Kit Review
Straight build + Partial paint + Panel lining + Decals
The universal size reference — a cigarette box comparison.
It's an extra-large size even among MGs. What a build~!
Even though the back looks heavy, it holds its balance just fine~. Barely ever tips over.
And above all else, the shield's color separation is a work of art T_T b
Looks cool from every angle.
Front of the body.
The controversial Hi-Nu Gundam face... A lot of people say it's ugly, so your feelings might get a little hurt, haha...
Well... I don't personally think it's all that bad. It's got a unique look.
But why is that chin such a massive underbite...;
If you look closely at the forehead antenna mounting pin, you'll find the model designation and unit name engraved in incredibly tiny lettering.
Bandai showing off their precision laser machining skills...
The important thing is that it's not recessed — it's actually raised reliefThat's the thing! Looks like they engraved it right into the mold.
So panel lining is out of the question -_-;
Instead, there are stickers included so you can apply them that way too.
If you do a rough panel lining like on the right, the text does stand out a bit more.
The legs... The heels are white,
so from a distance it looks like it's standing on tiptoe...;
The Extra Finish parts on the backpack really catch your eye~.
Luckily, the panel lined areas seem to cover up the spots where the coating is a bit uneven, making it look even better ^^;
Anyway, it looks fantastic. To get that kind of look without any painting...
The charm of this kit, beyond the jaw-dropping color separation on the shield...
...is that all those tiny gray vernier parts scattered across the body have been broken out into separate parts.
The parts themselves are so small they're actually tricky to handle — it feels like you're building a Kotobukiya kit.
There's no way Bandai wasn't influenced by them... Looks like they wanted to prove they could do it too.
The four-color separation on the side skirts is pretty nice too.
Cockpit hatch open. Something looks a bit off about the angle, right?
Interestingly, the entire section from the neck up has to rise for the cockpit to open;
Maybe it's because the cockpit moves so much...
but when it's closed, it doesn't feel like it sits flush against the body. Feels like it's floating slightly;
And that recessed area in the center of the body...
it's recessed, and the inner surface is supposed to have a silver sticker applied,
but it's no easy task; You really have to be careful to get it on cleanly.
The manual says to attach the blue center part first and then apply the sticker...
but from my experience, doing it the other way around gives a cleaner result -_-;
Detail inside the skirts. The detail is fairly simple... but hey, they still gave it separate parts, so thanks!
The Hi-Nu Gundam's surprisingly impressive arsenal.
Nice~!
The weapon grip pins are solid, so nothing's dropping out!
I've had plenty of complaints about poor grip strength on recent kits, but this one soothes my frustration with a perfect grip...
Especially welcome considering that weak grip strength was the Achilles' heel of the MG Nu Gundam!
Beyond the jaw-dropping color separation on the shield, the rifle and bazooka have great color separation too.
Still, that shield's color separation never gets old T_T
The fin funnels. The structure itself is almost identical to that of the MG Nu.
The click-lock gimmick inside the fin funnels is the same style as the MG Nu.
It's a great gimmick that holds things in place effectively. Click~ click~
The fin funnel beam effect parts — one of the Hi-Nu's highlights!
The beam effect looks pretty convincing, right? Feels like you'd get a shock if you touched it;;;
One major complaint...
The fin funnel mounting gimmick is half-baked. There's a hole that's wide open but completely unused;;
The fin funnels just slot into a groove next to the hole using friction alone.
It's not exactly loose, but the connection feels uncertain and a bit nerve-wracking;;
What on earth is that.
It's the ABS moving part that operates the fin funnel mount...
The left one is normal, the right one is a molding defect. Lucky me for getting that one -_- (I won't forget this, Bandai-)
At first the shape looked plausible enough that I thought it was supposed to be like that, but on closer inspection it was clearly a defect T_T.
How can a molding defect look so convincingly intentional -_-;; Were they rushing or something...
Someone said it looks like it was molded while straining on the toilet... grumble grumble...
Thanks to that, one of my fin funnels is a little loose. Ugh.
The back view without the fin funnels... still oozes coolness;
The beam sabers. The setup is a bit quirky, right?
The two long main beam saber handles can each have a long and short beam parts attached to the front and back.
The one short beam saber handle stored in the arm just takes a single long beam part.
The large beam saber storage is on the backpack~ Just like the GP03.
The small beam saber goes on the left forearm. Copying the Nu Gundam to a tee.
The right forearm has a completely different structure — it has a vulcan cannon of sorts,
and the magazine on the back of the arm is detachable.
The vulcan cannon barrel can also move up and down a little~
The shield attachment method is a bit unexpected...
It just slots onto a long section of the forearm in a fairly rough way.
Fortunately it does hold firmly without being loose...
but the downside is that you can't change the orientation of the shield on the arm at all.
The verniers on the back of the shins move slightly...
and on the soles of the feet, just like the Nu Gundam/Sazabi, there are pins that move for anchoring to an asteroid.
Outer armor removed.
On the right is just the upper body armor.
Even just the upper body has such complex multi-layered armor...
The Bandai guys must have had quite a headache with the color separation;
Inner frame shots. A very exemplary full-body frame.
Frame parts for each section of the body. The two arms are shaped a bit differently.
The cockpit setup has been upgraded a bit.
The seat and control panel are assembled together as a single assembly.
I was hoping there'd be some instrument panel molding on the control stick, but... nope, nothing there.
Come to think of it, I guess it's just an LCD monitor;;
The leg frame is essentially a dual frame;; The legendary dual frame that's said to only appear in ultra-premium kits...
