Overall look
Side and top
This product comes with a Gunpla storage container attached on top of the cup noodle lid.
The photo above shows the cup noodle with First inside.
Mass Production Zaku II packaging
Char's Zaku II packaging
Dom packaging
There's a tape on the bottom to tear open the plastic wrap,
pull the tape and it punches a hole in the wrap so you can peel it off easily.
The tape even proudly says "Gundam" on it..
The Gunpla section separated out.
All the Gunpla lids collected together.
Flip it over and you can see a small manual folded inside.
Open it up and there's a circular runner and a manual inside.
The inside of the lid has info about each mobile suit printed on it.
A brief assembly manual.
If you've built Gunpla before..
there are so few parts that you can totally build it without the manual, no problem whatsoever.
On the back of the manual, it says if you collect the entry tickets and send them in, 1,000 winners will be drawn
to receive a limited color kit based on the 1/100 MG Gundam Ver. O.Y.W. 0079.. Hmm.
Scanned manuals for all 4 kits.
The runners are circular so they can be sealed inside the cup noodle lid,
and they use system injection to achieve a decent level of color separation.
Like the Keroro series or the latest 00 FG kits,
these are molded to minimize gate marks.
Meaning you can just twist the parts off by hand without nippers and the marks are kept to a minimum.
It's a food toy after all — the idea is to build it quick and easy and have fun with it.
First's runner layout and parts diagram.
Mass Production Zaku II's runner layout and parts diagram.
Char's Zaku II's runner layout and parts diagram.
Dom's runner layout and parts diagram.
Done in a flash!
As you can tell from the size comparison with the cigarette pack.. it's tiny at 1/380 scale.
To get a sense of the scale,
1/400 Gundam Collection - 1/380 Cup Noodle Set - 1/300 Gunpla Collection
I compared all four kits in that order.
As you can see, they're a bit bigger than the Gundam Collection but smaller than the Gunpla Collection.
A comparison with the 1/300 Gunpla Collection, which is also an injection kit.
The Gunpla Collection was basically a gashapon-style item,
meant to recreate old-school Gunpla in a tiny 1/300 size,
so the molded colors are simple and the detail is very old-school.
The Cup Noodle 1/380 set, on the other hand, comes with modern proportions and color schemes.
All four Cup Noodle Gunpla kits together.
Small but cute!
1/380 First.
There's a decent level of basic color separation,
and if you zoom in you'll see the molded detail is actually pretty fine.
All the Cup Noodle kits use ball joints at the shoulders, so you do get some articulation.
The legs, however, are mostly non-poseable.. (slight rotation is possible)
1/380 Mass Production Zaku II
1/380 Char's Zaku
You might think the mass production and Char's Zaku are just color variants of each other..
but if you look closely, there are clear differences in the leg verniers, backpack, and head.
It's impressive that they properly distinguished the F type and S type even at this tiny food toy scale..
And if you look carefully at the runner layouts, the runners themselves are actually different too.
On top of that, the weapons are different too.
Char's version comes with a machine gun, while the mass production type comes with a heat hawk.
1/380 Dom
Action poses for all four kits.
Beyond a shooting stance, other action poses are pretty much a no-go.. ^^;
These are genuinely unique and surprisingly high quality..
but the price is just painful. ¥600 each?! -_-
Bonus Review
Let's go ahead and review how the cup noodle actually tastes..
First, when you open the lid..
you're surprised by how many toppings there are.
Especially those whole shrimp in there.. that's something you don't see every day.
Add boiling water and wait 3 minutes..
Looks pretty decent, right?
But.. the seasoning doesn't really soak into the noodles so they taste pretty bland.
I guess that's just how Japanese instant noodles are.. well, maybe..
Surprisingly, the broth is saltier than expected.
It'll make you drop that stereotype about Japanese noodles being bland..
The broth flavor is actually pretty similar to Korean cup noodles,
and if I had to compare it to something, it's quite close to Korea's Saewootang shrimp noodle soup. :-)
Overall I'd say it was pretty decent... but thinking about the price, it's still painful T_T
One more fun little fact.
The material of this cup noodle is
unique — the outside is wrapped in styrofoam to block heat and keep it insulated,
but the inside is a double-layer construction using coated paper to prevent environmental hormones from leaching in.
The design keeps heat out on the outside while insulating on the inside, and uses eco-friendly paper material on the side that actually touches the food —
that's actually pretty nice, isn't it?
* By the way, there's also a chili tomato cup noodle version out there.. but I'm not mentally prepared to tackle that one yet. *cough*