GM Night Seeker II ready to jump:
Let’s address the elephant in the room - the stickers. I think that most of them came out looking decent. The only ones where you can really see the outline sticker is on the backpack and on the feet. Would I like if those looked better? Sure, of course. But all things considered I think I can let them slide.
Which is good, because think the stickers add a lot to the design. Aside from just making it feel more like a Real Grade than a High Grade, they also give nice, special “Ace Custom” vibe that puts it in a class above your standard GM. This is the mobile suit used by the team of grizzled vets who want you to know that thety’re from the Earth Federation - and they’re coming for you.
I also like that the legs are partially colored blue. It’s such a small change, but it does a lot to change the mood. It’s like someone in the upper brass thought these units were special enough to approve the budget for a little bit of extra colored paint.
Ironically, the rear thrusters - arguably the Night Seeker’s signature visual flourish - is probably the thing I’m least impressed with. They’re not bad: they just don’t stand out as much as I thought they would.
Sturdiness
I know it’s a cliche to say this, but this model is built like a brick shithouse:
Sometimes, when the removing the head of a High Grade model, the entire neck - including the ball joint and some of the surrounding armor - will pop off. Not so here. This makes it trivial to swap between the two heads as desired.
Furthermore, the hands never fall apart no matter what weapon it’s using, the limbs stay in place, and the joints are firm. And despite having such a big packpack, it’s very well balanced.
I cannot overstate how much easier and more enjoyable it is to photograph a model when it’s amenable to whatever it is you want to do with it. So let’s get to some poses!
Action Poses
This Gunpla reaffirms one of my core beliefs, which is that good accessories and a good variety of holding hands can go a long way toward making a model expressive. Each hand has an open palm hand, a trigger finger hand, and a regular holding hand, which means you can configure this thing any which way you want.
I also think it helps that GM’s have such simple, blocky bodies. There’s no bulky armor that might get in the way of whatever poses you have in mind:
You know it’s a good photo shoot when I take this many shots with the beam saber:
I definitely prefer this Commander-Type head over the Scuba Mask one, though I tried to use both as equally as possible for these photos:
Conclusion
No notes. This is another one of those kits that I put on the backlog for just a few too many months, and in retrospect I wish I didn’t sleep on it. This was so fun to build and to pose, and I wish it was a regular retail release instead of P-Bandai.