Gunpla Build - High Grade Second V (Clear)

On this festive Christmas Eve, let us spend time with the people that matter most to us in life - plastic models … 🎄😜

Last month I built my first clear High Grade, and at the time I said I needed to build at least one more clear kit - preferably one in traditional Gundam colors - in order to better calibrate my opinion on the whole clear gimmick. Well, here it is:

This is the clear version of the Second V, from novelization of Victory Gundam. This is actually one of the kits I was really hoping to get from the Gundam Base Tour back in the fall, but alas it wasn’t available at my particular tour stop. Thankfully Bandai did a final online sales push at the end of the tour, putting their leftover inventory on Premium Bandai (which is how I was able to get it).

About the Mobile Suit

Back in 1993 /1994, when Victory Gundam was on the air, Yoshiyuki Tomino also put out a novelization of the story. And as he is wont to do with his Gundam novelizations, Tomino decided to change up some of the mobile suits.

Most notably, the rather than replacing the OG Victory Gundam with the V2 Gundam, it is instead replaced with the Second V:

It’s basically just a souped up Victory Gundam with some new weapons, and the same Minovsky Drive system as the V2. Here is what the instruction manual has to say:

The Second V is an MS manufactured by the League Militaire in their lunar technetium factory, and is an advanced successor model to the LM312V04 V Gundam. It shares the basic structure and systems, such as its detaching and combining gimmicks, but its defensive capabilities have been improved due to being equipped with a Minovsky Shield and having upgraded armor.

The MS also gained extraordinary abilities by equipping a Mega Beam Cannon, becoming as powerful as Mobile Armors and heavy Mobile Suits specialized for specific purposes. Data obtained from combat against the Zanscare Empire was used and the development and installment of the Minovsky Drive Unit resulted in the immense capabilities of the MS.

The Minovsky Drive Unit was especially remarkable, being a new propulsion system capable of thrust which surpasses existing systems, and its small burden on the generator enabled surplus output energy to be diverted to other armaments. Although the MS has the risk of breaking down when operating at maximum output and its unstable balance created a bias against using the MS in operations, the Second V is an MS that symbolizes the League and became a precursor for Mobile Suits of a new era.

Perhaps Tomino wanted a mobile suit that had all the same upgrades and abilities of the V2, while keeping the look of the original Victory.

Weapons and Stuff

The Second V’s two new armaments are the Mega Beam Cannon and the Minovsky Shield. I’ll include their respective flavor text when I build them. Speaking of which …

The Build

Let’s get right to it! Here are the runnrers:

It’s a pretty big spread for a High Grade, though it should be noted that it has a number of unused parts. Still, this should be an interesting build.

Minovsky Shield

A shield with defensive capabilities as effective as the Beam Shields for warships. It is deployed by dividing from the middle, and it releases its Shield Bits in three directions to protect wide areas when used with full output. Due to its large energy consumption, it cannot be used by other Mobile Suits.

Based on the flavor text, I imagine that the shield works similarly to the fin funnels of the Nu Gundam, where the bits link up to for a protective barrier:

However, with only three bits available, it stands to reason that the Minovsky Shield can only project its energy shield along a single 2d plane, rather than creating a 3d shape like the one above. Still a cool idea.

What’s interesting here is that the kit comes with different parts so that you can depict the shield as either “folded” (for mounting onto its backpack):

And “unfolded” (when deployed for use):

It would have been nice if instead there was a built in hinge, as it’s quite a pain in the butt to swap between the two.

Mega Beam Cannon

A long range Mega Beam Cannon equipped on the weapon platform. Its power largely exceeds Beam Rifles. It is usually equipped on the right side, but can also be attached on the left side. It can also be removed during melee combat.

As the flavor text suggests, I’ve seen screenshots of this model holding this cannon in its hands, but it never looked to me like it was using it as a melee weapon. But hey, maybe I’ll give that a shot.

This is made out of a decent amount of color separated plastic:

It also comes with a nice little hand grip and a wrist mount:

That’s (mostly) it for the new stuff in this model, so let’s do a quick tour of the body parts.

The Rest

The feet look about the same, so we’ll skip those.

The legs, however, are not the same:

That blue trim on the knee armor is not on the original victory. Nor are the circular red stickers on the knee.

(also, I want to point out that all the grey translucent plastic in this kit has the same nice gunmetal finish that we saw on the clear HG Pale Rider)

The lower torso looks the same, except for the fact that once again we get red circular stickers for the side skirts.

The only change I can detect on the upper torso is that those little shoulder vents are blue on the original Victory Gundam, but on the Second V they’re white.

Now for the head:

This kit comes with tiny little black stickers to place behind the side vents, which I’m 99% sure the original High Grade Victory does not include. But other than that, they look about the same to me.

