Nobel Gundam is hot blooded and ready to fight!

Just kidding. She’s ready to do some fun and girly poses, and then fight.

I have a lot of thoughts about this model. On a general level, I think this is a great rendition of Nobel. It’s not merely fem-coded, but also very cute and girly. It’s a nice change of pace from your usual Gundam fare:

However, I’m a little torn about this particular version. On one hand, I love the colors. The whole pink/purple thing makes it even more girly, and the shiny finish gives it an extra special feel. On the other hand, the wild berserker hair is out of place in some poses.

No, seriously, it literally gets in the way sometimes, especially when posing it near another model. It also just doesn’t appropriate for some of the more feminine, girly poses:

Basically, I feel like I eventually need to get the standard Nobel model at some point. This is a case where one model does not fit all use cases, no matter how much I may try to make it work.

Action Base Issues

Listen, I know this is just a plastic model. A model of a robot at that. But I still feel … weird doing this. But do it I must - we have to peek under Nobel’s skirt.

Because of her sleight frame, Nobel doesn’t have room for a standard Action Base mounting hole. Instead, she’s got this narrow rectangular slit, with a matching Action Base adapter:

The thing about the standard mounting peg is that, because it’s slightly wider, it does a better job of supporting models. Whereas because this peg is narrower, the opposite is true. I found that Nobel constantly fell off the Action Base, which in this case is a huge issue.

Martial Arts mobile suits are going to be jumping and running and kicking a lot, so if you can’t keep her on the Action Base, that negates a whole lot of potential poses.

But it’s even more of a problem here because Nobel doesn’t balance well on her feet due to her heels, so I found myself wanting to use the Action Base even for standing poses. But since that wasn’t an option, I ultimately decided to just not take a ton of photos.

That’s a huge shame, because this is such a fun looking model, and thus should be a lot of fun to pose. But you know, I’ve already struggled a lot to find the motivation to photograph these G Gundam models. If I forced myself to a do a longer photoshoot while dealing with a flimsy Action Base mount, I’d probably never get around to it.

Comparison to Grandaddy Gundam

During the build I made a lot of comparisons between Nobel and the OG Grandaddy Gundam, so let’s compare them side by side:

I stand by what I said earlier - the similarities between the two are striking, particularly in the legs and lower torso (and to a lesser extent the chest).

This isn’t a complaint; far from it. If you’re going to make a Girl Gundam, it makes sense to start with a simple genderswap of the original, and that’s exactly what I think they’ve done.

Some Final Action Shots

Now let’s enable true Berserker Mode and let Nobel run wild on God Gundam:

I still don’t remember her using these Beam Sabers, but here they are regardless:

And now here it is to fight against God Gundam:

Some More Group Shots

Just for good measure:

Conclusion

This is a model with brilliant engineering and a fantastic look. No notes.

I just wish it was a bit easier to pose, though sadly it seems all too fitting that the mobile suit forced to fight in heels has the most problems staying balanced.

Update Dec. 27 - Joint Guard and More Photos

I got this Joint Guard tape as a gift for Christmas:

Presumably this is meant for tightening up loose joints, but I had another thought - could it be used to tighten up Nobel’s Action Base Adapter? Let’s give it a shot:

So … did it work?

Not really, no. Not even after applying a second layer of tape. For a second it looked like it might have helped, but once I started moving the model’s limbs around it fell right off the base again.

Even still, I toughed it out and took some more photos, since I felt bad that the original photoshoot was so anemic. Let me share them with you now:

Even if the experiment failed, I’m glad I got these extra shots, as they really help augment the original photoshoot. And I’m not going to give up on this joint guard tape, as I’m sure it’s still probably effective in situations it was actually designed for.