Kitbashing - Metal Club Red Astray wtih Daban Flight Pack... ...

The hunt for Metal Build Red Astray that was released in 2016 has led me to search all available sources for it. I thought I hit the jackpot when I saw a bootleg version of Metal Build known as Metal Club and placed my order. To my dismay, the seller decided to pull the product off the shelf and cancelled my order. Then the search went on and I found Metal Club Red Astray but it is without the flight pack.

Daban 8814 Red Astray with Powered Red & Gerbera Straight Kit Build Part 3... ...

Finale of the build...

Day 7 and Day 8 were spent on panel lining and applying the water slide stickers.

I had purchased the water slide from a third party source. Interestingly all the products and the review of this kit are mostly done in Chinese. I followed as closely to what I find online and realised some mistakes along the way. However, I could rectify them since I had the water slide provided by Daban as back up.

Daban 8814 Red Astray with Powered Red & Gerbera Straight Kit Build Part 2... ...

Continuing from the earlier post.

More problems with the diagram being inaccurate and I have to put out the parts to correct it. I have broken some parts having to do that a couple of times and glue is my best friend when that happens. Good thing that I have a drill set handy too.

Another example above that the suggested build sequence may not make sense. I had to open up the snapped in parts as the thrusters would not snap in.

Daban 8814 Red Astray with Powered Red & Gerbera Straight Kit Build Part 1... ...

I was introduced to this only recently when Youtube surfing. This is a bootleg product of the 2017 Metal Build version which I did not know of at all. I would have purchased it and not go through the torture of building this kit. This is at 1/100 scale and it's equivalent to Bandai's Master Grade.

Daban supposedly had been sued by Bandai in 2018 and had an injunction to stop it from producing any more Gundam kits. However, Daban products are still widely available online. Prices varied and you need to be discerning about where and what you buy. This model's first run had wrong colour issue with the parts on the Powered Red arms and I had to make sure I get the right ones before making the purchase.

BSL Toys KO Version of Peru Kill aka Lockdown ... ...

Lockdown, a rouge mercenary transformer wowed the audience with a huge sniper rifle on his head in the Age of Extinction. Hasbro released a couple of Lockdown but nothing can compare with Unique Toys's Peru Kill. The name given by Unique Toys had me to believe Lockdown killed Ratchet in Peru. No, that was Mexico City.

Anyway, let's move on to today's star, Lockdown with Steeljaws. However, this is not from Unique Toys (UT) as they are completely out of stock. However, there are 2 other knock-off versions from two other toy companies; namely BSL and Visual Toys (VT). Did a bit of research online and BSL's version is closer to UT while VT's version is the cheapest.

Maketoys MTCD-01P Striker Manus and MTCD-05SP Buster Stealthwing ... ...

My patience paid out when Maketoys launched Striker Manus in metallic colour coating and Buster Wing in black. The combined mode is the main reason why I bought them and the review needs to be done together naturally.

 

Wei Jiang Hide Shadow aka Blackout ... ...

Other than Black Mamba, I have been acquainted to Wei Jiang, another 3rd party making very detailed Transformers figures. I was greatly impressed with what I saw and I had to purchase this upscale Studio Series Blackout.