Gundam Information Center: May 2012

1/100 GB Gage-ing Builder

Age-1 Normal

Product Links:

http://www.ishop2go.com/productUR_001_PR_0001228_Prt_en.html

http://www.ishop2go.com/productUR_001_PR_0001229_Prt_en.html

http://www.ishop2go.com/productUR_001_PR_0001230_Prt_en.html

http://www.ishop2go.com/productUR_001_PR_0001231_Prt_en.html

http://www.ishop2go.com/productUR_001_PR_0001232_Prt_en.html

What's Included

1X Age-1 Chest & Head Piece

1X Left & Right Arms

1X Leg

1X DODS Rifle

1X Shield

1X GB Collectors Card

2X Instruction Packets

Well that is what the box looks like in general as well as the card that came with it. For starters the box was kind of interesting as I have never had a Gundam "toy" like this before. Generally nice experience in my opinion and it has left me with a thirst to get a few other GB's because of what I can do with them. (You will see hehe...)

Bio:

Now before I get to my review for those who are new to Gundam Age series. This is a short bio of the story to catch you all up. The Gundam Age series started off back in 4th quarter of 2011 following up to now. Now the series is different than any other we have ever seen because it shows the story in a new kind of way. To put it simply the story is cut into 3 generations. There is Flit Asuno's generation (Age-1), then Asemu Asuno's (Age-2), and last Kio Asuno's (Age-3). The story involves an unknown being who attacked a colony to obtain blueprints to a mobile suit uncovered from historic files. They are after the family who has the blueprints which coincidentally are the best mobile suit engineers of their time. However they fail and one survivor (Flit Asuno) is able to build the Age-1 a few years after along with the AGE System. The AGE System is a highly technologically advanced super computer basically. It collects data and helps the Gundam Age evolve according to the data it collects. There is also a special spacecraft built especially for the Gundams called the Diva. Now to put it shorter Flit with the help of the Diva crew and White Woolf who pilots the G-Exes uncovers the unknown beings true identity. Their true identity is humans really who wish to take of Earth for their own plans and they call themselves Vagans. This is where Gen 1 finishes. In Gen 2 we follow up with Asemu graduating and joining the Earth Federation in order to catch up to his father Flit. He is given the Age-2. He struggles to find himself because he is locked between catching up to his fathers shadow and also fighting his former best friend Zeheart who is a Vagan. To speed things up he finally knows what he is fighting for when he fails to save White Woolf. Now going back to the story the Vagans have a new plan to invade Earth. The Gen 2 ends with Flit and Zeheart working together to protect a Vagan spacecraft from falling and destorying the Earth due to damage. Now Gen 3 involves Kio Asuno using the Age-3 to protect the Earth from the Vagan invasion which was successful. His father Asemu went missing after he was born. You can catch a subbed version of the anime every Saturday-Sunday depending on how fast its subbed.

Personally I don't like the anime too much. It is great but they turned it into a cartoon. I have seen more detailed Gundams in past shows than this show. Its become focused on younger ages.

I hope the bio was informational. Now to continue on to the review! :)

Grades:

Before I begin I would like to cover the grades for those who don't know the difference. I am a beginner so correct me if I am wrong but I doubt it because I did my homework. :)

Advanced Grade: The Advanced Grade is similar to the High Grade however it is a faster produced and faster released product. For collectors mostly I believe its intended to satisfy the fans by giving them a fast release. The downside is this is probably the lowest grade you could get. It has very little detail and the articulation is almost half of the High Grade. This grade is good for customizing and etc. however...

I believe their sizes come in 1/144. I learned the bigger the size the better quality but nobody wants a kit as big as their legs if they don't have anywhere to put it so up to the fans or collectors.

High Grade: The High Grade is probably the best for your money's worth. It offers very accurate detail and great articulation. The size comes in 1/144 mostly. If you compare this with the AG(Advanced Grade) you will see the differences quickly. In my personal opinion this grade along with the next 2 I mention are the best grades available.

