This fella’s been doing hot in this subreddit, and I’m here to board the hype train.
This is one of the most spontaneous purchases I’ve ever made—I was visiting NYC for the day, went into a TESO LIFE store, found this kit on the shelf for a mere $18, looked it up to see if it was good or not, saw raving reviews, bought it, and went out the store like a kid who just came out of the candy store. While I’ve been doing Chinese kits for a while with mecha musume models, it’s been years since I’ve done a Chinese robot, which was the Supernova Heavyarms back in… 2018? And it’s crazy to think that after all these years, I would be building from Supernova again.
Ignoring the rest of my backlog, I went ahead and took everything out of the box, and I knew with the amount of plastic it came with, I was in for a good time. Back when I did the Heavyarms in 2018, it was a mixed experience. Since my dad painted the frame and I had no idea what sanding your joints meant, it was just tough snapping everything together, and the joints that held the weapons in the back broke, so it was just a delicate kit to handle. The Iron Sickle on the other hand, while it may not do anything fancy from what Bandai does, it deserves a lot of praise on just how seamless the build is. Now, it still has really tight joints, you will need to sand your joints, but getting anything else to fit together is on the same level as Bandai. Like what its Beyond Exquisite logo suggests, it builds very reminiscent of a Real Grade, even having two tone frame pieces akin to everybody’s favorite Advanced MS Joints, but don’t worry it builds like a newer RG, aka like a mini Master Grade. The frame is full of detail, a lot of it poking out from the armor, and providing a lot of heft that makes this kit feel sturdy af. I thought my amazement would crumble with the armor, but nope, nub marks are barely a problem, there are a bunch undergates, and my god even OOB the Iron Sickle just looked amazing. The build was a really fun experience, and the fact that it was just $18 made it ever more impressive.
Of course, I didn’t want to leave the kit as it is and did quite a bit of painting. I spray painted the scythe, sickles and thrusters in Tamiya Mica Silver, and dabbed Vallejo Air Dark Gray, Steel and Greyish Blue across the kit. I then panel lined the kit with a black Copic 0.03 marker, and something I found kinda annoying due to the slippery nature of the plastic is that the lines smudge a lot, and I kinda missed a few areas where I didn’t clean it up before topcoating.
The kit also comes with water slide decals, and it’s pretty cool that the sheet is [divided into sections](https://imgur.com/a/LRdiGXV, but this is unfortunately the weakest part of the kit. They’re not Bandai levels of shit, but they’re not great either. The decals come out of the sheet in like 5 seconds, but the decals themselves are quite thin, which makes them a pain in the ass to adjust and put in place. They don’t like to glide, it always feels like they’re going to break… I just wish they were a bit better, but on the plus side, they adhere well and add more flair its already detailed design. And last but not least, I gave it a flat topcoat, and it was time to pose!
What can I say? Its range of movement is ever so slightly limited due to its bulkiness, but jeez it’s super photogenic that I don’t really care. It can balance well with its good ankle range, and it can hold its giant scythe without a problem, though the handle itself is not the sturdiest. I wish it came with weapons that were more befitting for its knight look, but the scythe and sickles still work anyway. If I had to give any point to any faults, the skirt armor can pop off from time to time and the upper arm armor just doesn’t want to stay in. But all in all, it’s really a sight to see, it’s very detailed and it may be sharp, but it’s a refined look that isn’t just a spiky mess like… some Chinese kits out there.
Overall, I believe in the hype—this is an amazing kit with an immaculate value. Hell, even if you got this for $30 or even $40, it’ll still be worth it. Does this give Bandai a run for its money? Yes, but I’m not thinking that Bandai is shitting their pants or that I lost respect for what they’ve done—I mean, they’ve been knocking it out of the park lately, that there are two actual new MGs coming out this year. The Iron Sickle is super competitive with its price, and it is a really, really good kit, but I’ll still be buying what Bandai is offering anyway. Regardless, there’s no point in arguing as I can just have both, I’m happy and satisfied, and I’ll leave it there. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you later!
