Prior to the announcement and release of the Real Grade Gundam Unicorn (”RG Unicorn”), I’d often shoot down people’s comments and hopes that Bandai would produce the said gunpla kit. Having built the Master Grade Unicorn (”MG version”) a few years back, the MG version was finicky in its transformation especially around the knee and ankle area. Due to its slightly elongated proportion and weak joints, the MG version wasn’t capable of many dynamic poses in its destroy mode form. Given this past experience, I was almost certain that it would be impossible to engineer an even smaller 1/144 scale, fully transformable Gundam Unicorn - but I was proven completely wrong.
Design: 10/10
Some of you might not agree with me on this since matters of design are largely subjective. That said, I will admit that the Unicorn Gundam is my all time favourite mobile suit from the Gundam franchise. The proportion of the RG Unicorn is true to the anime and close to that of the Perfect Grade version (”PG version”). It doesn’t have awkward, longish legs like the MG version. Also, in true Real Grade fashion, the armour comes with both white, and some off-white parts, even though the mobile suit itself is supposed to be almost entirely white. There are tonnes of decals as usual, which is up to the individual to decide how many to use, to give it a more “realistic” look. There are also lots of panel lining opportunities, in positions almost identical to the ones found on the PG version. If there was just something I had to nitpick, it’s the use of gold foil stickers for the V-fin. Use of the default gold foil stickers hides those line details that are found on the surface.
Articulation: 9/10
One of the main weakness of the MG Unicorn is the relatively limited range of motion found at the knee joint. There were hardly any issues on the PG version, and also, you’ll be able to get close to a 180 degree bend on the knees of this RG version. Most of the other joints do bend fairly well without any loose pieces coming off. Perhaps instead of focusing on the strengths, I should highlight a few of the weaknesses, so as to explain why I docked a point for the articulation. The rotation around the head and ankle areas are rather limited. Consequently, these limitations do reduce the variety of dynamic poses that can be done with this kit.
Stability and transformation: 10/10
This aspect of the RG Unicorn has truly taken me by surprise and has far exceeded my expectations. Loose joints? Armour parts falling off? Balance issues? While these issues had plagued the Real Grade Sinanju (a beautiful but unfortunate kit) a year ago, thankfully, none of those problems were present with the RG Unicorn. This time, Bandai did not re-use an earlier Real Grade frame from a previous kit (which is something they’ve done on numerous occasions before), but instead redesigned the frame entirely for this 1/144 scale. The result is a wonderfully solid kit where the shoulder and elbow joints are strong enough to hold up its weapon accessories without being a victim of gravity. While the transformation from Unicorn mode to Destroy mode is not free from difficulty, it is MILES easier than the PG or MG versions. Take for example, the part where the knees pop out, the connection between the white armour and the red psychoframe connects easily and unlike the MG version, it does not fall off. Expanding / transforming the forearms and upper torso is also A LOT easier on the RG than both the MG and PG versions. You’d have to try them to really understand the difference. Transforming the head, while easy, is also a little different here. Instead of flipping the outer mask downwards to reveal the typical Gundam face, both sides of the face are built on the same little “cylinder” facing opposite directions and are rotated depending on the mode you choose to display it in.
Although we are given 3 options for the horns/v-fins (fixed open, closed, and foldable), I’d recommend the foldable option without hesitation. I was really impressed by how the closed V-fin (foldable) is able to fold neatly into the unicorn mode without any gap or misalignment. In comparison, even though the PG Unicorn’s V-fin has magnets meant to hold them securely, the gap is still clearly visible.
Whether it is in destroy mode, or unicorn mode, fiddling around with the kit does not leave me feeling as if I was about to cause some parts to fall off or break. I’m really not sure how Banai did it this time, but the engineers have finally worked their magic. This might be the best Real Grade kit that I’ve built so far.
Here are 10 selected photos which culminated from half a day’s worth of photoshoot.
This beast is huge, and after working on it for over a week and then going back to look at my master grade kits, they look puny. Despite the size, there are quite a bit of details going on all over this mobile suit. The inner frame mechanism is immensely elaborate, and one of the joys I find about assembling gunpla is putting one piece onto another without really know why, only to exclaim later - “Oh! So that’s what this piece is for!” Every single piece is equally important, whether or not they’ll eventually be seen from the exterior.
As I decided to paint some of the frame parts, I checked out some gunpla blogs for inspiration on how and where I should go about custom painting. Since I’ve not invested in an air-brush system, spray cans are what I have been using whenever I wanted to paint something. The challenging part is having to do a semi-assembly without snap-fitting the pieces so that I’m able to determine which piece exactly will be revealed on the surface in order to paint them. Parts of the frame were given a coat of gunmetal, and some silver leaf, while the feet and backpack were repainted with deep metallic blue.
Assembling wasn’t exactly difficult, except that there were tonnes of pieces, but as I would say, the more pieces the merrier! The difficult part was wiring up the LED unit into the frame, and then testing whether moving the joints would cause too much strain on the cables, or worse still, snap the solder points. That would have been my worst nightmare. Thankfully, Syd fromHobbylink Japan and their youtube channel offered great help in guiding gunpla builders on how to assemble, wire up, and transform this PG unicorn. The instructions from the manual are mostly clear, but the wiring-up can be rather tricky.
As with most of the kits I’ve built, panel-lining was also done. Thankfully this kit provided quite a fair bit of panel-lining opportunities. Finally, several layers of Mr Hobby’s flat matte top-coat was also given to hide the usual ‘cheap plastic sheen’.
I hope everyone enjoys these photos and I’ll be back with the 3rd part of this mini review - Destroy Mode.
