First Impression:
The box isn’t really heavy but still not as light as I first thought. Technically this was my first GFF figure and I wanted it to be of my favorite Gundam. Yes it’s not flashy and doesn’t do unholy amounts of damage in the films, but that’s one thing that I really like about it. The presentation of the box is fairly flashy, with Katoki’s signature GP01 illustrations all over it. The packaging (as with every GFF I’ve bought so far) is a pain to open and the equipment is easily removed with wire cutters by cutting the twisty tie things holding everything down. Removing the Gundam by itself and I find it to be heavier than I had imagined. This seems good since there seems to be no stand to go with it.
Box Contents (mostly):
assume I took the GP01 apart completely to its core pieces, normally its assembled
1 head
1 torso (includes chest/abodomen/waist)
1 set of legs
1 set of arms
3 hands (manipulators) – 2 clenched and one open right hand for gripping.
1 shields in 2 separate sections: (top and bottom)
1 shield handle + grip
1 bazooka (similar to the rx-78-2 and MK II)
1 machine gun
1 weapons attachment mechanism for the bazooka. (to attach to the rear of the MS)
1 standard tail section (instead of the above)
1 dark colored beam rifle (as used in the anime)
1 dark colored beam rifle (I can’t identify where this other one was from)
2 beam sabers (activated with pink plastic blades)
*** WARNING: Your GFF GP01 Zephyranthes MAY BE SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT THAN MINE***
Head:
The head is well modeled and detailed. It doesn’t look quite as strange or angular where the helmet meets the top of the eyes as the Master Grade version. There are no visible paint smears, especially near the intake vents and head mounted weapons systems. This is a plus. There is a nice amount of mechanical detail where the neck sits and the head rotates fairly well, even though it doesn’t really seem to want to. The eyes are difficult to see the because the visor obscures the view. The v antennae are a little bent as well.
Torso:
The detail in the torso is well handled. The backpack can be removed from the back, but the body is incapable of heading rotation (actually, rotation of any kind). The usual model identification markings. The floodlights (or sensors) at the rear side of the collar area look a little blob-ish, but I’m sure some sanding and repainting can fix this. Most noticeable is that the core fighter doesn’t separate from the torso. The entire assembly is hard modeled together. I suppose it’s just as well since the parts for the little fighter jet would be pretty small. I also didn’t expect it to be there because of the scale of the figure in general. But as far as detail goes, even the grooves that show the attachment between the chest and core fighter are present around the chest. No part of the cockpit hatch opens. The joint fixtures for the perceived opening of the hatch are themselves hard molded into the model as well. The waist is molded together with the abdomen. The absense of movement is frustrating, but also a good choice in some ways as it might keep this figure from becoming unstable during poses. The rear part of the waist features a section that can be removed and replaced with an attachment that allows the mounting of the bazooka for storage very much like the MKII, GM Kai or RX-78. Nice touch!
Arms:
The shoulders are pre-painted nicely with no visible bleed except near the verniers, where the black smudges a bit. Otherwise the painting and decals are well done. The arms rotate very well at the shoulders and elbows, allowing for some ok poses. But still strong enough to hold the accessories that you can load it with, including the shield and various weapons. Different hands are readily available to hold the weapons, but the molding makes it a bit difficult to insert the handles into the hands. They do fit securely though once this is accomplished.
Legs:
Again, I love the legs on this one. Everything was represented here very well. The legs rotate well at the waist, knees and ankles. Even the ankle cuffs have some give to them. The ankles are strong and well suited to holding the mass of this figure even after several different poses. It’s stiff, but movable. The more dynamic poses are either constricted or impossible since the side skirt armor is not movable. This restriction prevents a lot of good shooting poses, but it’s livable if the standing pose is what you want anyway. I would have liked more mobility in this area as pose-ability is an issue for me. Still, the contours are well represented and generally the artists did a good job with it, markings and all. Very nice looking.
Weapons/Armament/Accessories:
Beam rifle number one is the one that is used in the show. It’s painted in a dark metallic color and features rotating scope and grip. The epac isn’t removable however.
Beam rifle number 2 is one that I don’t recall seeing, but is still nice looking. It’s much longer and painted in 2 different metallic colors. The scope is immobile, as is the rest of the gun. Still it’s a nice looking addition to the arsenal, even though it’s a bit bent towards the end of the barrel.
