Gunpla #52 - RG Nu Gundam Review

Youtube review: https://youtu.be/GmIUivD0h70

Hi guys, it’s me again with another gunpla review, and today, I will talk about the most anticipated real grade kit of 2019, The Real Grade Nu Gundam from mobile suit gundam: Chars Counter Attack. As usual, before reviewing the kit, I would like to inform you that the original price of this kit is 4536 Yen (including the tax). I actually have started working on this kit since last week, but because of Obon Holiday in Japan, I became occupied with other things and got delayed on finishing the kit. By the way, another reason which made me so late making this review is because I spent too much time playing with the kit. Probably, this is the first time I had so much fun playing with an RG kit. I will show you why later. I will review the completed kit with the panel lines and decal stickers applied on it, then the articulation, gimmicks and options you have to play with it, and finally I will show you how to use effect parts for the fin funnels of the gundam.

So, here’s the completed Nu Gundam with panel lines and decal stickers applied on the kit. I think I don’t need to say much, because it’s just simply amazing, so detailed and totally eye candy. Everything looks right, the panel lines, the markings, everything. There are at least two tones of white for this kit. You can see slightly grayish white on the head, shoulders, front skirts, inner arms, and some parts of the legs. Similar with Real Grade Sazabi, this kit is not simply a scale-down MG Nu Gundam Ver Ka, because there are quite many things which differentiate this kit with its Master Grade counterparts. In term of proportion, I personally prefer this RG version compared to MG Nu ver Ka. The head is probably a little bit bigger, but I like better it than the MG version which has longer face. And the most important thing is, there are no psychoframe gimmicks on this kit like MG ver Ka . Some people may love it, and some probably hate it, but if you knew the story, the psychoframe for nu gundam exists around the cockpit only, so this RG version is actually the one which is more anime accurate compared to its MG counterpart.

The construction of this RG kit is a little bit similar with RG Sazabi. One thing I found very interesting about this kit however, is the role of Advanced MS Joint which is not used for the main body of the mobile suit, but rather for the fin funnels. The torso and limbs of Nu Gundam on the other hand, use inner frames quite similar with MG kit. So ... It kinda feels like building a MG kit in 1/144 scale. While building this kit, pay attention to the shoulder-torso joints and waist – leg joints, because they are quite difficult to connect. If you put too much pressure on the joints, it may end up with nasty stress marks on them. Also, be careful with the “v” insignia at the crotch, because it is really small and difficult to put on the place. Other than that, the assembly process of this kit is really enjoyable. Probably one of the best experience of I’ve ever had in gunpla building.

One thing which made many people skeptical when RG Nu Gundam was announced is the fin funnels. I guess everybody know how fragile the fin funnels connection on MG Nu Gundam ver Ka, however, such thing is not gonna happen again this time. While the connection itself looks a little bit similar, the difference in size and mass makes the fin funnels on RG Nu Gundam much more stable than its MG counterpart. So stable, they didn’t even fall apart when I shook the kit. In order to make the posing easier and more enjoyable, this kit introduced a new action base connection. Instead of connected to the crotch as normal RG kits usually do, the action base adapter is now connected to the backpack, and it could be attached to peg connector of action base. Since Nu Gundam has large funnels on its back, this new way of connection proven very useful to avoid them fall apart from the shocks while connecting the kit to the action base.       

Anyway, the thing that makes RG Nu Gundam stands out from another RG kits is the articulation. If you have built RG Sazabi before, you may notice that the kit had outstanding articulation despite its giant body. However, the joints and articulation gimmicks of Sazabi were pretty tight and a little bit difficult to pull out. While still inheriting the amazing articulation of Sazabi, RG Nu Gundam on the other hand, has much smoother and solid joints. It is really easy to move the head, arms, body and legs, without any worry you will break the plastics. The wrists of Nu Gundam also had extension gimmicks like Sazabi, but now, it’s much easier to pull out. The legs in particular, have sliding armor gimmicks, where the armors easily move while the leg bends. You can even lift the legs even further by modifying some joints on the waist section, which in my opinion is the most complicated gimmick of this kit. In order to do this, you need to apply a kind of locking-unlocking mechanism on some parts of the waist. Moving to the main body, the torso of this Nu Gundam incorporates an amazing articulation system which allows you to bend it forward, backward, left or even right so much easier than you can imagine. And the most important thing is, everything is so solid and nothing breaks or falls apart when you move any body parts of this kit.

Another incredible thing this kit inherits from the RG Sazabi is open hatch gimmicks. Some body parts like shoulders, cockpit, chest, front skirts and calves could be opened in certain degrees. Again, all these gimmicks are really simple and easy to pull out. Also, these gimmicks also give hints that Bandai may probably released add-on for Heavy Weapon System for this kit in the near future.

All this things make RG Nu Gundam really fun to play with. You can make so many cool poses without any worries of falling parts or fin funnels. Seriously, in terms of articulation and stability, there is no doubt that Nu Gundam is currently the king of RG line.

Similar with RG Sazabi, this kit comes with three sets of hands and one right trigger hand. It retains the beam rifle, shield, bazooka and two beam sabers with three beam effect parts, and of course there’s also a tiny figurine of Amuro Ray. The bazooka could easily be attached to the backpack with a special peg connector. This kit also comes with backpack parts to make the double fin funnels system, which is will be released as p-bandai next month. This is not covered in the manual, but you could actually make the light version of double fin funnels with the backpack part. And of course, if you have two RG Nu Gundams, you could make the actual double fin funnels without buying the p-bandai kit.

Anyway, despite all its greatness, there’s one downside of this kit: the shield. While the shield itself is beautiful and highly detailed, it has one major flaw. Instead of using peg connector, the shield just simply clips around the arm which is not very secure since a slight shock could make it falls off.

 The last thing I would like to talk is the effect parts for fin funnels. Bandai released figure-rise-jet effect on the same day as RG Nu Gundam, and they are perfectly compatible. These effect parts come in two sets of colors, yellow and blue, and each set could be use for three fin funnels. Remember, only three funnels, so if you want all six funnels flying, you should buy at least 2 sets of effect parts. This effect part has two kinds of connector, the “plus” shaped connectors which could be attached to Nu Gundam fin funnels, and “circle” shaped connectors which could be used for ... guess what ? Yes, for the funnels of RG Sazabi. Using these effect parts, you can recreate the battle scenes of these two iconic mobile suits from the anime. Believe me, it was so satisfying to play with these two kits together.

The verdict is, I have no doubt that the RG Nu Gundam by far, is the best RG kit ever released by Bandai. Certainly it is not a perfect kit, but in term of aesthetics, articulation, gimmicks and stability, this is truly an engineering marvel and one of the best experience I’ve ever had from gundam plastic model kit. No matter if you are a fan of Nu Gundam or not, I recommend you to have this kit, build it, pose it and enjoy the feeling of accomplishment.

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RX-93 Nu Gundam

Pros:

• Man ... Except the shield connection, everything was perfect

Cons:

• Shield connection was very unsecured, really easy to fall off