Mg Char's Gelgoog ver 2.0

 Been a while since my last review the Hguc GMIII,  Char's gelgoog is one of the many mobile suits that Char used in the one year war against Amuro's gundam. The gelgoog is one of those zeon design that really stands out and yet is surprisingly plain. I have not built the ver 1.0 before, but the wicked design of the MS sure makes me excited for the build.

1. Intro
Model: Char's Gelgoog
Size: Mg 1 100
Pilot: Char Aznable
Boxart:

Very nice boxart showing Sayla Mass's core fighter at the bottom and the RX78-2 in the background.

The Mg box is the biggest gunpla box i have as of now, due to the Gelgoog's massive armour pieces.

Sideshot:

Some gimmicks of the kit.

Always good to have a pic of the kit unassembled. Looks like the lala car is going to be in all yellow.

Something interesting about the box, is that at the bottom there are some information about the various Zeon MS. 

Manual:

Same cover art as the box.

Price:4500 yen. An expensive MG. Since the gelgoog does not have many mind-blowing weapons like 00 raiser, the premium price seems to be due to the amount of plastic used.

2. Parts:

Head and torso. I painted the mono eye in pink and applied the c.aznable decal on the left side of the torso.

The hatch can open to reveal the red comet.

Back of the head and torso. The torso had 2 holes behind to plug in the beam naginata and the shield.

Hands and shoulder armour pieces.

Waist. The inner frame is absolutely remarkable. There are 5 thrusters which will be sadly hidden once the MS is all put together.

Nonetheless i still painted the inner thrusters in chrome silver. 

The 2 sideskirts and backskirt can be adjusted to form a continuous skirt that resembles a heart shape. Awesome engineering here.

The leg, showing off its maximum articulation. The armour piece do hinder articulation, but this is said to be better than the 1.0 ver. 

3 thrusters in the leg armour as well. 

The shield, the shield connector and the beam rifle. The shield is a giant piece of plain plastic which you just put some decals on. I tried to put on the default ZEON decal on but i made a mistake and the decal was gone. The beam rifle turned out much better than expected and i painted the scope in clear red.

The beam naginata, with 2 extra straight yellow effect parts for swapping. The grey connector piece can connect the yellow handle to the shield or to the back of the gelgoog.

The kit also comes with a Lala figure, a char figure, a shorter extra fin for the head and the car. I painted the wheels and steering wheel black, and the seats blue. Probably not anime accurate but looks that much better than all-yellow.

3. Details and articulation.

All asembled, first impression i got was that this kit is HUGE! I probably should do a size comparison but i forgot. The fingers are individually articulated, allowing for weird poses like this. I have tried and it can pull off offensive hand gestures as well. No pictures of that though.

Shield Fly!

The shield connector to the torso is simply divine. the shield can be swivelled around freely for all kinds of poses.

The shield is attached as such, can the beam naginata's handle can also be stored at the backskirt.

Articulation wise, this kit is as articulated as gelgoogs get. The hands can move freely, torso can move back and forth. Only problem i have is that the legs are hard to bend and hence no char's comet kick can be pulled off.

Details wise, the kit is very well designed with very nice decals giving it a more detailed look. It is somewhat a shame that all the impressive inner frame details are covered up by giant pink armour. 

4. Posseability.

The shield connector mechanism is so amazing that the shield can swivel down for the gelgoog to grap.

My poor attempt to recreate the boxart.

The straight beam effect part makes the beam naginata looks like a beam saber.

The kit is posseable, though more extreme poses such as the comet kick cannot be pulled off. The biggest problem  i encountered when posing this kit is the action base connector, the connector does not connect well and the kit wants to fall over when it is up on the action base 1. For such a heavy kit this is rather disappointing. I tried to use the action base connectors that came with the action base but none worked. :(

5. Sturdiness

The kit holds its weapons extremely well. The Beam naginata and the beam rifle each holes for the pegs in the palms to hold securely. The shield, whilst heavy and massive, can be held on reasonably well as the hand fits right into the shield's handle.

The only problem i have is the heavy legs. The gelgoog stands very well on the ground and will not topple over easily. But in the air the legs tend to sag and the kit just looks out of place. I guess in terms of gunpla, big legs does not translate to increased sturdiness, much like my Ng tieren.

6. Conclusion

An impressive kit with an impressive inner frame. I would recommend the kit to those who like zeon ms or Char kits. 

Solar flare!

Details: 7.0/10 The 3 marks deducted were for the inner frame which were sadly hidden by pink armour pieces.

Articulation: 6.5/10 Legs are bulky and hence not that articulated.

Sturdiness: 8.0/10 On the ground this kit is as sturdy as a brick.

Posseability: 7.0/10 Despite limited articulation, the gelgoog makes up with comical poses such as the solar flare.

The goods: 

1. The divine shield connector. 

2. Beam naginata and the beam rifle looks fabulous.

3. The design of the MS. Plain yet detailed.

4. Nice dry transfer decals.

5. Lala's car is a nice addition.

The bads:

1. Poor action base connector.

2. Legs sag due to weight when on the action base. 

3. Since the beam naginata and the shield can be mounted, the beam rifle should be mounted as well.

For 4500 yen, i suppose we are indeed paying for the amount of plastic that are used in the kit. However, the quality and design of the Char's gelgoog is worth every yen.