Okay, so here is the kit my daughter wanted to buy for herself:
This here is the “Original” Aug, from the 1984 anime Heavy Metal L-Gaim. L-Gaim is one of several non-Gundam mecha shows directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino and produced by Sunrise, which is probably why Bandai is making High Grade model kits out of the show’s mecha.
Or should I say made. According to my research, these L-Gaim kits are not entirely new. It looks like Bandai made all (or most of them) back in the early 2000’s, and these “new” releases are actually just the old kits with some of their joints swapped out for newer ones.
Which, hey, fine by me, though I suppose I am surprised that these weren’t Premium Bandai releases. They’ve done similar updates to older Gunpla, including the High Grade Rick Dias, but that was in fact a P-Bandai.
It is also surprising that they’re releasing them at all in the States. As far as I can tell, L-Gaim has only been available once in the west, as part of the old streaming website Daisuki. And while diehard mecha fans know of it, there isn’t nearly as much English language information about it as I thought there’d be.
About L-Gaim’s Mecha Designs
The most interesting thing about _L-Gaim_’s mecha is that they’re all designed by Mamoru Nagano, a very famous designer who also did the designs for 80’s film classic (and currently ongoing manga) The Five Star Stories, as well as some Gundam designs (including the aforementioned Rick Dias).
Nagano’s style is quite different from what you see in Gundam, but it is visually striking all the same. He seems to have two main “modes” - he either draws his mecha as very blocky, mechanical, and robot-like, or he designs them to look like humanoid knights with lots of ornamental armor. Based on my cursory research, it seems like Five Star Stories has a lot of the latter, while L-Gaim has a mixture of both. In fact, if you look at some of the L-Gaim mecha designs, it becomes clear that you could have inserted the Rick Dias into the show, and nobody would have blinked.
About the Aug
I don’t have much to say here, as English language information is hard to come by. Apologies if I get any of this wrong.
The Aug is basically the Big Bad Guy’s mecha. It is an ancient weapon that appears to be an example of “Lost Technology”, because it is so powerful that not even the hero’s mecha is capable of taking it on, at least not when it’s at full power.
The only reason it loses is because … well, something happens. You can watch the final battle here on Youtube if you want to try and figure it out.
For the Record
It appears that there are two mecha named “Aug” in the show. One is a [modern unit](https://www.mahq.net/mecha/l-gaim/l-gaim/auge.htm) that is based upon the original, though it is not nearly as strong. That’s why English language fans took to calling the old one the “Original” Aug, though the word “original” is nowhere to be found on the box of this model kit. That makes me wonder whether the “new” one has a slightly different name in Japan. Also, English language fans seem to have translated the name as “Auge”, which made it really hard to search for information until I discovered this discrepancy. If you do a search for “L-Gaim Aug”, you won’t turn up nearly as much info as you might think.In terms of weapons, the Aug has a big scythe (like a certain Gundam you might know), two beam sabers, a gun mounted on its shoulder armor, and tiny arrow launchers (also on the shoulder armor, but on the underside).
About the Build
I forgot to take photos of the runners, so here is a little picture from inside the instruction manual that lists them all:
It’s a lot of parts for a High Grade, and I honestly wasn’t sure where they were all going to go. The Aug isn’t a simple design, but it seems simple enough to not warrant so many parts. As it turns out, it does end up with some spare parts (though not many). Perhaps it shares some runners with the “new” Aug (I’m assuming there is a model kit of it. I could be wrong).
Whatever. All in all, the build wasn’t too complicated. Let’s put it this way - I got it done in an afternoon, with all the pieces splayed out on a carpet, with two three year olds alternating between trying to use my nippers, and trying to assemble it themselves. Nothing broke, and nothing was lost.
And now, here it is fully assembled:
Since this isn’t my model, it doesn’t really matter what I think about it, but since this is my blog, I’m going to say something anyway.
I don’t like it.
The big problem is, of course, the plastic. It has that fake-metallic look that ends up making it appear extremely cheap and toylike. The only way to fix this would be to paint over the entire thing.
But even if you did that, it would only do so much. Paint can’t fix flaws in the visual design. Here are things I don’t like on this model:
- The feet are … I’m not sure what they are. I guess they look like bird talons or something? They’re wide enough that the model probably won’t ever fall over, but they also make it tough to get it in a good, flat stance for posing
- Those big silver pieces on the lower leg look like fancy shelves
- The front and back armor on the upper leg are separated, and not in a “parts separation is good” way, or even a “nasty seam line” way. They’re separate, and there is what looks to be a deliberate gap between them. It is ugly as sin
- The model has fairly complicated joints, but the sheer size of some of its body parts means that it doesn’t feel all that poseable. Seems like a waste of engineering.
And now for the things I do like:
- I like the entire upper torso. I like the weird looking head, the curvy/boxy chest, and the big, fancy shoulder armor.
- I like how they included the arrow launchers, in the form of two flexible plastic pads that clip into the underside
- I like that the two boxy emblems on the left shoulder (the ones that look like an inverted Danish flag) are made out of plastic, without any decals
Overall, the cons outweigh the pros. I’d be interested in looking into some other L-Gaim models, but not the Aug. But hey, my kid loves it, and that’s all that matters.
Other Thoughts
There is a holding hand that is molded such that it looks like it is holding part of a rod. To equip the scythe, you plug the top and bottom parts of the handle into this hand. You an also do the same with the beam sabers (there are small parts that are made to look like the top and bottom of the saber handle), though this is not required, as there is a full sized beam saber handle that you can equip in a standard, “sandwich” style holding hand.
Also, this kit also has no decals, though I can see some places where it might be useful to add a few. For example, I think the eyes are meant to be colored.