HGFC 1/144 God Gundam Review - Part 1

Price: 1800 Yen

Even though I got the GX first, I really wanted to build God first right after my finals was over and I did. I have yet to build the GX since I'm somewhat occupied with other stuff such as trying to play MGS on the PSX emu without it constantly freezing when Psycho Mantis is haxxing you and real life stuff.

MS Brief:
God Gundam is Mobile Fighter G Gundam's mid-season upgrade for the main character, Domon Kasshu. It is known as Burning Gundam in the English dubbing, most likely due to religious restrictions. IIRC, God Gundam is based on the Buddha hence the rings of light when it uses the God Finger hissatsu waza. ;)

Specifications:

Part 1: Box

Part 2: Box Open!

Part 3: Runners + Close-Ups
From the crap-load of runner shots above, it is undeniable that this HG is very detailed for its size. I notice how detailed it is in certain sections considering how small this Gundam is (16.6m)unlike the usual Gundam heights (18m). If a HGUC F90/F91/F97 ever come into existence, my hands would probably hurt detailing them. XP

Note that the sticker sheet has a strip of red on it... I think they want you to cut out a bit to cover those holes on the wings... ^^; The stickers themselves are VERY darn small for some parts. Had to use a toothpick to stick them on. >_>;

Part 4: Building Process
After a good while not building any Gunpla due to assignments and finals overflow plus finals aftereffect, I noticed I'm going at this rather slowly. However, the Tamiya side-cutter works wonders.

Part 4.1: Core Lander
The Core Lander's construction was within my predictions and probably most expectations. A solid cockpit with no extra detail. Luckily they gave a nice shiny foil stickers to make up for it. This time, I decided to, messily, apply some yellow paint for the thrusters. Worked out fine in the end but annoying to clean up because I overflowed the marker paint. :P

If I had putty, which I DON'T, that freaking hollow part on the red wings should be gone by now. Oh hey, at least Bandai gave a nice strip of red DIY sticker to use for those who don't have putty. I didn't do that and just flipped the wings the other way around as per what other modelers have done to make it look more solid from the front at least. ^^;

Part 4.1: Torso
Let's see...

• Neck molded along with body.
• A solid blue piece for the inner part of the chest.
• Vulcans are molded along with the body.
• Those covers on the vulcans don't really seem to be open-able... kinda.

I knew about these "problems" already but I just wanna point it out since this is a review.

Remember I asked if you can see the mistake I've done? Well, here it is, its the inner chest area. My yellow paint unfortunately spilled over too much (my bad, very bad) and I had to scratch it off quite a fair bjt until the blue area around the orb looked sanded (painted it over with some blue afterward to darkened it). The pic you see above is still in the drying process though (re-paint-ish), since I did lots of well, things you SHOULDN'T do. ^^;

Part 4.3: Head
Sharpened the V-Fin, panel lined the head roughly (too small for my pen tip to go in well) and applied the stickers (eyes and sensor especially) with a toothpick cuz' its so darn small!

Part 4.4: Arms

Oh, look! An inner frame for the arm! Nice~

Let's see...

• 8 total pairs of hands (clenched fists, holding hands, open palms, God Fingers).
• Inner frame!
• Open palms and God Fingers are made of soft material.
• 90 degree bending capability. :/
• Shoulder thrusters are molded together with the red shoulder armor parts.

Pretty nifty except for the single elbow joint. I guess that was obvious with how most HGs are. The arm guards do not have a swinging mechanism like the MG version though and instead requires you to pull em' out to switch between normal and when its attacking with God Finger.

Part 4.5: Legs
Legs are okay in terms of articulation as far as you yourselves can see. The only visible problem here is how short the hips actually are. I know they are short from the promotional shots but, really, did their designers NEED to give most of the bulk to the second half? It makes it look proportionally and anatomically weird.

BTW, leg thrusters.

Part 4.6: Waist
Waists are quite nice as you can see above. Every part of the skirt armors can move which gives better headroom for the HGFC God Gundam to move... or does it?

To be continued ...