Real Grade: The Real Grade is probably the easiest to guess for quality. It comes in 1/144 and its quality as the name suggests provides a real touch to the kit. It comes with more detail and I emphasize more detail. It also has increased articulation and overall covers what the kit would actually look like. Although the HG(High Grade) does a good job in showing detail and accuracy of what the kit looks like this is just better. I can't say much but if you see any on sale don't blink just get it.

Master Grade: Now this is also easy to guess. It comes in 1/100 scale and it is basically the mastered version. If you have a HG and a RG feel free to compare. A HG usually has unstable balance and proportion and the articulation is satisfying. However the RG is a step up which completes most flaws of the HG. However the MG(Master Grade) is the mastered version. Let's use Age-1 as an example. If you have the AG it will have little to no detail and the proportion and articulation won't be as satisfying. Now if you have the HG version it will have more detail and more articulation and proportion. Then the RG which would have more detail and more articulation. It seems complex but I remember it this way: think of it as steps, AG is the first step which is to get the kit made, then HG which improves the important flaws in AG, then RG improves detail and articulation even more, leading to MG which masters the kit and has little to no flaws. :)

Gageing-Builder: Now this I won't cover too much. It is a new released product. It is not a kit. It is a toy. Yes a toy... it comes in 1/100 scale. It does not provide much except for space before its MG version comes out. It has little articulation and the detail is satisfactory. It is intended to be used with a special Gundam arcade that are not available anywhere else besides Japan correct me if I am wrong. So getting this while you live in America defeats the purpose unless you have customizing ideas and anything along those lines. Depending on the person it might be worth collecting or not worth collecting. Up to me I would say depends on selection.

Perfect Grade: Now the last grade! Yay! lol... now this basically defines itself. It is the perfected version of the kit. It comes in 1/60 scale. It is basically a bigger sized MG with perfected flaws to what little flaws a MG had. I suggest you get one and see where you want to go from there. Personally I see no need but for collection purposes you can never go wrong with one lol... :)

Now no more messing around. Moving onto the review! *wink*

Details:

Note: I will not include some pictures because I started customizing this after I released the videos hehe.... :)

You guys can see in the video the exact details but to put it simply here it is. For a toy such as this the detail I saw on this was very satisfying and detailed almost close to be able to be compared and rivaled against a MG. However it is not that detailed it is a toy and it was successful in resembling the on from the TV show accurately. It is a 1/100 scale so its bigger and has better room for detail while on the other hand a HG 1/144 is somewhat smaller and gets detail as much as it can or needs. Apologies if misunderstood but overall detail was nice.

Proportion:

When it comes to proportion there is nothing to say really. It is a 1/100 scale toy. Its proportions will be better than a 1/144 always because in 1/144 the proportion along with its detail is jammed up a little which makes it look "off" in some ways. The major proportion thing for the GB is the waist. Did it have accurate waist/torso connection? Did it look awkward? Did it look like the chest going down was inverted while the legs going up were outverted? For all of the questions above here is the answer; nope it was flawless it looked more humanoid than the HG Age-2 I got. The Age-2's waist/torso looked very weird.

Articulation:

When it comes to the articulation I believe the video which I will include at the bottom shows how well its flexibility is but to go over it shortly; head turns 360, arm turns all-around, waist turns 360, legs move almost 180 degrees, hand turns all-around, feet move left/right (which is perfect in some positional circumstances, the knee joints are very flexible might I add. In the HG I received previously I attempted the kit to take a knee position and its flexibility was a little handicapped which prevented it to do so. In this GB however I was able to and also successfully put it in a very nice position which I liked a lot. Overall articulation is very good and I emphasize on good literally there are no worries when it comes to articulation for this toy. :)

Accessories:

Well as previously stated I cannot show many pictures as I want because I customized it so I am leaving pictures for last. However there is a major flaw when it comes to the accessories. As you all know it came with a DODS rifle of course and a shield. The shield had no problem but when I tried to grip the DODS rifle with the GB's hands both at the same time. It couldn't reach. LOL.... kind of flaw you don't want on a toy like this but still with everything else it is still satisfactory. Just a bit pricey but if you find a promotion somewhere then feel free to try one out. iShop2Go has them on sale right now.

