Once again, the wife and kids are out of town on a trip, leaving me to my lonesome. Once again, I find myself in need of a model kit to build in order to keep my mind off of how much I miss them.
Thankfully, I was in the Rockville area last month, and when in Rockville, I always have to checkout Little Thingamajigs in order to see what new model kits they have in stock. Amazingly, they had exactly the kit I wanted to build next, so I bought it in advance to have it this weekend.
To tell you the truth, I have been wanting to build a model kit of this particular mobile suit since I first got into the hobby seven years ago. The trouble, however, was in finding one to build. The last High Grade model of this mecha came out in 2007, five years before I started this hobby, while the last Master Grade came out in 2000. Finding either of them online was not easy, and the price was not always within my budget. Even when it looked like a decent deal, I feared whether such old kits would resemble the more modern builds I am used to. Rather than take a chance, I just made due building other kits hoping that somehow or another Bandai would grace us with a new version of what was becoming my Moby Dick.
Last year, they did exactly that, putting out a new and improved High Grade kit of one of my Top-3-All-Time-Favorite mobile suits. Ladies and Gents, today I build the Gundam Ground Type from Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team.
08th MS Team is the first Universal Century Gundam story I watched from beginning to end, and I credit it with making me a genuine fan of UC Gundam. I was blown away by setting, the tone, and of course the action scenes. It felt like no other mecha anime I had ever seen before.
Of course, in the center of it all was the Gundam Ground Type.
Here we have a mobile suit that is not quite as powerful as the original Gundam, but also not cannon fodder like the GM. It consistently gets the job done, it takes a beating, and it has all sorts of cool features and modifications that really, truly feel optimized for ground-based combat. Someone body put a lot of thought into how this mecha was designed, and it shows.
Looking at this particular kit, it appears as if Bandai did a fine job. It has all accessories one could reasonable ask for. You have a machine gun, a beam rifle, two beam sabers (that are stored in the legs, just like on the show), as well as the famous 180mm cannon that features in almost every iconic image of the Gundam Ground Type. It even has the weapons storage backpack! Sweet!
That being said, my last build was an important lesson in how the you can’t judge a kit by its promotional photos. Sometimes the final product just lets you down somehow. This could be great! But it could also be a major disappointment.
Only one way to know, so let’s get going.
08th Team - we’re moving out!
Other Thoughts
No one on the internet is sure as to just how powerful the Gundam Ground Type is. Everyone agrees that it isn’t quite as strong as the original Gundam, but there is a lot of debate as to whether it is truly any better than the GM Ground Type, or even just a standard GM. I think the action scenes in the show are enough to prove its mettle. A squad of three is able to take out a Zeon base from the low ground. They are able to fend off a Zeon super weapon. I refuse to lump this unit in with the rest of the “grunt mobile suits”.
I wish the shade of dark blue used on this unit showed up more often in Gundam’s mobile suit designs, as it is a fantastic shade.
I cannot wait to compare this to the High Grade EZ-8. I predict that they will be very similar in a number of areas, which in this case is a good thing, as they should have quite a few similar - and even identical - components. Normally I get sad when a kit recycles old parts and pieces. This time, I expect it (at least to a certain extent).