity. And overall, the snap-fit on the kit is a bit loose in quite a few places, so you'll probably want to glue a fair amount of it together or it'll feel unstable. Being a limited edition kit, it seems like the fine mold adjustments needed for proper snap-fit were skipped after the initial mold work.

When you think about it, this is really too good a design to be stuck as a limited release — it makes you wonder why they didn't just put it out as a regular release. Was it uncertainty about sales? Or did delays in development make mold adjustments too difficult, so they just threw in a ton of leftover runners and pushed it out as a limited edition? It's a bit of a head-scratcher. Either way, a limited edition where more than half the parts are new... that's very Kotobukiya of them.

All in all, this feels like the pinnacle of Kotobukiya's SRW kit lineup, and the satisfaction after a straight build is very high. Kotobukiya kits are already notorious for not getting reprints, and this one's a limited edition on top of that — if you like the look of it, there's a good chance this'll become a rare find, so you'd better grab one while you can :-)

Gesterben | 2013.7 | ¥6,500

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.