Movable cylinder gimmick above the knee and at the front of the ankle
Heave-ho~ Frame action shots. The frame articulation here puts most other kits to shame.
The shot you just can't avoid.. ^^;;
Looks incredibly comfortable. A good squat.
The inside of every outer armor piece is packed with dense molded detail, as expected.
Temporarily removed the backpack for articulation testing... but...
Even the base body alone just oozes coolness T_T
Alright~
The articulation is practically on par with the PG Strike! Arms and legs fold up nice and crisp.
The shoulder armor raises up on its own for no particular reason;
Shoulders up high, legs folded tight, deep squat pose~
But the way the legs fold looks a bit unusual, doesn't it?
Split knee articulation gimmicks are pretty common, but...
The MG Hi-Nu uniquely has the front shin armor that moves as well.
It opens forward to give the ankle a much wider range of motion. Clever thinking~
There's this part on the back of the waist...
That round piece isn't some kind of target board for enemies chasing from behind;
It's the very same thing first introduced on the MG Freedom! It's a stopper part that keeps the waist from bending backward.
Flip it up and the waist can move back.
Though the range of motion is really just a tiny bit;
Just be satisfied with the fact that a backward-bend stopper has been added.
As expected from a modern kit, front-and-back hip joint articulation is standard, and both sides move independently.
But on the MG Hi-Nu, a new intermediate part has been added to this hip joint gimmick...
It's a locking pin that clicks into 5 positions.
Previous kits always had that feeling of the hip joints moving around loosely,
but on this kit, thanks to that locking pin, everything locks firmly into exactly where you want it.
Once assembled, it holds both hip joint positions tightly from the center, as shown in the right image.
Another new feature.
There's now a pin and socket that limits how far the legs can rotate horizontally.
Seems like they added it thinking the legs spinning freely was a bit of a problem, but I'm a little skeptical about whether it was really necessary.
The center structure on the back can move up and down to that extent.
The two tank sections can also be angled in different directions, as shown in the right image.
The fin funnel mounting backpack swings out quite a bit — about 90 degrees...
The range of motion on the fin funnel mount itself is fairly limited.
The vertical range of the fin funnels is, well, reasonably wide enough...
Either way, in terms of articulation, this is the most advanced kit out there — every technique thrown in, plus some.
Alright, action po~se time.
It holds poses fine on the ground without a stand,
but it's still better up on one :-)
A unique alpha-shaped stand.
To mount it on the stand, you need to remove a small cover on the underside of the backpack.
The L-shaped gimmick in the middle is fixed in place. No angle adjustment.
The upper section is one of those recently trendy(?) fixed-angle adjustable arm stands...
At the base of the alpha stand you'll notice 4 odd-looking rods,
these serve as supports for posing fin funnel launch scenes.
As has become the trend lately, the stand connection hole covers can be stored in the bottom of the stand — a nice little touch.
Stand-on action! Looks awesome~
View larger image
The Hi-Nu looks even cooler from the back..
View larger image
A natural draw pose and beam saber action. Interestingly, the beam extends from both ends...
The leg articulation gimmick is impressive, but it doesn't seem all that useful when actually posing on the stand;
Forearm beam saber deploy and action.
Vulcan action and bazooka action.
Given the structure with so much stuff hanging off the back... the bazooka is a bit of a pain to hold; Barely managed to get the pose.
Remove the cover on the crotch and there's another mounting pin...
Using an intermediate connector pin like the one shown in the center photo,
it can connect to the multi-function stand that Bandai has been pushing lately. Just a bonus feature, really.
Now~ the much-anticipated fin funnel launch shot...
In practice, pulling off the fin funnel launch pose is seriously tough T_T.
As you can see, they're way too heavy and the clear rods aren't strong enough, so everything just droops down.
Getting them to stay in position is a struggle too, so aiming them in the right direction is a pain... It's a lot more disappointing than it looks...
Well... once you get the pose set up, it looks pretty cool.
It's such a pain to set up that I never want to do it again. -_-;
Must've spent a good 30 minutes just getting that shot. And it doesn't even come out looking that great T_T
For the fin funnel deployment, just pulling out 2~3 of them to partially display it is manageable enough.
Deploying all 6 at once is just too much!
Size comparison with the standard-size MG Gundam Ver. O.Y.W. 0079. The Hi-Nu is pretty big, right?
Compared to the similarly priced ¥7,000 Freedom Full Burst Mode on the right, the size difference is surprisingly small...
That's because the Freedom came out too big and the Hi-Nu came out smaller than expected.
Finally, a comparison with the Nu Gundam!
View the larger image for comparison
According to the lore, the Hi-Nu is actually 2 meters shorter than the Nu Gundam,
but when you put them side by side, the Hi-Nu looks a lot smaller than you'd expect.
Pay attention especially to the head and torso size. -_-;; The Nu Gundam really does have a big head.
The overall arm and leg shapes are similar, but the color and style are quite different.
The proportioning concepts feel completely different.
Looking at the feet, you can really feel that 6-and-a-half-year gap between them.
Shield comparison. The Hi-Nu's shield is bigger.
The beam rifles are completely different in style, but the bazookas look pretty similar.
It's a fresh reminder that the MG Nu Gundam from 6 and a half years ago still has really impressive quality.
But time marches on... compared to the Hi-Nu's level of detail, the Nu Gundam does feel a bit plain by comparison.
Either way, they're both awesome kits!
If you think so too, check out the larger images!
Straight build shots