1. Unicorn Mode

Unarmed

Upper body close-up. All those decals everywhere — yep, that's Ver.Ka for you!

So many decals even from the top..

The shoulders. Just one shoulder alone has 10+ decals as a baseline!

Skirt section

The legs. Apparently just one shin alone has over 30 decals..

As is well known, two types of head antennae are included: a fixed type for Unicorn Mode and a movable type for Destroy Mode.
The inside of the antennae is supposed to be yellow when spread open, and you're meant to apply gold glittery seals there.
They do give off a bit of a shine, but.. I think a light partial paint job would probably look better.
I didn't have any thinner on hand so I just went with the seals for now... (H-hey! No excuses...)

Cockpit hatch open. You can see the pilot's feet.

2. Weapons

The magazine is really unique — it's made by connecting five energy packs together, which gives it great depth and dimension.
There are 15 packs in total, so you can make three magazine sets.

A cool and unique bazooka. Tons of decals on the weapons too! ^^;

The magazine can be detached and reattached in a unique way.
After removing the magazine, you can also push the connector in to hide it.

The spare rifle magazine and bazooka magazine can be stored on the rear skirt.

A total of four beam sabers are stored — two at the elbows and two on the backpack.

The rifle and bazooka can also be mounted in the center of the backpack.
The shield can be mounted there too, for reference. (See the Destroy Mode photos.)

Fully armed. The bazooka mounting is reminiscent of the Nu Gundam.

3. Mechanic Frame

Armor removal shot. This kit has more individual armor pieces than any other kit I've seen.. In terms of armor part count alone, it's practically PG-level.

The inner frame. It's a wildly colorful frame, as you'd expect from Katoki Hajime. (Ah.. it's been a while..)

Torso frame

Leg frames. The most complex part.

Yikes.. even with just the frame, that's the maximum articulation you're going to get.
This kit completely sacrifices articulation for the transformation.
But still, the knees not even bending 90 degrees without any armor on is a bit much..

This guy can't even sit on a Western toilet with a bidet, let alone a squat toilet.. tsk..

Tried to strike a pose anyway.

Now this is the frame in Destroy Mode.
...... You can't really tell the difference just by looking, can you? ^^;
It might just feel like it got a little taller, but..

In Destroy Mode, the shoulders and crotch (-_-) sections extend outward.

The thighs extend a little, and the knees pop out.

Since Destroy Mode is essentially the outer armor opening up like it's breaking apart,
it's hard to spot much difference at the frame level.

4. Actions - Unicorn mode

Ugh.. no matter how important the transformation is, that articulation is just painful... T_T
Seems like it's a step below even the MG First 1.0.

Still, let's try some action poses.

Maybe it's the big frame and good proportions, but it does have a certain presence..

The pose of drawing the beam saber from the elbow actually looks pretty cool.

A classic draw pose. Even though the articulation seems lacking, it can pull off most poses well enough..

Bazooka action.

Mounted on a separately sold Action Base.
Just putting it on a stand doesn't automatically give you dynamic poses. OTL
That said, the ankle joints are weak, so having it on a stand is kind of necessary.

 5. Transformation

The Unicorn Gundam is very much a transforming kit.. It's a unique one that transforms from MS to MS;
The transformation process is quite complex and intricate, so it seems safer to disassemble the body and transform it that way.

The key step of hiding the face mask works like shown above.
The top of the head opens upward from the back, and the mask can be folded inward and stored inside.
Seems like it drew inspiration from the MG F91.

Close the head back up, flip the cheek pieces 180 degrees and reattach them,
then spread the head antenna open and the head transformation is complete.
Whoever designed this must have really racked their brain...

The waist extends about 3mm, and a stopper on the back locks it in place.
That back stopper looks like a kind of support bracket for fixing the waist joint,
but here its main purpose is to lock the waist in place whether it's extended or folded.
Inside the stopper there are 2 fixing holes, so it can hold the waist in either of two positions.
Little clever tricks like this are hidden all over the kit to keep the complex transformation locked in place.

