Gundam Model Kits

I always thought the GP01 head looked like it had been squeezed on the sides, so I welcomed the wider design. There are two different V-fins, a blunt one that is made out of two colored pieces, and a sharp one that comes in one piece and needs to be painted red. There are some small pieces, like the mohawk sensor lens and the antenna, which are both best glued into place. The protruding head vulcans are well-molded. The head can move up and down a little and has a full range of side-to-side movement. There are pistons molded into the neck.

Torso

There are three parts to the torso, an upper part, the Core Block, and the lower part. The upper part is pretty simple, consisting of a large blue covering, the opening cockpit hatch, and the interchangeable vents. The small protrusion on the chest has been moved back from the position in the OVA. The auxiliary sensors have small pieces like the mohawk. The entire cockpit housing is hinged, as well as the hatch. For an open cockpit the housing needs to be pulled up and the fighter canopy pushed through the open hatch. I was disappointed that there was no mechanism for the vents to open, just interchangeable parts. I guess that would be too much complexity to ask for. The upper part slides onto the top of the Core Fighter easily, but removing it can sometimes be tricky. Core Block is covered in the Accessories. The entire assembly plugs into the cradle-like lower torso. The back panel will pop out of place, but it does nothing to affect the stability and is covered up by the backpack. The lower torso has a ball joint that connects to the waist, allowing for side-to-side motion and a little up-and-down. The forward and rear skirt armors have identical ball joints to the crotch armor. The side skirt armors have a raised structure on top that is repeated on the other skirt and knee armors. There a big spot on the underside of the crotch that needs to be painted white.

Arms

Since the inside of the torso is taken up by the Core Fighter, the arms and shoulder armors connect to a peg that juts off the upper torso. The shoulder armors have an opening hatch with a nice mechanism that extends the verniers. There is a small gap in the shoulder armor that would look better filled. A flap folds up to reveal another hidden vernier. The arms themselves are disappointing due to their simplicity. Bother upper and lower arms are basically two halves joined together with polycaps. The attachment to the torso is done with a spherical structure. It stays on the torso fine, but the ball joint attachment to the arm pop very easily. The standard MG hands are included, open, closed, and gripping.

Legs

The thighs could stand to be longer since sometimes the front skirt armor will bump against the knee armor. The knee armor is enlarged from the animation and moves independently of the rest of the leg. The legs are built up from the basic joint structure, to another layer of inner details, to the outer armor. While it looks impressive while at the same time being simple. A hinged structure behind the leg opens to reveal another thruster. There's a lot of articulation around the ankle including the ankle guard, the forward armor flap, and pistons in the ankle. The foot is actually normal-sized but is covered by additional armor. The foot is articulated with a thruster hidden in the arch and a bunch of details on the soles.

Weapons and Accessories

The beam rifle is simple, with a moveable clear sight. The structure for a beam jutte is there, but no beam jutte is included. I cannibalized one of the beam blades to build one. The E-pacs fit on the rifle and in the hand easily. The stabilizing bar moves, but posing with it is difficult at best. Besides, the Fb looks better doing one-handed poses. The shield is excellent and reproduces the sliding action as seen in the animation. The E-pacs fall off the shield easily, so mine are glued on. The shield attaches to the arm firmly but takes some balancing to pose hand-held due to its weight. Beam sabers fit in the hands easily. The blades are thin and can get bent at the connection site.The Core Fighter has a lot of articulation. There are three points on it for plugging in landing gear, two of which have covers you need to remove. The boosters can rotate and all the thrusters are ball jointed. The boosters are constructed so the joint retracts into the pod when in fighter mode. The beam guns are the sabers positioned along the bottom of the fighter. The hinged canopy is clear with a little pilot molded inside.
The Core Block transformation involves folding the back half of the body down and extending and moving the boosters backwards. The boosters can take any position, including full reverse. The beam guns/sabers rotate up and into a vertical position. The bottom of the Core Block drops out and the nose folds together. The entire back half of the block moves up and two connection points for the upper chest are folded up. The thrusters on the front can be exchanged with extended versions for the open chest verniers.

Conclusion

While I do like the GP01Fb for all its thrusters and the booster pods, the model doesn't have a real solid feel to it due to the core block and all the extra verniers. The arms are definitely a disappointment. The armament is basic and no beam jutte is included. The outer armor is designed so all the seams are hidden in the natural panel lines of the GP01Fb (there's a lot of them). The only real noticeable ones are on the feet and head, but they don't stand out very much. The GP01Fb definitely has the feel of a prototype mobile suit. It's designed for space, so a lot of its potential is lost in standing poses, put this guy into a mid-flight stance. I would recommend it to anyone who likes the technical look of the Fb. (Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars)

Contributor: Chris 'KokopelliChindi' Knudtson

General and Technical Data
Series: Master Grade (MG) 1/100 Release Date: 12/1997
Price: ¥ 3000