Tonythem's Hobby Corner: Review: HGFC 1/144 God Gundam

So my second review is now UP!! Yeah :D

This one will be a bit bigger than the last one. So this image is actually a imagem I took and then edited it in Photoshop, it was the first time I did this with a gunpla model, and with fire effects, so I personally think the result is cool, at least I like it...

Beginning

The same image, this isn't edited, so you can see the differences, I personally love God Gundam design, it really (at least for me) gives the feeling of a fighting mobile suit, so what you expect of it, is to have great articulation and destructive power...Yes...God Gundam really has that and much more, as you will be able to see in this review...

When I went on vacations to the south of my country, I took my computer and sometimes I could go to the internet, and I was curious to see how was the G Gundam and Gundam X series, and I saw like 5 or 6 episodes from each, and I really liked it, it was different and refreshing, despite being almost 20 year old series...

I bought this one when HLJ aka Hobby Link Japan was on summer sales, and two of the models that I wanted where on sale, HGFC God Gundam and HGWA Gundam X, I was really divided, in which I should buy, but I saw that God Gundam was more challenging, all the stickers, and all the panel lines, and I wanted to upgrade my skills. With God Gundam I was able to upgrade them a LOT!

So...enough talking, now lets start the review!!

360º Look

Front shot, so you can see him, and check how perfect his proportions are, in comparison with his Master Grade, which I think are a bit bad...I will mention this in my review a lot.

See how big his feet are, so they really give the impression that they are so big that God can sleep while standing with no problem xD

Check the chest area, and it shows the core lander, and it really looks slim, but powerful that is one of the things I love in this model...

Back shot, you can see those holes on the red wing piece from the core lander, that's for me the only negative point of this model in comparison with the Master Grade...which comes with a piece to cover that area, I don't gonna penalise him for that, because it is something that I will never show of, so it doesn't make much sense to penalise him for that in the evaluation, though, Bandai could have done a better job there...

Core Lander

In the Master Grade you can actually see a Domon figure inside the cockpit, though since this is a 1/144 scale, I would be like the first time it would be ever done so, Bandai gave us three stickers, for that silver effect, and since I won't display this core lander, I don't really care much...though at least Bandai gave us Stickers for it which I am really glad!

Here it is with it's wings spread, only used in God Gundam's Hyper Mode!

The transformation gimmick

Surprisingly this will fit tight inside God's chest

The wing range, left is for Hyper mode, right is normal mode...

Articulation

The arms articulation is not that bad actually, is normal for a HG model, though the hands can mode a bit which gives a little bit more than the 90º...

Shoulder articulation is normal, it can't much higher than that...

God Kick! xD This pose is just to show you the reason of his bulky legs, and huge feet, this is the reason, fighting poses, he can really get a perfect balance and stays there forever :)

Legs articulation, more than the 90º though not as good as Exia's articulation, the reason why we can't do much more is because he has some kind of thruster there behind his leg...

This is his legs spread, can do better than Exia, though not fully spread...

Though he can do splits, this is really a huge step for High Grades, and this one right here, has really good quality, and I'll talk about it in the end...

This High Grade is really good, and I can say that from what I have seen this model is really above average, and the articulation is where it shines...

Accessories, Weapons and Extras

The extras is where this bad boy will shine, and I'll show you, so here normal pair of hands, for grabbing stuff, like beam sabers or guns..(though God Gundam doesn't use guns xD)

Closed pair of hands, so this is a cool one, this pair of hands really makes some poses more realistic, like punching poses and stuff like that...

This pair of hands is really a great bonus, Bandai could have just throw in the normal pair of hands, instead the went further, and gave us the closed pair of hands and this pair of Kung Fu fighting pose...which gives god really good poses...

One of the main attractions of this model, the God Finger, which if it wasn't included would be a great loss, and this whole model would seriously lose it's power..

So, 4 pairs of hands, thats really cool! I never thought Bandai would do such thing, and it really is cool...the normal hands for holding stuff are always in the models, and in this case, Bandai would only had to throw the God Finger hands in and it would be good, though they went further and gave us two more pairs...

Oh yeah, beam saber handles, so God really is going further!

And two beam effect parts, this is really cool for poses, and I am really glad that Bandai did it! One beam is actually bigger than the other, I don't know if this is just because Bandai wanted that, or if God Gundam actually had one smaller than the other...though, the bigger, is really a huge one...

