RG 1/144 Gundam Astray Red Frame

This is the Real Grade 1/144 Gundam Astray Red Frame. I’ll be honest, I haven’t watched the Gundam series that this mobile suit is from yet. I honestly just bought this kit because I really like the look of it. I love that along with a beam rifle and shield, that it also has a katana. That’s just awesome! I really like that balance of weapons. In fact, the sword is a big part of what sold me on this kit.

For articulation, the head is on a hinged balljoint, but can only turn left and right. You don’t get a full 360 degrees of rotation at the head because the collar at the base of the neck gets in the way. The head can also look up, and it can look down a tiny bit. Not much downward movement out of the head because of that piece at the base of the neck. Naturally, the arms rotate a full 360 degrees at both the shoulders and biceps, move all the way outward, and can both swing forward and upward. The shoulder armor is hinged, and will move upward when the arms do. Each arm gets a nearly full bend at the elbows, and the balljointed hands rotate a full 360 degrees, pivot, and swivel. You get a little bit of a side to side tilt at the midsection, as well as a forward bend. The waist offers a full 360 degrees of rotation, and while the front skirt pieces are on balljoints, they’re so small that you don’t even need to move them to move the legs all the way up. Speaking of legs, thanks to the small front and side skirt pieces, the legs can move all the forward and outward, and almost all of the way backward. Each leg gets a double bend at the knees, and the ankles can move forward. The balljointed feet can rotate, pivot, and swivel, and the feet also bend upwards at two points.

For accessories, you get a fair amount. With this kit, you get a beam rifle, a shield, two beam sabers, one katana, a sheathe for the katana, a piece to attach the sheath to either hip, one pair of Real Grade hands, one pair of closed fist hands, one pair of weapon holding hands, one trigger finger hand, one open hand, and one action base adapter piece. My personal favorite accessory in this kit is the katana blade. The blade is made of coated chrome plastic, and looks absolutely beautiful.

While this is one of the better Real Grade kits that I’ve built, it does have it’s issues. The biggest issue I find is that the shoulder joints are very tight. While this ensures that you won’t have to worry about the arms popping off, it still makes moving the arms both difficult and a bit nerve wracking since it makes you nervous that you’ll break them if you aren’t careful enough. >.< Another issue, while not a big deal, is that they eyes on this kit are very hard to see. The sticker decals for eyes are just so thin that you can barely make out the eyes at all. Again, not too big of a deal, but it does bug me a little bit. The last issue that I’ve found is that the armor around the ankles likes to come off sometimes while you’re adjusting the feet. They pop back on pretty easily, but it’s still a bit annoying.

All in all, this is definitely one of the nicer Real Grade kits I’ve purchased. It’s fun and easy to assemble, and if you’ve never built a Real Grade kit before, this one is an excellent one to get you started. Beginners to Real Grade kits should have no problem with this kit. One thing I’ll say is that while using the marking decals is entirely optional, I recommend going ahead and using them, since they really make this kit look awesome. Whether you’re new to Real Grade Gunpla or you build them all the time, this is a really great, and I highly recommend it to any fan or collector.