Gunpla Build - Real Grade Shining Gundam (Photos)

Two things can be true:

I said some harsh things about this model kit, and I still stand by them
Despite those flaws, this model was still really fun to pose

People have long lauded the articulation of RG God Gundam, and this is supposed to be just as good, so this is really my first exposure to it. And my overall verdict is that it is, in fact, very good!

I’ve probably encountered Gunpla that have an individual limb that is just as good (or nearly as good), but I don’t think I’ve encountered any where all the limbs are quite this flexible.

But it’s not just the range of the joints that make them work so well. They’re also fairly tight and stable. Once you get things into place, they typically stay in place:

If you’re trying to pull off a particularly screwy or unbalanced pose, this is very important: the less you have to fiddle with or adjust the limbs, the less likely you are to mess up the pose and/or knock over the model.

Having said all this, I fully admit that my posing skills (to say nothing of my photography skills) are poor, so I know I didn’t (and probably can’t) get the most of out this model. But I still had fun in the process.

I don’t have much more to say, but I’ve got a lot more photos to share, so I’m going to just dump a bunch here before we move on to the next topic.

Recreating Classic Poses

And now we get to the part where I try to recreate classic and iconic attacks and assorted scenes, starting with the iconic attack. Here’s some mood music in case you’re interested.

*I-I-I’VE NEVER SEEN HIM BEFORE I SWEAR!!*

*I see … in that case I’ll make this quick …*

THIS HAND OF MINE GLOWS WITH AN AWESOME POWER!!!
IT’S BURNING GRIP TELLS ME TO DEFEAT YOU!!!

Next, I tried to create my own makeshift Shining Finger Sword using some museum putty and the blade from my old, broken Master Grade Epyon. But first, the transformation into Super Mode:

TAKE THIS
MY LOVE
MY ANGER
AND ALL OF MY SORROW!!!

(Normally I’m not one to sprinkle gratuitious Japanese into posts, but whatever the heck Domon says in the English dub is not nearly as cool as when he screams “Tsuki!”, so that’s what I went with)

((Also, I know these photos look lame; it was impossible to get good slashing photos, because the green blade would fall off. This is the best I could do))

Now for some iconic scenes from early episodes in which Shining Gundam faces the future members of the Shuffle Alliance:

I want to make it clear that this is a horizontal flip of my original photo, since the RG Shining doesn’t come with a left Shining Finger hand. This also explains why Rose Gundam’s cape is on the wrong shoulder.

This was another horizontal flip. The fact that this at least two scenes where it uses the left hand for Shining Finger makes me even more piss that the kit didn’t come with a left hand. It’s actually used in the show! Multiple times!

Comparison with Gundam Universe Figure

I brought my GU figure all the way home from my work desk, just so I could take these side by side shots:

I still think that, at least in normal mode, the GU figure has a better overall design:

Buuuuuuut, it falls apart when you open up the face. Not only does it look weird without the hair flipping out, but the inside of the face just doesn’t look quite the same:

The RG looks much more like what I’d expect, so at least it’s got that going for it.

Conclusion

I really wanted this to be the definitive, ultimate version of Shining Gundam, but it’s just not. I suppose it is when it comes to posing and the like, but there are so many other ways in which it drops the ball.

If you’re only ever going to buy one model of Shining, then I suppose this is your best bet, but it’s still going to be missing a certain something that you’ll find in other versions. And I just think that kind of sucks. Real Grades should be better than that.