Do you remember this mech from Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz?
After the success of the 49 episode Gundam Wing anime, Bandai followed up with a 3 episode OVA called Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz that introduces a new antagonist, Mariemaia Khushrenada, 7 year old daughter of Treize Khushrenada to led the Barton Foundation, who are bend on controlling earth. Piloted by numerous anonymous people, the Serpent is a mass produced heavy assault mobile suit that gets slaughtered by the Gundams.
MMS-01 Serpent Custom was the first wave of Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz model kits. All the mecha featured from the show have been represented in the 1/144 scale. However, a while later, all the mecha were also released in a much better 1/100 scale. The 1/144 scale is very simplistic and economical compared to all the other scales and makes a good toy. In this review, I applied most of the decals but didn't do any painting and no glue.
Front of box:
Side of box:
Some better Gundams you can pick up in the 1/144 size
In the box:
It doesn't come fully assembled in the box but mine has been hanging out in the box for years like this.
Front:
Unlike the show and large scale models, the shoulders do not slide open to reveal missile tubes. I was looking at his eyes piece and wished for a second that it had light piping.
Right:
The included beam canon
Left:
The included double gatling gun
Back:
The jets are movable and the jet pack is removable.
Top:
Bottom:
Articulation:
The head is on a ball point but the wide head base limits movement mostly to just side to side. The huge shoulders limit the ball joint posability. Although the legs are on a ball joint at the waist, the huge thighs limit posability. The knees are single swivel. The foot is also on a ball joint but the sides of the leg prevents most possibility. Generally the huge pieces limit all the ball joins and restrict posability.
Comparison to Gundam Wing Zero Custom and Deathscythe Hell Custom:
Although Serpent Custom pales in comparison to the other 1/144 models, it actually sports a pretty accurate to anime colors. It's just limited by the boring design.
Serpent Custom 1/144 is a very small toy which goes well with other Gundam models as every Gundam mecha has been released in a 1/144 scale. It also plays well with the much more expensive MSIA line of Gundam toys. A lot of details are lost at this small scale and painting at this scale can be a challenge. But this scale is very straight forward to put together so you'll be done one of these within an hour. Serpent Custom includes a good number of color molded pieces but has very limited decals and looks very plain without weathering and paint. Serpent Custom was only featured in the OVA and isn't a Gundam so demand for it are low. If you need a lot of canon fodders, the Serpent Custom is a nice mecha to use or you can go with the more popular Zaku.
Serpent Custom:
It's decent but doesn't stand out enough for people to seriously buy it.
Eric Toy Score: 2 out of 5
Publisher: Bandai
Year: 2000
Price: $13.99 (approx)
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