Nekko Basara

Pull pins and get clear.

Neko Mimi Mode-o, neh?

This... I might need. Please, please tell me they don't make a "sea turtle" version.

I grabbed the AEUG from Amazon Warehouse deals. Although I am intrigued by the color scheme and extra thruster parts on the Titans, I prefer to keep my Gundams all roughly Gundam-colored. Also, I haven't seen Zeta, so no attachment to the source material.

Your Mk. II looks excellent, by the way, and I am awed by your speed. I also appreciate the shot of the legs - I'll see how close to that stance my GP01 can manage, and get a picture of it.

Ok, you convinced me. Ordered !

I dunno, Renato strikes me as exactly the kind of relentless pedant that I identify with.

If you read this, Renato, I hope you take that with kindness ;-)

HG = 1/144 Simpler kits, easy to build and pose. Rarely have an inner frame.

MG = 1/100 Greater detail, usually with some "gimmicks." Inner frames (or partial ones) are common on recent kits.

PG = 1/60 "Perfect" representations, replete with detail and gimmicks. Use full inner frames with layered armor.

RG = 1/144 Detail similar to MG or PG, but much smaller and less expensive (and very fiddly as a result). Full inner frame system.

I'm not totally sure if it's the same frame, but the details I can spot make me think so (but, no, the GP01 has no hoses). The big thing is those double pistons on the front of the ankles. Anyways, what I mostly want to know is if it can bring its legs down straight below the pelvis to knock the feet together, or if they must always be slightly spread. It's a small detail, but I find it really changes some of the posing options.

I also appreciate your thoughts on the hoses. I was skeptical about how those would go together - glad to hear they aren't bad. The Zaku II has something a bit similar with its hoses, which are flexible plastic rods that you sort of string cylinders onto like beads. They have me concerned; I'll let you know how they work out.

Hmmm. My wife and I are only about halfway through Sidonia. Should I avoid this SpeakerPodCast until we finish it? I desperately want to think the series will do something spoiler-worthy, because so far it has been painfully formulaic.

Really curious about your experience with the Mk II. It is on my short list because I have read that it is very solid and less fiddly than some of the other RGs. I think it uses the same inner frame as the GP01 (but with a full torso), so I'd like to hear what you think of the hips in particular.

How's the GP01? I'm not sure if I want to do it, the Zaku II, or Exia next (after the Mk II and Destiny).

Well, I'll preface briefly by saying that I recently gave up on Stardust Memory halfway through, because I found it dull, wooden, and horrendously sexist (even by 90s anime standards!). But I do love the Kawamori MS designs, and although Wing is the only Gundam series I have much history with, I owned an awesome 1/60 toy of the GP-01fb fifteen or so years ago, so it holds a special place for me. I chose to do the "plain" Zephyranthes in RG, though, because I always found those back boosters to be awkward.

Anyhow, the RG is slightly compromised by the fully functioning core fighter (which cannot be skipped like in the RX-78-2). The waist can be a bit loose and may not have as much flexibility as other suits (although it stil has some!), and the top of the torso does like to detach. Basically, it just makes it more fiddly and troublesome to pose, but I think it's well worth it for that amazing feature.

The design is very brawny and dynamic compared to the RX-78-2; any way that you pose it, it looks like it is either in motion or coiled like a spring. I think that's fantastic, but the thicker limbs do mean a bit less range of motion. And the hip skirts aren't going anyplace on this one - they are constructed much better. Aside from the easily-detached torso, my only big gripe with the GP-01 is that the hip joint does not allow the legs to swing straight under the pelvis to assume an "at attention" type pose. The suit must always have its legs spread in a slight A-stance, which is, again, very dynamic, but also limiting to the looks you can get. In a nutshell, if the RX-78-2 can pose like a real human, the GP-01 is limited to posing more like a burly anime boxer. I may be overstating it, though - it's still fantastically poseable, and the way the armor moves in the process is masterful.

Accessories are what you'd expect and not much more. It has some trigger/beam saber holding hands, so you don't have to rely on the fully articulated ones, but no splayed or emotive hands. It has no bazooka, but it does have spare beam saber handles, so you can show the ones without pegs on its back and use the peg ones to hold. The rifle and the shield look nice enough, although my shield had some molding marks that had to be sanded out, followed with a clearcoat.

Just a few other observations. It has absolutely miniscule cleats or something that fold out of the soles of its feet; I have no idea why, but they are one of the smallest mechanisms I have seen on a model kit, so I am impressed. In a strange move for a RG, the canopy of the core fighter needs some white paint to look show accurate. However, you won't see that if you keep it tucked away. The suit does have all the hinges to let you open the canopy and chest for pilot access in MS mode - more insane engineering.

On an aesthetic level, the RG GP-01 looks very different from the RX-78-2. Not only is the design itself chunkier, more detailed, and more dynamic, but the kits differ in some key details. The color-separation of multiple whites/grays is much less pronounced, usually separating only large sections of armor and being much less noticeable overall. The panels lines are also much heavier on the GP-01; on the RX-78-2 they are like fine spiderwebs, whereas the GP-01 is covered in deep, dark trenches by comparison. It's very striking, but again lends a slightly more cartoonish look (if you don't detail the panel lines, this is probably much less apparent). I don't know if my pictures captures this, but I find the two suits almost look like they came from different lines when placed together.

Alright, so I wrote way too much. Bottom line is that the GP-01 is another amazing RG. It's fiddly in the extreme, but that's to be expected. It would probably be very redundant to build both it and the "Full Bernen" version, but I definitely suggest getting one of the pair.

Looking good! Better action pose than I can usually manage.

