#demi trainer

[rytron]

LOOK at this combination Demi Barden/Trainer made specifically for Chuchu, LOOK AT IT.

From hobbynotoriko2 on twitter

[athena-gunpla]

demi gang

[trcwen]

Forgot to upload these here too. More of my chibi gundams! this time Calibarn, Schwarzette and Chu Chu's Demi Trainer :D

[scarnemo]

the duo is back!

i love this duo

[puppygirlclaspers]

Hey people, so I was trying to find out a way of immersing myself in mecha even more and I settled on the idea of making funny little reviews about the gundam kits I've built on my blog so here it is tee hee

(Very minor spoilers for Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury season 1 episode 6 ahead)

I present to you:

Demi Trainer A.K.A baby's first gundam kit

This is what kickstarted my addiction to building these little guys and honestly it was such a blast as my first experience with it! I saw the HG (1/144) model of this mobile suit in a nerd shop I was in that I was told had these kits and I figured it was a good starting point. I liked the idea of the training mech from g-witch acting as training wheels for me building these kits.

Fun Facts About the Demi Trainer

the MSJ-121 Demi Trainer is a mobile suit seen in The Witch From Mercury series, and is primarily used by students in Asticassia as a mobile suit to train with (hence the name Demi Trainer)

The Demi Trainer is just one model in a series of other Demi mobile suits! Other Demi models we see throughout the series are the MSJ-OP122 Demi Garrison (seen early on when Suletta Mercury's Gundam Aerial is being detained after her first duel), the MSJ-R122 Demi Barding, which is a more advanced model of mobile suit, equipped with more armaments, while still maintaining the Demi model philosophy. There's also Chuchu's iconic MSJ-105CC Demi Trainer, which is an older model that has been heavily modified by Chuchu in order to compete with more modern iterations of Demi mobile suits.

Our primary experience with Demi Trainer in the show is when Suletta Mercury is tasked with piloting one as part of her spotting exam, where she has a particularly difficult time passing it. It honestly made me feel really sad when I watched it for the first time :(

The Design of Demi Trainer

I really love how this mobile suit looks! It's a very simple design but I feel it's so effective at conveying it's primary purpose: to be a baseline training model for mobile suits. It's a lightweight mobile suit with minimal modifications done to it so that it can achieve high mobility and it's easy to maintain. It also looks very much like something a company would mass-produce for an institution like Asticassia.

Demi Trainers are used with a standard set of equipment, which includes a simple shield, a beam gun for ranged combat, a saber stick for melee combat, a combat knife, as well as the Daedalus multi-tool, which can be shaped and transformed into a variety of tools. This makes Demi Trainer a very versatile mobile suit, appropriate for use in many different situations. It doesn't seem to come with any sort of flight module, though that makes sense, as I imagine those are quite expensive to include on mobile suits, and this is meant as a simple trainer mech.

Of course, since it's heavily used in Asticassia, Demi Trainer also has an equipable antenna module for use in duels within the academy.

The Demi mobile suits are known for their extensive customisability, and the Demi Trainer is no different! You can even see these aspects within the design of this mobile suit. There are many little slots and places where you can modify Demi Trainer and potentially add modules or armaments, and you can see the extent of this modification in Chuchu's modified Demi Trainer, despite it being an older model. I'd really love to see what kind of modifications other student in the academy would apply to their Demi Trainers!

Building the Kit

My experience with building this gunpla kit was a blast! I was so excited to get started on this, and the kit did not disappoint! It wasn't too complex so that I was overwhelmed, but it also wasn't so simple that I was bored. Hearing all the clicks and feeling the pieces snap together as I built it was extremely satisfying, and I really like how the instruction booklet was structured.

You're not told to put individual parts of the mobile suit together until you've built a number of modules beforehand. For example, the instructions tell you to build the head, body and arms before telling you to put those parts together, and I think that makes the experience more satisfying. The same structure applies for the waist and legs of the kit, and being able to put all of the parts together at the end is such a good feeling! Of course, you can totally ignore the structure of the booklet and put parts together as you build them, which is also fine.

The kit also comes with a variety of stickers, and with the help of hindsight after having built 2 more kits after this one (which I also plan on reviewing), I can confidently say that the stickers for the Demi Trainer are probably the easiest to apply based on my limited experience! You get a small choice of stickers too, mainly a choice of what colour you want the middle torso portion to be. Of course, I picked purple because it's my favourite colour, but other choices also include red, blue, yellow and pink.

At one point while building this kit, I tried to take a part out so I could hear and feel the click of it again as I assembled it, but I accidentally applied too much force into it and the piece snapped, which make me panic but thankfully I had some glue to repair it, which was a huge relief. Not a fault of the kit itself, just my own excitement getting the better of me! Though I will recommend to be careful when assembling these kits if you're not experienced, and be gentle with them.

I was so so happy when the kit was finished and I could play around with it! Building it is half the fun, and the other half is posing it in all sorts of cool ways! You've seen some pictures of that already, but I also have some gifs of the kit spinning on a little turntable saved for the end.

The HG Demi Trainer kit comes with just the shield, saber stick and beam gun that I mentioned previously, which I personally don't mind too much but of course having more options for equipment is always a good thing. Thankfully you can buy an expansion set for Demi Trainer that includes a beam rifle, gatling gun, combat knife, 4-cell hand missile launcher and open hand parts, as well as some smaller extras. I personally don't have this expansion kit but I would love to get it at some point!

Overall, I think this is a fantastic kit to build, particularly if you are new to gunpla and are looking for a place to start. The Witch From Mercury kits are some of the best quality I think I've seen in gunpla (again, from my limited experience) and if you love the series and want to collect gunpla, you can't go wrong with getting this kit. The posable nature and movement of the kit itself is great, which I think is really cool and allows for some creative shots to be made with them!

