#rx-78-2

MARKINGS - There is no "one true design" for the Gundam, and the various designs for decals on model kits or paintings of the RX-78-2 show this well.

NOSE - While the original design of the head is variable in its design (especially around the faceplate, which could either have a flat top or a jagged top), a good amount of the illustrations show that the red section under the eyes was intended to be in the shape of a nose and upper cheeks. This is similar to other giant robots of the era, like Mazinger Z or Zambot 3.

VENTS - Some depictions of the RX-78-2 have extruded yellow frames around the chest vents instead of vents directly inset in the chest. While this is a design trait that the later RX-178 Gundam Mk-II has featured since its first appearance, the RX-78-2 wouldn't be depicted with them until its first Master Grade model kit in 1995. Now, this look is part of the variable design "canon", and appears on some iterations of the RX-78-2 like the Ver. Ka or the Gundam: The Origin design.

YELLOW V-FIN/ANTENNA - The RX-78-2 is occasionally depicted with the crest on its head in yellow instead of white, especially in early merchandise of the show. This may have been because early giant robot toys used softer, rubbery material for pointy design elements, and that material only came in a yellow color. On the RX-78-2, this yellow coloration is also used in the Gundam: The Origin manga, alongside a green camera at the top of the head and eyes that often glow pink.

JOINTS - In 1979, mechanical design wasn't as rigorous as it would eventually become. An early robot anime to consider a properly articulated inner frame was Heavy Metal L-Gaim, with Mamoru Nagano as the mechanical designer. He and other artists began bringing a more realized sense of design to robot anime. Nagano did some of the mobile suit designs for Zeta Gundam and Gundam ZZ. The evolution of manufacturing for plastic models and toys likely also had an impact on the design of the RX-78-2's joints.

HANDS - In the original Mobile Suit Gundam, all hands on mobile suits had a rounder, smooth look to them. Nowadays, E.F.S.F. mobile suits are depicted with more rectangular fingers and palms, with Zeon mobile suits having more round elements on their hand designs.

SKIRT - Modern depictions of Gundams nearly all have sectioned skirts meant for free articulation of the legs. However, the original design had the pelvis as one solid piece. Some modern iterations of the design use a solid pelvis in explicit reference to the original look, like the G40 or the Gundam from the other side in GQuuuuuuX.

While it's not labelled as such, this is basically an Entry Grade kit. It's got the same simple runners. The same touch-gates. The same surprising color accuracy without any stickers. As such, it's a very quick build.

One of the things that makes this kit so much fun is all the little nostalgic/historic asides in the instructions. Little reminders of what it was like to build gunpla way back in the day.

While I didn't actually get into gunpla until fairly recently - I did build plastic models way back in the '80s and I can certainly remember some of those anecdotes.

The build is super, super simple. It's all very hollow with no hint of an inner-frame at all. Very simple joints with very limited articulation. Hardly any surface detail. Very little panel-lining.

But it's got that same, surprising Entry Grade color accuracy. There's no stickers at all. Everything you're seeing on the head up there is color-accurate plastic. Even that little, yellow 'v' on the crotch is separate plastic.

Every time I build one of these EG-ish kits I find myself wondering why they can't manage this level of color-accuracy in HG kits.

Unsurprisingly there's not a lot of accessories in this kit.

We get a shield, a beam rifle, a beamsaber, and an extra beamsaber hilt. That extra hilt is for use with a beamsaber effect part - but one is not included with this kit. That's probably fine... I've certainly got plenty of spare saber effects from all my other kits... But it still feels a little weird to get that empty hilt without anything to put in there.

Also - the beamsaber is completely unpainted. Just solid white. The pink you see up there is from a fluorescent pink paint marker.

Clearly the proportions and shapes are a little wonky on this kit. The shield is shaped weird. The beam rifle is tiny. The whole robot is recognizably "Gundam" - but not actually even remotely accurate. It's got the same kind of janky charm as the classic first Gundam series. It's very reminiscent of some of the old off-spec animation.

The articulation and posability is pretty terrible. There's some halfway decent ankle and knee bends... But the hips are so limited that you can't really do anything with it. The arms and shoulders are a little better, but not much. There's absolutely no flex at the waist. You're simply not going to get anything real dynamic out of this thing.

Here you can see the difference between the included baton beamsaber and an effect part... And, honestly, the effect part doesn't look right. This kit is so janky and misproportioned that the effect just looks out of place.

It's also worth noting that the two saber hilts in the backpack are fixed in place. They can't be removed without some kind of modification.

You can really get a sense of how weirdly proportioned this kit is in the 360-spin. It's so adorably janky.

It's also worth noting that the camera on the back of the head is hand-painted. It's not at all color-accurate out of the box.

This is such a weird kit... It's a whole lot of fun, but not for any of the reasons that I typically enjoy a kit. The build itself is almost an afterthought. The articulation is barely existent. The model is completely off-spec. But there's some real charm despite (or maybe because of?) those shortcomings.