Designed by Hajime Katoki, Ex-S Gundam for me is the ultimate manifestation of transformable Gundam. It can transform perfectly into a battle cruiser called G-Cruiser, which looks much better than ZZ Gundam. A special note is that Gundam Sentinel, the storyline where S and Ex-S appears, was created after the the ZZ anime, yet the timeline of the story is between Z and ZZ Gundam. Therefore, the challenge for Katoki was to create something that can blend-in with the existing timeline, yet special in its own way. I have seen the anime of ZZ, and got the MG version of both Z and ZZ, and I really feel that Ex-S Gundam is much better than any of those MS, in terms of transformation and the mechanical design.
I got both MG S Gundam and Ex-S Gundam in my collection, and these two models were the hardest to assemble, yes, even harder than Perfect Grade models. The number of screws and parts are beyond any MG models and most of them in sturdy ABS plastic, so that the transformation process will not exhaust the joints and damage the parts. For Ex-S Gundam, it is so heavy that a display stand is included along with the model. Please view my photo album on Ex-S Gundam if you would like to know more on that model.
Images below are from Gears Online. Click to enlarge.
