1/16 Powered Suit by Sentinel (Part 2: Review)

By Cacophanus from Mecha Damashii

Powered Suit by Sentinel (Available From HobbyLink Japan – HLJ.com)

Following on from our first part, here’s the review of the actual Powered Suit toy by Sentinel from Starship Troopers. Like with other Sentinel releases this is very much a high fidelity item but also one that has to be handled with relative care. It’s also utterly fantastic in every way.

If you’re a fan of Kazutaka Miyatake’s work, then the original powered suit design from the Japanese Starship Troopers novel is somewhat of a bucket list figure. Sentinel and T-REX haven’t disappointed us though and this is probably the finest toy you’ll likely ever see of the design.

The toy is made of mostly resilient plastic but there is some diecast tucked away (in the joints). The articulation is good but due to the nature of the design itself it can be somewhat cumbersome. The feet also have an additional flap that can be pivoted down to enable crouching type poses (s shown above). Each of the fingers on the default hands are also poseable, there are also a pair of fixed hands for the signature egg holding as well as the blue gun. The latter has two variants, a stand alone piece and one that can be connected to the backpack. The latter is on a cool hinge mechanism that can fold out. The inner arms can also be revealed if you gently pull down the forearm armor.

Gentle is the word here, as whilst this is very much a toy you can play with the emphasis on the finish has been on that of quality rather than durability. For instance, to reveal the inner aspects of the helmet you have to carefully pop the armor up around the backpack. This is then hinged at the front, so it can fold out. It looks great and works well but you can’t just yank it open. Likewise the backpack can pop off, so as to attach the point for the stand, and again you have to be careful here.

Opening the head is also necessary if you want to slot in the pilot’s head. This is done by sliding the arms outward and then placing the head accessory between them. Sliding them back then holds the head in place.

If you want to pose the back then it has to be slid up and then down. This is so it doesn’t flop around when upright, as it’s basically locked in place.

The stand is more than good enough but the figure can stand fine on its own really, so unless you’re after so particular action orientated pose then you probably won’t need the stand (though it is nice to have).

As you can see, the paint finish and sculpt are really something quite special. The detailing on the head is also very nice, not to mention all the little decals tucked away. The base metal paint colour is also very nicely done and looks pretty much spot on to the original design.

Considering that this is a classic and ultimately quite important mecha design, just having this on your shelf is somewhat of requisite if you’re even vaguely interested in mecha design related history. We’re just grateful that this toy exists at all. In any case, this toy comes thoroughly recommended. It really is fantastic.