Those weapons sure gave a workout, but there’s no time to rest. There’s still a whole mobile suit to put together.
Head
This is one of those models that supports the use of an LED light to illuminate the eyes and the chest.
I’ve built other kits like this, and if my memory serves me they usually give you a choice regarding the eyes. The eyes will be made out of clear plastic (to allow the light of the LED to shine through), and you can choose to either leave them like that, or you can use the included eye decals (so that they won’t look dull and dead when there is no light)
But that’s not the case with this kit. It comes with a sticker for the black “mask” around the eyes, but nothing for the eyes themselves. If you want them to look bright and colorful when there’s no LED, you’ll have to color them in yourself:
A gold Gundam Marker did the trick for me, though even a gold Sharpie would fit the bill.
I’m really baffled by this decision. The sticker sheet is huge - how hard would it have been to add to more small, measly stickers for the eyes?
Anyway, as for the build, it’s complex even by Master Grade standards. Like so much of the model, the head uses a mix of white and grey plastic, and so it’s broken up into lots of tiny parts and panels that all have to fit together. It’s not hard, it’s just a lot of parts.
But when it’s all said and done, the result is pretty great:
Everyone knows what the Gundam’s head looks like, and yet when it comes to Gunpla, I feel like every model does it a little differently. This particular design is one of my favorites. It mainly comes down to the shape for me - it’s not too long or too squished, too rounded or too sharp:
One thing I’ll say is that I’m a little surprised that it only uses two marking decals. I’ve seen other Gundam heads that have stuff going on in the back, and even more along the sides, but this one keeps it relatively clean (especially considering how the rest of the body is arguably overloaded with markings).
Comparisons
I’ve long thought that the Real Grade head looks meaner than just about any other version of Gramps that I’ve ever seen. And after seeing these two side by side, I’ve finally figured out why
The design of these two heads is mostly identical, except for the fact that on the Real Grade, the very front of the head is shaped to look like it’s furrowing its brow, like he’s the angry version of Kirby used by Nintendo on US boxart. That, folks, is why it looks so mean.
Meanwhile, the Master Grade has a level brow, and so it has that kind of chill, kind of dopey look that the Gundam usually has. Personally, I wish it had the mean look, though it still looks great overall.
Backpack
I’m build this backpack so many times. In some cases it’s been a single hunk of plastic, while other times it’s made out of quite a bit more than that.
But this particular iteration is bar far one of the most complex, because it has a bunch of nonstandard details. Like this grey stripe running across it:
It also has four thrusters instead of the usual two. And on top of that, each thruster has an extra little bit that goes inside of it:
I’m not entirely sure why they are made out of clear plastic. That would make sense if the light of the LED was capable of shining through into the thrusters, but that’s clearly not possible. I ended up painting them all with a metallic marker.
Here is the finished assembly:
I think this is our first encounter with the metallic stickers. These are just like the ones on the Real Grade, and they’re supposed to go on the thrusters, as well as some of the joints:
As long as you wait to apply them until after topcoating, they actually look pretty nice. The metallic sheen offers a nice texture contrast.
Comparisons
I’m actually going to wait until I have the entire upper body assembled before doing any comparisons. I’m afraid of taking the Real Grade model apart on account of how old and fragile it is.
Upper Torso
Aside from the little space in the neck to accommodate the LED, this is just like the Real Grade. It has a very minimal inner frame, but is otherwise mostly hollow, in order to accommodate the Core Block system.
Here’s something I don’t think I’ve encountered before. Each individual section of the yellow chest vents is made out of its own separate part:
And when you fit them all together, they interlock so that they all move up and down in lockstep (and yes, they can move up and down once the chest is assembled, at least a little bit).
One thing we don’t get in this kit are metallic stickers for the vents, like you do on the Real Grade. That might be for the better, as they didn’t end up looking too great on the RG.
Just like with the head, we get lots of extra parts separation, including some panels that are slightly different in color than the rest:
And here it is all finished up:
I love all the markings on this model. I don’t like having them on all of my Grandaddy Gundams, but I want them all on this one.
Lower Torso
Just like on the Real Grade version, you can either use the transformed Core Fighter as the core block, or you can use a separate (and likely more stable) facsimile:
I’ve seen some people color in all the piping and cabling running along the sides; a lot of builders have a motto of “even if no one else can see it, I know it’s there, and I want it to look color accurate”. I have enormous respect for those folks, but for me personally, I’m still largely in a “if no one can see it, then it’s not worth doing” mindset.
As for the rest of the torso, it’s all the usual. Lots of color separation, lots of marking decals, etc.
Comparisons (again)
Now we can finally do another comparison:
Couple of notes:
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The chest vents on the Real Grade are more square-shaped, while on the Master Grade they're vaguely more Rhombus shaped.
I find this kind of funny: when comparing different versions of the Grandaddy Gundam, the only thing that might differ more than the shape of the head is the shape of the chest vents. Even on these two models, which are largely meant to be identical, we still manage to get some variation.
- On both models, the cockpit hatch uses a second shade of blue, but they're slightly different from one another. I prefer the one they chose for the Master Grade; the Real Grade blue looks a bit too toothpaste-y in comparison.
- The area immediately below the cockpit hatch is blue on the Master Grade, but red on the Real Grade. I think I like the RG approach better, as it looks more uniform.
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On the Master Grade there is a lot more space between the cockpit hatch and the red armor - arguably too much in fact. Now to be fair, the hatch isn't perfectly aligned in this photo, so it looks worse than it should, but even still ...
I think the problem I have with that is that the Core Block is set so far back that you can't really see it in there. It just looks like the chest is hollow behind the hatch, and I'm not sure that's the look they were going for.
- Flipping it around, we see that the RG has a bit more surface detail in the torso itself, and even a bit more on the backpack too. However, I still think the MG backpack looks better overall on account of the extra bits inside the thrusters.
Pause
Let’s take a break here. We’re roughly at the halfway point, and nothing else is closed to being finished.