Gundam Model Kits

25 April - 11 May 2008
OPEN 10:00 - 21:00

Source: http://www.parco-nagoya.com/web/08gunpla/

General and Technical Data

Series: High Grade Universal Century (HGUC) 1/144
Release Date: 03/2008
Price: ¥ 2500

BB MUSHA GUNDAM No. 308 "Koumei"

Release Date: 04/2008 Price: ¥ 600

BB MUSHA GUNDAM N0. 304 "Joe Chou"

Release Date: 10/2007 Price: ¥ 500

BB MUSHA GUNDAM No. 305 "Sonken"

Release Date: 11/2007 Price: ¥ 500

BB MUSHA GUNDAM No. 300 "Ryuubi"
Release Date: 05/2007 Price: ¥ 500

CLEAR VERSION BB MUSHA GUNDAM "Joe Chou" & "Shiba-I"
Release Date: 04/2008 Price: ¥ 1200

Source: Hobby toybu

OK, Today I Think i will go over the different classifications that gundam models fall into. I will go over size first. There are 3 standard size models 1:144, 1:100, and 1:60. The 1:144 are the smallest models typically about 5 inches tall, they come in only HG (high grade) versions and this is the size you can find almost any mobile suit or Mobile arrmor in any series in. they are snap together like all gundam models. these you can also paint and do detail work on but because of the small size the detail work is harder to do. The next size is 1:100 the size I love to collect, these models are about 8 inches tall and come in both HG and MG (master grade) versions. The MG versions typically have more flexibility and better joints so you can pose them in may different ways, they also have display stands that come with them sometimes. The HG 1:100 models are the ones I mostly collect and have because the MG models are a bit more exspensive to buy. 1:100 models for the main gundams are typically all that is avalible of any gundam series. The last is 1:60 the big PG (perfect grade) models these are usually 14 inches or taller. They can be posed in almost any pose you see in the animes. these models can cost more than $100 each and can take days to put together. The 1:60 size only comes in the “hero” gundam typically. Gundam seed models are the only exception because both the strike and the strike rouge are avalible in the 1:60 size.

Torso

Nice internal details. Upper body armor can be easily removed to reveal the innards. The cockpit hatch pivots on a point near the next so the whole centre portion opens to reveal the cockpit.
When assemblying the joints in the upper body where the shoulders will attach, I found that they were on the loose side even though they were polycapped. My suspicions were proven right when after assemblying the whole model the shoulders would *slouch* under the weight of the arms.
Lower body is attached to upper via a huge ball joint. It also features a die-cast crotch piece to which the hips will attach. This adds nice weight to the model in general and adds to the great balance that this kit has.
All 6 armor flaps on the lower body are poseable which makes for vey good hip mobility.
A nice touch is the vents on the front and back flaps which reveal more internal parts inside. The parts are all molded in colour so even if you don't want to paint them, they'll look decent.
Backpack features full removeable armor - a departure from the normal one/two piece affairs with 5 seperate pieces of armor. The bazooka, fin-funnels and one beam-saber attach to this backpack.

Arms

Screws in the shoulder and lower elbow joint ensure that they remain tight. Elbow is double-jointed but each of the individual parts seem to be made up of more parts than necessary - meaning extra work and seam filling... Both forearms feature a sliding tab which - on the left arm - allows the saber storage mechanism to work... on the right arm it is non-functional.
All armor is attached via polycaps.
Hands are standard MG-type affairs with poseable thumbs and fingers (lower three are molded together and index finger is seperated). One interesting addition is a joint at the base of the palm... this allows the RX-93 to do push-ups if he wanted.

Legs

Left and right legs are made of identical parts which means monotonous assembly. The ankle joint is die-cast which moves the figure's centre of gravity down so it is very stable. The knee joint is pretty nifty: not only is it a double-joint, it also features 2 nice working pistons on the front. 3 screws hold the parts together and these babies are *TIGHT* which is good for a figure this big and heavy.
All armor is attached via polycaps and the rear of each leg features a booster that is poseable.

Weapons & Accessories

Each of the six fin funnels has 2 'joints' which pivot out to join them all together. They are flexible and feature a nice mechanism inside so the funnels 'click' into place when they are moved.
The bazooka and beam weapon are nicely molded and rather than make them 2-piece affairs Bandai has put in a little more effort so that some of the seam-lines are covered up by additional pieces. I spent less time sanding these weapons than normal as a result.

Conclusion

I guess one bad thing I didn't mention in the previous section is that I will now be tempted to get the Sazabi as well just to match this big guy... that's bad because the Sazabi is expensive and I've heard that Bandai did a poor job on that kit. Oh well... back to the Nu-Gundam...
In short, very nice kit. Will look good even if you decide not to paint it. I love the weight of the die-cast parts and it's commanding presence because of it's size and clean look. Can't go wrong with this one!

