Building a Master Grade Ex-S Gundam Chinese Rip-off Part 5

So I'm building a Master Grade Ex-S Gundam Chinese bootleg kit. How is my progress? Let's find out.

 So, I'm doing the legs of the Ex-S Gundam now, and I am amazed how Master Grade Gundam model kits have progressed over years. The model kits from Bandai from this period, while still ahead among many model kit makers, still have very shoddy way to build them and the instruction manuals are of no help either. Building model kits from pre-Master Grade Ver. 2.0 really requires a lot of patience and experience from building previous Gundam model kits.

One of the most noticeable thing in the Master Grade Ex-S Gundam is that this is still one of the very few model kits that require screws. The last model kit I built that used screws was the Master Grade God Gundam. And I think it really required it for its back then, was very impossible poses to do. 

I think the screws here in the Master Grade Ex-S Gundam is used just to support the weight of the huge backpack. It will be very interesting actually if Bandai release a Ver. 2.0 of this Master Grade kit, seeing that they try to not to have to use screws or metal weights, like in the original Master Grade Nu Gundam, which I think they should have used here.

However, this bootleg MG Ex-S Gundam is still quite accurate to the source. so far, I don't have to do any modifications or more to make the parts fit together. Back in the 90's, the bootleg model kits really have bad molds and you need to really modify it and fix the plastics to make it stick together.

So, now I'm wondering, how are these bootleg model kits are made? Are they stolen from the Bandai model kit factory? Did the pirates get the blueprint and started making them? Or did they built it from scratch, copying the model kit along the way. How we can find out, I'll never know