Kit Review

Straight build

Gurren Lagann Gurrenlagann Gurrenlagann - Size comparison with a cigarette pack and with the HGUC First. Built to Bandai's 1/144 scale stan

Size comparison with a cigarette pack and with the HGUC First.
Built to Bandai's 1/144 scale standard.

Gurren Lagann Gurrenlagann Gurrenlagann (1/3)

Gurren Lagann Gurrenlagann Gurrenlagann (2/3)

Gurren Lagann Gurrenlagann Gurrenlagann (3/3)

Upper body front and back close-up shots

The face area of the body. Remove the sunglasses weapon part and the full face is revealed.

Gurrenlagann's face, painted at the factory

Gurren Lagann Gurrenlagann Gurrenlagann - Arm and leg sections (1/3)

Arm and leg sections

Even for a no-grade kit, the color separation is actually pretty decent.

Gurren Lagann Gurrenlagann Gurrenlagann - Like the old Bandai 1/144 no-grade kits, the elbows and knees are fixed joints, so this is about

Like the old Bandai 1/144 no-grade kits, the elbows and knees are fixed joints...
This is about as far as the articulation goes. :-)

It can pull off a pose or two, but...

This is pretty much the limit.
It's a kit where ease of assembly matters more than articulation.

Gainax put out a robot anime for the first time in over ten years since Evangelion. It's called Gurren Lagann — a rousing super robot anime. The main mecha of that show, Gurrenlagann, has been released by Kotobukiya as a non-scale kit under the "Plain Model Series" line.

The "Plain Model" series name seems to refer to something along the lines of Bandai's no-grade or FG level. Unlike the typical Kotobukiya kits that usually show off insane parts breakdown with annoyingly tiny pieces, the parts here are nice and chunky with a minimal parts count. The price is a relatively affordable ¥800.

Probably because the parts are broken down into larger pieces, the assembly feel is quite different from previous Kotobukiya kits like Super Robot Wars, Armored Core, or Zoids. It's made in a Chinese factory, but production quality is stable — no sink marks or step misalignments, and the plastic molding quality is nearly on par with Bandai kits. As a result, the assembly experience is much closer to a Bandai kit than other Kotobukiya releases.

The parts count is low, but true to Kotobukiya form, they've done their best with the color separation — so the assembly feel and hands-on experience are surprisingly good (which is unusual for a Koto kit). There's just something clean and satisfying about it. The low parts count means it goes together fast, but the sense of accomplishment once it's done is actually quite nice. And as expected from Kotobukiya, the face comes pre-painted from the factory, and the paint quality is pretty solid.

Since it's a no-grade level kit, the elbows and knees don't move, so there's almost no action posing you can do. It's more of a kit you build for the fun of building rather than for articulation — a snap-together kit you can complete neatly and compactly with a small number of parts.

It's a bit of a different direction from Kotobukiya's usual kits, and I think it'd make a pretty great gift for anyone who loves Gurren Lagann. It's small and affordable, but the satisfaction you get out of it is surprisingly good — it's a fun little kit. ^^

Gurren Lagann Gurrenlagann | 2007. 9 | ¥800

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.