The Blitz Gundam is one of the original antagonist suits in Gundam Seed, piloted by the charming Nicol Amalfi, it is a full optical stealth suit, which is why it has specialty weaponry, so that all surfaces are compatible with its Mirage Colloid Stealth System. It's also painted black with red accents, because nothing screams stealth like something that looks like a poisonous animal bringing attention to its appearance.
Aesthetics:
The 80's and 90's was dominated by black and red plastics, especially when it came from Japan/JDM, whether it was cars like the Nissan Skyline R30, black and red car interiors, shows like Knight Rider, your black Sony walkman or boombox with red accents, the arcade with black cabinets and red buttons, it was everywhere and it looked sleek.
The 2002 Seed Gundam Blitz is a callback to that era of design and is covered in a black and sleek armor with tons of red accents, a grey-purple + grey inner frame to tie it together and a couple of yellow and white details to break it up.
Note that while the purple on the images looks very strong, it's much more toned down and closer to grey in addition to an actual grey plastic.
DO NOT PANEL LINE THIS KIT WITH POUR-TYPES - a huge amount of it is ABS plastic and even though there is a lot of internal detail, especially on the grey inside of the skirts, you *will* destroy it!
The RED plastic is safe to panel line and you can still use non-pour markers.
The black plastic is safe, but there's no down from black - That's what the white lines are for, to break up the black.
You get a sticker decal sheet with very nice designs and a dry-transfer sheet with white design lines that are meant to break up the black armor.
There are foil stickers with multiple red camera stickers, however they're optional due to the transparent red plastics.
Mechanics:
The gimmick of the Seed show was that you could use all sorts of striker packs on all sorts of different Seed mobile suits and theoretically a lot of them are interchangeable, but there are more exceptions than actual compatible ones and the Blitz is one of those - It has a tiny center thruster pack that can be pulled out to reveal the connection point, but the large thrusters and surrounding chassis prevents most things from plugging in, requiring a custom adapter or custom work to actually use it.
The main gimmicks are a very reasonable articulation capability (please be careful of the hip joints, like all ABS hips), drop down hips, sliding knee armor, opening shoulder hatches, cockpit hatch, extending heel claws and the rear thrusters tilt slightly vertically and horizontally.
Equipment:
1 Trikeros Shield - Attaches into the right arm (glue the yellow part)
3 explosive rocket Lancer Darts slotted into the shield
1 Beam Saber hilt slotted into the shield and hand-equippable
2 pink Beam Saber effect parts in standard pink
1 Gleipnir grappling claw with opening claws and extendable fins
1 yellow Wire for attaching between the arm mount and the rocket propelled grappling claw to mimic it firing
Multiple swappable fingers for holding the shield, beam saber, fists, spread open wide hand and trigger fingers - Some are extra since there is no rifle
3 mini-figs, one pilot, one Nicol standing up and one Nicol in a casual pose
1 crotch Base Adapter
Conclusion:
Aesthetically there's not really anything like this and it stands out among its peers and the Strike Gundam in several ways - Overall it looks great with cohesive lines and a good meld of colors, more cohesive than the Strike, not as toyish as the Duel and not as garish as the Buster or the Aegis.
This kit is a bit of a parts-dropper however, as the inside of the rear thrusters and the top of the front skirts tend to pop off, while other parts are also similarly loose like the yellow shield accent and red side skirt accents - I recommend gluing these down.
I prefer transparent plastics to foils, so the red cameras are a nice touch. The cable *can* hold the grappling claw, but I'd recommend spiraling the wire and shortening it, for a more stable pose that doesn't sag.
Overall a good kit that poses well and effortlessly stores its own weaponry. Hopefully one day, we'll get a proper Master Grade of its successor, the Amatsu Mina.