Contributor: GUNDAM_BASE

General and Technical Data
Series: Master Grade (MG) 1/100 Release Date: 12/2000
Price: ¥ 5000

The head of the Shiki has more parts than most gundam heads:
1 transparent piece for the eyes2 pieces for top of the head1 face-plate2 side plates1 rear piece1 antennae1 transparent piece for the vent above the eyes1 polycap
Head movement is limited but a nice touch is that the vents on the left and right side of the faceplate are cut-out and the internals molded on a seperate piece so it looks quite realistic.

Torso

No internal details here at all except for the chair in the cockpit if that counts. The chair is molded with more detail than older kits which is also a nice touch... but the chair is hardly visible after the body is assembled. Shoulder joints are polycapped ball joints and so is the waist joint. Pretty simple except for a little gimmick for the cockpit hatch. Although looking at the pictures online and in the magazines you may think that the cockpit mechanism is just a hatch rotating on one axis, the two gold pieces on the left and right actually overlap the hatch slightly and slide to the sides when the cockpit opens.
Backpack has removable cover to reveal the engine details inside but the thruster assemblies are not poseable at all. The backpack literally hooks onto the back of the upper body and the joints have some polycaps to hold them with some security. 2 wing units attach to the sides of the backpac via polycapped ball-joints. There are also areas to mount the bazooka and the beam-rifle too.
Lower torso ends up with 5 pieces of poseable armor: left-front, right front, left side, right side and the back is one piece on a rotating joint. This allows for quite a range of hip motion. On the rear panel has opening 'clasps' for holding the beam-sabers.

Arms

Arm units don't have any internal details unless you want to consider the *very* minor upper arm stuff that is revealed when you remove the armor - I wouldn't consider that an internal skeleton though. Double jointed elbows allow for a good range of movement. The shoulder armor is more complicated than most gundams too - primarily because there is an additional piece that hangs on the outer side of the armor... it also tries to mold everything in color.
The hands are interesting. They aren't the typical MG hands you've come to expect. What you get is 2 sets of hands for each arm. The palm and thumb are molded in one piece and the 4 fingers are molded in another. The 2 pieces are joined with a pivot point to allow the 4 fingers to open and close to insert/remove weapons. However, the whole assembly slides into a gold piece which acts like an outer sleeve - it is designed to remove almost all of the movement in the hand so any weapons being held should stay put. This 'sleeve' assemble makes the Shiki's hands *huge*...

Legs

Knees are double jointed with quite good range of motion. Upper legs (thigh area) consist of 2 gold pieces... that's it! Don't expect any internal structures there.
The lower leg features some internal details with 5 pieces of removable armor - all polycapped on... but I suspect this was included because part of the Shiki's design leaves the leg exposed - I wouldn't be surprised if there were no internal details here if this had not been the case.
One of the gimmicks is in the legs - this is a working piston in the lower leg. Nice touch... the piston is thicker than any I have found in the MGs I have built so far, but there is not a huge range of motion though.
Feet themselves are also very simple - no fore-foot/rear-foot individual movement, just a ball-joint where the lower leg section attaches.
Some curious modellers have asked whether the Shiki can pose... well, it took a little effort, but the Shiki can do a decent crouch.

Weapons & Accessories

Nothing really outstanding here. The bazooka is a 2-piece affair which means lotsa sanding to remove all the seamlines. The rifle is generally also a 2-piece design (left and right halves) although there is a small rotating catch that flips out to allow it to be hooked onto the backpack. A nice touch is that both weapons feature removable magazines. The one for the bazooka is nice with even molded details of the shells inside.

Conclusion

The Shiki was definitely a pleasant build - like most new MG kits (Sazabi excluded), parts fit and finish is excellent and the plastic is of high quality *and* what is gold-plated is generally molded in nice colours.
With that said, you probably don't want to go through the trouble of painting these non-plated parts. I did... but like I mentioned before... the gold draws attention away from everything else - so the painted parts really don't add much to the look of the figure. hmm... should I remove the gold?
Plating is always a controversial topic. Although the Shiki has only minor seam problems (which is a big problem on most other plated kits), plating still doesn't suit everyone's tastes... As for me? I'm still undecided.
Closing thoughts? Nice kit, but it could have been much better. It's a little too simple in design for it's price... get it if you can get a good price, but S$84 is definitely too much to pay for it in my opinion. :)

