G-System 1/72 RX-78-2 Gundam Ver. Ka. [ High Spec. Ver. ] Finished kit

I thought long and hard before I decided to take the plunge and make the purchase. I figured if I wanted to spend a good sum of money on a toy, I want it to be of an iconic character, I want it to be super limited, I want it to be big and I want it to be made by a reputable company – and this is it!

Background:

Those of you that are into model making will no doubt have heard of G-System before. G-System is an independent product design company based in Hong Kong. They specialize in resin kits and accessories, mainly of Gundams and robots from the franchise. Traditionally they only offered unassembled/unpainted kits which made them unsuitable for casual modellers such as myself. However lately they have started to offer pre-finished models in limited quantities, from weapons, to single heads, to desktop busts to full blown figures – all of which look absolutely amazing. (www.g-system-shop.com)

Name: RX-78-02 Gundam Ver Ka
Manufacturer: G-System
Line: Pre-Finished Resin Kit
Sculptor:
Designer:
Scale: 1/72
Material: Resin, PP, ABS, PVC, Aluminium, Photo-etch, Copper
Release: Nov 2011
Original Price: $636USD
Height: 285mm / 11.22inches

Packaging:

The pre-finished kit comes in a massive cardboard box, stuffed to the brim with protective foam. The cardboard box material is thick and heavy and the graphic is very simple but effective. A single image of the finished model is adhered on the front, presumably so that they can reuse the same box for various models. The parts for the Gundam are housed in three separate layers with each part wrapped in a plastic bag and fit snugly in their designated spaces.

• 
• 
• 
• 

Accessories:

To be honest I was hoping that the set would come with more accessories than it did for the price I paid, just to give you an idea, the first picture shows everything that is included in the set. Of course there is also an instruction manual, single sided only.

• 
• 

As for the actual accessories, the Gundam comes with a beam rifle, a shield, a beam sabre and a bazooka. Both the beam rifle and beam sabre are pre-attached with glue to a hand each so they stay in place quite well, however there were no extra hands for the Gundam to hold the bazooka so the only thing you can do with it is to clip it to the back. Speaking of no extra hands, there are also no extra empty hands for the right arm so you can only ever display the Gundam holding a weapon.

• 
• 
• 
• 

Form/Sculpt:

This to me was the biggest selling point of the model. I absolutely love the G-System design where they’ve kept all of the traditional elements and tweaked the proportions to make a very emotive and modern interpretation of this legendary Gundam. However, the execution of the model was not as good as I had hoped for. I understand that being a limited quantity resin cast figure the moulds will never be as clean and precise as an injection moulded kit. This figure feels to me more like a moveable sculpture with its little imperfections than a model kit, but perhaps that’s where its appeal comes from? Putting this pre-finished kit together was mostly a breeze however the legs were an absolute pain to attach. I had to do a bit of surgery to get them to fit without risking a breakage. Some model making skills definitely recommended with this one!

Articulation/Action:

I was quite surprised that G-System had included ratchet joints in this figure, but unfortunately some of the joints were not up to the task of holding poses due to the weight of the resin parts. The worst of them are the hip joints where the Gundam would involuntarily do a split if placed on a semi-slippery surface. The other thing I found strange was that arms were unable to rotate forwards or backwards very high, so to aim the beam rifle at anything bigger than an ant the Gundam has to shoot sideways or bend at the elbows. All together there are about 31 points of articulation, with double jointed knees, ball jointed head and toe joints being the more note worthy ones. No waist joints unfortunately.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Paint/Print:

Overall the paint job on the Gundam is quite impressive, especially with the addition of the computerized camouflage design decal. There are a lot of nice little paint detail all throughout the figure, with light panel lining applied to set off the model even more. On top of the camouflage decal, there are also tonnes of caution and label decals to make this figure even more realistic. Unfortunately the paint used is not very durable so some paint has already chipped. This Gundam needs to be handled very delicately!

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Detail/Features:

This model features 8 groups of metal thrusters, loads of photo-etched parts and other metal bits throughout.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

The Gundam also features light up LED eyes which is operated by a button on the back of the head. Battery is stored inside the head, with access from the top panel.

• 
• 

The shield can either be carried on the back or on the arm. I found however that the hole on the back is quite loose and the shield barely stays in place. Luckily there is a cover for that hole when not carrying the shield.

• 
• 

Another detail worth mentioning is that all except for the beam rifle hand has a copper rod built into the joint, effectively making them only able to rotate around 1 axis. A closer look at the leg reveals that as the knee joints bend, the thigh panels expand and slide, quite a nice mechanism.

• 
• 

Lastly, a size comparison just to show how big a 1/72 scale Gundam really is. First picture shows the G-Sytem Gundam paired up with the 1/144 scale GFF RX-78-02 Gundam. For good measure, the second photo shows the Gundam paired up with a 3.75” Stormtrooper. It really is quite big and impressive!

• 
• 

Overall:

This is a nice looking piece of kit, looks great on display provided you leave it in a neutral pose on a non-slip surface. I don’t think I will “invest” in another G-System figure for some time, this one will probably keep me happy for a while – I hope!

Thanks again for reading, I know this was a long review so good on you for making it all the way to the end!

Related Posts

1. » Robot Damashii Wing Gundam Zero (EW ver.) Pearl Coating ver.
2. » GFFN #0044 RX-0 FA Unicorn Gundam
3. » METAL BUILD Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom Gundam
4. » GFF RX-78-02 Full Armor Gundam
5. » GFF GN-001 Gundam Exia

---

Filed under: Featured, Reviews, 1/72, Anime, G-System, Gundam, Japanese, Limited Edition, Model Kit, Ver. Ka