MG MS-14A GELGOOG VER.2.0 REVIEW
by Fignuts   2010-01-05 13:51:20.0

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See Also Related Reviews: .|. MG MS-14S Gelgoog (Char) by Talon Aveon Yagami .|. MG Gundam Mk-II Ver.2.0 Titans by Hathaway

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This was my first gundam kit after long hiatus from hobby. (Last one I built was the MG god Gundam when it first came out.) I have to mention my experience with hobbylink japan here. When the kit finally arrived, I noticed the box it shipped in was very large. Way bigger than it should be. When I opened it up, to my surprise, I found two gelgoogs. one had a crushed box. So hobbylink japan either damaged the box during shipping and sent a replacement along with it, or simply gave me a free kit, just to be rid of the damaged goods. either way, it's a testament to their great customer service.

Anyway, while I never built the first gelgoog, and thus can't compare it to this new 2.0, I have built a few mg kits in my time, and I can tell you this kit a great example of how far we've come.

The head is exceptional, no two ways about it. It has good range of motion in all directions. There is great detail in the neck area, as you can see two little working pistons when moving the head up and down. Inside, has an inner frame, with a clear piece for the mono eye, that you can either paint or put a sticker on. There is then another clear piece in front of that. The mono-eye turns in whatever direction you move the head, which is a pretty neat trick.

Incredible range of motion here. First off, the chest is a separate piece from the waist, that can be moved up and down. The waist can also move up and down. All this up and down movement, can lend itself to some really great "flying through space" poses, which is what the gelgoog is meant for in the first place. The waist also has a great range of motion when turning left and right. Like most current mg kits, it comes with an inner frame, complete with cockpit and pilot. Although, as usual, you have to paint the pilot.

The arms have a great amount of movement, although the hinge at the shoulder is slightly impeded by those thin square pieces that are in between the shoulder and torso. However you can still pull the shoulder inwards enough to get a good two-handed wearpon pose, which is the important part, in terms of that range of movement. Elbow articulation on the otherhand, is superb. it can be folded up all the way so the hand touches the shoulder.

The hand has a lot of movement as well. There is a little bar with a ball joint that clips onto the forearm. The hand then clips on to the bar. This gives the gelgoog's hand up and down movement, as well as side to side, which is imperative for putting in the weapons, since his forearms are so bulky.

Finally, the shoulder armor is really detailed, and if you look on it's underside, you can see some internals. The whole arm has an internal skeleton, of course.

First off, the legs have a very detailed inner frame just like the rest of the kit, but the detail here is even better.

The skirt armor is divided into small sections, giving the legs a lot more freedom to move. The seams of these sections all line up, so if you wanted to pose it in a more traditional look with the skirt armor as one big piece, you can do that. Although they don't fasten together at all, so you might need to realign them if you so much as look at the model funny.

Underneath the skirt armor, there are five very detailed thrusters, that can move slightly in two spots on each one.

The legs themselves have a good range of motion, but the sheer size of them limits their movement a bit. Still, given what they had to work with, bandai did a good job of putting as much articulation as they could, and even though the legs are heavy, the joints are tough, and it can hold a pose just fine. Also of note are the unique moving parts at the back of the knee. It's like a little steel cage that moves up and down when bending the knee. never saw that before.

The biggest problem in the legs is the fragility of the armor plating surrounding the bottom half. The armor is broken up into quite a few pieces, and because they are so thin, it ends up leaving some pretty bad seams. From the front it's okay, as it just looks like another panel line, but it splits in half in the back, and it does not come together very well at all. underneath that armor, you will see 3 thrusters on each leg, similar in detail to the ones underneath the skirt.

Finally the feet are very nicely done. They have great range in all directions, and also have a joint in the middle of the foot.

the biggest flaws of this kit come in the weapons department. lets start out with the good though.

The Beam Nagata(am I saying that right?) Admitedly, this one is hard to screw up, and they didn't. But they also threw in two normal beam sabre blades in addition to the nagata type, which I was never aware it used.

Moving on to the beam rifle. First off, let me say that I'm disappointed that they just reissued char's beam rifle for this suit, instead of remaking the bigger, nastier rifle that the mass-produced gelgoog has usually come with. Furthermore, it's molded in an out of place midnight blue color, despite the fact that there where black and dark grey runners in the kit. if this is an animation thing, then I guess it makes sense, since these 2.0's are supposed to be closer to the animation, but otherwise, it's just strange. If that wasn't enough, the hole on the grip is a bit shallow, and it falls from the hand very easily. On the plus side, it comes with a clear piece for the scope, that you can either paint or put a sticker underneath. Also, the rifle comes with two optional attachments. A grip, and a grenade launcher.

The shield doesn't attach by any kind of peg or anything. It just has a small spot for the hand to slide in. This doesn't give it a lot of stability, and it can fall off after a while. in addition, it's a bit heavy, and can make the arm drop sometimes, but the joint at the shoulder is generally tight enough to keep it up most of the time.

it comes with clear marking stickers, and dry transfer decals. I only use the dry trnasfer, and the most notable is the big fat principality of zeon logo on the shield. I just love stuff like that.

Overall, I highly recommend this kit. yeah, it has a few flaws in the weapons department, but everything else more than makes up for it. If you are a u.c. fan you need this in your collection.

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See Also Related Reviews: .|. MG MS-14S Gelgoog (Char) by Talon Aveon Yagami .|. MG Gundam Mk-II Ver.2.0 Titans by Hathaway

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