Man, I’ve built a lot of RXs. Weirdly, all very different, but all still the same unit. This one is the version from the film and manga series Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin.
The Good: The main selling point of this unit (besides finally getting a release years after the line started) is that you can build either the roll out version (Early Type) or the more anime inspired version that appears later in the series (Middle Type). I decided to go with the Early Type since I wanted it to stand out more from my other RXs and liked the asymmetricallity. The differences are the Shoulder Magnum, the right pectoral, the shoulders, the wrists, and the Beam Rifle. I did forgo using the Shoulder Cannon for reasons I’ll mention later.
Because of all the different parts, and the fact that there’re multiples of some, means there’s a good deal of customization isolated within this kit. I ended up displaying mine with two Forearm Gattling Guns, even though no version has two. Many single-side parts are also designed to work either left or right.
This is also the RX with the most surface detail so far. The other four I’ve built all use a lot of flat surfaces because the anime didn’t have a lot of surface detail to make it easier to animate. This RX was a CG render, meaning it could have its details on display all the time.
The Bad: Many of those details I mentioned, however, are shallow. This causes problems when panel lining. You can see on the back of mine’s head some of the details ended up getting destroyed during the cleaning process.
Speaking of the back, the backpack is not good. The Beam Saber holders are not a complete circle, meaning the Sabers move around a lot, and they’re not in there that solidly to begin with. The verniers are connected using the tiny ball polycaps usually used for hip skirts, and never want to stay in place. Furthermore, they were attached to the runners on the second rung, not at the top, and are very tiny, meaning it’s very easy to destroy the sides of them when filing or sanding. Lastly, the Shoulder Cannon is also loose. It really needed a washer piece to sit between the backpack and the cannon.
The Details: I tried doing something a little different with the panel lining for this one. I managed to find a near-exact color match for Gundam Red and Yellow, so I did 2-to-1 mixes lightening them, a 2-to-1 white to black mix, and used Sky Blue, and panel lined the red, yellow, white, and blue in those colors respectively. This means I panel lined each color plastic in a lighter shade of its own color (other than white). Besides red, which just doesn’t have much surface detail, I find it pops rather well, and the grey looks better to me on the white than if I had used black. It was a bit of a process, but turned out well in the end.
Other than that it was the standard replacing of stickers and doing black fill in. It does come with decal stickers like other HG The Origins, but I didn’t use them myself since none of my other RXs utilize labels.
Overall, It’s an ok kit, but I’ve built better RXs. It does a few neat things, but I found working on the torso, backpack, and head to be rather frustrating. If you’re collecting Origins kits, then there’s nothing wrong with it, but if you’re looking for the iconic RX, we just got G40, which is a better kit, and we’re supposed to get the new anime RX in June. I’d pick one of those over this one.
