Mrs. Wolfe found this G-Frame figure at Target and thought I might like it. It refused to ring up at the register, and somehow she and the cashier agreed that it was worth $12. So I guess I got it at a (very) slight discount.
What we have here is the Hi ν Gundam (the ν being the greek letter, so the name is pronounced as “Hi Nu Gundam”). It’s … an interesting choice for a GFrame. Let’s talk about it.
About the Hi Nu Gundam
The Hi Nu Gundam comes from the novel Mobile Suit Gundam: Beltorchika’s Children, written in 1988 by series creator Yoshiyuki Tomino. Beltorchika’s Children is best thought of as an alternate telling of the events of the 1989 film Char’s Counterattack. In addition to changing up some of the key characters and events, the book also includes alternate mobile suits for eternal rivals (and main characters) Amuro Ray and Char Aznable. In the film, the two pilot the Nu Gundam and the Sazabi respectively:
In the novel, they instead pilot the Hi Nu and the Nightingale:
If you’re a fan of Universal Century, then you’re probably familiar with the Nu Gundam. It is by far one of the most popular mobile suit designs in the entire Universal Century timeline. Its bigger than all earlier Gundams, its color scheme is simple and classy, and the design feels just a little more grandiose than usual. In short, the Nu Gundam looks stately and looms large.
As for the Hi Nu, it’s basically the same mobile suit with a different visual design. Rather than mounting all of its Fin Funnels on just its left shoulder, the Hi Nu spreads them out three per side. It also trades in black for purple, and features some additional visual tweaks.
Royal Blue
While the original design of the Hi Nu uses purple, the most recent Master Grade model (and all subsequent portrayals) switched to using royal blue instead.
I know a lot of folks who think the Hi Nu looks even better than the original. It feels just a bit bigger and bulkier, and I think people find its sense of symmetry more appealing. Personally, I could go both ways. I think the Hi Nu looks like a more refined version of the Nu, but I also believe that the color scheme and asymmetry of the standard Nu makes it stand out among the Universal Century Gundams. Plus, the color scheme of the Hi Nu is a little out there for a Gundam.
Building the GFrame
Fun fact - I got this G-Frame back in late August, and I sat on it for a month. Building the Real Grade Wing Gundam took a lot out of me, and as soon as I opened up this figure, I knew I wasn’t in the mood to deal with it:
It’s so …. plain. There are lots of details molded into the plastic, but it is mostly unmarked and unpainted. The worst offender of all are the funnels, which are completely white. I didn’t feel like doing all the painting and panel lining, so I left the figure on my workbench, and largely forgot about it.
Then nearly the entire month of September passed by without me building a single Gundam model or figure. I’ve built at least one per month for almost a year now, and I didn’t want the streak to end. Last night, when the kids were at the grandparents, and Mrs Wolfe was out with some friends, I put on my big kid pants and got to work.
By far the biggest challenge was the funnels. They present a large surface area to paint, they require a lot of careful masking, and I had to figure out the right shade of purple to use to match the existing plastic. In fact, I bought a second tone of purple just to use on this figure. It was all for naught - the color still ended up wrong, and I think the tone I already had was, in fact, a closer match. I ended up leaving the paint job as-is. For a small, cheap figure like this, it’ll have to do.
Accessories and Stuff
Before we see the finished “build”, let’s talk a little more about the design of the figure. It comes with a beam rifle and an extremely large shield, but no beam saber. This is a classic case of Bandai skimping out on some accessories because other ones are too big, too intricate, or whatever. I honestly don’t know what their rubric is, but it always annoys me when a simple (but necessary) accessory is missing.
The Beam Rifle
I will say, however, that I love the look of the Beam Rifle. It reminds me a bit of the Assault Rifle from Halo:
Even more egregious is the fact that the back of the funnels and fuel tanks are simply missing:
I mean, I guess it’s true that most people don’t look at models from the back, but between the missing beam sabers, and this, methinks that maybe the Hi Nu Gundam was a bit too big and intricate to justify trying to make into a G-Frame.
All Finished
Here is my best effort at sprucing up this poor little Hi Nu Gundam:
For comparison, here again is how it looked out of the box:
It may be missing some gear. It’s funnels may not have a back half. And it will never look as good as the Real Grade Hi Nu Gundam that just so happened to release this month. But I’m stunned at how much better it looks now. It’s like a completely different figurine.
It even feels different with a layer of clear coat on top. Seriously - the plastic now feels a whole lot less cheap.
Granted, it still looks busted from the back, but there’s nothing I can really do about that:
Poses!
This uses the same frame as the RX78-1, but for some reason the joints feel less stiff. I had a lot of fun posing this figure:
I even cheated and brought out the RX78-1’s beam saber:
I would have taken even more photos, but my kids were outside with me and they wanted to join in:
Maybe one day I’ll take it out again and so some more action poses, as I don’t think I came close to tapping out all of my ideas.
Conclusion
Among all the models and figures I’ve worked on in the last twelve months, the Hi Nu Gundam is among the best and the worst. As a straight, out of the box build, it was by far the worst looking of the bunch. But with a lot of TLC, the final build is now among my favorites. That doesn’t necessarily mean it is the best by any objective measure. It just means that I like the look of it as much or more than any of my other builds. By far the most pleasant surprise I’ve had in a long time.