High Grade 1/144 Powered GM Review

This is the High Grade 1/144 Powered GM. This is a mobile suit that appeared in the OVA, “Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory”. The Powered GM was built to be used to test a new backpack unit that would offer a 30% increase in thrust power. Additional shock absorbers were built into each leg to support the added weight of the backpack, as well as to allow for harder landings.
This guy is definitely bulkier than your average GM. I actually really like the look of this kit, as well as how nicely engineered it is for a kit released back in 2006. I picked this kit up to add to my collection of GMs, and as this review will show, I’m pretty pleased with this guy.

•DETAIL•
For a kit released back in 2006, this kit relies very little on sticker decals. The entire thing only has five sticker decals, but the rest of the detail in this kit can easily be brought out with some paint and panel lining. Now, even though it looks red and white on the box, its actually more of a light reddish orange color and white. The reddish orange is probably going to seem a little dull when you first open the box, but once you actually start building it, it looks pretty good. Plus you can always paint the reddish orange parts red if you want. Otherwise, the paintwork on this kit is pretty easy. The only colors you’ll need are white for the base of the antenna on the back of the head, and grey for some spots on the backpack and on the legs. I do recommend panel lining this kit, as it will really bring out the surface detail of this kit.

•ACCESSORIES•
For accessories, you don’t get much. Then again, GMs aren’t known to be too accessory packed. Anyway, with this kit you get one machine gun, one hyper bazooka, one shield, one beam saber hilt, two beam saber blades, one gun/bazooka holding hand, one beam saber holding hand, and one open hand. Like any good GM, the beam saber stores on the backpack. Also, the shield can be attached to either arm at two different points to allow you to have it hold the shield at various angles. However, being that this kit only comes with weapon holding hands for the right arm, you’ll probably want to stick to attaching the shield to the left arm.

•ARTICULATION•
For a 2006 kit, this kit has some pretty nice articulation. The head can almost turn all the way left or right, and can also look up and down. The neck is on a sort of hinge, so this adds to the upward and downward movement of the head a bit. Each arm rotates a full 360 degrees at the shoulders, and each shoulder can swing forward a tiny bit. Each arm can move almost all the way outward, rotates a full 360 degrees at the biceps, and gets a double bend at the elbows. The hands are on balljoints, you naturally get a full 360 degrees of rotation at the wrist, as well as some movement in all directions. The left hand has a hinge, which adds a lot more inward and outward movement. There’s no real movement at the abdomen, but you do get a full 360 degrees of rotation at the waist. Each leg can move all the way forward and a bit backward, and can move outward little bit. Although the legs are double jointed, you only get just a little further than a half bend at the knees because of the bulky design of the lower legs. Each foots can tilt side to side, and can bend forward at the ankle.

•GIMMICK•
This kit doesn’t really have any special gimmicks apart from some hidden mechanical details that can be revealed by removing the knee armor.

•MY ISSUES WITH THE KIT•
While the majority of this kit is pretty solid, it does have two small issues. First, the arms attach to the shoulders kind of loosely, and tend to loosen when you rotate them at the biceps area. All you have to do is push them back in to fix them, though. The only other issue I find is that the hand that’s used to hold the gun or bazooka snaps together kind of loosely, and tends to want to split apart if you move the gun or bazooka too much while it’s holding them. This is fixed easily enough simply by snapping the hand together again, but it can still be a bit annoying.

•FINAL THOUGHTS•
All in all, I really like this kit! It’s really nicely made, and has really awesome articulation for a kit made in 2006. It’s also a very good value, retailing in Japan for ¥1,200 (about $12 USD). Most sites sell it for about $15, making this kit very easy on the wallet. It’s a great looking kit, and I highly recommend picking one up for your collection. 😊