Guess What I Got Today! (7)

With the MAC Forums project put on hold and with nothing better to do, here's the newest Gunpla I've bought a week ago:

This is the 1/144 NG Victory Gundam Weapons Set, from the Weapons for Mobile-Suit series of add-ons.  Priced at just $10 and with a bunch being sold on eBay, I figured this would make a great addition to my V Gundam models.  The front of the box shows everything the set has to offer: 2 standard beam rifles, 2 beam bazookas, a "multi-bazooka", a gattling gun, 2 beam guns, 2 beam cannons, a beam pistol with a multi-launcher attachment, extra polycap hands, a set of what appears to be water-slide decals, and a head variant for the 1/144 Victory 2 Gundam.

Looking the left and right sides of the box, we see that the Weapons Set is No.14 in the 1/144 V Gundam series (?) and originally sold for 500 Japanese yen.

The top of the box shows 3 Gunpla with the added weapons and decals.

The bottom shows everything painted.

Out the box, the weapons and markings are packaged separately from the six pairs of hands.  The illustrated sheet at the center shows what goes with which model (along with instructions on the back) while the sheet on the left shows on which models you apply the decals, which are actually stickers.  I'll have to see about getting those made into decals.

That's it for my latest Guess What.  We'll see what else happens in the next few days.  Until next time, it's opening week for The Avengers and I haven't watched any Marvel movies leading to it.

Review: 1/144 NG G Gundam

Before I finally begin my review on God Gundam, here's all the WIP blogs leading to it:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

General/Technical Data

Series: No Grade 1/144

Title: GF13-017NJII God Gundam

Release Date: 12/1994

Suggested Price: ¥500 ($7)

No. of Parts: 59 + Polycaps + Foil Stickers

Plastic Colors: Red, White, Blue, Yellow

Gimmicks: Core Lander, Beam Sword, "God Finger" Hand

Intro

My quest to collect every God Gundam kit of every grade of quality began with me getting the lower-grade models outta the way.  This one's simple enough to build and it can pull off some decent poses once complete.  But as with all NG's, a bit of painting makes a big difference in the overall look.

Head

The head consists of the back, the face, the forehead and the double V-fin; supported by a polycap ball joint in the torso.  Very small but also very detailed.  Stickers are available for the eyes.

Torso

The chest has 2 pegs for the arms, a hole in the back for the Core Lander jet, and a peg at the bottom to attach to the lower body.  Held together by a special polycap piece, the torso barely holds together, especially since the front and side skirt armor are molded as separate parts.  Stickers are included for the front skirt armor.

Arms

Each arm has 6 points of articulation, if you count the ball-jointed polycap hands, the spikes on the forearm guards and the armor parts that sandwich the shoulders.  The spikes also have tiny holes on one side that don't really ruin the look if you position them with said holes facing each other.  The forearms also bare 2 pegs to extend and retract the guards for God Gundam's Hyper Mode.

Legs

Once fixed to the torso, each leg bears 4 points of articulation, including the double-jointed knees typical of 1/144 scale NG's.  One drawback is that the ball joints of the feet aren't stiff enough to fully support the rest of the body.  Stickers are available for the knees.

Weapons & Accessories

The most color-accurate accessory to the kit, G Gundam's Core Lander jet (Left) tranforms to attach to the Gundam's back, and only its canopy and thrusters need to be painted.  The thrusters also have holes on the side.  The jet's 6 fins all separate for G Gundam's Hyper Mode.  The Gundam's single beam sword (Center) and God Finger hand (Right) are molded in single yellow parts so painting is recommended.  The God Finger also has a gaping hole in the palm, which can be filled in with putty.

Conclusion

The only major flaw I really see in this kit is the flimsy lower torso.  With just that special polycap wedged between the 2 main parts for the lower body, it can easily fall apart and I'd rather have a sturdy torso with limited articulation than separate skirt armor.  Other than that, the 1/144 NG G Gundam is a well-made, cheap alternative to the more advanced Gunpla hobbyists enjoy now.  Hopefully it's High Grade counterpart will prove to be one such kit.


Overall Rating: 3.0 Out of 5 Stars.

Guess What I Got Today (6)

Let's be honest; the only reason anybody buys a Japanese hobby magazine that's scanned on Gundam Guy a month in advance is to get their hands on the freebie that's eventually sold separately on eBay, where I happened to come across my latest purchase.

This is the 1/144 NG (?) Sword Calamity Custom Kit.  Originally included with the October 2004 issue of Hobby Japan magazine, it's a conversion kit for the 1/144 HG Calamity Gundam from Gundam SEED.  I've debated buying this for weeks because of the price, which was quite steep for a single runner (and a DVD).  But having to pass up better deals as I scraped and saved for my trip out of town, and planning for two SEED projects down the road, I couldn't bring myself to turn this down.

After ranking my brain over the packaging, we find an instructional DVD I've already seen on YouTube several times.

And then we find the actual runner of parts under the cardboard flap.

Here's a front view of the runner which includes variant shoulder/shin/holster parts; two "Schwert Gewehr" anti-ship swords (with beams molded on); two "Midas Messer" beam boomerangs (with no beams); two pincer-like "Panzer Eisen" rocket anchors (which don't clamp on or off); and two "Armor Schneider" combat knives (which would be holstered in the shins if not for the knives already molded on the shins).

Here's a rear view of the runner.  If you watch closely, not only will you see that the plastic bag's been torn open, but a piece of the runner's been snipped off.  I guess the previous owner had as much trouble parting with this kit as I had buying it.  But since all the actual parts are intact, it's of no consequence.

That's it for the latest addition to my Gunpla backlog.  Join me next time when I add even more to said backlog along with the long-awaited review of the 1/144 NG God Gundam.  Until then, I'm gonna pop in my first Region 2 DVD (for a refresher course).