All of your observations on the RX-78-2 match my experience with it, and what I have read in reviews. Bandai clearly learned a lot from this kit, and later ones reflect improvements in several of those areas. The front skirts and thruster nozzles are the worst parts for me.

Having said that, I don't think any other RG uses color separation (in the sense of having multiple hues of the same color) as extensively or as well as that kit. Part of the reason it falls apart so easily is that it has more parts than strictly necessary just to achieve the contrast of, say, three slightly different light grays in each limb. Later kits will still have two or even three shades of each color, but there doesn't seem to be as much effort put into using them in interesting ways on the same area.

Also, I personally think the way the armor moves around the joints is not worse on the RX-78-2, it's just different. The animated design is so simple relative to later ones that it just doesn't have any of that complexity inherent in the armor, so it's all "invented" for the models. And rather than having armor move around in really dynamic ways that don't fit the base design, it mostly just shifts and opens up gaps. I dig it, but I see that it's a matter of taste.

Oh, and those joint stickers? Yeah, they just suck. I started just skipping them and using copper paint or even metallic Sharpie instead..

Here's a little gallery of my RX-78-2 and GP-01.

It seems like the conclusions being drawn about how it was shot down are based entirely upon what systems are in the area and what the flight profile was. That's not to say the conclusions are invalid, but it's not the same as direct evidence (e.g. recovered pieces of the weapon, satellite imagery of the launch profile, first-hand accounts or confessions, etc.) It seems like in the next few days, evidence of this nature may be revealed and settle the "how" question. "Why" is another matter.

My wife is petty cross that they gave the female lead an SD gunpla. I can't say I disagree. China's Beargguy was cutesy too, of course, and Carolyn had an SD, but they weren't main fighting characters. Aila was the real fighter and there was nothing cute about her two gunpla.

I made a little album of my RG Freedom.

I hear you on the Freedom / Strike Freedom choice. I just split in the other direction and did Freedom because I couldn't stomach that mustard-colored frame. But yours looks great, and my wife has actually been making noises about wanting to try the Strike Freedom as her first RG!

I haven't been building much, but I have Char's Zaku II on deck (I also lean towards green over red, but looking at other Gundam and Macross kits on my wish list, there seemed to be more red options, so I decided to go for a theme). Mk II and Aile Strike also look tempting, although I think the former is on the same frame as the GP-01, and I'm not thrilled with how those hips work.

I'm confused by the info versus the image - the tousled redhead in the middle isn't Reiji? He presumably could handle any time-skip due to his alternate dimensional nature, but I admit that kid looks even younger than Reiji as we knew him.

Kinda bummed that the new show won't focus on the characters we came to know in Season 1, but I'm sure there will be cameos. I thought maybe the older China that was shown in April might be related to the new series, but she certainly didn't look TEN YEARS older. That's a lot of time!

Sounds like you are thoroughly hooked on the RGs, Mike. I think that's great, and I love the picture.

I don't know much about SEED at all - my wife and I couldn't work up much enthusiasm after two episodes - bit I feel like the over-the-top designs have a certain charm. They mostly seem to be very slender and lithe mobile suits with outrageous backbacks. Realistic military equipment? Heck no... but does any red, white, and blue giant humanoid robot really look like plausible military hardware?

If you want a cheap and fun side-project that gets a lot closer to "realistic" looking, check out the HGUC LOTO 2-pack from Unicorn. Those things could pass for destroids, IMO.

I'm imagining Fukuyama with a mega-sized, Nendoroid-style helmet, to avoid messing up the hair.

Which is AWESOME!

When I was maybe 14, my best friend who lived across the street got a hold of a VHS copy somehow. We grew up together with Robotech, and he told me it was like that but with boobies and more violence. So I watched it with him, and all I really remember was it was awesome and a guy's head got squished and, yep, there was a shower scene. Oh, and Max and Miriya's hallway fight rendered in muzzle flashes was the coolest thing I'd ever seen (Max was my personal hero from about age eight, so...).

I'm guessing that was the Clash of the Bionoids version, based on the timing, but I don't recall the specifics. Then in college around '94 I rented the '91 VHS release from a comic shop (I remember the box on that one) and enjoyed the heck out of it. I remember being struck by how clearly I remembered certain scenes from earlier, even though I have no impressions of the plot.

I think seriousness in Macross is more about tone than about themes. What I mean is that all Macross series deal with a story where humanity, or the chunk of it we see in the story, is threatened with annihilation or subjugation (I'm admittedly hazy on what Sharon's plans were). Likewise, a war is going on in each (although Plus is again the outlier, as the war is somewhat distant). In any case, this is clearly serious business.

Where they differ is in the tone they take. Macross Zero, for example, is almost completely devoid of humor (the marriage sticks are the only thing that comes to mind), and has hardly any light-hearted moments. Plus is nearly as dire, with only Isamu's antics (and straight-man Yang) to lighten the tone in a few spots. Seven, on the other hand, is packed with gags and silliness in nearly every episode. The other series probably fall somewhere in between.

But I don't think the difference is one of themes. Macross is nearly always about serious concepts, it just approaches them in a more or a less playful manner.

Maybe I could have just said, "jenius has the right idea" ;-)

Beargguy HeavyArms Custom.

She had a 100% approval rating!

I think I've been veefed.

This may have been brought up before (I did read some old miclone threads), but why does the Frontier fleet have Zentraedi citizens in non-miclone form? From the perspective of a space fleet with limited resources (space, food), that just seems insane.

(I'll concede that it's easy to tend the hippo-cows when they are the size of guinea pigs to you, but when you have to eat a couple for every meal, it seems like the benefits cancel out.)

Noyhauser, which Dora kit is that? The camo is looking real good.