Contributor: GUNDAM_BASE

General and Technical Data

Series: Master Grade (MG) 1/100 Release Date: 03/2001

Price: ¥ 4500

Just to give you an idea of the number of parts we are looking at at the Perfect Grade level, the head alone consists of 41 parts! That doesn't add the 20+ parts for the hose that attaches to it. I must do a count of the MG Zaku II head for a full comparison. :)
I really enjoyed putting this head together - took about 2.5 hours in all. The mono-eye has an LED that is ingeniously included in the whole head array so that it works even when the eye is moved left or right. This movement can be achieved by operating a lever on the base of the back of the head.
Detail is very nice and some is visible from the flip-top 'hood' on the top of the head. You can see more of the internals by removing the 2 sides of the head armor which is held on by polycaps - nice touch!
Batteries for the mono-eye are stored in the neck unit just under the head - you will need to purchase 2 LR43 1.5v batteries (normally used for watches I believe) for this. I strongly recommend that you get these prior to assembly so that you can test the whole light setup before you build the rest of the kit - so that you can correct any errors before moving on. I cannot stress this enough - I put the whole thing together only to realize after installing the batteries that the setup didn't work... a lot of disassembly followed. :)

Torso

Upper body houses the cockpit which features a chair which slides from side to side. The cockpit has 2 hatches which open. A small one which looks too small for the pilot to exit from as well as the entire central chest area which can flip open. Presumably the chair slides from side to side depending on the hatch that the pilot open. This sliding mechanism eliminates the engine block which is in the MG Zaku chest areas beside the fixed pilot seats.
Lower body is straightforward to assemble as all 5 flaps (2 front, 2 side and 1 rear) are poseable to allow for maximum hip mobility. Of special note is a little feature which is both useless but cool at the same time - the rear and front flaps are attached to a special suspension system so you can actually push down on them. The spring in the system pushes the back into position once the pressure is released. The crotch section lowers down to reveal inner details (insert own joke here).
The backpack features 2 thrustes and a couple of smart joints which allow the backpack armor to be flipped up to show the internal details. There is even a piston there which appears to hold the armor up - just like popping open a car hood. It's a nice touch. 2 thrusters are poseable but not like in most MG setups where the rocket output sits on a moveable ball-joint - rather, the entire rocket unit hiding under the backpack armor is moveable.

Arms

The next parts to assemble are the arms. These aren't hard to do, though you should pay special attention to use the correct parts for each step. With this kit, you should expect to spend quite a bit of time looking through the many runners of parts to find what you need.
There are cool chromed pistons that extend and contract when the joints of the arms move. The whole assembly is nice and tight and very cool to watch when in action. Compared to the arm of the RX-78, the Zaku arm is a little less complex but in my opinion that's an advantage - the whole assemby has a more solid feel.
One aspect of the design I especially like is on the fore-arm elbow joint. It's gonna be hard to explain but I'll try... there is a flap built onto the fore-arm that slides into the rest of the arm when the elbow bends - this allows the elbow joint a lot of flexibility without an ugly 'gap' in the forearm to allow for the joint to work. If you don't get it, just trust me on this... it's a simple idea but an excellent one nicely executed!
Hands are fully articulated with 3 individual segments per finger/thumb... this is *after all* a Perfect Grade kit y'know! I love these hands but due to the molding process, each segment has a little circle molded into one side of it which just got to me - so I puttied them up. They are hardly noticeable on a kit this big though so if you hate puttying, don't worry about it. Oh... it's nice that the articulated fingers are actually molded with the 3 segments already attached - very ingenious!
Although the armor is easily removable, there is only one 'flap' on each arm that can be opened. The Gundam, in comparison,has at least 3 hatches on each arm that can be opened to reveal internals.

Legs

The arms took time to build - more than 3 hours each... but the legs took me even more - about 5 hours each!
These are very well done and also feature several working chromed pistons. I especially like the knee design which has very nice action when bending and straightening. And speaking of bending, these knee joints have excellent articulation! I'm certain this figure can do a good crouch when completed. I'll be sure to get some pics up of the knee at full bend. This is even more remarkable when you conside that this is a bulky Zaku model here, not a sleek Gundam... so the full articulation is impressive!
The hip joint features (like the fingers) - working joints which have been molded as one piece.
The feet on the Zaku have individually poseable fore-feet and heels - this adds to the realism of the model design. Although the foot design is nice, there is limited forward ankle articulation.
All armor is easily removable to show the detailed inner skeleton. In addition, the knee pads and the armor on each foot can be 'opened'. The cables attaching upped to lower leg are essentially the same design as that found in the head and on the main body.
The whole leg assembly has a very solid feel and is very well designed.

Weapons and Accessories

To be completed.

Conclusion

All in all, I don't have many negative comments to make about this kit - I like it very much. It is costly but for the price you do get a lot. It may not have as many gimmicks as it's Gundam counterpart, but it makes up for it by just being a Zaku - which has attitude!!!
If you like Master Grade kits and feel that you are up for a greater challenge (and if you have a fat wallet) then go pick up one of these bad boys! You won't regret it.

Contributor: GUNDAM_BASE

General and Technical Data
Series: Perfect Grade (PG) 1/60 Release Date: 03/1999
Price: ¥ 12000