OHH BUT ITS NOT OVER O_o.... Now onto the Titus and Spallow coverage (crowd goes yay or boo.... <_<)

Titus:

Details/Proportion/Articulation:

Well I am also going to cover the Spallow so I am just going to jam everything up. Here are the photos I can provide because I only customized the Age-1 I ran out of paint so no Titus/Spallow customs. :(

Anyways to start off the detail is accurate enough and it gives off a statement in its own way. Now for proportion this is where the statement kicks in. I think they showed it off as too "big" and "bulky". If they somewhat did a better proportion job the Titus form would not look "fat". Apologies but that's the nicest way I can put it lol. As for articulation the arm and legs offer pretty much the same as the Normal form. There is a flaw though. The weapons it comes with... the small saber and the big saber.... NO KNEE/SHOULDER sabers!!!! *ARGH!!!* Anyways no problem there. Oh wait yeah there is a problem. The beam sabers don't fit in the hand LOL!!! I constantly force them in which I will no longer do because I don't want to break it. I do find it convenient though. Now I can use the weapons it came with for Age-1 Normal since in the show he had daggers and sabers which unfortunately came with the Titus if that makes sense. Anyways moving on to my favorite form. It just speaks and shows its sexy off lol....

Spallow:

Details/Proportion/Articulation/Weapons:

Well here is the continuation of this epic review... or is it epic? O_o...

Anyways as far as detail goes its same as previously stated. The proportions are also the same. Accurate to the tv show and etc.... However the articulation... is .... is... BETTER. Yeah no need for caps but its better. I don't know why but this is more flexible. Oh wait of course I know why lol. They made it like the one in the anime. It is sleek, stealthy, slim, etc... so of course this would be the most flexible form and they made it into the most flexible form so all in all great flexibility and articulation. As far as weapons go however. They messed up like in the Titus. For some reason they decided to include 2 of the same weapons in different colors... <_< c'mon man.... lol...

Still if I didn't get this I would because its worth it. Just for this form. I am a hardcore Spallow fan I guess so my opinion is reflecting the review but as far as a toy goes you can't go wrong with this at all. The only literall flaw I see in this is that its $35 really. iShop2Go gets rid of that flaw though. They have a promotion. I am not advertising here guys I am just saying even a penny counts. I look forward to getting more GBs! I want to collect em now because of this one.

Oh snap not done though. Now time for the videos and the custom pictures.. DUN DUN DUN.... o_O

AGE-1 Normal Custom

I haven't named it yet so feel free to tell me any names. I will make a video of this custom soon but here's all the photos I took of him. :) He is sexy in person let me tell you. As for where the idea came from. I was originally going to make a Iron Man custom but I ran out of red. So I opted out red for blue. It turned out so sexy.

^_^ O_O O_O O_O O_O ^_^

Thanks again!

Gundam Information Center

Sunday, May 20, 2012

1/100 GB Age-1 Normal Custom Gundam

MG 1/100 Buster Gundam Official Images @ Shizouka Hobby Show

HG 1/144 M1 Astray Official Images @ Shizouka Hobby Show

HGUC 1/144 RGZ-95C ReZEL Type [Defenser B-Unit] [GR] Official Images @ Shizouka Hobby Show

RG 1/144 Justice Gundam Official Images @ Shizouka Hobby Show

HG 1/144 G-Exes JackEdge & HG 1/144 Dark Hound Official Images @ Shizouka Hobby Show

HG 1/144 Age-3 Orbital Official Images @ Shizouka Hobby Show

MG 1/100 Blitz Gundam Official Images @ Shizouka Hobby Show

MG 1/100 Age-2 Normal Official Images @ Shizouka Hobby Show

Friday, May 18, 2012

1/100 GB Gage-ing Builder Age-1 Normal/Titus/Spallow Gundam Review