HG GN-XXX Gundam Rasiel

Release 2008. 11 (January 2009 issue)

Price ¥1,200

FG Gundam Rasiel - This is the Gundam 00 side-story kit "Gundam Rasiel," included as a bonus with the Dengeki Hobby 10th anni

This is the Gundam 00 side-story kit "Gundam Rasiel," included as a bonus with the Dengeki Hobby 10th anniversary issue (January 2009).

Rasiel box front and back

Open it up and there's just one white runner inside.

Runner shots

Taking a closer look at the runners, the edges are sharply and cleanly molded.

FG Gundam Rasiel - Dengeki Hobby's Gundam Rasiel introduction pages (I only posted low-resolution photos as there may be copy

Dengeki Hobby's Gundam Rasiel introduction pages (I only posted low-resolution photos as there may be copyright concerns).

FG Gundam Rasiel - There are 4 build steps in total — covering the modification process, joint installation, painting, and mo

There are 4 build steps in total — covering the modification process, joint installation, painting, and more, all explained in detail.

The assembly manual is printed inside the Dengeki Hobby magazine itself.

FG Gundam Rasiel - There's also a preview of the GN Sefer, which is planned as the next issue's bonus. The GN Sefer is set to

There's also a preview of the GN Sefer, which is planned as the next issue's bonus. The GN Sefer is set to combine with Gundam Rasiel, similar to how the 0 Raiser combines with 00 Gundam.

Assembly diagram. Reminds me of an FG.

Scanned assembly manual

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Upper body front and back

The head. The detail is great, it's just the color separation that's lacking.

The vents all over the body have a really nice sense of depth. Almost feels like looking at a resin kit.

Arms and legs

Weapons. Pretty hollow, like an SD;

FG Gundam Rasiel - This kit has no joints whatsoever. The hip and shoulder connections are just square fixed pins with no rot

This kit has no joints whatsoever. The hip and shoulder connections are just square fixed pins with no rotation, so you could say this is purely a kit designed for customization with no thought given to "articulation" at all.

The only parts that move even a little are the shoulders and neck, maybe?

That said, the sculpt on this kit is really quite good.

There's also a mounting hole provided so you can put it on a standard Action Base II.

FG Gundam Rasiel - Alongside the HG Gundam Astraea, which was also a magazine bonus. Rasiel can be completed on its own, but

Alongside the HG Gundam Astraea, which was also a magazine bonus. Rasiel can be completed on its own, but the Astraea bonus was a set of replacement armor parts for the HG Exia.

Alongside the HG 00.

About a year ago, Dengeki Hobby included the Astraea conversion parts for the HG Exia as a bonus, and now the January 2009 issue — celebrating Dengeki Hobby's 10th anniversary — comes with Gundam Rasiel as its bonus. Unlike the Astraea parts, this 1/144 Gundam Rasiel is a self-contained kit in an FG-like format.

Gundam Rasiel is a side-story kit like the Astraea line, but it feels very much like a design developed specifically for a magazine bonus. Overall, the design concept feels a bit different from the current Gundam 00 lineup.

First of all, this kit is clearly made for painting or customization — as you can see, it's molded entirely in a single clean white color. The neutral base color actually makes it a pretty good kit for beginners to practice painting on. On top of that, almost all the joints are fixed, so it's more like a static figure than a poseable kit. But if you look closely at the joints, they seem to be saying "please customize me..." — they're set up in a way that makes modding easy. In short, it's a kit designed to let you "enjoy" the customization process.

In that sense, it's a kit with a clear concept — actively encouraging painting and customization, and dedicating a good chunk of the magazine's pages to build guides for exactly that.

It does feel like a kit aimed squarely at the painting/modding crowd,
but just looking at the kit itself, the detail and molding are anything but ordinary for a magazine supplement. Overall, the volume is excellent for an injection kit, and the edges are nice and crisp. In terms of sharpness of the molding alone, it actually feels more precise than Bandai's mass-production Gunpla. It seems like they probably used a soft mold rather than a standard mass-production mold — either way, it's a pretty well-pulled runner.

Personally, I think the design is nice enough that I'd love to see it come out as an HG, but that's probably too much to hope for..
I'd say this is a kit well worth recommending for anyone who enjoys simple modifications
or painting. :-)

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.