My thoughts on real grades

I haven't updated this blog in ages due to the fact that I just cant be bothered to do full blown reviews. Instead I've decided to use this blog to post my thoughts and opinions of gunpla in general. I'm still planning to post reviews up, but in a much more casual way, with less pics. Anyway on the the main focus of this post.

By now most people reading this blog should know what the real grade line is so I won't bother explaining it. It was only very recently that I bought my first real grade kit; the Zaku II Char custom, which I'll do a review for soon. The reason I chose the Zaku as my first real grade was partially because I already have the other current releases in one form or another. The main reason however was because I believe that the Zaku is one of the designs that benifits the most from the real grade treatment. The Zaku has always seemed to be one of the most realistic looking mecha in the gundam universe and I believe that kits like this, and the recently released gundam mark II, are what real grade should be all about.If you compare this kit to the RG Freedom this kit looks a lot more like a piece of milatary hardware.

Howwever that is not to say I don't think designs like the Freedom should not be made into real grade kits; i'd love to see a real grade Exia for example, but I just believe that the more realistic designs such as the Zaku and Gundam mark II get a lot more out of the real grade format than they would in high grade whereas with sleeker, less realistic designs such as the Freedom, the upcoming Justice and to some extent the Strike and RX-78-2 don't have as much of a contrast between HG/MG kits and real grade.

I'm currently wondering what mobile suit will be the next to get the real grade treatment after the Justice. I've created a list of the most and least likely candidates below. Feel free to suggest any other possibilities in the comments.

Possible

• Zeta gundam/ Hyaku Shiki- With the release of the Mark II this should be fairly obvious. Bandai seem to be doing at least 3 real grades for each series so at least the Zeta should be included. The main problem would be the transformation, namely how would they design the real grade frame to accomodate it? Or would they not use the pre assembled frame for the Zeta? 
• Turn A- Possibly, I can see this design looking good in real grade but i'm not sure that there would be enough demand for it.
• Another 0079 suit- Possibly the Guncannon or Gelgoog although this may be unlikley.
• Exia- Mostly just wishful thinking, still if they're going to do any gundam 00 suits it's likley they'll start with this one since 00 raiser/ Qan both recently got master grade kits.
• Another SEED/ SEED Destiny kit- Possible although not likely to be released directly after Justice since they seem to be trying to alternate between different series. Most likley suits from SEED Destiny since the SEED suits are being focused on in master grade at the moment.
• GP01/ GP02-Maybe. The designs would look good in real grade and haven't had any new releases in a while. Will probably be done further down the line though.
• Something else?- Perhaps they'll release something completely unexpected, after all I doubt many people predicted that the Justice would get a real grade.

Very unlikely

• Any wing kit- They've just redone all the designs in MG so I doubt any wing kits will get a RG release. I suppose they might release the Wing and Tallges further down the line, especially as a lot of people seemed dissapoionted not to get a MG Tallgese.
• Any G Gundam suit- Being focused on in HG plus the Suits wouldn't really suit the RG style.
• Unicorn- Already has a bunch of MGs and HGs being released.
• AGE- Too recent, currently getting MGs and HGs.

Well there's my thoughts on real grades. If you do read this i'd love to hear any suggestions you may have for future releases.

review HG 1/144 arios gundam gnhw part 1

Tor my third gundam review I shall be looking at the arios gundam gnhw. The arios fulfilled the role of a fast and manoeuvrable unit in the series and has the ability to transform between mobile suit and mobile armour modes.  This model differs from the original arios as it includes additional heavy weapons.
Static poses

The most obvious feature of this kit is probably the two large bits of kibble hanging from the shoulders. The entire figure is all very angular, with bits jutting out all over the place. This is the first model I used paint on since I painted many details in gunmetal.
Articulation
Instead of listing points of articulation I'm just going to show you the articulation in the various body parts.

 

arm has quite a bit of articulation.

shoulder kibble. (personally I think this is what arios should look like with Hallelujah in control)

the shoulder can be moved down where it attaches to the body...

so the arm can move up

waist articulation. The waist can't turn 360 degrees unfortunately but can bed at the abdomen

leg articulation (I removed the rear skirt so articulation might be hindered slightly with it on)
weapons
arios is pretty heavily armed in mobile suit mode. This kit comes with:

 Hidden machine guns in the . (The cover must be removed and placed in a different position)

A twin beam rifle

Stored in the front waist armour are arios's beam sabers.

 












For some reason the beams are different lengths. I don't mind this to much but it just seems a bit odd. Unfortunately the amour on the forearms blocks the bottom of the beam sabers during posing.

The GNHW gives us two additional weapons at the expense of the action base that the original kit came with.

The first heavy weapon is a large beam cannon.

There is a second handle but it's quite difficult to pose with two handed.

The second heavy weapon is a pair of missile launchers. They open and close in a similar fashion to the machine guns on the forearms.

The missile pods attach to arios's back, making it look like something from macross.

This concludes part one of the review. Part two showing arios transformed will be up soon

review: speed grade 1/200 wing gundam

OK, time for another review, this time I shall be reviewing the 1/200 scale speed grade wing gundam.

 This was the first gunpla kit I ever built and has also been the easiest to build thus far. The main gimmick of the speed grade models is that they come painted on the sprue and are very easy to assemble. This kit took me around an hour and a half to make I think. Colour and detail wise the kit is very nice, the colours are faithful to the anime and there are several small details such as the metallic writing/ symbols on the wings. The paintwork is fairly good on the kit although on mine the yellow paint around the chest orb was marked.

The articulation on this kit is fairly basic. 90 degree bends at both the knees and elbows, ball jointed ankles, hips, wrists,shoulders and head, swivel jointed upper arms and hinges on the wings. As well as this there are no poly caps so the joints get loose very quickly.

In terms of accessories wing gundam comes with his shield, buster rifle and a beam sabre. Due to the small scale and limited articulation it can not transform into it's bird mode.

Wing gundam also comes with a small base/ stand. The base has wing gundam's name and what I assume to be its model number on. The stand can plug in between wings legs or into the back skirt. In order to use the back skirt hole you have to remove a small piece from the skirt. This piece, as well as the stand, can be stored underneath the base.

Overall Speed Grade wing is ok. If you choose to get him my suggestion would be to get him in a pose you like and then leave him as a display model. Mildly recommended

Review HG 1/144 gundam exia

To kick-start things I'm going to be doing a review on the 144 scale gundam Exia from gundam oo.

This kit looks amazing. The parts are moulded in colour and any additional detail is provided by stickers. Sadly the stickers are a pain to position correctly. As you can see in the picture Exia looks pretty awesome even without weapons.

Exia has a fairly high level of articulation. He has ball joints in the ankles, double jointed knees, ball jointed hips, a swivel waist, ball jointed head, a swivel and hinge joint at the shoulders, hinge joints at the elbows and ball jointed hands. His pelvic area also has a ball joint where the legs connect.


Time to take a look at the weapons





from the side Exia looks quite sleek and swept back due to all the blades sticking out.





Exia's main weapon is it's GN sword. It can hold the sword in one of three ways: with the blade folded back to reveal a beam pistol, with the blade pointing straight forward or like a regular sword.



Exia's secondary weapons are the GN long and short blades. Although simple exia can do some quite nice poses wielding them. When not in use they can be stored on the hips. Unfortunately they are liable to fall off during posing.



Exia's final weapon is his beam sabre.This is my least favourite part of the kit. Although Exia comes with 4 beam sabre hilts we are only given one lit beam sabre, which then has to have the blade painted. I would have preferred to have four transparent blades like those which normally come with gundams. The hilts plug into the back of the shoulder and waist armour.

In conclusion gundam Exia is an amazing kit although the beam sabre issue is annoying. Highly recommended

Greetings

Hi and welcome to my blog. This blog will focus mainly on gundam reviews, possibly expanding in future to providing modelling tips and news.