We’re one year past the broadcast premiere of Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX and one year past my build of the original HG GQuuuuuuX. At that time, it was a novel build and it literally stretched what could be done with the engineering and price point of normal HG kits with its intricate design. A first since 1999’s Turn A Gundam, we didn’t get a mid-season upgrade for the hero mobile suit. But this didn’t stop the folks at Bandai Hobby to release a kit in lieu with the HG GQuuuuuuX [Endymion Unit Activated] version.
With the one year gap between these two buids, and the minimal differences between, is the does the novelty of the kit hold up?
Short answer, yeah, at least for me. But take that from a guy who has been building three kits from Gundam GQuuuuuuX in succession, where we’re basically working with just two Gundam molds differentiated with color or minute variations. Not to mention I still have to build the HG 01 Gundam, so the wonder behind the aesthetics and engineering has definitely diminished.
The repeat build did provide me opportunities to apply corrections with the available tools at my disposal. Mainly being the aftermarket waterslide decals and masking sheets. I previously had to meticulously mask all those orange details on the torso, but I just used the decals for this build. I still wasn’t a fan of the pinstriping but using the decals were definitely better than the marking seals that came with the kit.
The opening mouth feature definitely made building the head unit very complicated with the color separation and small parts, blurring the lines between High Grades and Real Grades. I also spent a good part of the last week just painting the backpack unit since that’s where they skimped on the parts separation. Again, the masking sheets really helped cut the time during painting.
Overall, I think I’m ready to get back building more conventional Gunpla, but I wanna power through with the HG 01 Gundam, the last Gundam GQuuuuuuX kit in my backlog. I don’t think we’ll get a side story manga or something so I wanted to say I don’t see myself getting any more GQuuuuuuX kits in the future, for now at least. So I might as well close this series with the next kit.