Also present is a machine gun which like most of the arsenal has no moving parts. It fits well in the hand and has a wee sticker on it. Not a big deal, but again nice to have in the arsenal.
Bazooka… now this I wasn’t expecting. It’s much like the style of the bazookas carried by the MK II and the like. At first glance it looks like the ammunitions pack at the end is removable, but that’s hard molded as well. The detail is pretty well done, though I think that the white could have been painted a little neater.
Folding shield (retracting shield)
Comes in two pieces, a top and bottom one. The top piece has 1 peg that fits in one of two slots on the bottom piece to give the impression that it’s either slid down or up for defense. The markings on the shield are the part that I like the best, aside from the style. They just grab me. Not present are spare e-pacs for the rifle, even hard molded ones. That’s a downer, but not detrimental. There’s a shield holding assembly that you attach to the shield and to the arm of the gp01 if you wish. I like it personally, although the peg that attaches to the shield doesn’t fit in the shield slot very easily. Takes a bit of force.
Backpacks: Just 1. It’s removable, but sort of heartbreaking if you do remove it seeing as how it reinforces the notion that there is no core fighter. That said, the backpack is directly connected to the chest armor. It’s colored and labeled very well with a shimmery metallic paint for the blast cones.
Beam sabers: 2 of them (with 2 plastic pink beams molded on)
In the END:
I’m quite happy with the result even though this isn’t the flashiest GFF on the market. I don’t think it was meant to be. The only suggestion to make this more interesting that I could think of would be to have:
Moveable side skirt armor.
A cockpit hatch that opened
included spare parts to make the Full Vernian (gp01fb) unit.
I’m sure that wouldn’t have been too much of a stretch. In any case, the figure is capable of good stances and has a nice array of weapons included. The shield is well styled as is the proportions of the rest of the MS. It’s stiff and heavy which means it holds poses and stands well, but not so stiff that it can’t be posed and reposed. I’m quite pleased with this all in all and look forward to others in this series. Despite it’s limited offerings (like no option to create a separate MS from spare parts), it does very well on it’s own. The price is right too.
My score
(for my price) 4 out of 5 stars.
November 14th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
First Impression:
The box isn’t really heavy but still not as light as I first thought. Technically this was my first GFF figure and I wanted it to be of my favorite Gundam. Yes it’s not flashy and doesn’t do unholy amounts of damage in the films, but that’s one thing that I really like about it. The presentation of the box is fairly flashy, with Katoki’s signature GP01 illustrations all over it. The packaging (as with every GFF I’ve bought so far) is a pain to open and the equipment is easily removed with wire cutters by cutting the twisty tie things holding everything down. Removing the Gundam by itself and I find it to be heavier than I had imagined. This seems good since there seems to be no stand to go with it.
Box Contents (mostly):
assume I took the GP01 apart completely to its core pieces, normally its assembled
1 head
1 torso (includes chest/abodomen/waist)
1 set of legs
1 set of arms
3 hands (manipulators) – 2 clenched and one open right hand for gripping.
1 shields in 2 separate sections: (top and bottom)
1 shield handle + grip
1 bazooka (similar to the rx-78-2 and MK II)
1 machine gun
1 weapons attachment mechanism for the bazooka. (to attach to the rear of the MS)
1 standard tail section (instead of the above)
1 dark colored beam rifle (as used in the anime)
1 dark colored beam rifle (I can’t identify where this other one was from)
2 beam sabers (activated with pink plastic blades)
*** WARNING: Your GFF GP01 Zephyranthes MAY BE SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT THAN MINE***
Head:
The head is well modeled and detailed. It doesn’t look quite as strange or angular where the helmet meets the top of the eyes as the Master Grade version. There are no visible paint smears, especially near the intake vents and head mounted weapons systems. This is a plus. There is a nice amount of mechanical detail where the neck sits and the head rotates fairly well, even though it doesn’t really seem to want to. The eyes are difficult to see the because the visor obscures the view. The v antennae are a little bent as well.