Just to show how he looks with his beam sabers, he really looks menacing xDD

Slashin' time!

It's articulation is not bad, and with the extra hand pieces it really makes this poses look much better.

Fighting poses is really God's area...

So to conclude this section, I really loved all the arsenal Bandai gives, and it really makes this model 100% complete, I can say that you will have blast trying to pose it with all this extra hands!

Conclusion + Gimmicks

To conclude I will put a couple photos here showing God, in this one shows the work I done on it's head, with the yellow vulcans with yellow gundam marker, and the panel line, I didn't worked on his double V-fin because I actually like them like this, if you compare this head with the Master Grade version, personally the MG version "sucks", it is really disproportional, this is my sincere opinion, I'll talk more about it at the evaluation...

One thing I like is that Bandai wanted to include most of God Gundam's gimmicks, and here, you see something like a inner frame that reveals two extra thrusters, nice gimmick, I won't be using it at all time, but it gives you extra posing possibilities...

Also his chest piece can open revealing something that will produce a huge blast, something like Strike Freedom's belly cannon xD

"Kamehame....HAAA!!!"

This is how you change the arms protection claw or something like that, to a further place for his Hyper Mode...

To conclude that transformation, you have to raise his yellow claws and voilá, God Gundam is ready for some face smashing :D

So...to conclude, I want to say that this is my second Gunpla model, and I am really happy, it really is a solid model, and the built of it is nice and smooth, the main problem could be the ton of stickers you have to put on him, if I wanted I could have painted the black stripes with some paint or black gundam marker, I went with the stickers and I don't regret, I looks good, better than I expected. I can say that this is my favourite representation of this model, in my opinion the Master Grade, might have clear cockpit for the core lander, might have extra gimmicks, might have innerframe, though for me it will never be as good as this one...

Let's check the evaluation and see how did it went :D

EVALUATION

Quality of the model - 19 Points - The model itself is really good, I must say I was expecting a really good model, and I got even more surprised, Bandai really made a good job with it, though I will only not give it 20 Points for small details as the red wing parts that have holes on one side, and when you open the chest part, it reveals something that looks like a cannon, though that should have been yellow to match is anime version and as a separated piece, and it wasn't...

Colour Application - 17 Points - Like I said I was really surprised with the built of the model, and one of the things I like in it, is the colour applications, they really give us all the colours for the pieces, but they give us a bunch of stickers for that, and that was for me one of the main reasons of this 17 Points, because most of the black stripes you see are actually stickers and one of God's weapon is the chest piece which should have been yellow and a separate piece, and it wasn't like I referred above...

Articulation / Pose Ability - 17 Points - I give it one point less than Exia, mostly because of its legs articulation, though it has excellent Pose Ability, with all that extra hands and weapons, so if it wasn't for that, I would have given it a 15, because it's articulation is more or less a normal HG's articulation...

Design / Proportion - 20 Points - I give it 20 Points, because I love it, and for me is really much better than the Master Grade version, and is more loyal to the anime, so thumbs up for Bandai, the head is really different, search on google for the MG God Gundam and see how it looks, and them compare it with the HG version, well for me the HG is much better, so...yeah...I see really great differences..

Accessories / Weapons / Extras - 20 Points - Yes, yes 20 Points...why? Well because, it includes all the necessary and basic items, like the normal holding weapon hands, and the God Finger hand pair...though!! Bandai still gave us more two pair of hands, for punching, and kung fu posing, so that's really amazing, it also, gives us two beam saber handles like Exia, though they could have just gave us the handles, but they went further and gave us the beam effect parts too I am really impressed...

19 + 17 + 17 + 20 + 20 = 93 Points out of 100

I loved this model, and for me this evaluation mark shows that despite this model having tons of good points, it isn't perfect, Bandai still needs to improve their models articulation and colour applications, though they are really getting better in that department, and the Real Grade shows us that...

I would like to post my next review this week, because my MG Red Frame should arrive this week, and in the weekend I will be busy...so I will have to do the photo session for my next model, HGUC Unicorn Gundam, Unicorn Mode! I will seriously try to do it this week, though I won't promise anything....

Leave your comments bellow, I would like to hear more from you, give me your opinion on the review and share your thoughts...

Like the previous review, I will also make a story and this will be to conclude the chapter between Exia and God xD

"Exia Is not that Go(o)d"

Domon: Hey Setsuna, check my Beam Sabers! I have two of them! You DON'T!!