Spread the torso slightly to the sides and open the chest ducts. Then rotate the shoulder armor up 90 degrees and the transformation is done.
The sides of the torso can be stiff and hard to pull apart — it's easier to grab the shoulder fixing pins and pull from there.

Backpack transformation: open the verniers on both sides, then rotate the beam sabers to the standard Gundam position.

The skirt section transforms entirely, inside and out.
First, push the front skirt open..

The hip joint also transforms slightly.. First you need to tilt the tailbone section at the back rearward to release the lock.
If you look closely, you'll see it's normally held in place by a fixing pin so it can't move.

Spread the legs apart, then close the tailbone section again, and the hip joints lock in a spread Y-shape.

And then.. finally..(?) lower the front armor and raise the crotch section, and the red frame is exposed to the outside.
This is why some people call Destroy Mode the "arousal mode"... (hey.. hey! )

Shoulder transformation. Lift the top of the shoulder up, then rotate the outer shoulder piece 90 degrees and it splits into 3 sections,
exposing the inner frame.

For the arm transformation, first pull the wrist down slightly, then pull the outer arm section outward.

Thigh transformation. Open the outer thigh armor wide to the side, extend the thigh, then close it back up.
Just like the waist locking gimmick, there are 2 holes in the frame so it doesn't accidentally fold back after extending.
The frame has 2 holes for the peg on the inner thigh to slot into depending on position.
The locking is very solid when extending or retracting.

The upper ankle section also extends slightly and exposes the frame,
and again, just like the waist and thighs, the side fixing pin slots into one of 2 holes depending on the situation.
You can really see a lot of thought went into keeping everything locked in place during transformation. Good work, Katoki Hajime.

Open the rear verniers and pull them downward, and linked to that motion, the red frame at the knee automatically pops out on its own.
I expected a lot of linked gimmicks during the transformation, but surprisingly this is the only true linked gimmick in the whole kit.
That said, the linkage alone isn't quite enough — you still need to manually pull the knee section that's been pushed out
all the way until you hear a "click."

The foot transformation is quite a bit more complex than it looks.
You raise the cover that was sitting beside the front foot and stand it up, then rotate the side cover 90 degrees downward,
prop the heel up high like a high heel, and angle the front foot slightly.

Between the high heels, the ankle extension, and the thigh extension, the legs end up more than 2cm longer.
The Unicorn already had pretty long legs to begin with, and in Destroy Mode they tend to get almost absurdly long.

6. Destroy mode

Ta-daa.. Destroy Mode.. absolutely dazzling. @_@

Body without weapons

Upper body close-up. Ugh.. that intense feeling like blood is just pouring out..;

Face and torso shots. Surprisingly good-looking actually...
But those gold stickers really do stand out way more than expected -_-;

Arm section.

Rear view

The legs are just as dazzling

Destroy Mode shield

Action po~se.
The articulation is still terrible of course.. but striking a pose in Destroy Mode does make it look at least a bit more dynamic.

A slightly dynamic unsheathing pose

The Unicorn can use its forearm beam sabers fixed in place without having to hold them in its hand.

Which means... you can pull off this weird dual-wield pose where one hand is holding two sabers at once;;;

Bazooka action

Fully armed goofy action pose

Mounted on the stand.
The articulation isn't really there to make the stand necessary,
but the ankle joints are weak, so having it on the stand is a lot more reassuring.

7. ETC & Final Thoughts

Alongside the standard-size Gundam (RX-78).
You can get a sense of the height difference between the two modes. Either way, it's clearly bigger than the First.

Compared to the MG Hi-Nu, which seems to be roughly similar in size.
The Hi-Nu was already a pretty white kit, but standing next to the paper-white Unicorn, it looks kind of dull by comparison;

Straight build shots. There's not much room for panel lining anyway,
but without the seals and decals it's a pretty bare-looking kit :-)