Torso:
The detail in the torso is well handled. The backpack can be removed from the back, but the body is incapable of heading rotation (actually, rotation of any kind). The usual model identification markings. The floodlights (or sensors) at the rear side of the collar area look a little blob-ish, but I’m sure some sanding and repainting can fix this. Most noticeable is that the core fighter doesn’t separate from the torso. The entire assembly is hard modeled together. I suppose it’s just as well since the parts for the little fighter jet would be pretty small. I also didn’t expect it to be there because of the scale of the figure in general. But as far as detail goes, even the grooves that show the attachment between the chest and core fighter are present around the chest. No part of the cockpit hatch opens. The joint fixtures for the perceived opening of the hatch are themselves hard molded into the model as well. The waist is molded together with the abdomen. The absense of movement is frustrating, but also a good choice in some ways as it might keep this figure from becoming unstable during poses. The rear part of the waist features a section that can be removed and replaced with an attachment that allows the mounting of the bazooka for storage very much like the MKII, GM Kai or RX-78. Nice touch!
Arms:
The shoulders are pre-painted nicely with no visible bleed except near the verniers, where the black smudges a bit. Otherwise the painting and decals are well done. The arms rotate very well at the shoulders and elbows, allowing for some ok poses. But still strong enough to hold the accessories that you can load it with, including the shield and various weapons. Different hands are readily available to hold the weapons, but the molding makes it a bit difficult to insert the handles into the hands. They do fit securely though once this is accomplished.
Legs:
Again, I love the legs on this one. Everything was represented here very well. The legs rotate well at the waist, knees and ankles. Even the ankle cuffs have some give to them. The ankles are strong and well suited to holding the mass of this figure even after several different poses. It’s stiff, but movable. The more dynamic poses are either constricted or impossible since the side skirt armor is not movable. This restriction prevents a lot of good shooting poses, but it’s livable if the standing pose is what you want anyway. I would have liked more mobility in this area as pose-ability is an issue for me. Still, the contours are well represented and generally the artists did a good job with it, markings and all. Very nice looking.
Weapons/Armament/Accessories:
Beam rifle number one is the one that is used in the show. It’s painted in a dark metallic color and features rotating scope and grip. The epac isn’t removable however.
Beam rifle number 2 is one that I don’t recall seeing, but is still nice looking. It’s much longer and painted in 2 different metallic colors. The scope is immobile, as is the rest of the gun. Still it’s a nice looking addition to the arsenal, even though it’s a bit bent towards the end of the barrel.
Also present is a machine gun which like most of the arsenal has no moving parts. It fits well in the hand and has a wee sticker on it. Not a big deal, but again nice to have in the arsenal.
Bazooka… now this I wasn’t expecting. It’s much like the style of the bazookas carried by the MK II and the like. At first glance it looks like the ammunitions pack at the end is removable, but that’s hard molded as well. The detail is pretty well done, though I think that the white could have been painted a little neater.
Folding shield (retracting shield)
Comes in two pieces, a top and bottom one. The top piece has 1 peg that fits in one of two slots on the bottom piece to give the impression that it’s either slid down or up for defense. The markings on the shield are the part that I like the best, aside from the style. They just grab me. Not present are spare e-pacs for the rifle, even hard molded ones. That’s a downer, but not detrimental. There’s a shield holding assembly that you attach to the shield and to the arm of the gp01 if you wish. I like it personally, although the peg that attaches to the shield doesn’t fit in the shield slot very easily. Takes a bit of force.
Backpacks: Just 1. It’s removable, but sort of heartbreaking if you do remove it seeing as how it reinforces the notion that there is no core fighter. That said, the backpack is directly connected to the chest armor. It’s colored and labeled very well with a shimmery metallic paint for the blast cones.
Beam sabers: 2 of them (with 2 plastic pink beams molded on)
In the END:
I’m quite happy with the result even though this isn’t the flashiest GFF on the market. I don’t think it was meant to be. The only suggestion to make this more interesting that I could think of would be to have:
Moveable side skirt armor.
A cockpit hatch that opened
included spare parts to make the Full Vernian (gp01fb) unit.
I’m sure that wouldn’t have been too much of a stretch. In any case, the figure is capable of good stances and has a nice array of weapons included. The shield is well styled as is the proportions of the rest of the MS. It’s stiff and heavy which means it holds poses and stands well, but not so stiff that it can’t be posed and reposed. I’m quite pleased with this all in all and look forward to others in this series. Despite it’s limited offerings (like no option to create a separate MS from spare parts), it does very well on it’s own. The price is right too.
My score
(for my price) 4 out of 5 stars.