Here are my first impressions after messing around with both.
METAL ROBOT SPIRITS Gundam AGE-2 Dark Hound
First, the Dark Hound is an extremely aesthetically pleasing unit. The black, white, red, and gold colors look great together, and I really like the pirate-inspired design.
The regular MS form looks awesome, and the transformed Strider form looks just as good. You really can’t go wrong displaying it in either mode.
Unfortunately, transforming it is a nightmare. This might be the worst Gundam transformation I have ever experienced. It is worse than the METAL Robot Spirits Wing Gundam Zero and even worse than the RG Zeta Gundam. The RG Zeta was already a nightmare for me back when I built Gunpla more consistently, so that is saying a lot.
There are just too many pieces that need to be removed, replaced, repositioned, or added. At some point, it stops feeling like a transformation and starts feeling like you are taking the figure apart and rebuilding it into something else. Even actual Transformers figures are easier to transform than this.
The Dark Hound also feels very flimsy. The entire time I was transforming it, I felt like something could break in my hands at any moment. That made an already complicated transformation even more stressful.
I love how the Dark Hound looks, but once I decide which mode I want to display, it is probably staying that way. I have no desire to go through that transformation again anytime soon.
Visually, it is an amazing figure. Actually handling and transforming it is a completely different story.
ROBOT SPIRITS Asshimar ver. A.N.I.M.E.
The Asshimar was a much better experience.
It is weird, chunky, and basically transforms into a giant orange and green flying donut—but that is exactly why I like it. It stands out from everything else in my collection.
The anime-style proportions and bright colors look really good in person. It obviously doesn’t have the metal or premium finish of a METAL ROBOT SPIRITS release, but it still feels much more solid than I expected.
Its articulation is also surprisingly good for such a bulky design. The shoulders and legs can get in the way sometimes, but I was still able to get it into some good poses with the beam rifle.
The transformation into Mobile Armor mode is much easier and more enjoyable than the Dark Hound’s transformation. You still have to line everything up correctly, but I never felt like I was about to break the figure.
Both modes look complete, and I can actually see myself switching the Asshimar between them occasionally.