The arms are the same, except for those red stickers again:

And the shoulders are the same too, except for the fact that this kit comes with more little black stickers to use on the side vents.

Lastly, we come to the one new(ish) body part - the Minovsky Drive thrusters:

Believe it or not, these are not identical to the ones on the V2. At the very least the insides of the thrusters are not the same - so much so, in fact, that you cannot use the Wings of Light accessory on this model, as the wing effect parts won’t fit. It might be possible if you removed some stuff, but I haven’t tried yet.

Spares

Here are the all the leftover parts:

This is iluminating. You can see that, despite looking relatively similar to the original Victory Gundam, the Second V uses new versions of a bunch of different parts. There’s the chest armor, of course, but it also uses new parts for the red beam shield emitters in the arms, as well as a bunch of new parts for the inner frame.

Finished

I had to mess around to get the lighting just right for this one. For instance, the light is too bright in this one, so you can’t easily see all the “white” parts:

And in this one I used a black background, which makes it look not clear enough:

And this here is the closest I could get to a happy middle ground:

Overall, the clear effect is not quite the same as it is on the Pale Rider. The Second V feels at once both more and less clear, and I think I like it better.

(I don’t like the head though. That red plastic bleeds through too much and makes it look like a melty, bloody skull or something)

Or to put it another way, while the Second V is still very much clear, it has enough color separation and parts separation that you can still make out all the body parts, and even some of the surface details:

This is different than the Pale Rider, which looks a bit too much like a formless blob of blue plastic:

Action Poses

We’ll start off with some basic stuff:

And now with the shield dpeloyed:

This is as good a time as any to point out that the way the shield mounts to the arm is really awkward:

Now here’s an interesting question - the Shield Bits are supposed to detach and deploy, but does actually work in real life? Can you prop them up?

Answer - not easily. There’s nothing in the instruction manual about it, so I’m not even sure if it’s officially meant to be possible.

What I can say is that I was able to awkwardly cram them onto the Witch From Mercury weapon displays. And I really do mean cram; they only stay in place because they fit between two pieces of plastic:

And it’s not like the end result looks all that great. Without any beam effect parts, you can’t actually see the beam shield that the Bits are supposed to form:

But I tried to create my best artist’s rendition anyway:

It turns out that the beam cannon can only bend forward about 45 degrees:

So if you want it to fire forward, you’ll have to equip it in the hand:

Except the instructions show you how to attach it to the left hand:

So I guess that means it’s upside down when equipped on the right (not like it really matters):

Wings of Light

The Second V’s thrusters are the exact same shape as the V2’s, but believe it or not they don’t use the same parts. Specifically, the Second V uses very different parts on the inside - so different, in fact, that the model is not compatible with the High Grade Wings of Light.

However, all you have to do is remove the liner from the bottom half of each thruster, and then you can cram the wings in there. It’s not a perfect fit, nor is it particularly secure, but it works. Exhibit A:

And Exhibit B:

And C:

It’s no surprise that they look fantastic. I’m really glad I decided to just give it a try.

Conclusion

I feel like I have to assess this model on two levels. First, as a general High Grade model (clear or otherwise), I think it’s mostly good. I really like the extra color separation on the body of the Victory Gundam, and I think the new accessories look pretty great too. As much as I appreciate the Victory’s clean, elegant look, it also looks pretty stunning with some extra weapons strapped to its back.

On the other hand, I don’t like that it isn’t (normally) compatible with the Wings of Light, nor do I like that the Shield Bit gimmick is DOA. As great as the new accessories may look, they’re not all that playable.

If assessing is a clear Gunpla, my opinion is largely the same - it’s mostly good. I think it manages to preserve the basic look of the mobile suit, while giving it a funky visual twist. But also, I still don’t like that bloody-looking red face. And come to think of it, I don’t really like the red circle stickers that are on all of its limbs.

So What’s my Stance on Clear Gunpla?

I think I’m sold on clear designs under certain conditions. For something like the Second V - where it’s a minor variant of a design I already like and admire (and own), it’s a great idea, as it gives it enough of a unique visual identity to justify adding it to the collection.

But if it’s something I don’t already own, I’d rather have the original version, so that all the details and colors of the design are on full display.

But what about something like the Pale Rider. Technically I didn’t own it already, which in theory made it a bad candidate for a clear model. But it’s also true that it’s very similar to other mobile suits, including the Gundam Mk. II and several types of GM. So in a way, it kind of feels like a minor variant of something, which makes it a good candidate for a clear type.

In the specific case of the Pale Rider, I’m okay with the clear version because I don’t really care that much about the mobile suit. But going forward, if I get anymore clear models, I’m going to need to be far more judicious and choosy.