Ladies and Gentlemen, the Gundam Mk II is complete and on station:
Now to arm it:
And do some last minute repairs:
And for Lt. Emma to board:
Gundam Mk II, ready to launch:
Some parts of the assembly might be flawed (on account of its age), and it might have some silly Anaheim Electronics decals, but all in all this is such a majestic looking Gunpla:
Bandai could have gone in different directions here. They could have made it less detailed (and thus more TV accurate), or they could have made it more detailed, like they might do on a Perfect Grade. Instead, they took the middle ground, making it perfectly balanced just the way I like. It’s just a stellar looking model all around.
Action Poses
This kit is so old that it isn’t compatible with an Action Base, and I’m still not good at posing Master Grades, so once again all I’ve got are some very basic poses.
The kit has the same gimmick that a lot of High Grades now incorporate, where you can swing the hip joint forward to unlock some more articulation in the lower torso.
I can’t say I noticed a huge difference, but I was at least able to nail this pose:
I’m starting to come around to the idea that maybe Master Grades don’t always need to be in fancy poses. With the right lighting, and the right angle, even a simple pose like this can look awesome:
Even these look pretty great:
And before we wrap it up, here it is with the bazooka strapped to its back:
Comparison to Real Grade
This may not be a fair comparison considering that my Real Grade Mk II is extremely worse for wear, but let’s take a look anyway:
In terms of the overall level of detail, they’re a pretty close match. Even some of the tinier surface details are similar.
There are some places where the Real Grade has extra color separation, for instance in the shoulders and the rear skirt armor. But then there are places where the Master Grade has detail that the Real Grade was unable (or unwilling) to capture, presumably due to its size. For example, the MG has little yellow vents on the front and back of the shoulder armor, and these are simply nowhere to be found on the RG.
All in all though, they both look fantastic.
Conclusion
I may not have posed it much, but nevertheless this model has such an incredible sense of presence. It’s the Mk II in all its glory, and I’m very happy with the final result. It’s nice to have one of my favorite mobile suits in such stunning form.