Gouf Ignited Review (Heine Westenfluss Custom)

There you go! We have the orange Heine Westenfluss Custom for review!

Here’s the story behind how I acquire this Gouf Ignited:

Brazen Folly is really attracted to orange  & Gundam SEED suits. However after he built and painted it, he decided that it was spooking him looked weird and I decided to get another monoeye suit after the Zudah. So it was sold, and I spent a few hours correcting Brazen Folly’s slightly sloppy nipping working on it removing the nipmarks and moldlines, sanded down the insanely shiny, horrible looking plastic and gave it a coat of clear flat. As you can see in the pics, this kit needs lots of painting. Take heed!

Pictures:

Summary:

Pros:

1. Unconventional weapon set
2. Good posability
3. Durable
4. Comes with a stand
5. Great head posability

Cons:

1. Needs tons of painting
2. Heat rod cannot be mounted onto left hand
3. Gattling gun falls off occasionally when shield is mounted on it.
4. Badly placed runner sprues

Build quality

This kit is very solid with no parts be damaged so far except for one of the beam on the sword, but that was an accident made while the kit was painted. The joints are of the right tightness, but I wonder how long they will last.

Head

One thing I like about this head is how the base is designed. The base is flat, so the head can wiggle back and forth really easily as the neck joint is not obstructed. The monoeye cannot be moved. Apparently, the commander antennae is loose, but I think that’s because after sanding the peg is slightly smaller than before.

Body

The round tubing at the waist had a lot extra plastic flesh but sanding is pretty much optional. The front and sideskirts have amazing posability. At the back of the torso, there is a square indent into the body to mount the flightpack. I find that it is nice for the designer to include panel lines in there so the Gouf Ignited can actually look quite decent without the flightpack. For the flightpack itself, two slabs of stickers are given to be pasted on the upward facing wings. The wings are connected to the thrusters by ball joints, so posability is really good and they won’t snap off anytime soon even after reposing it many times.

Arms

The forearms are the most interesting section. The red pieces that contain the hardpoints for the shield also mount the beam gattling guns. The guns sort of hooks into place so they are secured very well. Do note that they are molded in gray and not red.  On the underside of the arm, there is a hardpoint to connect the heat rod. The hardpoint is usually hidden by a plastic cap which I initally mistook for an extra piece of runner Brazen Folly might have stuck in there ^ ^”

Although it is indeed praiseworthy that the kit designer decided to let the heat rod dock into the arm instead of just dangling outside, apparently the way you mount the heat rod requires caution as the hand holding it barely managed to click into the arm joint before you insert the heat rod into the arm, so you might break the heat rod itself.

Legs

There aren’t really anything special, save for the thrusters on each leg. These legs have the same kind of joints as the Zudah, so posability is really good.

Weapons

The weapon set of the Gouf Ignited is no doubt unorthodox as it only has mounted gattling guns and the rest are melee weapons, very much like the Exia. A straightened heat rod and a heat rod meant for wrapping around another 1/144 is given. There is one standalone beam sword and a melee shield with a hidden, conventional sword sheathed underneath the shield, that has the bottom of its hilt protruding out a little. It is indeed cool that the Gouf Ignited can be posed drawing the hidden sword. Other than that, there’s nothing really too impressive.

Final Verdict

I think that this HG is a nice change from the usual Gundam mobile suits with its unique colour and weapon set. However, it does not really leaves an impression in me, unlike the Zudah. It did cost much lesser than the Zudah though! The Gouf Ignited is something you might add onto your ‘want list’ if you like the SEED redesign of the original Gouf.

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