Kit Review

Straight build + panel lining + partial paint

HGUC Gundam GP02A ~ Physalis - Size comparison with the universal standard — a cigarette pack. Even for an HGUC, this one's g

Size comparison with the universal standard — a cigarette pack. Even for an HGUC, this one's got some serious bulk to it.

HGUC Gundam GP02A ~ Physalis - Body proportions with the big shield out of the way. Looks great. You can really feel the heav

Body proportions with the big shield out of the way. Looks great. You can really feel the heaviness.

HGUC Gundam GP02A ~ Physalis - Upper body front shot. Overall the molded colors are nice and the color separation is pretty w

Upper body front shot. Overall the molded colors are nice and the color separation is pretty well done.

HGUC Gundam GP02A ~ Physalis - The yellow parts on both sides of the head and the forehead duct are meant to be handled with

The yellow parts on both sides of the head and the forehead duct are meant to be handled with stickers, but
they looked a bit off to me, so I painted them instead.

HGUC Gundam GP02A ~ Physalis - The most glaring color separation miss... The shield ducts should be yellow, but they came out

The most glaring color separation miss...
The shield ducts should be yellow, but they came out in the base color with no separation at all.
That yellow is such a key accent point.. No choice but to do a partial paint job.

HGUC Gundam GP02A ~ Physalis - Articulation is an honest 90 degrees! But with that backpack presence, it feels like more than

Articulation is an honest 90 degrees! But with that backpack presence, it feels like more than enough.
The shoulder verniers use a linked mechanism just like the MG.
Basically, lower the outer vernier down and the inner one follows automatically.

HGUC Gundam GP02A ~ Physalis - The way the front section of the nuclear bazooka stores into the back of the shield is pretty

The way the front section of the nuclear bazooka stores into the back of the shield is pretty much the same as the MG.

Pulling out the beam saber and striking an action pose...

Stand on! A stand is thoughtfully included to bring out GP02's dynamic energy.
Full of impact~

HGUC Gundam GP02A ~ Physalis - Solomon! I have returned! Even with average articulation, the great volume makes for some real

Solomon! I have returned!
Even with average articulation, the great volume makes for some really dynamic action poses.

Flight pose~

All four HGUC 0083 Gundams assembled.

Together with its rival, the HGUC GP01FB Full Burnern.

HGUC Gundam GP02A ~ Physalis - Recreating a scene from the show. And to make that possible... a separate mounting gimmick is

Recreating a scene from the show. And to make that possible... a separate mounting gimmick is included so you can put the GP01FB on the bundled GP02 stand as well.
GP01FB can also be mounted on it with a separate fixing gimmick included. How thoughtful...

From various angles...

HGUC Gundam GP02A ~ Physalis - The inevitable comparison with the old kit... The original GP02 from 1991 was widely regarded

The inevitable comparison with the old kit...
The original GP02 from 1991 was widely regarded as one of the worst Gunpla ever made;;
The old kit in the photo above has been fully painted so the color combination looks fine,
but the actual molded colors are something else entirely (-.-;) For starters, the shield was originally a dark, almost black navy blue... ^^;
And the proportions were just plain weird.. Anyway, exactly 15 years after that infamous original kit dropped in July '91,
the HGUC GP02 arrived as a complete and total reinvention x100.

Even from the back, the difference in posture is night and day... ^^;

Even from the back, the difference in posture is night and day... ^^;
To be fair, the old kit's shield volume isn't actually that bad. It's just the molded colors that are a disaster...

HGUC Gundam GP02A ~ Physalis - The inside of the shield. The HGUC has everything detailed meticulously just like the MG, but

The inside of the shield. The HGUC has everything detailed meticulously just like the MG, but the old 1/144 is just completely hollow;;
The back of the shield on the old kit wasn't painted, so the bare black molded surface is fully exposed. ^^;

Together with the MG GP02. The level of detail looks about the same.

HGUC Gundam GP02A ~ Physalis - With the big shield removed, comparing proportions only. The MG is sleeker and more refined, b

With the big shield removed, comparing proportions only.
The MG is sleeker and more refined, but a lot of people pointed out it strays too far from the anime's image.
It wasn't until the HGUC Physalis that we got proportions that are both close to the anime and still nicely put together.

Rear view comparison with the MG.

