Busou Shinki Light Armor Series Wave 1: Werkstra & Valona

Well, I have a confession(it isn’t a confession if you know me well enough). I like mecha musume, in particular the Busou Shinki(武装神姫) line of figures. A while back, Konami announced a line of Light Armor Shinkis that had less armor. In my mind, I thought of 2 things:

1) Less armor means less armor bits, so this means it’ll be easier to fiddle around with them.
2) Less parts means it’ll cost less to manufacture.

I learned the hard way that both of these mean nothing on pricing, because I still paid the same price for them as I did for my normal heavier armored Shinkis…

Well, I didn’t really have my hopes up for them, because I seriously doubted that I could get my hands on them. Fortunately, Uncle Ng‘s store at Wheellock Place(Dollz Inc.) proved me wrong. And so, I now present to you, the first wave of the new Busou Shinki Light Armor Series: Werkstra & Valona! (Forgive me for having lousy pictures, since my camera is only 3.2 megapix and absolute shit)

Well, for this round of reviews, I thought about using a makeshift backdrop to see how it’s like. Fortunately, my backdrop is thin, so I can still make use of lighting from the lights on the ceiling in front of my desk(unfortunaely, no actual source of lighting exists above my desk). However, I have learnt NOT to try to take pictures during the day when it’s cloudy.

In stasis...

I imagine this will be how you buy Shinkis in 2036… The only different is that they’ll cost 5 times the price, move, talk, and you need to put little crystal balls into their chests. Oh, they’ll also be USB-rechargable via a Cradle. Only available in Japan, though.

First up, I’ll be reviewing Frontline’s Angel Commando Type WerkStra.

Werkstra is manufactured by Front Line. Being an Angel Commando type, she is an all-rounder, though she is better at handling guns rather than melee weapons, much like her predescessor, the Angel type Arnval.

Most of you don’t get that first line, right? Apparently in the Busou Shinki world, Shinkis are manufactured by a wide number of makers, although Konami is still the one who holds the patents to the MMS design. Front Line is also the manufacturer of the first 2 Busou Shinkis to exist in our world: Arnval and Strarf. The first 2 Light Armor Shinkis are undoubtedly homages to them.

Ikimasu!

Unfortunaely, I have no idea what Werkstra’s personality is like, so I’ll just be mirroring Arnval’s cute, level-headed and bubbly personality for captions. MMS figures are known for their mobility, unfortunately, they are also criticized for their visible joints. I’m not too picky. So if it’s cute and well-made, I’d end up buying it if I like it enough.

Heta heta desu~... Oyasuminasai...

Initial Busou Shinkis only had one face, but later on, Konami introduced additional faces to be used with them. At the moment, all Shinkis with interchangeable only have 2 faces each.

Shutsugeki junbi shimashita!

Werkstra’s armor, as you can see, is greatly reduced from the heavier armors of earlier Shinkis.

Alvo PDW11

Werkstra’s primary armament is the Alvo PDW11 machine gun. The design is similar to Arnval’s own Alvo PDW9. The two weapons share the same series name, so I guess it is safe to assume that Werkstra’s machine gun is an improvement of Arnval’s own.

Alvo GB1 Gun mount blade

The Alvo GB1 Gun mount blade is Werkstra’s only melee weapon. Also, the name implies that it it mounted on a gun.

Alvo GB1 mounted on the Alvo PDW11

The Alvo GB1 can be mounted on the Alvo PDW11. In this case, it’s function is similar to that of a bayonet’s.

FlO/14 Guard Shield

Werkstra’s defensive equipment. This shield is small, but very likely to be sturdy.

あくしょん

Next up, is the Devil-Succubus type Valona, manufactured by Frontline as well.

Very similar design to Strarf, so similar there’s no doubt it’s a homage. Very scantily clad too… Lighting gets worse because it started to rain outside… So the clouds decided to go TSUN on me and block out light from the sun.

Doushite sore wo yaru shikanai no?

She looks so tsun… By the way, this is her second face.

Mukatsuku...

More twintail tsundere action…

True to her Succubus name, Valona has a tail, along with armor resembling a greatly reduced version of Strarf’s. The wings on her back resemble reduced versions of Strarf’s Fulstu Gufrotu (not sure of the proper romanization, I think it should be german) and Chiigel Arm Parts crossed with each other.

FLO/15 Battle Staff

Valona’s primary weapon is her FLO/15 Battle Staff. In my opinion, staves are one of the better weapons to have in battle, since they can pretty much be used for both defence and offence.

The part on her back can actually open up like a pincer. My guess it that this part has some skill that involves grasping the opponent.

PONYTAIL!

You can shift the twintails on Valona so that she has a single ponytail instead.

あくしょん

姉貴…小さいな…

Well, mini-review over… Hopefully I can get wave 2 from AFA.