RG RX-78-2 Gundam [Ver 2.0]

Built, panel lined, decaled, and flat topcoated.

Bandai’s done it again—they outdid themselves in the Real Grade line for at least the sixth time since the Unicorn, but the jump in engineering from the Epyon to this kit is absolutely absurd. This really builds like no other kit, period. I’d go far to even say it builds more complex than the PG Unleashed at times. You basically have no idea what you’re building throughout the entire process, that once you it starts coming together in a familiar shape, you do wonder how you got there. The torso, the core fighter, the head, the waist, the arms, the feet and the legs—god, it is just out of this world. Gone are the usual sandwich joints on the elbows and knees, say hello to, well, I can’t really describe it in words. I’ll be honest, I don’t really like how they build, they’re awkward to place and you don’t really hear a click once they’re fully in there, and the way it rotates for the first time does not spark confidence, which ironically reminds me of how it feels to move early RG’s advanced MS joints. However, once they’re in, I mean, it feels basically impossible to snap them. 

Despite how complex this build gets, it’s all for the superb stability and posability this thing can achieve. This is one of the easiest, if not the easiest kits to pose as joints feel secure, but not tight that you fear that it might break on you, and not too loose like when you breathe on it for one second and now you completely ruined the pose. Doing a one knee pose on this literally take a few seconds to pull off, it’s fucking insane. After endlessly posing it, at least making 30 different poses on him, he still feels as solid as he was first built. 

The design of the 2.0 does detract quite a bit from the traditional RX-78-2 look, he’s much beefier than others, especially with the huge torso, and has so many cutouts to expose the inner frame. While the 1.0’s design looks more iconic considering it was used as the 1/1 statue, I love the intricate look of the 2.0’s, it really screams mini PGU while still being its own thing. It also reminds me of Thunderbolt’s Perfect Gundam at times. Panel line and decal him up, oh boy, he looks so damn glorious. 

This kit is near perfection. Besides a few parts of the build being too complex, it works out in the end being so stable and poseable at the same time. Maybe it would been nice if it came with more weapons out of the box, but that’d probably make the kit more expensive, because this kit at $38 feels quite a bargain for what you’re getting with this. It’s cheaper than most RGs that have been coming out lately, but nothing’s as awesome as this. This is absolutely the best kit I’ve built this year without question. Bravo, Bandai, bravo.