Made in 2003 and retailing at 1200 Japanese yen (it set me back near enough to $35 AUD from eBay with free shipping )
I love the Red Frame. It's just so darn sexy.
anyways, onto objectivity!
Click thumbnails for larger pics @ photobucket.com
Out of the box you get three baggies.
A plate in white, with small red portion and clear pink beam effects.
B plate in Red with light grey parts.
C plate in dark grey.
D1 plate silver plated sword.
D2 plate white components for scabbard.
Poly caps in Red.
decals and stickers.
Build is pretty simple. instruction booklet is much the same as any other with typical artwork inside along with the standard drawn instructions.
An hour or so later depending on your skill set and motivation you get this bad boy.
Stunning isn't he. He's shown here without paint,lining, decaling etc.
anyway, parts! :
Legs:
Legs are plenty detailed with some very nice sculpting mostly in the calves and ankles. which is awesome, but sorely missed on the arms, but more on that later. Second pic from the left shows legs fully articulated, foot bent to its forward limit and knee fully bent. Third and Fourth pic shows ankle articulation, note the polycapped joint in the midfoot allowing the heel to separate upward and extend the range of motion, a feature I rather liked. The feet are well designed, and I liked their styling and general shape better than the Double 0. Fifth pic shows the knee's 90degree bend. sixth and seventh pic show the legs forward and rear movement at the hip. and the last one shows movement out to the side.
Arms:
Stationary arm. Upward movement at the shoulder. Elbow bend getting you a WHOLE 90 degrees. last two pics show front and back shoulder articulation. Hands are on a ball joint with a little post so you can get a small amount of extension out of it for increased range of motion. Like the pic shows you get about 90 out of the elbows, but they're rather snugly fitted meaning articulation out of the box takes effort. bicep spins just below the shoulder but because it's polycap on hard plastic you get a wandering action when you bend the elbow and the bicep slowly makes its escape from the shoulder. a small housing holds a joint from the shoulder to chest and in that you get your upward movement for the arm. the chest piece has a small joint allowing extended motion forward and back, which is cool but a bit tricky especially with the stiffness in the elbows and the wandering bicep issue.
Chest:
basic stuff here. joints as explained above. chest looks good, the grey piece up around the collar occasionally gets in the way of turning the head, but it's no big issue if you're deliberate about moving the head.
Head:
All the way forward, and all the way back, and you get anything in between. polycap ball joint, no news here.
Weapons and accessories:
Group shot. Rifle with trigger hand on. Shield. Sword in scabbard and sword out of scabbard.
All up, I can't really say whether it's worth your cash, that's your call. I like the kit. The arms are crap, but the legs are amazing. The rifle in hand sucks ( I'm going to end up gluing I think ) but the beam sabers and the big sword are awesome. If you can stomach the extra effort and stuffing about trying to get the arms to cooperate then it's probably the sexiest Mobile suit in the gundam universe as a good value HG kit.
With a bit of effort I have no doubt a pedestrian modeler can get a very nice finish on it.
Hit me with any questions you may have.
Subject: 1/144 HG Astray Red frame 
Sat Nov 20, 2010 3:16 am
