Bandai Hobby - Gundam The Origin - RX-78-02 Gundam, Bandai Spirits MG 1/100 Model Kit

Another year, another model of the RX-78-2 Gundam from Bandai. It's like seeing another yearly release of a popular sports car. It's the same basic look, but the engineering and features gets better with each iteration. So what's new with this latest Master Grade version of the most popular Gundam ever? For starters, this is a bit of a bit of a redesign based on the "Gundam The Orgin" manga/OVA version of the RX-78-2. The most notable differences are a shoulder cannon, various added machine cannons, and a more boxy, squared off shoulder and torso design. (Watch out for the yellow vent pieces on the chest, they tend to fall out, might I suggest some glue?) Underneath, 90% of it's insides are entirely new, engineered for even greater posing. The only tiny reused bits are a few parts from the Gundam 2.0 for the arms. With the provided accessories you can display the kit in either it's intended Origin version or a more standard RX-78-2 version (albeit with some extra guns). You get two "2" beam rifles with this kit. One is the normal, standard Gundam rifle. The other is the Orgin Beam Rifle which looks quite looks nice. However I must add that the clear lens piece on it does not tend to stay in place so you may have to employ creative means to keep from loosing it. You get the standard shield, which can be displayed either right side up, or upside down. (I don't know what the tactical value is of having the shield upside down is, but that's the way it's often portrayed in Orgin style). You also get a rather nice hyper bazooka, slightly redesigned for this kit. Two beam saber come as well, though you can only have one on the suit in Orgin style. The beam rifles and bazooka all have attachment pegs to allow you stow them to either the back hip or back of the back of the backpack. They can also be attached to the underside of the shield if you want. (No, you can't attach the rifles to the arm peg holes like the Gundam 2.0 could. :( ) Now about that shoulder cannon. It's a great little gimmick with a slightly complex folding/swinging up over the shoulder system. However there is a catch with it. Should you choose to go with it (and why wouldn't you?) you'll find that this piece stretches out the polycap in the backpack. Once that happens, the beam saber holder part that replaces it won't fit back in securely and be forever limp and loose. So you pretty much have to decide if you want this kit to have two beam sabers from the get go, or just forgo one for the cannon. It has a cannon, just go with the cannon. Now for some of the little things. There are various added machine cannons on this Gundam. A vulcan in the right shoulder, which you have the option of having a matching blue or clashing yellow cover for. A... I think it's a flare or small grenade launcher for the left shoulder. You get the option of having machine cannons on either both forearms or just one. I think it's silly Bandai didn't just provide an extra blank cover for having no forearm guns, but whatever. By now you might be thinking, great! Sounds like a totally loaded Gundam with everything the previous had and more. But wait, where's that danged core fighter? There is no core fighter. Take it as a blessing here that there is no core fighter. In the absence of having a solid box stuck in the abdomen of the Gundam we now have a Gundam that can do ab crunches. Joy. From my understanding, the Orgin Gundam is a "early" version of the RX-78-2 in which the core fighter wasn't incorporated yet. I find the story explanation puzzling since I always assumed the Gundam was designed with a core fighter in mind in the first place, but I'm not missing it here. You get much more natural posing out of the torso now than in any previous MG Gundam kit. The kit will take a LED if you have one. I have green ones, but green seems to the wrong color for this kit. I don't know if Bandai has yellow LEDs, but if so that would be more appropriate. The decals provided are the sticker form. Hands if you're curious, are the 3.0 style with fold out pegs. Watch the pinkies.Cockpit also opens downward, a new one for me. That makes three ways I've seen the Gundam's cockpit open up now. Last, but not least, you do get some nifty gun effect parts for the many body cannons. Effect parts for guns are a bit unheard of to me in regular releases so I thank Bandai for the nice bonus. Well, I think about covers it. Despite it's minor flaws this is a wonderfully well engineered kit and a marvel to have. I admit I'm not always so keen on seeing yet another RX-78-2 Gundam from Bandai when there other suits I'd rather see them make, but in this case they did enough new and different to warrant it. Now if this thing would actually show up in the OVA... Me thinks Bandai might had jumped the gun a bit, but we still got a great kit. Perhaps we'll get an MG Origin version of Char's Zaku II this year to go with this.

Overall a great kit and of the 4 different RX-78-2 sets I have built my favorite by far. The only two issues are rather small but worth pointing out. The first is the hands, they are the highly detailed hands with 5 individual fingers and each finger has several joints making them extremely posable and are very impressive. However they are fairly weak at the ball joints in the palm and tend to pop out all the time when adding or removing a weapon. I am sure they will be better after I take the time to add some clear coat to the balls to thicken them up but out of the box you need to be careful. The second one is more about the led light you can add. Bandai lights are garbage, of two I have bought one never worked and the other constantly flickered and then would just turn off after 30 to 45 seconds. Due to this I have tried two alternate led lights that are cloans of the official ones but coat a fraction of the price. Overall these are much better and much brighter but tend to get jammed in the gundam making them hard to turn off or replace. This is not really the fault of this kit, and more the fault of the worthless bandai led, so I don't hold this against the kit, just be warned that it you want to light it, you might have issues.

The build quality and complexity is excellent. It isn't a complex build like the 3.0 but has all it offers and more. It's final build is near perfect but its hand guards always fall off when you're losing the articulated hands. It can stay in any pose you can think of even balancing itself on one leg. The accessories are plentiful and include 2 beam rifles, 2 beam sabers, shield, rocket launcher, optional 2nd wrist gun, 3 blast effects, and a shoulder cannon. It's color separation is just perfect. All in all get it even if you have a passing interest this build will be fun and rewarding Articulation 5/5 Build 4.9/5 Accessories 5/5 Quality 5/5 Final score 19.9/20

MG Origin version of the venerable RX-78 is an excellent model kit. The poseability is incredible and very fluid, especially in the shoulders, hips, and torso. The design is a tasteful update of the "granddaddy" Gundam--with a slightly grittier, more realistic take that is nevertheless stylish and slick (note that this version does not have a core fighter / core block). The colors are a more muted, earth-tone variant of the classic red-blue-white scheme; the "white" parts in particular are a very nice almost eggshell color. Effect parts for the chest launchers and wrist guns are also a nice plus.

Love the kit! This was my stopping point after 2, 4hr shifts at my part time job as an attendant. (It's a car wash in the northern midwest. Was nothing but rain the last two days). But, love the results. Everything but the freaking hands! As others say. It has a habit of self amputation. Can't wait to airbrush it and do panel lines!

Ottimo prodotto, rifinito in tutto e possibilità di movimento totale… qualche piccola imprecisione nelle articolazioni delle dita ma il risultato è incredibile considerato che lo devi montare tutto. Si consiglia uso di attrezzature da modellismo.

Box was delivered undamaged: so happy as I will be framing the front portion. All contents are in the box. Runners/parts are colored and not in resin (unpainted) form as shown in the pics of product. So, don't worry if anyone had that question. Thank you, Team UnboxJapan! : )

The package came very quickly, 13 days. I like this model as it is the only rx-78 that I actually like the look of. This model has so many additional weapons and accessories this is one of my favourite.

If you're looking for a starting point to get into Master-Grade (MG) kits, this "The Origin" version of the RX-78 is a great option. It is fun and not overly complicated to assemble; it took me about 20 hours for a straight build, meaning flush cut+assembly+decals. There are no waterslide decals included so that's fun for those like me who always have a bad experience with those. It looks absolutely stunning in person and despite not being much of a UC guy, this one is definitely one of my favorites on my shelf at the moment.

One of the best grand daddy model kit