I saw these weapons packs at the Gundam Base Tour. I’ve been curious about them ever since seeing them on Premium Bandai ages ago, and the price was nice, so I figured “why not?”
Let’s dive in:
How Does it Work?
If you’re as dumb as I am, then you might not understand how these work based just on the packaging. Basically, you get two weapons, each of which has a bunch of different components you can mix and match however you want. The instruction manual has some suggestions for some “standard” configurations, but you can customize your weapons as you see fit.
So, that’s the basics, but I have a few more observations before we start.
Detailing
I was originally going to paint over these parts with gunmetal spraypaint, but decided against it for fear that it would make it harder to remove and swap parts. But not all hope is lost, as the weapons look pretty great as-is. They use two different grey tones, and they have a lot of nice surface detail. They really don’t need to be painted.
Holding Hands
Both sets come with multiple holding hands that are specifically designed to be able to hold these wepaons.
Non-Instructions
The instruction manuals for these weapon sets are more like … guidelines. They don’t really tell you how to build the various weapon configurations, but rather show you how the various components can attach to each other:
It’s then up to you to figure out how you want to string them together. It makes sense once you stare at it long enough, but I’ll admit that it felt like a puzzle at first glance.
Weapon Set 1
This set comes with the following:
- Parts to create a Beam Gatling Gun
- Parts to create a Zaku Machine Gun
- A weapons rack for you to hang the guns on. Not every System Weapon Kit comes with this rack - in fact, I think this is the only one I’ve seen so far that has it. But the fact that the instructions show how you can stack multiple racks together implies that you can find more elsewhere.
Weapons Rack
Here’s the weapons rack:
It’s quite detailed for what ultimately amounts to a prop. Unfortunately, I found it to be more trouble than it’s worth. Getting the weapons to fit in between the clamps is tricky, and even if you figure it out, you probably won’t be able to get the clamps to close all the way, which doesn’t look great to my sometimes-OCD eye.
But that’s fine - the stand isn’t the star of the show anyway. Let’s take a look at the weapons, with some help from friendly assistant:
Side note - it’s interesting to note how the weapons rack is so much lower than Mobileharo, which itself is shorter than your standard High Grade. That makes the rack feel even more pointless.
Beam Gatling Gun
Here are the three suggested configurations for the Beam Gatling:
And here are all the components laid out together:
Let’s start from the top with the “Suppression Fire Type”:
It looks pretty good, though I think it’d look even better if it was even bigger. That’d give it a true “heavy weapons” feel; as it stands, it looks more like a slightly-larger-than-usual rifle.
As you can see, the side grip is very long, though Haro here still struggled with it:
Now let’s look at the Close Range Carbine:
I like the idea of this. It’s the only configuration that resembles a classic minigun. But I’ve got one gripe with it; the handle running along the top is positioned way too close to the trigger. I can’t imagine most High Grades having the dexterity to comfortably wield this two-handed (which is kind of the point of a minigun):
Also, it looks much better with the long barrel:
Buuuuuuuut if you do use the short barrel, there’s actually enough parts to build the Carbine alongside one of the other two guns:
I don’t think this is supposed to happen - for comparison, you can’t do it with any of the other weapons - but it’s a welcome little quirk.
The third and final configuration is the Sniper Type:
The idea of using a Gatling Gun for sniping is ridiculous, but I appreciate it’s cool scope:
It also comes with a bipod, with parts to put it in either an open or closed position. I can’t imagine posing a High Grade in a prone firing position with the bipod open - most of them probably wouldn’t have the dexterity to pull it off - so as far as I’m concerned this is a “Rule of Cool” thing. Set the bipod however you wish.
Zaku Machine Gun
Here are the three suggested configurations:
And here are the components:
Sadly, I won’t be able to show you all the configurations. As you can see, there’s a long rod (it’s in the first “column”, second “row” of parts) that clips into one of the two frames. I ended up breaking it neatly in two, and at that point I had to commit to one of the frames so I could permanently glue the rod in place. I chose the late type frame, since it’s much less common (I only have one of them).
The good news is that all of the other parts are still swappable - except, I chose the early type barrel, since it has a slot that the grenade launcher neatly fits into.
Which means that the only two components I can swap are the stock and the magazine, so let’s just do that:
This last configuration is my favorite. It’s a mix of early and late-type parts that doesn’t resemble and standard Zaku Machine Gun.
Weapon Set 2
This set comes with the following:
- Parts to create a Beam Rifle
- Parts to create a Heat Hawk
There is no weapons rack this time, but it makes up for it by having a ton of parts for the Beam Rifle. Speaking of which …
Beam Rifle
Here are the three configurations:
And here are all the parts:
There’s almost enough here to create two, possibly three separate rifles, except for the fact that all three configurations use the same part for the trigger, so you can only make one at a time.
