 I have been rather dismissive of cartoony liveries. I can't stand Hello Kitty from Eva Air and am not a big fan of Pokemon schemes either, but I do collect Chinese mainland airlines, which fortunately usually have classier special schemes. Nonetheless, I find myself now having acquired this 'Genshin Impact' coloured 787, which definitely features some cartoony style characters on it. I have no excuse aside from the aforementioned interest in Chinese airlines and arguably that the scheme overall isn't as bad as it could be! It's also an Ultimate Collection model and there still seems to be a lot of questions as to what this means. This review is sponsored by MV400 of Canada:  FORMAT Each review is to split into three key areas:
MOULD  This specific Juneyao 787 is a model that has now been announced by JC Wings and Aviation400 as well as NG. I would be surprised if Phoenix didn't also release it but so far the NG version is the only one available. With multiple announcements but only one available it is important to understand the moulds in question.  Fortunately, I have already written a detailed mould scoring for the 787-9 at the site, which can be found at the below link. This was written prior to the new magnetic gear on the AV400 787 but is otherwise accurate still:  It is a tight decision deciding who has the 'best' mould but for me the NG version just pips it, although I wouldn't have issues buying any of the NG, JC or AV400 versions.  The NG mould is exemplary in a range of areas such as the blunt asymmetric nosecone. After some gradual fiddling throughout early releases they have also settled on a very nice set of undercarriage with the correct short length (and the hot rod issues now fully resolved).  The maingear also has the best form from the side with well sized tyrehubs and the best shaped set of doors. There is one issue with the maingear. This is that the width of the gear trucks from the front and back, which is too narrow. The JC Wings and AV400 moulds have wider maingear, which is more accurate.  The rest of the mould is near perfect. In the detailed mould comparison rating I docked small marks for the shape of the engine pylon above the nacelle and the zig-zag sawtooths at the rear of the engine, however these are very minor.  A couple of the mould's strongpoints are a very nicely shaped Wi-Fi dome on the roofline ahead of the wing and some fabulous hollow core engines. Even though NG have moed away from hollowcores in recent times when they do them they are better than anyone elses both in terms of blade numbers and shape.   This is an excellent mould. There are almost always criticisms of moulds to be made and a few small issues exist here too. I tend to give all 3 of the JC, AV and NG moulds 9/10 with only the Phoenix version being some way behind. SCORE - 9 PAINT & LIVERY  What is 'Genshin Impact'? Well the insert that comes with the model (one of the features of this Ultimate Collection setup) explains it so I don't really have to:   There are a lot of characters in the game spread across various regions. I'm not going to try and identify who we have here but just compare to the real aircraft. The base scheme of Juneyao is very simple and the base colours very attractive. NG has no issues with the standard elements or the burgundy colour.   There's no denying this is a super complicated scheme and one that is really challenging to make at 400 scale, partly due to the miniaturisation involved. Looking at the model with the naked eye and the livery looks stunning in its fidelity. Magnify your images as I have here and in super close-up you can see that the scheme is replicated in a dot style.   I'm no expert on printing so can't really comment on the mechanism but it works really well for the naked eye and a little less at macro levels. The placement and size of the art elements is exemplary. There is however a little lack of richness and colour in some areas, especially the female characters and part of the leafy arch.  Something incredibly nerdy that I have noticed is that the window position is slightly out of position with the imagery on the leftside. For example, there should be 6 windows ahead of the leftmost female character at the rear but there are 5. The final window (which is blocked in) should be at the last orange planet and one of four not three as in the model. There are similar issues forward presumably caused by the window template printing over the art?  Another area of criticism is the grading and amount of blue background being used. The forward and rear aspects of the scheme are almost separated from each other in real life but on the model there is too much blue sky connecting them. I think the NG version looks better than the real thing but it isn't accurate!  Given the scale involved I'm not sure anyone can do any better in relation to the print detail and the model looks stunning with the naked eye. My criticisms illustrate the challenges with such a complex scheme and the only one really noticeable is the overwing blue being too strong. SCORE - 7 PRINTING, QUALITY CONTROL & ULTIMATE COLLECTION  Printwork on NG releases is generally stunning and it is hard to fault the amount or quality other than by saying perhaps it is too good! By that I mean that sometimes the NG print is a little too fine. This 787 seems to have quite an obvious nosecone ring for example, whereas although it is present on the model it is almost invisible.  There's nothing to criticise on build quality so I'll turn to discussion of the Ultimate Collection. It is definitely something I can take or leave myself, although if I was more selective with my collection criteria it is probably something I'd like. As it is anything increasing box size or cost is a little annoying.  The magnetic flip top box is very nice and a lot of care has been out into its design. I especially like the Juneyao boarding pass printed on the inside spine featuring regions from the Genshin Impact game.  The design of the plastic cradle, with separate cradle to fit the stand, is great and fits the box perfectly. The card insert, in both Chinese and English, is also really nice, and printed on both sides.  Lastly there is the metal stand. This has come in for quite a bit of criticism. It is a two-piece screw together effort and on some examples the screw doesn't fit well. In this model's case it isn't a problem and the stand is solid and very attractive.  I've also heard people complain that they have broken off the stand in the model's standhole. I'm sure it's possible but frankly I'm calling user error here. You'd really have to be twisting it at an angle to accomplish a break. It first snugly but gentle wiggling allows its removal easily enough. SCORE - 9 SUMMARY  NG don't shy away from this sort of tough to reproduce livery and printing capability has come a long way since the dawn of 400 scale. This model isn't perfect, but it looks good and the extra packaging and add-ons involved with the Ultimate Collection are exactly the kind of things that fit this sort of special scheme, that will presumably be of interest to non-model collectors who are fans of the game too. Will the other brands do better? It'll be interesting to see but the overall package here is excellent. FINAL SCORE - 25/30 
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AuthorI'm Richard Stretton an aviation enthusiast and major collector of 400 scale models. On this page I take a detailed look at new releases. This site is free. Please donate to keep it going.
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