Straight build photos

After the GP01, Full Burnern, and GP03 all came out in HGUC — and even Den'an Zon too — we had to wait quite a long while before the HGUC GP02 Physalis (a.k.a. "Salsari") finally showed up. Of course, coming out later meant it was born with the quality of the latest technology. ^^

The original 1/144 0083 Gunpla series was honestly a sad lineup that got hit with just about every criticism imaginable. Apparently there were internal issues within Bandai's development team at the time, forcing the kits out under difficult circumstances — which explains the poor quality. But from a buyer's perspective, it was pretty rough that kits for 0083, one of the most popular OVA series, came out so badly back in the day. The old 1/144 0083 Gundams had terrible proportions, and in every aspect — molded colors, parts breakdown, you name it — they were actually worse than the previous 0080 kits.

Back in 1991 when these kits came out, I was watching the 0083 anime episode by episode as it was being released, and I rushed straight to the shop the moment the kit went on sale... only to tilt my head in confusion when I opened the box, and feel completely crushed once I actually built it. That memory is still vivid. On the bright side, the 0083 lineup ended up being one of the few fully painted Gunpla in my collection ^^; (There was just no way to look at them without painting...)

After that, Bandai upgraded the main 0083 Gundams in a big way through the 1/100 MG lineup, and in the HGUC 1/144 lineup, the GP01/FB and GP03 came out with reasonably decent quality. But the big gap that remained... the GP02, widely considered the worst of the old 1/144 0083 Gundam kits, seemed to be something they wanted to approach with extra care. Having taken so much heat, it seems like they wanted to make the GP02 especially sharp — or something along those lines.

In the end, the HGUC GP02 deserves to be called the definitive Physalis Gunpla. The MG Physalis is a great kit too with its impressive presence, solid detail, and impact... but many pointed out that the head was too small compared to the anime's image and it looked like it had gone on a diet. The HGUC Physalis, on the other hand, captures the slightly stocky anime look as faithfully as possible while still pulling off proportions that don't look awkward — just the right balance. (Of course, how you feel about it depends on your own eye.)

The part that drew the most criticism on the MG was the shield. On the MG, the shield was so large and heavy, and the grip was so weak, that it could barely hold it up. So a lot of people went through all sorts of modifications and fixes to deal with it... Anyway, that whole shield-holding problem has been cleanly resolved on the HGUC Physalis.

For starters, the shield itself is smaller and lighter than the MG's, so there's less strain, the connection between the hand parts is very solid, and the arm joints are made noticeably stiff to handle the weight. With all three of these working together, even when the body is hanging from a stand, the shield no longer drops! For anyone who's built the MG Physalis, this is probably a genuinely emotional improvement.

The overall detail is also clean and crisp — not a step behind the MG at all. The shoulder verniers' linked gimmick is well implemented just like the MG, and pretty much everything the MG can do — the nuclear bazooka attachment, the storable scope — is here too. (Though of course there's no cockpit hatch opening or nuclear warhead storage in the backpack ^^;) The joints throughout the body are slightly stiffer than other kits, with no loose parts anywhere. If anything, the arm joints are especially solid, probably with the shield in mind.

And since this is a unit that was meant to shine in space, a stand is included right in the box to help recreate more natural action poses. As you can see in the photos, the stand really adds a lot in terms of dynamic energy. ^^

The downside, as expected with a smaller scale, is that the color separation is a bit lacking. The face ducts and vulcan areas are handled with stickers (in this review, I painted them instead, as you can see in the photos), and most critically, the four yellow ducts on the shield — arguably the most important accent on the whole kit — are completely unaddressed. Honestly, with just a little effort the parts breakdown could have handled them, but it seems like they wanted to stay within the limits of what an HGUC is expected to be;; Since I try to keep painting to a minimum in my reviews to convey the out-of-box feel, I did do a partial paint job on the shield ducts with a white base coat followed by yellow. (You all know that if you just slap yellow straight onto a dark base, it looks muddy because the base color bleeds through, right? ^^;)

And one more thing... it can't hold the beam saber properly (-.-;;) The beam saber handle is thinner than the hole in the hand, so without a quick fix it just slides right out. A miss in an unexpected spot. It feels a bit minor, but still... ^^;

Anyway, it came out late, but it's a satisfying, well-built kit with solid joint strength, careful detailing, and proportions close to the source material. You can definitely feel that 15-year gap from the original — it's the ultimate gift for anyone who was let down by the old kit. For an HGUC it's quite hefty and voluminous, so it takes up a fair bit of shelf space too. ^^;

Now... here's hoping for a Gerbera Tetra. Heh heh...

HGUC Gundam GP02A ~ Physalis | 2006.7 | ¥2,200

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.