Time to put the Guncannon through its paces.
But first, a photo I’ve been very excited to take:
There it is. The original, iconic, classic, legendary White Base Trio, finally all together.
About the Visual Design
Between the Gundam, Guntank, and Guncannon, at first glance it looks like the Guncannon is the odd one out (visually speaking).
The Guntank and Gundam have the exact same color scheme, and they both have very boxy torsos. When you look at them side by side, it looks like one clearly evolved from the other.
But then you have the Guncannon, with its completely red armor, and rounded body parts:
At first glance, it doesn’t seem to entirely fit in. But don’t be fooled! It’s just the red color scheme that’s throwing you off. Take that away, and you can start to see how similar it is to its brethren. Or more specifically, you can see how similar it is to the Guntank:
- They both have spherical shoulders
- They both have cylindrical arms
- The design of the center of the chest - from the cockpit hatch up to the neck - are nearly identical
- The lower torsos are also nearly identical
Think of it this way - the Gundam and Guncannon are both offshoots of the Guntank that simply go in slightly different directions. When you think about it from that perspective, suddenly it all makes sense.
It’s also striking how similar the Guncannon is to the GM:
They’re both red, of course, and their heads are similar in design. In a way, the GM looks like an armored up GM.
So yeah. The early Earth Federation mobile suits all have a strong, subtly consistent visual language. It may not be as brutally obvious as Zeon’s many heavily armored, monoeyed designs, but it is there if you look for them.
Articulation
Since this is the first High Grade Revive kit, I figured it was worthwhile to test out the articulation to see how good Bandai made it.
We already know the head moves back quite a bit:
The arm lift is nowhere near as good as the Revive Gundam, but then again nothing is. But I think this is good enough:
The elbow bend, on the other hand, is perfection:
I’m guessing this is one of the first High Grades to have a full bend like this.
You may notice that in some of my photos, the torso isn’t fully pushed in. That’s because you don’t get a very good torso rotation when it is:
But if you pop it out a bit, you can get a full rotation:
The arms have a pretty solid cross body range:
You can get a full split out of the legs. You just have to push hard against the side skirts:
The leg lift is … okay. The bulky armor gets in the way:
But the knee bend is fantastic:
All in all, the articulation is good and modern. The only reason it isn’t any better is because of the bulkiness of the body.
Fun Poses
The Guncannon is extremely photogenic. I attribute this to three factors.
First, it has not one, but two open palm hands:
This is extremely rare; in fact, I attribute it soley to the fact that it needs two of them to do the “on all fours” firing pose. But that just means it’s important to take advantage of this special opportunity.
The second reason is that it’s a very simple model. Like most Gundam fans, I’m a sucker for heavily armored mobile suits that are strapped with weapons and other things. But one problem with these kinds of designs is that all that gear gets in the way. They look cool just standing there, but they can’t move very much.
The Guncannon is on the opposite end of the spectrum. It doesn’t have much gear or gimmicks, but that gives it a good range of movement with which to express itself.
On a similar note, its simplicity means that it’s rock solid. Nothing is going to fall off of this thing, which makes it much easier to take photos.
Finally, the Guncannon’s rounded, bulky look invokes a bit of the Michelin Man (read: it’s kind of cute).
In theory, I love taking photos of my Gunpla. It’s a great way to show off my hard work and effort, and to show what makes each mobile suit interesting and special. But there are so many models that are an utter pain in the ass to pose. You may have noticed that I’ve taken far fewer photos of all my model kits in 2023. Now you know why.
The Guncannon is one of the first times in a while where I found myself having fun in the photobooth, and that alone makes it a special kit.
Action Poses
Let’s get the obvious out the way. Here is the “fire on all fours” pose:
It was a little awkward at first, as I’m not used to posing any Gunpla this way. But once you get it, you get it.
One thing you might notice is that this isn’t so much “firing on all fours” as it is “firing on its stomach”:
Personally, I found this to be the easiest way to do it, but if you really want to you can get it up on its knees:
True, it’s harder to get the hands flush with the ground in this configuration, but it still works.
I don’t know why, but the Beam Rifle looks a lot more impressive here in model kit form than it does on screen:
It really does feel like a sniper rifle:
It’s nice that it reach up and steady its own cannon before firing:
And now for a bit of jumping action:
I typically think of the Guncannon as fighting on the ground, but it certainly does see action in outer space. Here are a few attempts at some floating, “zero g” poses:
Complaints
My one and only complaint is that the decal on the left ankle doesn’t really work. It goes over a curved surface, and that makes it hard to keep it perfectly adhered. You can already see that it’s trying to peel off in one corner, and I’m worried about how long it is going to last.
Conclusion
Moreso than the Gundam Revive, the Guncannon Revive really sold me on the whole point of “revived” High Grades. It’s a joy to have such a classic mobile suit with great sculpting and articulation. It brings the mobile suit to life in a way that older HGUC’s can’t quite manage (even if some of them are still excellent). This is a great version of the Guncannon, a great High Grade (especially for the price), and a pleasant experience all around.