Gunpla #44 - HGGO GM Sniper Custom Review

I love sniper mobile suits. They look so badass and could kill enemies silently from distance with outstanding accuracy. In the past, I have built GM Sniper II of HGUC line, and it was a really good kit, with cool gimmicks and accessories. This time I will review another HG GM Sniper, from Origin series. This p-bandai kit was released in August 2018, following the first GM of Origin series, the GM Guard Custom, which is a retail released. Being a modified version of one of the best HGs, does this GM have the same quality as its brother unit? Well ... let's see.

The aesthetics of HG GM Sniper Custom is on par with GM Guard Custom, probably even better because there are several details added to the design. This kit has olive-green and grey base color, compared to blue-white of GM Guard Custom, and a red visor which looks more serious and militaristic. The antenna was located on the top of head, and with additional thrusters on the legs and backpack. The backpack design is also different from GM Guard Custom. Sadly, as usual, parts of color separation were done by foil stickers, with the biggest (and most annoying) ones are for the lower parts of the backpack. Nevertheless, this kit looks so great with decal stickers put on through out its body. In my opinion, it looks even cooler than its Master Grade version which was released earlier.

With GM Guard Custom

Due to the overall similar design with GM Guard Custom, this GM Sniper exactly has the same great articulation of the former kit. Unfortunately, it also inherits the weakness, including the weak hands and limited front-skirt articulation. Anyway, it could still do some cool poses, for example, the standing or even kneeling sniper poses. This kit comes with more aggressive accessories: a sniper rifle, beam spray gun, and a beam saber (with a pair of beam effects). The beam spray gun could be stored on the left leg while the beam saber hilts is attached on the back of right arm, which looks so damn cool! The sniper rifle could be folded and stored at the back skirt which has a special connector for it. Unfortunately, the backpack doesn't have any plugs/connectors for kitbashing as GM Guard Custiom. Lastly, it also has one spare part for the leg without gun connector.

Left image: what you'll see on the promotional images. Right image: the reality with the left hand. 

Anyway, in spite of all its greatness, this kit has one major flaw: it lacks left open-hand for holding the sniper rifle. I couldn't believe Bandai decided to exclude such important accessory. This kit only has 2 standard hands and 1 right trigger hand, completely same with GM Guard Custom. Imagine, a sniper kit without a hand to hold the sniper. It's so ridiculous! Now I understand why the promotional images on the websites and box-art don't show any poses with left hand holding the rifle!

Open left hand from HG Build hands

Fortunately, I have bunch of custom hands from builder parts and build custom series. Therefore, I  just took one M-size open left hand from HG Build hands edge, and voila, problem solved! It even has pretty same color with the original GM hands. Still, I felt annoyed with how Bandai abandoned a left open hand for this kit. Was it intentional to keep the price low? Regardless the reasons are, excluding an open hand for sniper kit is unacceptable. I prefer paying more for an extra hand than having an inexpensive kit without proper accessories. By the way, in the end, this kit finally could show the poses it deserves:

Finally, the verdict, this kit has (almost) all qualities of GM Guard Custom has: beautiful aesthetics, great articulation and nice weapons. Unfortunately, the exclusion of open left hand makes it looks so dumb as a sniper kit, not even mentioning that it's released as a p-bandai. I don't recommend anybody to buy this kit, unless you have spare of extra custom open left hand for it. 

--------------------

RGM-79SC GM Sniper Custom

Pros:

• Cool, high-detailed design, looks better than its MG version (MSV)
• Great articulation, able to do kneeling poses
• Extra gimmicks for storing beam saber and sniper rifle

Cons:

• No open left hand for holding the sniper rifle
• Limited articulation for the front skirt and weak hands
• Color separation with lots of foil stickers for back pack and some parts of the body