Megami Device x Busou Shinki Arnval

Welcome to the ninth review of Girlpla Guide Weekly! 

Now that we’re back to reviewing kits from more established outfits for the foreseeable future, let’s talk about the Megami Device x Busou Shinki collaboration kit, Arnval!

Overview

We go into significantly more detail about the history of Busou Shinki and Megami Device in separate articles, but to summarise, much of the creative team behind Shinki, such as Masaki Asai and Humikane Shimada are active forces behind creating Megami Device. Konami, never being able to let the opportunity for a good money grab go, joined forces with Kotobukiya, manufacturers of Megami Device and the MD team to announce a collaboration between MD and Shinki, with kits of Arnval and Strarf being confirmed in 2015.

For reasons relating to Konami generally mismanaging the property, only three kits were ever made from this collaboration; Arnval, Strarf and Jaeger Edelweiss. Another kit dubbed “Taonyao” had its technology repurposed for the Alice Gear Aegis kits (a property itself populated by Busou Shinki alumni) while the design became the basis for the PUNI☆MOFU subline.

Arnval alongside her wavemate (both in the original toyline and in this collaboration) Strarf were the first ever Shinkis to hit the shelves in September 2006, designed by Shimada. They were also among the last Shinkis to be produced (in their Tempesta/Lavina) variants, releasing to the public in March 2012.

Arnval and Strarf are the “mascots” of the line of sorts, with various limited re-releases, being one of the only kits reprinted in the 2016 run, being the main characters of the anime, and representing the franchise in Konami’s Otomedius Excellent, a shoot-em-up video game crossing over various Konami properties released in 2011, among other crossovers

With regards to her Megami Device incarnation, Arnval had three releases of note; the original release in 2022, a black-and-red recolor in 2023 and the Tranche 2 release in 2024, reflecting the order of the original Arnval releases.

Construction and Engineering

We only have a Tranche 2 Arnval to talk about for full disclosure, however there aren’t many differences between the original and Tranche 2 with regards to engineering; Tranche 2 in addition to coming with a more complex headpiece and leg armor also comes with the RG8 Railgun. As such, you’d be best served getting Tranche 2 unless you’re really attached to the specific headpiece the original release did (or you really want the recolor, which is based on the original release).

While sporting the generally high flexibility and articulation characteristic of Machineca, we did want to talk briefly about the limb structure. As a callback to Busou Shinki, Arnval and Strarf sport swinging hip joints (rather than the T-bar structure favored by Block 1 kits and their derivatives or the more complex structure used in Block 2) similar to Apsy’s original MMS system used in the Shinki toys as well as uniaxial knee joints (joints with only one hinge), whereas the MD standard is to have two hinges for a greater degree of articulation.

While it’s probably possible to kitbash at least Arnval (and by extension Strarf) with their Shinki counterparts due to using similar engineering, we don’t actually have Shinkis we’re willing to test that hypothesis out on, so we’ll leave that to someone braver than we to do that.

That said, the quality is, again, characteristically high, so as long as you know your way around how to build model kits, Arnval is a fairly high quality kit.

Aesthetics:

This is where we might disagree with the masses. Objectively, MD!Arnval is an upgrade over the original Arnval, given the almost 20-year gap between the original Shinki and her Megami counterpart. However, we’re just not that huge a fan of Arnval’s look in general; we think she looks a bit sterile and generic, and the huge rockets in her fully-armored form in particular are a bit too reminiscent of the disposable rockets used to launch the Space Shuttle for us to take too seriously.

However, if really mechanical mecha girls are your grind, Arnval is a must-have; she is, in a way, the mother of all mecha girls. We, at least, really liked Arnval’s unarmored form.

Ease of Acquisition:

At an eye-watering price of ¥10,450 (£50/$67) at retail for Tranche 2 and ¥9000 (£43/$58) for the original or her recolor, Arnval is not a cheap kit. However, they’re both readily available from various online storefronts, so if you do feel like you want to take the plunge, go right ahead.

Personal Verdict?

We aren’t the hugest fan of Arnval, but she’s generally a solid kit who will definitely appeal to Busou Shinki fans and even Megami Device fans unaware of the relationship between the two properties, so if you’re into her more than we were, we won’t blame you for getting your hands on her.

Overall score: 7/10. The appearance for us is the weak spot of the kit, as mechanically it’s a very solid kit that’s very easy to get your hands on, with the only real difficulty being its high asking price.

Up next:

As stated last week, we’ll be looking to review Jaeger Edelweiss. (As for why not Strarf, we both do not have a Strarf and trying to get one is a bit pricier than we’d like. Don’t worry; if we find her for cheap, you know we’ll cover her when we can.)

Tune in next week for the next Girlpla Guide Weekly!