Banshee Destroy Mode Review

My favorite enemy giant robot type has always been the “evil version”. I’m not sure if I’ve spoken of this before, but it’s just so appealing to me. It’s basically like using the good guy’s technology against them. A few examples I can think of are Lazengan from Gurren Lagann, Epyon from Gundam Wing, the Turn X from Turn A Gundam, or the GN-Xes from Gundam 00. The idea just feels so… evil. Now, sure, the suit we have here isn’t really the “evil version”, rather, the much-more-sinister-looking evil twin, but still, it’s used that way in the show. Frankly, the Banshee is one awesome mobile suit.
Oh, and before you ask, this is the special edition kit I picked up at Otakon. Structurally, the two kits are the same; this one is just all clear and sparkly and stuff.
First thing’s first; this is pretty much the same kit as the Unicorn. In fact, it seems like Bandai wasn’t considering this suit when they first made the HGUC Unicorn Destroy Mode, because pretty much everything from the Unicorn is included here save for the V-Fin. Either that, or Bandai wasn’t expecting the Banshee to look different from its novel counterpart, but I’ll get to that later.
When the Unicorn and Banshee transform into destroy mode, they gain about two meters of height, which makes this thing pretty intimidating, especially in the darker colors. But honestly? As cool as this thing is, I always found its v-fin to be kind of… silly. I mean yeah, they tend to be, but this thing looks more like Moose Gundam than Unicorn Gundam. Maybe it’s just the thickness of the v-fin on the HGUC, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll sharpen it when I get a regular version.
The articulation here is nothing special, for the most part. I’m not much of a fan of the circular elbows. I ran into a lot of stability problems with them on my standard Unicorns, but here it seems to be a bit better. The one piece of articulation I find myself liking is the waist. It has some great forward-backward movement that you just don’t see on HGUC kits that often.
I’d like to talk about the differences on the psycoframe here, but since this one is all sparkly there isn’t much to talk about. I was thinking of putting this kit’s psycoframe on the mass release, but after seeing what that looked like, I wasn’t exactly sold.
The Banshee’s armaments are a crazy claw thing and a gun that looks like one of the Nu Gundam’s Fin Funnels. They’re both pretty cool, if a bit… impractical I guess. They’re in fixed positions, so if you want them deactivated, you’ll need the Unicorn Mode kit.
Now, if you’re so inclined and don’t care for the claws, you can just make the beam magnum and shield and use those instead, since all of that stuff is still included. HOWEVER, because Bandai is mean, you’ll have to get your saber blades from the Unicorn Mode kit… again.
Unsurprisingly, Destroy Mode Banshee is a pretty awesome kit. The unintentional ability to make it either version of the Banshee is a huge draw, and of course, makes things fun for kitbashing. Remember, if you want your own you can come down to our store, but I highly doubt we’ll have the version I have here. =P