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May 5, 2012

RG 1/144 Justice Gundam New Official Images

RG 1/144 Justice Gundam (Release Date: Jul 2012, Price: 2500 yen)



BB Senshii #372 SD Gundam AGE-3 New Official Images

BB Senshii #372 SD Gundam AGE-3 (Release Date: Jul 2012, Price: 1200 yen)



















Legend BB #2 Musha Gundam New Official Images

Legend BB  #2 Musha Gundam SD (Release Date: Jul 2012, Price: 1000 yen)








May 3, 2012

HG 1/144 Gundam Age-2 Double Bullet Blog Review


HG Gundam Age-2 Double Bullet:

Whats Included:

7X Trees (Double Bullet shoulders, Polycaps, Upper Body, Lower Body, Stand, Weapons, Details)
1X Small Decal (Face, Chest)
1X Instruction Packet

Now I am unable to provide pictures of what the package looked like or a video of it because I had issues with the videos. However there is a review available which I will link below my review. To put it into one word though... I would have to say it was "beautiful". The box art was amazing and being my first kit I feel in love with it overall. 

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:





Now to show off what the kit looks like before I review it. ^_^
Nothing much to say really the kit looks very detailed. I have nothing to compare it to because I am new and its my first kit but if it were up to me the kit looks detailed enough. It looks like the one from the show however as I talked in the grades this thing is the 2nd step so its not perfect. The flaws aren't noticeable until you turn it into flight mode. You will only see me criticize this once its in flight mode. V_V definitely looking forward to MG if they fix the flight mode. 

To say one thing about this though. I don't like the spoiler going on in the back. Why do they continue this after Age-1? Its horrible... definitely a kid looks like they drew it up. They fixed this finally in Age-3 though which I am dying to get my hands on. G-Core and G-Inceptor? Awesome if you ask me lol :) They made it fat though <_<. As everyone keeps saying too its a ZZ fan.


Proportion:










Well I am satisfied with the kit but I can't give it a 10/10 here now can I? Lets start from top to bottom. To start off the head is small. It looks weird because of its chest and arms. Very awkward I imagine. Now to the shoulders I would have to say the shoulder pieces would need better proportions. It isn't that accurate and it looks almost similar to the AG version but more detail. Just saying it should be bigger and it should be a little different. In the show he had a bigger Double Bullet shoulder which had missiles shooting out and etc.. just saying my opinion here lol. It is a HG though so for a HG I give 1 thumb up. No just kidding I'll give the shoulder 2 lol. To move to its chest and waist. Its chest is basically medium sized and the waist is small as well. Yeah I why don't we make the head and waist strangely small and weird and call it HG? lol I don't know really when I look at it I can tell the proportions need adjusting. When you look slowly from top to bottom you go down and it looks like a triangle. Then you go to its torso and you go whoa.... it got bigger. Gee I figure since its trying to give off a humanoid shape the waist would be complementary with the torso. Speaking of torso yes this middle area of the kit is frustrating a little. Its off slightly to be fair and this is also the cause as to why the flight mode sucks. Then we go to its long legs. The proportion on this is completely off. It looks like the upper body is small and short then when you go to the lower body you have these long legs. Its like combining a midget with long legs. You get a small upper body and a long lower body. Its weird put it simply.

Now lets shut me up and move on. Overall I would say good proportions and it definitely needs improvement. Now before I move over to articulation I need to cover the flight modes proportions. (Readers: OMG he's continuing?! Shut up!)











I am going to keep it simple and short here since I wrote so much on its regular form. Basically the kit is heavy. Its not proportioned well enough to keep in flight mode. Unless you buy 2 and keep one in flight mode this will never work out. The proportions need to be adjusted because the legs and torso keep some weight which cause the upper half to fall down. Also the middle is just horrible. Its empty and looks too horrible. As I said in the video: How the hell does this thing fly? Where does it get the stabilization and etc? If this was a real looking flight vehicle in real life it would be a disaster. It looks really awkward. I will never put this thing in fight mode because its frustrating and horrible to look at. Nothing I do can get my eye off of the empty space in the middle. That area pisses me off. It can be placed on the stand you build with it though. Yay! I personally change positions on mine almost every day because I like what you can do with it. Can't change flight mode though. <_<

Not recommended unless you buy 2. Needs improving major flaws. 


Articulation:














I am not criticizing this kit at all for anybody confused already. Just saying the proportion could be better since the kit can use flight mode. Needs improvements. Nothing here says you shouldn't buy it. Well maybe if your a flight mode kind of guy. If so then good luck! *wink* Anyways enough messing around lets move onto articulation. Crowd: *Cheers/Claps* YAY! It can move. lol. :)

Head: Moves forward and back, turns 360
Arms: Moves all around, shoulders move & double bullet shoulders move, arm move up and down impressively, arms move left (not up/down/right)
Chest: Moves 360
Torso/Skirts: Moves nicely
Legs: Moves 180 degress and more
Feet: Move up, down, left, right

Overall: Great articulation. You can do any kind of stand you want on this. Except for taking a knee. I tried to put it in a funny position and it did not work out. <_< I have fun putting it in different positions everyday its a fun kit to mess with. Got no complaints with it.

Flight Mode Articulation:
Don't try it. Yup, yup. So what's up doc? Just kidding here. I enjoyed building this kit so I am enjoying making this review if you don't like the comedy then get a refund. Oh wait its free! ^_^
Yeah don't try it. It has little to no articulation. 


Accessories:







It came with 1 stand and 3 extra hands. 1 left closed fist, 1 right closed fist, and 1 open right palm. It also came with extra polycaps but due to my recklessness I lost em. Yeah I rock hard. 


Weapons:



 This came with 2 beam sabers w/hilts, and 2 rifles. All 4 weapons are interchangeable from shoulder to shoulder, hand to hand, and wrist to wrist. I enjoyed the fact that I could put beams in its wrist. Once I get more kits I will go all out beam sabers. Yeah! Luke I am your father...... NOOOOO!!!!! >_>





Conclusion:




I liked the kit being it is my first one. I recommend it truly. If you haven't yet gotten a Age series kit I recommend you do because they offer great satisfaction in building and messing around with. You can already get so many and in fact Bandai released a MG Age-1 and its forms. I also suggest checking out your gunpla needs from GKGundamKit and their sister website iShop2Go. GK focuses on gunpla while iShop focuses on Gundams. Please look forward to my future reviews because if they sucked they will only get worse. lol just kidding they will get better. 

This is my personal style of reviewing I thought I would spice things up here. For any thoughts or comments feel free to contact me on YoutubeFacebookTwitter.

Feel free to check out my video review:


Review Made By: FlashX007