Friday, November 18, 2011

RG 1/144 Freedom Gundam - Images & Review by Gundam Guy

RG 1/144 ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam (Released in Japan, Price: 2500 yen)
Reveiw by Gundam Guy
GG INFINITE: PRE-ORDER ITEM 
I've caught a bad cold.. so I stayed home and took a little time to take some images of the my straight build RG 1/144 Freedom Gundam which is being released in Japan today.  So Instead of a wordy review, I will just let the images do most of the talking, and provide my thoughts here and there about this latest RG release.
After I finished assembling the kit and playing around with it a bit, I must say that this is the first RG kits that felt sturdy, and not as flimsy as the previous 4 RGs.  I can play around with the RG Freedom by doing various poses and the kit holds up nicely with hardly any parts fell off  (well, maybe the wing did fall off 1 or 2 times), but still the overall build is very solid.  

Probably the only minor negative for this kit is that the wings have a serious weight issue, the kit cannot stand on its own with the wings attached.  The RG Aile Stike barely got by standing on its own with a wide leg stance, but the RG Freedom's wing is so much more heavier even the upper torso get dragged backwards over time.  I used a Tamashii Stand Act 4 to support the upper torso for display, and I think it is definitely better than using an Action Base.  But I guess the weight issue is expected from most winged mobile suit gunplas... so no biggie.

Another minor negative about the wings is that when you play around with it (moving the wings a lot), the wing could become loosen and wing plates might fall off.  But this rarely happened.
The shoulder joints can be extended outward to allow the arms to have much more articulations than previous RGs. 
The infamous problem that plagued the early RGs were the weak connectivity for the waist skirts.  They pop out when you touch / trying to do various leg poses.  This time the joints that connects with the waist skirts are actually part of the lower torso inner frame, so they cannot be detach easily.  And the result are very solid waist skirts and I didn't have any problems of them falling off at all.  Is a nice evolution for the RG series.
Is really good of Bandai to give provide a total of 6 manipulators.  The manipulator seen below (top left) is dedicated for holding the beam rifle (and the beam saber).  There are also 1 opened palm hand, 2 closed fists, and 2 hands w/ movable fingers.  This is definitely a step up for the RG series, as I recalled the frustration I had with the RG Aile Strike's manipulators having the beam rifle / beam saber falling off all the time.  Now, we can have solid manipulators that are not pretentious.
Gimmick: Shoulder Exhaust moves up / down
Gimmick: Booster cover that can be lifted up.
Open / Close Cockpit hatch
Includes a 1/144 Kira Yamato figure holding his helmet on his shoulder.  Too bad the kit didn't come with a sitting Kira figure to be used in the cockpit.
Various Action Poses:
The RG 1/144 Freedom Gundam is one of the most solid build for the RG series to date.  And is a great addition to the series.  Now I will need to find the time to paint this baby...
Images from G.G.

7 comments:

  1. Awesome right up! I can't wait to get my own and see for myself. Hope you feel better quickly.

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  2. I meant write up... it's late.

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  3. Awesome! Not that it would have affected my purchase in the least, as I already pre-ordered this baby weeks ago...but the stability is good to know.

    And the blue trim on the rifle is great...something that the Master Grade had to make do with a sticker.

    More hands is always good. Honestly, I expect RGs to be better than HGs in that respect, at least.

    Thanks for taking the time to review and snap photos of this kit despite feeling under the weather. Get well, soon GG!

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  4. short and simple yet imformative review. glad to see the rg improvement esp the 2 point you've stated. hoping for a rg mkII or gp series.

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    1. MK 2 is the next RG

      pitty you hate 00 but each to their own, even if you are a -shudders- age fan

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  5. Seems like people catching colds left and right ^^;

    The RG Freedom sounds worth to get. I like the SEED series and its Mobile Suits designs (GAT-X series particularly). Pick this kit up when there's a sale for it. :)

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