This is a little series of posts that I hope to continue in the future! If you have any suggestions on things to add or change please let me know! I'm open to constructive criticism :)

[lordsmaf]

I like that Chuchu’s Demi Trainer is also capable of striking a sassy pose

[argumentalist]

Back to The Witch From Mercury with Chuchu's Demi Trainer this week!

I really enjoyed the HGWFM Demi Trainer and this looks to be virtually the same kit.

I think this is the exact same D1 runner that was in the Expansion Parts Set.

I'm not thrilled with how this head turned out. There's a clear green bit for the eye/lens area, but it really doesn't catch the light. I thought about putting some chrome behind it but there isn't anything good to paint inside there. Maybe I should've just painted it with a bright metallic green or something?

There's basically no stickers in this kit - just three little foil things for lenses. One goes in the chest here for the window, and two go on the weapon. That's it. And all of those could very easily be painted.

I like these asymmetrical arms. The big shield on the left arm sort of vaguely reminds me of the Zaku II. And the exposed shoulder on the right arm really feels like this is some custom build that's cobbled-together out of spare parts.

These legs just annoyed me.

Those thrusters/vents on the sides are really neat. They swivel as well as sliding up and down. There's some great articulation there. But the knee segments they attach to are kind of flimsy and I popped that knee armor off a couple times when trying to pose those thrusters.

And the ankles are downright terrible. There's some flex and rotation in the toe and heel, but the ankles themselves are completely fixed. And they don't attach to the leg very well. I kept popping the feet off when trying to pose this kit.

There's some alternate hands, which is always nice. Especially when they're as distinctive as these big three-fingered things.

I really struggled to pose this thing due to those ankles. I had a hard time finding something that was both stable and natural-looking. The feet just kept popping off.

Of course I had to break out the Expansion Parts Set for a few of these poses.

I'm honestly feeling a little conflicted on this kit.

I mean, it was cheap, so I don't want to complain too much. And it's supposed to be a slight variation on the Demi Trainer, which is what I got. But it really does just feel like a few extra bits slapped on that Demi Trainer kit. It sort of feels like this whole thing should've just been another runner in the Expansion Parts Set or something.

And those ankles are seriously annoying. I think I'm going to wind up gluing them before too long.

[aer-iast]

flyin' chuchu let's go

[aidansbuilds]

Want to guess what my favorite color is?

[guiltycrunch]

my beautiful daughter pondering her orbnion straight out of the cesarean

[rytron]

A week and a half ago I'd never considered buying any Gundam. Tonight I just put together my fourth, a regular Demi Trainer, left unlined as I wanna give it a bomb ass pink vaporwave paint job for Chuchu's impending army of narc hunters after I get her Demi Trainer and Barden.

[athena-gunpla]

HG 1/144 Earth Free Army Captured Demi Trainer (GBWC project)

Another Demi Trainer?? This weekend, a bunch of Sydney university-based anime clubs were sponsored by a local hobby shop for a collaborative build to generate submissions for the Gunpla World Builder's Cup.

With the event only lasting 4 hours, I needed a kit I was already familiar with to customize and kitbash, and so I went with another HG Demi Trainer. The HG Demi Barding I built a few months ago came with a lot of extra sprue parts for both Chuchu's custom Demi Trainer as well as the base model. I've previously build both of these kits, and given that all three have the same basic structure I felt very confident I could spend extra time on customisation and painting instead.

I used the shoulder shield, kneepads, blade antenna, and base Demi Trainer head spares from the Demi Garrison in the deep blue/grey, and clipped these onto the base kit. I also used the Bandai HD Sight Lens Green and the 30MM/MS Customize Material - Pipe Parts to add some extra detail. I was able to use an extra large gun that was also included in the Demi Garrison kit.

This was my first time weathering a gunpla kit using rust-effects. I was lucky to get Tamiya Weathering effects kit D, which includes a metallic blue for heat blueing as well as a really good brown for oil and rust stains. I also sponged on some rust orange and brown to give the kit a nice used look. I also added some graffiti and other custom markings to make the suit look more unique.

My made-up backstory for this kit is that it's a Demi Trainer captured by freedom fighters on Earth to fight against the corporations. I chose a vibrant bright blue to contrast with the deep blue from the Demi Garrison parts, which makes the kit somewhat resemble Nika Nanaura's hair.

Overall I had a lot of fun customising this kit, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how it performs in the Australian section of the GWBC.

[deazmonius]

Now time for the MSJ-121 Demi-Trainer. The quintessential grunt unit of the G-Witch show piloted by basically all the students of the Asticassia School of Technology. Used for many applications, throughout the school from mundane tasks to practical combat training, and student’s duels. As shown here by virtue of the sold separately weapons pack. With upgraded variants used else where, the main ones of note is Chuchu’s customized version and the Demi barding.

As for the kit itself properly one of the simplest builds of the lot so far. But comes together nicely with a good deal of articulation. However you do need to watch out for the upper arms they are simply peg in whole so will pop out fairly easily when messing with the arms. Hips on this have the least amount of articulation to date not getting any splits out of this one. I am interested to see if this changes with any of the variations. Though I only have the Demi barding, and will be also getting the Demi Garrison. I have not found a Chuchu custom in stock. Though it’s been a bit since I last look.

[scarnemo]

I love their mobile suit cosplay sm

[puppygirlclaspers]

Cleaning my room and I got to rearrange my gunpla shelf, really happy with how many lil guys I have :3

[weaselbug]

The sheer amount of anguish I had when this happend

But I got some cement glue, so I should be fine. Just so saddening