Kit Review

Straight build + Stickers

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

HG Gundam - This is the first kit to use System Insert technology — the torso, feet, and shield parts are molded with multipl

This is the first kit to use System Insert technology —
the torso, feet, and shield parts are molded with multiple colors all in a single part.

HG Gundam - The joint frame uses System Insert technology with multiple materials. It's similar to the 1989 Musha Gundam's, b

The joint frame uses System Insert technology with multiple materials.
It's similar to the 1989 Musha Gundam's, but slightly different.

Molded as a single part, yet it has a variety of moving sections built right in.

For actual assembly, you separate the torso and arm joint frames to work on them.

The one-piece molded joint frame built into the arms and legs

Frame articulation

The one-piece molded joint part that inserts into the torso

Weapons loadout

The beam rifle's scope and foregrip don't move at all.

Inside the shield

The beam rifle can be stored on the inside of the shield.

The bazooka and shield can be mounted on the back.

HG Gundam - Five hand parts are included, but the proportions are a bit bizarre.. The back of the hand is longer than the fin

Five hand parts are included, but the proportions are a bit bizarre..
The back of the hand is longer than the fingers, which looks really off.

Even at 1/144 scale, it has a transforming Core Block System!!! Something even the HGUC doesn't have..

Core Block

The transformation into a Core Fighter is functional, but you do have to add the tail fins separately.

Core Fighter

Underside

HG Gundam - You can display the main body and Core Fighter completely separately, though the Gundam's waist section looks pre

You can display the main body and Core Fighter completely separately,
though the Gundam's waist section looks pretty hollow without the Core Block in there.

Arm and leg articulation falls just a hair short of a honest 90 degrees.

The hip joints are ball joints so horizontal rotation is possible, but the joint strength isn't great...

The elbow joints leave the inner articulated frame fully exposed, which doesn't look great.

HG Gundam - Action poses. The weak joint strength and limited articulation make it really hard to pull off any dynamic poses.

Action pose.
The weak joint strength and limited articulation make it really hard to pull off any dynamic poses.

Alongside the 1980 1/144 First Gundam.
Ten years really did bring a huge leap forward.

Alongside the 2001 HGUC First Gundam.

HG Gundam - The evolution of the official 1/144 First Gundam, as seen through a comparison of the 1/144, HG, HGUC, and HGUC R

The evolution of the official 1/144 First Gundam, as seen through a comparison of the 1/144, HG, HGUC, and HGUC Revive versions.

Alongside the 1/144 Musha Gundam released in 1989.

* This kit is one of the first four HG kits from 1990, but this review was uploaded in January 2021. I bought and built these kits back in the early '90s myself, but since I had already painted and modified them, I wasn't able to review them. I managed to track down an unopened kit after some effort, so this review is based on a straight build — just keep that in mind.^^

This kit was released in 1990 as the very first High Grade— the HG First Gundam. It's a historically significant Gunpla in many ways. Before this kit came out, there was no concept of "grades" in Gunpla at all. With the launch of the HG lineup, Gunpla started to be divided into various grades.

Before 1990, older Gunpla kits had almost no color separation, so painting was essentially required for most of them. Joints were either stiff or loose with no polycaps, and the proportions were stuck in a rigid, at-attention pose. Then in 1987, System Insert technology was introduced with the Char's Counterattack model kits, and the concept of "color separation" started to take shape. Released in 1990 to mark Gunpla's 10th anniversary, the HG First Gundam came out as something of a starting point for Bandai's almost alien-level molding technology that continues to this day.

First, going beyond System Injection — which combines multiple molded colors on a single runner — the "System Insert" technology was introduced in full force. It was an amazing technique that molded 2–3 colors simultaneously into a single part, and it was a massive shock to Gunpla fans back in 1990. The idea that multiple colors could be molded right into a single part without any painting — it was truly the dream Gunpla.

It also featured what's known as the "one-piece molded joint" — a movable frame produced via System Insert using multiple different materials. This had actually been introduced a year earlier in the 1/144 Musha Gundam series. It's an advanced technique still used today in RG, PG, and some MG kits, and it was applied here in a slightly different form from the 1/144 Musha Gundam version. And on top of all that, despite being 1/144 scale, it even fully reproduces a transforming Core Block System that the current HGUC hasn't dared to attempt — which must have been absolutely jaw-dropping at the time.

In all the ways Gunpla fans had hoped for — a solid look straight out of the box, an advanced articulated frame, and a fully realized Core Fighter — it's still pretty impressive even by today's standards. I vividly remember being blown away when I built this kit back then, but building it again 30 years later, I have to say I'm a little disappointed. It was truly sensational quality for 1990, but looking at it now, it's a kit with quite a few structural issues.

Being such an early one-piece molded joint, there wasn't much know-how to draw from, and the result is that the holding strength is pretty lacking. The hip ball joints in particular are so weak that spreading the legs even a little makes it hard to hold a pose. The limited articulation for an older kit is understandable, but the bigger problem is that the weak joints make posing genuinely difficult. I actually remember reinforcing the joint strength when I built it 30 years ago — either way, being such an early attempt at one-piece molding, the joint strength in a straight build leaves a lot to be desired. Then there's the elbow area, where the inner articulated frame is left completely exposed — it just looks rough, and it really shows. This was actually pointed out as a must-fix modification point even back when it was released. Beyond that, there's the oddly droopy-looking face, and up close the details and surface texture are pretty chunky — looking at it now, it's hard to shake that feeling of watching a 30-year-old TV drama. It's just dated.

This System Insert technology carried on for a few more years into the F90/F91 series and the 1/100 V Gundam, among others. The idea of multiple colors molded into a single part was certainly impressive, but apparently it caused a lot of difficulties with mold maintenance and reissues. On top of that, the nature of the technology meant that even slight variations in molding conditions could cause the color boundaries to break down, and there were indeed many cases where those boundaries came out blurry. In practice, it didn't even look as good as simply splitting parts by color — the conventional color separation approach — so in the end, plain multi-color System Injection became the mainstream. Of course, System Insert did live on afterward in the form of one-piece frames for RG/PG and pre-assembled articulated fingers, and it was even upgraded into a technique called Layered Injection in Figure-rise Burst/Lab.

For old-school fans, this is a kit that brings on a wave of '90s nostalgia — "Oh right, that thing existed!" — but for the newer generation, it's probably more of a "Wait, they actually made something like this?.." kind of kit. It's a kit where Bandai's experimental spirit was in full explosion, and its significance lies in being the very first kit to give birth to the HG lineup. There's no point in recommending it or not — the molds were scrapped about 20 years ago, putting it firmly in the top-tier rare item category, so it's not easy to find (...) Still, if you ever get the chance to lay eyes on this historically significant first HG kit, isn't that a fun thing in itself for any Gunpla fan? :-)

HG Gundam | 1990.3 | ¥1,000

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.