Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory was... interesting. I won't say it was good, but yeah, you know, just interesting. The story had a good premise: After One Year War, we could take a look at the Earth Federation that are rebuilding everything from scratch and Zeon remnants that are thirsty of revenge. I was very interested to see how EF and earth do after OYW (I was taken a back when I watch a HUGE MOTHER OF GOD HOLE that once was... Sidney. Poor the kangaroos, they didn't see the colony was coming...). So I thought the story will be good. Until... The super weird romance destroyed all. Seriously, Kou-Nina's romance was ridiculous (I thought they loved Gundam more than each other -_-) and when I knew Gato was Nina's first (before Kou, at least) and Nina chose to betray everyone (Kou and EF) just for Gato I was ("°π°). And yes, Nina Purpleton was a b*tch.
Anyway... we are here not for talk about Stardust Memory's weird romance. We'll talk about Gunpla of Stardust Memory's GP series: the RX-78GP01Fb aka GP01 "Zephyrantes" Full Vernian. This was Kou's first (or second?) gundam, specially modified for space-use. This was rather old (released in 2003), so the techs was not as good as new released HG, especially in articulations and color separation. So don't expect something fancy... I decided to buy this kit because I am currently polishing my technique of building, and this kit was cheap (less than 20$) so I thought this kit was a good-for-practice (in other word, it was just my guinea pig, sorry Kou...).
The box is bigger than most of newly HG kit's. When I opened it, I got 7 runners (5 parts, 2 polycaps) and very few stickers. The amount of runners rather small because this kit is simple in design. Assembling this kit was simple task, but panel lining it was rather pain in the ass. Maybe I was just not good enough yet? But thank God, the finished kit are pretty good in my opinion (self-praising??). Next, time to review the finished kit!
In term of appearance, this kit is okay... but just okay. Not very cool, or majestic, or menacing... just okay. I have to tell that this kit is lacking of something special. The overall design is simple (better than RX-78-2 though...), the color scheme is pretty standard, the detail is lacking... so this kit does not really stand out. The proportion is also a little miss to me. I think it is too bulky and does not fit the image of "fast and agile" MS. My Ex-S is also bulky but the amount of thrusters help it to stand out as "fast" mobile suit (not agile one, though). But again, it is okay, not bad. At least, the simple design made this kit solid and neat. No sloppy parts or back-heavy pack.
In terms of articulation, again this kit is okay. Better than Ex-S, at least. The knees and elbows only bend around 90° though they are double-jointed (again, design miss). No 00-style thighs, no split. Other articulations are good enough.
This kit are equipped with just only a beam rifle, a shield, and a beam saber. The rifle is standard two-plastics-slapped-together. The beam saber, uhm... just an all-white toothpick. I had to painted it red. Sigh... Good thing is that this kit came with a cool core fighter. But it would be really cool if Bandai included extra open hands.
Conclusion:
Good things: solid and neat design, cheap price, core fighter in addition.
Bad things: design is lacking of something special, no extra open hand, toothpick beam saber.
Overall score: 8/10
Suggestion: use this kit for polishing your building skill! It would be a perfect practice object since it is simple and cheap, yet still has good looks.
Because one to another things, I only could post some pics taken by phone camera. As soon as possible I will post better pics!
