From 2018 - 2019, Bandai released three new model kits of mobile suits from Gundam Wing. These included the Leo, the Maganac, and the Gundam Sandrock. All three models were very well received due to their excellent detail and articulation. Sandrock in particular got the Gunpla community very excited to see what Bandai would do with the rest of the show’s five Gundams.
In October 2020, roughly a year later, we finally get to another with the release HGAC Gundam Heavyarms:
Let’s see if Bandai was able to work some magic again.
About the mobile suit
Heavyarms is the only one of the five Gundams that specializes in long range combat and artillery support. There are other Gundams with guns or missiles, but not nearly to the same degree. Heavyarms is meant to shoot and blow stuff up. Period. Its full arsenals includes:
- Head Vulcans
- Chest mounted Gatling Guns
- Homing Missiles
- Non-Homing Missiles
- A Beam Gatling gun on its arm (which I assume fires beam energy instead of bullets. Hard to say, since it kinda looks like it fires bullets in the show)
It is not an exaggeration to say that every one of this mobile suit’s body parts is equipped with some form of gun or missile. The only exception is the right arm, but that’s only because it is equipped with a knife instead:
Unfortunately, Heavyarms doesn’t get to do all that much in Gundam Wing. Maybe it’s because the writers had too many characters to juggle, and maybe it has to do with the fact that Heavyarms is always made to unload its munitions as fast as it can, leaving it out of ammo and helpless. It never really gets a chance to shine as proper support unit working within a larger team.
That being said, it does get one moment where it could have shined, but the show still manages to botch it. I’m talking about the battle in Episode XX where Heero Yuy guest-pilots the Heavyarms against Zechs and his Tallgeese:
This is a fight between a fast, flight-oriented mobile suit, and the only Gundam capable of shooting it out of the sky. It should be one of the best fights in the show. Instead, we only get to see bits and pieces of it, and it is just as poorly animated and choreographed as any other battle.
Poor Heavyarms. Only the Sandrock gets a rawer deal than you do (and even that is up for debate).
About the Kit
At a glance, this kit looks very thorough. It captures all the detailing, and it looks to be color accurate without needing to paint:
Just like the Sandrock, this is a mobile suit that I always thought to look “ho hum” in the show, but it looks stunning here in model kit form.
It also appears that all of Heavyarms’ gun and missle compartments flip open, so you can bring out your inner teenage edgelord:
There is only one thing I can think of that this kit doesn’t have - unlike in the show, you cannot store a secret beam saber inside of the left arm:
I’ve seen people online who are bummed out by this, but I really don’t think it’s a big deal. Something tells me that such a gimmick would greatly hamper the structural stability of the arm. Besides, the secret beam saber isn’t even a standard feature. It’s something Trowa adds for Heero at the last minute, just for the Tallgeese fight.
About the Build
I’ve never built a model kit with flip-out compartments, so that should be interesting.
I’m also curious to see how the build compares to the Sandrock. Sandrock was a case of a model kit that captured a ton of detail with relatively few parts. Considering that Heavyarms retails for about the same price, I imagine it may be similar in this regard.
Other Thoughts
If you look at the box art, you may notice that it features Sandrock lending Heavyarms a hand. If you bought these two kits, and a enough Leo kits, you could actually recreate this scene. Pretty cool!