Gunpla Review: 1/144 HGFC God Gundam

You know I said to myself no more new purchases... well now I have that urge to complete all 90s protag suits. I am looking for that HGCC Turn A... anyway, here's a review of the HGFC God Gundam. Readyyyyy... Go!

He has no will power. At all

G Gundam, Some people love it. Some people hate it. I personally like it (love the stereotypes) save for the cheesy ending. The God Gundam represents the upgrade of Domon's Shining Gundam. The name is also censored to Burning Gundam in the USA. G Gundam isn't popular these days... and this kit isn't exactly the pinnacle of HGs.

Aesthetics

Since it's a 90s mobile suit, the base design is chunky. Big shoulders, long skirts and big heads. This model is streamlined a bit with it's proportions adjusted to make it more modern (i.e. Katoki-fied).

he's having huge difficulties with the hip joints

As a kit that came out in 2010, it's pretty decent. There are some compromises though.

incoherent thoughts will be the norm here i guess

Before that the good bits. The build is good and the seamlines are very well hidden. Only the shoulder pads and the head have obvious seams. Everything else is hidden. Nice!

Color separation is decent. It's molded in mostly the correct color, but the design decision made at the time means it's compromised. the yellow energy collector on the chest is blue and not a separate yellow piece. The gatling guns are the same: molded in blue. The neck is molded with the chest... so the double ball neck polycap is not used. It means it's also blue.

Stickers are used for all the black trim, which is expected. All the little vents scattered all over the suit needs stickers. Panel lines are there, but minimal. The colors on it's own carry the suit so lack of panel lines are ok.

There are open spaces on the red bits of the wings as well, which is odd.

Overall, it's a sleek modern rendition of the God Gundam and it looks good. Color separation is good, minus the crucial energy collector and the gatling guns, which is a downer. The build is good as there are no obvious seams. It is crippled though because...

Articulation

... the articulation. I can't believe a negative of a Mobile Fighter is articulation. This was an era where aesthetics and gimmicks ruled over anything else. The HG Gundam X also suffered a bit with it's 90 degree arms and knees but that was workable since it's not a melee suit.

The head is on a single ball joint... it does not use the double polycap provided. It looks good yes, but the range is terrible. It can sort of look and and down, but the ball joint is buried deep into the head so what you see below is all the range you get.

Brace yourself guys for the amount of salt in this section

The smaller chest and the larger gatling pods means the head also has limited range side to side.

The modern HG has a mid-ab crunch. This era of kits do not have them so only the waist is ball jointed. The range is good though.

It can actually move all over the place.

The main issue I think is with the gimmick. I would have gladly sacrificed the removable core fighter and a flip up chest piece for better chest arrangement. Maybe slope the shoulder cannons down to clear up the head (like all other releases of the God Gundam) and have enough space for a double jointed neck and maybe a unique ab joint (for the time). They did the same with the MG Exia and people hated it (which came out before this kit).

You can see the core fighter poking out here.

The rest are up to 2010 standards. The shoulders can pull out, which is pretty much standard now.

The elbows bend just over 90 degrees... which was pretty much what most of the 2010 kits had. the blue gauntlet sort of get's in the way as well. All the bits that stick out pretty much clashes with the articulation. The white bits for example gets in the way a bit when moving the arms.

The sword holders can swivel, but the static wings will almost always hit the base of the wings when turning the waist. The robot damashii fixes this by adding a swivel on the wings so it can get out of the way.

The hips is mounted on a polycap and can swivel up and down and move side to side. The modern T-bar crotch joint can only do one of them. There's some mold flash in mine though that makes it snap to one side. It also falls out a lot.

The hips are way too close to the base of the waist. Looks good yes, but limits the range. The knees work ok for now and the feet are on ball joints.

The back skirt can swivel out of the way a little, but it'll clash with that back pack. Seriously I hate how this kit is crippled simply because of that backpack.

The foot's range is a bit hampered by the massive ankle armor.

It can kneel yes, but all my efforts are in vain so far. I wonder how sir Dalong did it... maybe I should fix that polycap inside the crotch.

Mmmm salty

Overall, all the articulation points are present. The main issue is the head, which makes it hard to emote. The rest are decent and usable, but it's really difficult for me to get it in a more dynamic pose simply because it can't look the way you wanted it to look. The backpack also clashes with the shoulders and the beam sabers on the waist. If this was released 2017 though, I'm 100% sure that this will be excellent. It's the product of it's time sadly.

Weapons and Extras

It's a melee suit so it needs haaanddssss. It has 4 pairs: The close fists, the kung-fu hands, gripping hands and the god ginger hands. No open hands... I'm salty again.

Also the core fighter... grrr I'm soooo salty.

anyone else loving the frustration his in?

It's secured by friction and the 2 tiny slots on the side of the cockpit.

It also has 2 flat beam sabers. Tt should be more like a katana, but they just reused the 00 flat sabers.

The white shoulder cannon covers can be removed. The Wing Zero has better implementation since it doesn't hinder the articulation much due to the double jointed neck.

The other main gimmick is the conversion to Hyper mode. You open the top chest panel to reveal the uncolored energy collector and obscure the vision since the head can barely move

You move the gauntlet to another position, adding range to the elbow bend.

 You open up the wings so it'll get in the way of the shoulders because they can't move out of the way...

 and finally flip open the calf armor so it can no longer bend it's knees beyond 90 degrees. It doesn't tab to anything so it'll just flop down once you start fiddling around by it.

bend the knee... you can't can you?

While it looks good in the animation, you can't help how impractical the design is. Sure you could have added more joints, but that's so pieces can move out of the way.  It's makes it even more difficult to pose dynamically, so I'd rather just close the leg flaps. The Shining Gundam's design is a lot more practical.

or he could just be crap at posing

Size Comparison and Other Comparison

G Gundam gundams are smaller than you normal 18 meter Gundams. It's roughly 1 meter shoulder than the RX-78. But since my RX-78 is still being painted, I used Domon's students for size comparison.

The Denial towers over the God Gundam.

The Kamiki Burning is a little bit taller and tons more poseable.

Summary

Judging a 2010 kit using 2017 standards is stupid for sure. It would have been fine if they didn't cripple the neck since it helps it in more dynamic poses (you can look at your opponent for example). I doubt we'll get an updated one anytime soon. If you want a cheap modern HG of the God Gundam, it's your only choice. the Shining Gundam though is bit better objectively speaking. If you want a crazy articulate God Gundam, then try sourcing the Robot Damashii. If you just want an HG to place in crazy poses regardless of aesthetics, you can't go wrong with the Build Burning and it's variants.


Good:
- it looks good.
- Color separation is good.
- seams are minimal

Bad:
- average articulation and crap neck
- needs open palms
- I hate that backpack. It's your fault!