Kit Review: Real Grade 1/144 - Wing Gundam

Heero Yuy, Mission Acknowledged!

What do you mean there’s a Real Grade Wing Gundam that isn’t a literal hand-grenade that explode with a touch like in the anime? Yes Bandai has done it! With the new Real Grade engineering, Bandai is confident that they could create a transformable mobile suit while still keeping the mech solid in both modes. As we know, the Real Grade line as a whole has been transformed after the RX-0 Unicorn, with them discarding previous methodologies and embracing new ones, just like HG Revives. And this – maybe the definitive 1/144 two-legged C4 explosive model *insert Heero clicking button here*

– Info:
RG 1/144 – Wing Gundam [TV version]
Series: Gundam Wing
Price: 3520 yen
Release date: June 2021

– Design: The Real Grade line focuses on bringing anime design to life with more mechanical details. The Wing Gundam is one of the most iconic designs, mostly thanks to the anime being a cultural phenomenon in the West. The overall design of the main body is quite simple and straight forward, with a bit of Super Robot element with the green gem straight on the chest. The more distinctive feature is the pair of wings of his back. And the Real Grade take it one-step further by making the wings not just an angular slab of metal, but a rather bird-like attachment. Smaller parts of the wings can swing out to simulate a bird’s flapping wings, which isn’t very anime-accurate but very cool, a novel look nonetheless.

– Build quality: Featuring the Real Grade’s new and improved engineering, the TV Wing was a joy to build, unlike the Wing EW and WZC with a lot of shortcomings. Although, the build wasn’t as “satisfying” as the RG Nu or Hi-Nu (those are top of the line by the way), but still, the TV Wing is a solid build. There are still very small parts as per usual to create the immaculate details of the RG line, so keep an eye out for those. When you build the wings, pay attention to the parts number and orientation of the parts so you don’t get them mixed up. As always, Real Grades has A LOT of stickers, but you don’t necessarily put them all on, so you can pick and choose as you’d like.

– Articulation: No doubt the best aspect of the kit itself, the mobile suit is yet another acrobat. However, the shoulder armors are just a tad bit limited in terms of raising the arms. But you can still rotate it upside down if you want to do the final shooting pose anyway, so not a big deal. The rest of the joints are very wide-ranged, even more impressive taking into account the transformation (although the Wing’s transformation isn’t very…complicated anyway). The kit passes the kneel test, the Strike-pose test, and the aerial charge test, so it’s amazing on the articulation aspect.

The changes of the wings aren’t just for aesthetic, but also bring some new flavors to the articulation as well. The spread and movement range of the wings are very impressive, and will allow you to make some rather “angelic” poses (maybe even more than the WZC itself).

– Gimmick: Of course, the big gimmick of the Wing Gundam is its transformation. Very much a new and improved version of the Wing EW, the transformation is quick and simple. The knee mechanism might be a bit tight to do at first and give you a sense of unease since it may “feel” breakable, but the kit is very sturdy and as long as you follow the direction in the manual, The bird mode looks good and actually very solid. With the wings being much more…extravagant, it is actually extremely bird-like. Other minor gimmicks include shield-stored beam saber, simple and anime-accurate.

– Accessories: As with other Real Grades, the Wing Gundam comes with its complete package:
– 1 x Buster Beam Rifle
– 1 x Beam Saber
– 1 x Shield
– 3 x pair of hands (1 pair of open hand, 1 pair of weapon holding hand, 1 closed-fisted hand)
– 1 x trigger hand
– 1 x Heero standing figure

The Wing Gundam kit is quite simple, so that’s about as much as they can include. There’s no new fancy things, but still a complete kit for the suit.

Overall: The Real Grade Wing Gundam [Tv ver] is a beautiful kit in its own right: good-looking, solid and plenty articulated. It looks even better than the other RG wing kits as well as handle much better. There’s not much fault to the kit outside of the maybe-not-so-newbie-friendly transformation knee, but aside from that, the gimmick is well-done. If you want the definitive 1/144 Wing model, this is the best on the market, period!

Gallery:

Check out more reviews here: