Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Review: Robot Damashii God Gundam
| Figure Information | |
| Manufacturer: | Bandai |
| Figure Number: | 168 |
| Origin Series: | Kidou Butouden G Gundam |
| Scale: | Non-scale |
| Height: | Approximately 14 cm tall |
| Price: | 5,184 yen |
| Packaging: |
The God Gundam a.k.a. Burning Gundam to some is my very first purchase from Bandai's "Robot Damashii" a.k.a. "The Robot Spirits" line and if you're wondering if you'll see more RD reviews here in the future, definitely there will be BUT only limited to G Gundam since I love that series so much.
Starting off with the packaging, over the years, RD had been using the same style of box design and they do sometimes switch the white with another color but the God Gundam's packaging follows the more generic format.
Now, I barely look at RDs before so I don't know if it's a common thing to have a really cool shopped product pic in the back as part of their product advertisement but yeah, a big and really epic God Finger shot is provided at the back along with some of the Gundam's highlights and gimmicks.
One side of the box feature the Gundam in standing pose while the other is just the remaining piece of the window with the R No. and the Robot's name below.
Additionally, I thought it was pretty neat of them to do so as the top of the box has Japan's "flag" along with the label "Mobile Fighter of Neo Japan". 8Db
| Details: |
The overall mold of RD God Gundam comes in a really well balanced mix of proper proportions and juicy detailing and I must say that I am really impressed with the overall finish.
I guess on of the things that usually put me off on RDs since way back
when I look at them is that they sometimes look cheap, well, the plastic
or the color looks cheap and I guess it's somehow the impression when I look at the Gundam's head; I can't really point what makes it look that way but for me, I guess it's how the paint blends or maybe it's another case of the Zangetsu white; I also think the eyes could've been bigger so that it could've popped out a bit more as the eyes certainly look too small for RD God Gunam. Gripes aside, I am pretty impressed that they didn't leave the head vulcans uncolored which helps add more life and flavor to the finished product.
Leaving the head and going in to the body, the quality now becomes good as pretty much almost every bit of important detail are spot on, panel lines aside of course. The choice of blue and red really come out and does make the Gundam look rightfully majestic and though the yellow works just fine, I think it could've been better.
When you first open up the package, the Core Lander is detached and if only they could've incorporated a full Core Lander gimmick, it would've been a lot better but for simplicity, they decided not to. The boosters on the Core Lander surprised me as it features one of (if not) the most detailed part of the figure since the paint finish on it is absolutely great as they ditch sticking to just one dull color.
The wings on the Core Lander actually do open up to allow the figure for certain finisher poses.
Upon closing them back, the wings actually has a lock to keep them from looking displaced, so don't mind the left wing in the pictures below as it's not locked properly.
RDs are really small and as a friend of mine would dub it, it's the "Figuarts" of Real Robots and to give a size comparison, below is a shot of the God Gundam standing next to Figuarts Eternal. RD God Gundam stands just a little shorter than Eternal so it's really puny. XD
| Accessories: |
RD God Gundam comes with a load of accessories that include the "opened" claws for each arm, a pair of God Finger hands, an opened chest part, an extension piece that attaches with the clear "L" clamp to hold the ring effect that all comes into place when he uses his finisher moves such as God Finger.
Finisher move parts aside, it also comes with a pair of beam saber effects which you can attach to the God Slasher hilts mounted on the sides of the skirt as well as a pair of open hands, chopping hands and gripping hands.
| Articulation Points: |
Head articulation can definitely look up, down, left and right, I believe there's a ball joint beneath the neck and that is where most of the movement comes from when it comes to the head.
Much like most figuarts, RD God Gundam can fully rotate at the arms (except when it bumps with the wings of course) and can raise sideways up to a perfect 90 degrees, the shoulder pads also allows minor tilts.
Tamashii had put an extra amount of work on the mobile fighter's frame as they included one special joint on the shoulders that lets you stretch the arms to the opposite side to a delicious extent. It's actually a hinge which you can see below.
The elbows are double jointed and it allows for a good 75 degree-ish bend.
The torso mostly moves via the waist joint but there is a very very minor ab crunch in there which I couldn't show off in a picture because of how unnoticeable it is but yeah, the waist allows the Gundam for some good enough tilts and sideways movement. It's a bit tight on mine so I didn't bother messing with it too much.
To help with the leg movement, the front and side "skirts" can be raised and are using ball joints though the front ones are more limited and can only be used to raise them mostly.
With the skirts out of the way, the ball joints on the hips will allow you to have God Gundam split to a decent degree and kick forward to just a bit more than 90 degrees. Knees are double jointed and can assume around a 75 degree bend.
Shoulder aside, there is another modded joint that's available for the mobile fighter and that is a swivel in the midsection of the double jointed knees; this allows the Gundam to do more martial arts poses more effectively.
Finally, the ankles have a good tilt as well as rotation and the feet can actually bend downwards to a full 90 which is perfect for Mobile Fighters.
| Poseability: |
With all the meaty articulation points, how does RD God Gundam actually fare in actual posing? Great if you ask me, the new and special points of articulation work very well when the overall dynamics come into factor.
CQC, martial arts or just general brawling, God Gundam can definitely do it without sweat and the fact that the Core Lander extension piece has a built in tamashii stage port actually helps in making more poses possible. One grip I have is that the chopping hands could've been better since it can only bend up and not down which is much needed to the pose Domon does before using Choukyuu Haou Den'eidan.
The wonders of the special shoulder joint actually allows RD God Gundam to do neat poses such as drawing the God Slasher from its storage and even double gripping the hilt!
The God Slashers are very welcomed as you can definitely make some parts of God Slash Typhoon possible or just enjoy a variety of sword poses with the RD's frame.
Of course, no God Gundam is complete without its Hyper Mode form which can be achieved with some parts swapping and man, the ring effect looks pretty neat!
With the Hyper Mode parts' inclusion, RD God Gundam feels really complete and that's pretty much all I could ask for. An ability to recreate a lot of iconic poses as well as a lot more definitely makes this figure a highly poseable rendition of the mecha.
If you've played Heroes' VS then you'd know why I pitted God Gundam against Eternal on the next bunch of fun shots for you guys to enjoy.
| Final Thoughts: |
For my first RD experience, God Gundam proves to be a promising piece and it definitely makes me look forward to Master Gundam's release on January next year. For the pricepoint, I think it's pretty much worth it given the vast articulation additions here just to give that authentic Gundam Fighter experience on a figure. If you collect RDs and haven't got God Gundam yet, definitely pick it up and you won't be disappointed (unless you get hit by bad QC that is). I got this majestic Gundam from Onegai Onii-chan, so check them out!
I give Neo Japan's Mobile Fighter an erupting 4 out of 5.
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