In March 2018, the MG Banshee Ver.Ka was released one week before the highly anticipated MG Deep Striker. It felt like it came out of nowhere, but it's essentially a Final Battle ver.-style Banshee bundled with the Ver.Ka-signature decals.
At its core, it's based on the existing MG Unicorn Gundam OVA version with its improved waist and knee joints, with the Banshee's distinctive head antenna added as plated parts. (For the differences between the First edition and the OVA version, see the MG Unicorn OVA version reviewfor reference.)
The massive amount of decals that are synonymous with Ver.Ka are provided as waterslide decals, as has been the trend lately. As expected, the workload is pretty intense — in my case, I spent an entire day off just applying decals (.....) The issue isn't so much the quantity but the quality. Even the recently released MG ZZ Ver.Ka had a huge number of waterslide decals, but they were made of a material that adhered quickly and easily, making the work pretty smooth. This Banshee Ver.Ka, however, is a different story — the decals are just... off.
For starters, every single decal is tiny, which already makes the job tricky, but on top of that the adhesion is suspiciously weak, making them a real pain to apply. You have to cut each one out, soak it in water, carefully slide it off with tweezers, position it, then blot away the moisture with a tissue or cloth — but because the adhesion is so poor, they keep sticking to the tissue instead of the plastic. -_- And even when you do manage to get one on properly, after a while they'd peel right off just from touching them or even from a light breeze. I ended up carefully applying mark setter to each and every decal and working slowly to get them all on.
I'm no stranger to applying Bandai waterslide decals, but whether it was bad luck with my batch or just poor quality control, this was genuinely one of the hardest decal jobs I've done. On top of that, I even found an error in the manual while applying the decals. (See the photo below.)
For decals No. 42 and 43, which go on the rear knee armor, the manual (left) is based on the First edition, but the actual parts (right) are from the OVA version. The First edition has larger rear knee armor, so you can apply the decals as shown in the manual without any trouble. But the OVA version has smaller rear knee armor — trimmed down to improve knee articulation — so you can't place them as loosely as the manual shows; you have to fit them tightly along the curved surfaces and edges. (Just looking at the photos above, the size difference is pretty obvious.)
This is something most Gunpla fans already know, and there's no way Bandai's developers weren't aware of the difference either. It really looks like they just lazily put out the kit with the OVA version structure, then took the decal illustrations from the First edition manual, swapped the body color to Banshee colors, and copy-pasted them in. (This pretty much proves that neither Bandai nor Katoki Hajime actually sat down and applied these Ver.Ka decals themselves before releasing it. -_-) Anyone building this kit and applying the decals is going to be caught off guard at this point. It's a small mistake, sure, but it's hard to avoid criticism that they shipped this product (and by "product" I mean "rehash") without even the bare minimum of verification.
And the ordeal doesn't end with getting all the waterslide decals on — since this kit has a complex transformation gimmick, there's a good chance the decals will peel off if you transform it without a topcoat. I was extremely careful when transforming mine, but still ended up losing about 3 decals. I don't spray topcoat when reviewing kits since I want to photograph the original molded colors, so it's kind of an unavoidable situation.
The decal work is a real struggle, but once it's all done there's a certain satisfaction to it, and the end result does look great. It's a complete rehash with absolutely nothing new, but the Banshee is still undeniably cool. There was also a Club G exclusive MG Banshee Final Battle ver. released previously (see the comparison photos above), and this kit is structurally 100% identical to that one — the only difference is the frame color. If anything, the plated finish on the head antenna does feel slightly more premium on the Ver.Ka side.
Bottom line, this kit is really only worth recommending to people who've been wanting a Final Battle ver.-style Banshee and haven't picked one up yet. If you're not confident with waterslide decals, I'd steer clear. The Banshee itself is decent enough, but given the circumstances of its release, the half-hearted packaging, and everything else — it's hard not to wonder why this even got a general retail release. :-)
| Category | Rating | Analysis |
|---|
| Seam Lines | ★★★★★ | Seam lines are invisible by design from the start |
| Molding Color / Color Separation | ★★★★★ | The weighty color scheme of the Banshee and the premium plated head antenna |
| Proportions | ★★★★☆ | Legs are a bit too long, but the proportions are sleek |
| Articulation | ★★★ | The OVA version is at least an improvement, but articulation is still among the worst of any MG |
| Joint Strength | ★★★★☆ | Somewhat better than before, but the ankles are still a concern. |
| Internal Frame | ★★★★★ | The Unicorn's psycho-frame is every bit as impressive as its reputation |
| Detail | ★★★★★ | The gold Ver.Ka decals deliver excellent flair and intricacy. |
| Weapons / Accessories | ★★★★★ | Clean, straightforward standard weapons |
| Parts Count / Price | ★★★★★ | 404 parts total. 80.8 parts per ¥1,000. Good value for the contents. |
| Uniqueness | ★★★★ | Looks great on the outside, but it's a lazy variation.
Watch out for rage-inducing poor-quality waterslide decals in large quantities |
| Dalong's Point : 92 pts. |
* The scoring system used only for MG has been carried over from First 1.0 twenty years ago,
so applying it uniformly even to the latest kits — whose quality has leveled up across the board — is honestly a bit ambiguous.
Since it's just my personal take and can't clearly capture the differences in kit quality over the years,
please don't read too much into it and just use it as a loose reference.
(For kits scoring above 100, take it to mean the quality is much better than kits of the past.)
MG Unicorn Gundam 02 Banshee Ver.Ka | 2018. 3 | ¥5,600
AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.
