Starting Thoughts...
This is my first 1/100 High Grade kit. I bought it on impulse today when I saw it on discount. Initial thoughts are that this is really quite a huge step down from the Master Grade kits. The parts count is significantly lower and the construction considerably simpler. I'm looking forward to building this because I've been working non-stop on the much-more-involved Perfect Grade Zaku... so I'm intending to just build this without too much fuss - perhaps just a simple paint job or not at all.

I'm no fan of Gundam Wing so this model was for me to see what the kits from this series were like. Perhaps I'll glue up the joints and build a diorama or something... or maybe use it to test some new paint techniques. :)

Model Specifications

Capsule
A few nifty gimmicks and it looks pretty decent. But considering that a couple more dollars could buy me an MG, the very much lower parts-count and simpler construction make me feel that this kit isn't worth the money. With some work (actually a lot of work), the model would make a pretty nice static model though...

Recommendation? Go for an MG instead, or buy a cheaper 1/144 scale high-grade kit.

Kit Details
In General
Kit is from High Grade series and not MG series. This means less parts and simpler assembly... which also translates to more seamlines to work.

Head Unit
Comparitively, I find the head the most complicated part of the kit - it is almost MG level in terms of part-count and construction. Nice green translucent plastic for the eyes creates a nice look without paint. Little effort is made to hide the seam lines on the head - as with the rest of this kit (and I suspect all the kits in the rest of this line). A red sticker is provided for the little part which the antennae connect to.

Head rests on a polycapped ball-joint.

Body Unit
Upper torso is molded in several colors which is nice - although I understand that one complaint many have of this kit is that the colors are pretty 'off' from the originals. Lower torso is connected via rotating joint and has 5 armor flaps covering the hip joints.

All 5 flaps are poseable which is neat - but the front ones hardly move due to the design which really was a waist of the joints incorporated.

The backpack isn't too bad. It consists of a primary section flanked on the 2 sides by another 2 thruster units which also function as holsters for the heat shotel weapons. When stored, those huge weapons extend backward creating a very aggressive look (well the shotels look aggressive regardless of whether they are stored or not... lol!). Expect seam filling here too.

Arm Units
I'm spoiled by MG kits <grin> so these arms come across as very simple to me. Upper and lower arms are simple join-two-halves-together units and the elbow joint is double-jointed. Shoulder armor contains a little rotatable joint to attach the cloak to. This is very stiff to rotate so if you intend to complete with cloak, I'd recommend leaving it in that position at this stage.

Hands are almost MG type in that they have an individual index fingers and a set of 3 other fingers molded together... the thumg is non-movable though as it is molded as part of the palm.

Leg Units
Simple affair too - basically build the parts in halves and assemble together. If you don't attend to the seams, you'll end up with one right through the whole leg. The degree of movement for the knee joint is pretty poor, even though the knee joint is a double-joint design.

Weapons & Accessories
The heat shotels are very cool. I like the translucent black plastic used for the blades - they are very classy indeed! Construction is simple but each shotel's handle is rotatable as they flip round for storage purposes.

Protective cloak is made of some 'cloth-like' paper which looks realistic enough. This was a nice inclusion on Bandai's part. Assembly can be a little complex though, basically because it's hard to see the pegs and holes with the cloth in the way. Remember to stick on the 'hole protector' stickers though, I forgot and had to disassemble to do so. The cloak is attached to 2 pieces of huge shoulder armor that fits onto the existing shoulder armor.

The Good
Very quick build. Good for beginners looking to get some assembly practice/experience. Construction is significantly simpler than Master Grade kits.

The weapons are cool - the translucent black plastic for the heat shotels is a nice touch; the backpack storage is cool and the protective cloak is very menacing! In short, the accesories rock!

Finished mech looks pretty decent - even without painting. I think it is pretty faithful to the cartoon rendition of the mech.

The Bad
Because the construction is simple, there are a lot of visible seamlines to work on if you want to make this model look better... which translates into a lot of work. Personally, I don't like the mech enough to put in so much work for now (since I have other projects I would like to work on first)... but if you like the mech then it's a good challenge.

I think the detailing on the kit is a little disappointing. Granted, this is a HG kit and not an MG one, but having recently completed a 1/144 Ez8 figure, I must say that the details on that little kit was better than this one... perhaps at 1/100 the lack of details becomes more pronounced? One particular eyesore I would work on are the shoulder joints - they are simple cylinders to which the polycaps attach - and enough of it is visible to irk me.

Colors are pretty off from the box-art.

Poor poseability - even though parts like the knee are double jointed, the movement of the part is woefully little... similarly, the hip armor flaps limit the hip mobiliy as well. A little more engineering of the design I believe probably could have improved this without increasing the number of parts.

In Closing
In comparison with the MGs I've built and *not* with other 1/100 High Grade kits (I don't own any others at the time of this review), I find that the kit isn't really worth the price. I paid about S$30 for the kit but I thought it wasn't worth that much... sorry, but MG kits I've bought for about S$10 more gave a *lot* more for the little increase in price. The smaller 1/144 kits don't disappoint as much because their smaller price-tags deliver more bang dollar-for-dollar.

I must admit there was a certain disappointment while building the kit - but that could possibly be attributed to my working on this *after* starting on MGs and PGs.

Bottom line, I don't really like the kit and probably won't be getting any more 1/100 GW kits for a while. If you are a fan of Wing, then you may wanna shell out the dough for this one. It isn't bad... but it isn't great for that price either.

Check out the gallery for more pics.

Send questions or comments to gunbase@hotmail.com.