Sorry for the long, long delay! At least it’s finally up ;P
Twice the amount of pics to make up for the delay!
Pictures:
Summary:
Pros:
- Alternate Rx-78 Colour scheme
- Interesting Mega-beam Launcher
- Very detailed armour
- Cheaper than most MGs
- More than enough dry-transfer included
- Many Stickers Included
- Folding Shield
Cons
- Few panel lines
- No innerframe
- Hands do not fit weapons really well
- Shield can only mount to the one side of the arms
Build Quality
This kit feels rock solid and its weight has an assuring feel to the hand. So far, everything seems perfect. A rather rare case eh? However, the weapon grips are a little too big for the hands to hand though.
Head
You have the usual gundam head design, save for blue replacing red and the exhaust vents are molded in yellow. There is no seperate neck joint unfortunately. The head just simply mounts onto the body with a ball socket type polycap. The joint is a little too loose for my liking even though there are no problems yet.
Body
The body has a very interesting way of building. The inner-most layer has the chest vents detailed as striped layers. Then you will attach the outerpiece of the chest on top, followed by a blue chest vent cover. No, it doesn’t end there! You have to fit another yellow piece into the blue cover. A bit of an overkill isn’t it? The cockpit hatch can be easily opened. However, it does not pop open on its own at all. The degree of movement is rather small though. The waist occasionally moves up. Not really a problem, just shove it back down! The backpack is rather complicated in itself. There is a rack on each side of the backpack. The power generator for the mega beam launcher docks onto the left rack, and the red cable slots into a folding rack that swings out from the backskirt and attaches onto the mega beam launcher. The mega beam launcher can also dock onto the right side of the backpack. There are tail binders that sticks out from the bottom of the backpack (Wait, are these tail binders?) The armour for the backpack can indeed be removed.
Arms
The arms are extremely bendy. The shoulder is triple jointed, allowing the arms to extend out by unfolding the joints. The elbow is also triple jointed. Altogether, there are 7 joints, including the wrist! The good thing about having so many joints is the insane posability! However, it was a little tough posing the arms as the joints all moved at the same time! Similar to another RX-78 model, the NT-1 Alex, the g04 Gundam features two vulcans on its forearms. The armour on the shoulder slides on top of the shoulder itself and is locked into place by two flaps. This is very unique, since most kits only feature double joints at most. The fingers do not wrap around the guns really well, so adjustments may be needed from time to time.
Legs
The leg joints are tight, but not too tight like in the case of the GP03. Posing is rather easy, as the ankle seem to be able to bend more than the other MGs I have. A semi-complete inner frame is available for the thigh and top of the forelegs. Other than that, the design of the legs is so-so.
Weapons
This gundam comes with the mega beam launcher, a standard-issued beam cannon rifle and two beam sabers. The mega beam launcher is rather unwieldy as the red rubber cord sorts of nudges the launcher out of the hands. There is a peg on the left side of the launcher, right in front of the secondary grip for it to be docked onto the backpack. For the beam rifle, the handle can only be folded to the left, unlike what most other beam rifles can do. However, the sight can be rotated left and right. The shield is very interesting; yes, it slides! Basically, there are two pegs on the underside of the shield to secure it at the two standard lengths. I think that the mechanism is rather steady, as the shield can rotate about while you fold it in order to prevent breakage. Oh, I like how the beam saber hilts are blue ;D
Final Verdict
This is one great MG kit! The colour scheme is catchy and doesn’t bore you no matter how long you look at it, the mega beam launcher is awesome, the price point is perfect, details are way better than other MGs so far. To make it short, it’s probably one of the best MG variations of the RX-78!