HGUC Gouf Custom

Another HGUC kit, this time it is the gouf custom from the OVA the 08th MS team. It is probably the single most badass Zeon mobile suit in the one year war, other than Char's various red mobile suits. While Char was fighting against one gundam throughout the entire mobile suit gundam series,  this gouf custom defeated 3 gundam types and 3 guntanks single-handedly. After the very impressive HGUC unicorn gundam, i have very high hopes for this kit as well.

1. Intro:
Model: Hguc Gouf Custom
Size: 1 144
Pilot: Norris Packard

Boxart:

Sideshots:

Even Bandai loves this pose.

Manual

Classic hguc style.

Price: 1600 yen. With all the weapons and accessories, this hguc should be worth the slightly higher price point.

2. Parts:

Head and torso and waist: The head's monoeye is movable via a small switch underneath the head. The monoeye itself is a sticker, which looks pretty good, hence i did not paint that. The torso and waist are connected via the tubing on the backpack. The tubing is a continuous strip of plastic where you bend it at 2 points. Plenty of lining work to do to make the tubing look good. This arrangement hinders the articulation of the waist, and waist is practically immovable. I painted the inner thrusters red, as shown in the cover art around the box. The torso has clear orange parts in front, which is nice unlike many other high grades which uses stickers or just clear parts which we have to paint ourselves.

Arms:  Articulation is about 90 degrees. The shoulder armour moves as such, seen in the picture. The Rg char's zaku II has much better shoulder armour, but that is to be expected since that is a real grade. The left arm is equipped with a machine gun. The red scope is a piece of sticker. The sticker does not fit exactly well, but since the sticker is a nice metallic red i guess it looks fine.

Legs: Maximum articulation is only about 90 degrees, and the foot just moves ever so slightly. The details looks amazing for a hg kit and the overall effect of the legs is splendid.

Weapons and accessories: Gatling shield , which is a combination of the shield and the gatling gun. The heat sword, heat wire. And other than the 2 standard open fists, the kit also comes with 2 closed fists and one right open palm for the heat wire.

 The heat sword comes in one colour : black. Instead of painting the handle in the same navy blue as the kit, i decided to simply paint the blade in metallic gray. One reason being i cannot find the navy blue paint. The effect turns out better than expected and the metallic gray paint would also be useful in future kits.

The Gatling gun can be detached from the shield. But since they are very securely attached it is probably not wise to keep attaching and detaching them. The ammo clip is a piece of soft plastic, and i used the back panel lining marker to fill in the grooves. Not very well done as you can see from the picture, but it is still beats having the ammo clip un-touched. One thing to note is that the left open fist to hold this incredible gatling shield is customized for it. Which means you can only make the kit hold this weapon on its left hand. But i have no complains for this since the customized open fist works well.

3. Details And Articulation.

All built up, the Gouf Custom looks very menacing indeed. Every single detail is well done, the kit really does a great job of representing the suit in the anime.

The heat sword can be stored in the shield and taken out when necessary. A nice gimmick. One major complaint about the kit's articulation is that its front skirt is completely connected in one block and cannot move at all. This means no Char's Comet kick poses.

4. Poseability

Sorry for the out of focus picture here.

The kit can hold the gatling shield ridiculously well. The Gatling shield is a beast of a weapon when it comes to 1 144 size and the gouf custom can wield it without any weight issue.

The heat wire is attached to a slot on the right arm. It is a piece of solid wire so it stays in place just nice. I probably would not display this that often since i prefer the gouf custom's other weapons.

5. Sturdiness.

There is also a peg at the shoulder joint which can secure the left arm holding the gatling gun. I wonder why Bandai does not include this feature on more of their kits which have weight issues with their weapons. Anyway, this feature is awesome and the gouf custom can hold the gatling shield extra secure.

The heat sword is equipped by disassembling the open fist and sandwiching the sword between the 2 parts, before closing the fist back. No peg used to secure the sword but the kit still holds the sword well.

No falling limbs, sideskirts or any other part during posing so full marks for sturdiness.

6. Conclusion

In short, this is my best high grade kit thus far. The HGUC unicorn that i have just built was a good hguc kit, but this one is mind blowingly good. It does has a few flaws, namely its somewhat limited articulation. But its articulation is good enough for various posing options, so i am happy enough. This is a very new HGUC, 117th in line, and if i hope Bandai can continue making HGUC kits of this quality.

The Positives:
1. Amazing details, clear orange parts, almost perfect colour accuracy.
2. The giant and rather heavy gatling shield can be wielded well, with the shoulder peg for extra sturdiness.
3. Absolutely no falling parts.
4. Movable monoeye.
5. A great price of 1600 yen considering all its weapons and sheer quality of the kit.
6. Nailed the proportion of the gouf custom in the anime.

The Negatives:
1. Somewhat limited articulation. Do not expect the kit to pull off yoga-like poses.

Details: 9/10 : Incredibly detailed for a high grade.
Articulation: 6.5/10 : Somwhat limited.
Sturdiness: 10/10 No problems whatsoever.
Poseability  8.5/10 : Other than Char's comet kick and other more extreme poses, this kit can actually pose very well and very easily.

The Gouf Custom also has its own way of using action bases.