HG 1/144 00 Gundam & O Raiser Part 1

Combined set build
The latest Gunpla I'm working on: HG 1/144 00 Gundam and O Raiser.


That's two kits there, but I don't feel like separating them into different reviews. A seperate review might be OK for 00 Gundam, but O Raiser would seem too little in terms of content for its own set of review. Also, as you might already know from other reviews and the continuous releases of 00 Gundam in all its variations all this while, some of the parts for O Raiser are weapons and accessories for 00 Gundam, so the complimentary value doesn't seem fair for O Raiser for a disjointed review on its own.

Almost all merchandises nowadays focus on 00 Raiser. No more separation between the Gundam and its support unit.

Anyway, like something I mentioned in the introduction on Soul of Chogokin The Big O, I'm too late to the party for this kit. ^^; Second season of "Gundam Double O" was like ages ago, and now, even its movie was something that happened last year. ^^; Gunpla wise, even though this is the first kit from Season 2 of the anime, there are tons of variations with new weapons and gimmicks that came out after it, making these two seem like really old kits in the series per se. ^^;

I do have the Trans-Am Raiser version with GN Sword III, but that will be for another review. And for your information, 00 Gundam is 1,000 Yen (exclusive of tax), O Raiser is 800 Yen (exclusive of tax), Trans-Am Raiser is 2,000 Yen (exclusive of tax), so you can deduce that GN Sword III and some of the other beam parts are 200 Yen in terms of the price tag.

I'm not a big fan of 00 Gundam/Raiser actually, I like Gundam Exia more. But I do really like the design of this HG kit. Unlike the HG series from Season 1 of the anime that utilized a combination of polycaps (the older type PC-123) and ABS joints, which can be somewhat conventional in terms of articulation design, it's all PS parts for 00 Gundam with brand new polycap set (PC-001) that introduced a much broader movement range for all the joints. Most HG kits from Season 2 of the anime use this new polycap set. This new design seems to be coming from the changes implemented for the polycap sets in the HGUC series. HGUC Sazabi that was released in June 2008 was the first in that plamo line to jump from PC-123 (like Zaku II FZ right before him) or PC-116 for larger HG kit (like Char's Customized Gelgoog) to the new PC-132 set. This new set is used for newer HGUC kits, like Double Zeta Gundam, Delta Plus and Sinanju. 00 Gundam was released 3 months after Sazabi, and its PC-001 set can also be found in newer HG kits as well, like Beginning Gundam and even HG Gouf Custom. So, if you want, you can seel HG 00 Gundam as an important milestone of change in Bandai's Gunpla design history really. ^^

00 Gundam itself is designed for awesome articulation, evidenced by elements like very short skirt armors, lack of ankle guard, small shoulder armors and wrist segment that is separated from the forearm. Adding in the Twin Drive that has its own set of amazing articulation, and special mentioning of all the weapon combination and add-on packs from the anime, side stories and original designs, the possibilities for this Gundam seem limitless. ^^


Box art


00 Gundam's box is plenty thin on its own, but it's still a little thicker than that of O Raiser.



Introduction of the kit on the sides of box.


Content.


Comes with the promo leaflet for 1/144 Full Kit Gundam Rasiel and GN Sefer that are bundled prize items for Dengeki Hobby January and February 2009 issues respectively.
Kind of tells you how old this kit is. ^^;


Runner A - The usual multi-color runner. Most of them are gray parts for the joints.


Clear parts on Runner A. The ones for the head are dangerously tiny.


Runner B - Contains all the white parts.


Face is molded as a one piece part. The only other kit before 00 Gundam that has this feature is HGUC Nu Gundam.


Runner C - Contains all the blue parts for the upper body.


Polycap and foil sticker. Not sure what that yellow sticker is for.


All parts separated from their runners.


All clear parts except the one for the forehead remain on the runner to ease the painting on them later using highlighter.


One lonely remainder polycap XD
For O Raiser:


Box art.



Introduction of the kit on the sides of box.


Manual.


Runner OA - Contains multi-color parts that include the display base and shield.


Clear orange part for the sensor unit.


Three parts for the display stand.


Runner OB - Contains all the white parts.


Details molded for the sensor unit.


Polycap set and sticker.


All the parts for O Raiser.
Some paint work to start in the next posting. ^^