It’s SD Week! This week at Gunpla 101, we’ve been giving Gunpla’s littlest kit size a lot of love with a review every week day. Our final review is written by yours truly about the eclectic SD Musha Victory Gundam.

First Impressions

Ask a Gunpla fan what they love about the SD grade, and you’ll get a lot of different answers. They’re cute, they’re cheap, they’re easy to build. For me, however, the best part is how—perhaps because they’re so small and cheap and simple—kit designers are willing to take more risks with their appearance. My SD models are my most embellished and most ridiculous looking. And SD Musha Victory is the hallmark of this. It’s  everything I like about crazy super-deformed mecha designs taken to their logical extent.

Color and Design

Is glitter a color? Because that, and shiny goldness, are the two statement colors of the SD Musha Victory. Between sparkling pink, classic primary colors, and metallic everything, this kit is no shrinking violet. It’s so loud that it harmonizes pink and red without making them clash.

Design wise, it inherits features from Musha Gundam and Victory Gundam, though that deep blue and yellow V in its wings is far more reminiscent of V2. It’s taken the most ostentatious parts of each of these suits’ looks, and then added a lot of over-the-topness all its own, especially in its second transformation, resplendent with gold wings that double its width.

As a result, it’s impossible to see the Musha Victory as anything but toy-like. There’s no realism in this flashy Gunpla. It’s more like ceremonial display armor than battle armor.  

Difficulty

It shouldn’t be surprising to know this is one of the more complex SD builds. When you’re working on it, the instructions will diverge into two possible builds—one with the pink glitter wings, and one with the massive gold ones. Because of the two looks, there were more sprues than I usually expect for an SD, though most of my gold ones are still in the box.

Like many SDs, Musha Victory’s biggest weakness is its stickers. It relies heavily on big, multi-part, foldable stickers to make it even shinier and more colorful than it already is. It’s been a month since I built mine, and when I took the model out of my display cabinet to photograph, I noticed that some of the stickers had lost their stickiness, and used a little glue on them.

I also chose to panel-line this kit, and I needed three markers to do it—black for the blue parts, gray for the white parts, and brown for the red feet. That was probably the most time-intensive part of this build, but it was totally optional.

Articulation

Haha, what articulation? There’s not really any to speak of. I’m just happy when the SD Musha Victory stands on its own two feet. Since it’s so bulky and additionally burdened by heavy V2 wings, it has two poses—standing up and lying down.

Even so, I don’t really mind that it’s not dynamic. I don’t expect much from my SDs. I bought this one for its wacky style, not for its diorama potential or anything.

Extras (weapons, hands, effect parts)

Since there are two possible looks for SD Musha Victory, there are weapons that go with each. I built the glitter samurai sword and hilt, because I was going for the display look. That means there are still a few sets of hands, a shield, and two golden guns that can be combined with the massive gold wings and transformed into a booster! Don’t look for a stand though. While I’ve seen this model advertised with a stand that would certainly increase its posability, there certainly wasn’t one in my box when it arrived.

Final Verdict

SD Musha Victory is one crazy-looking suit. I can’t decide what I love more—its flashy colors or its wacky design that builds on two already-elaborate model kits. I love the way its glitter and gold sections catch the light, and how I didn’t even have to do anything out of the box, like painting or panel-lining or stickers, to get them that eye-catching. Overall, this is one fancy SD and a pretty great bang for your (ten) buck(s).

Thanks so much for joining us here at Gunpla 101 as we celebrated one of the most beginner-friendly Gunpla types, SDs!

Is there anything else you’d like to know about SD Gunpla? Let us know in the comments.