Let’s begin with the Gelgoog Rifle:
Interestingly, I don’t have one of these rifles; all my Gelgoog models come with alternate weapons. But this is definitely what the standard Gelgoog rifle is supposed to look like. Though I think this version actually looks better than the original 1979 iteration, which has a bit of an “old sci-fi ray gun” vibe:
On the other hand, this Weapon Set version has better surface detail, nice color separation, and some tweaked proportions. It’s just meaner looking all around:
Now, when I was on the Gundam Wiki looking for an image of the Gelgoog Rifle, I came across this sketch of a “Prototype Gelgoog Rifle”:
Which … looks an awful lot like this guy right here!
So I guess this kit comes with two Gelgoog rifles:
This one might be my favorite of the bunch. It’s lean and mean and pretty big too, big enough that it’d probably fit comfortably on an extra large High Grade.
Our last configuration is the “machinegun type”:
Wait a minute … I feel like I’ve seen this before.
Yeah … if we swap the scope and the bipod and … AHAH!!!
It’s the same as the Gelgoog Jager’s Beam Rifle!!
It’s Gelgoog guns all around! Just who designed this Weapon Set?
Heat Hawk
Here are the configurations:
And here are the parts:
I just want to say that I love the fact that someone decided to include a souped up Heat Hawk. The standard version of the weapon doesn’t always look very impressive next to a powerful rifle, or a Beam Saber, or many other Universal Century weapons. It’s kind of like walking into a round of Counterstrike equipped with the knife:
So I love the idea of giving it a bigger blade, or a longer handle, or a double blade.
But first, for comparison’s sake, we start with the standard Heat Hawk:
Now we make it bigger:
And finally, here’s the double:
A few observations:
- You can’t make a double axe with the large blade. For some reason the parts aren’t compatible
- The short handle fits snuggly enough into the holding hands, but the long handle does now. The long axe is going to slip around unless you can somehow get your model to hold it with two hands, and even then I’m not entirely sure …
- The kit comes with tons of holding hands, but not enough armor plates for the backs of the hands. You’ll have to swap them out depending on which hand you need/want to use
- For some reason the kit comes with some hands with a square backing, and other hands with a rounded backing. I guess it’s a nice gesture, though in the end I’d prefer to just use the color-appropriate backing for whatever model I’m currently playing with:
Holding Hands
Speaking of which - is it even possible to equip these weapons on the existing holding hands your models already have? I grabbed a couple from my existing High Grades and put them to the test. Note that this is far from an exhaustive survey, though the results did line up with my expectations.
Basically, it depends on the hand.
For example, the hands on the Revive Gundam fit perfectly, even the trigger finger hand:
But weirdly, the hand from the very large Zaku III does not work:
The slot inside the hand is not quite wide enough.
The hand from the Dijeh also doesn’t work, for a similar reason:
Lastly, the hand for the Full Armor Gundam 7th fits this grip comfortably:
And this one barely:
So yeah, it depends. If you’ve got some hands that don’t work, perhaps you could use the right ones from the Weapon Set, along with the colored backing plate from your model of choice. Or, in the worse case scenario, just use the complete hand from the Weapon Set, and live with the fact that the hand isn’t the exact right color.
Conclusion
I like the idea of these Weapon Sets. But I think the execution could be a little better.
What I mean is that I feel like both the packaging and the product listing on Premium Bandai could be a little clearer about what kinds of weapons these parts are meant to build. While in retrospect it’s not bleedingly obvious to me that this is a pile of Gelgoog weapon parts:
But it wasn’t quite so obvious to me when I bought it. It also doesn’t help that the package just says “Beam Rifle parts”, and that it shows an extremely non-Zeon mobile suit using a Zeon rifle, which threw me off:
Maybe that just means I wasn’t paying enough attention, or maybe it means that my Gundam knowledge isn’t quite as strong as I’d like to believe.
It’s hard to say - the Internet has cooked my brain and made it difficult for me to determine what is or isn’t reasonable. Most people would roll their eyes at the idea that a True Gundam Fan should be able to instantly recognize all potential weapon configurations from a pile of parts. But Internet Fans would think nothing of it. After all, these are the same people that could tell that I wasn’t using the original Crotch-V on my Real Grade Nu Gundam from this far away:
So I dunno. I think they could be more clear about what you’re getting in the package. Others might disagree.
Now, I know what you might be thinking. “Why do you care so much about what’s in the package? I thought you liked the look of most of these weapons?” That’s true; taken purely on their own terms, these weapons look great. But it’s also true that three of the four weapons in these packs are very clearly Zeon weapons, and at least two of them are extremely iconic at that.
I know this is more of a “me” problem, but I feel weird loading up Earth Federation mobile suits with Zeke weapons. And that kind of limits my options for how and when to use these accessories.
Basically, I’d like the packaging to be more clear, and I would like them to either throw in some more Feddie guns, or create some new weapons that are more generic.