OLD First Gundam 1/144 RX-78 Gundam

Release 1980.7

Price ¥300

BANDAI BANDAI Japan product info

Runners

Parts diagram

Manual

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Probably partly due to mold aging, but the face detail is just overall blunt and rough..

Cross-section of the arms and legs

OLD 1/144 RX-78 Gundam - Looking at it now, the shoulder joint structure is pretty unique. You slip a round ring onto the pro

Looking at it now, the shoulder joint structure is pretty unique. You slip a round ring onto the protruding pin on the shoulder, then insert a U-shaped hook into the middle of the pin.

OLD 1/144 RX-78 Gundam - Then you glue the ring part in the middle to the body with cement — a very old-school shoulder artic

Then you glue the ring part in the middle to the body with cement — a very old-school shoulder articulation setup.

OLD 1/144 RX-78 Gundam - The hand parts are designed to be swappable, but there are no extra hand parts included.. ^^; More i

The hand parts are designed to be swappable, but there are no extra hand parts included.. ^^; More importantly, you have to be careful when swapping them out, since the glued seam on the forearm could split open.

OLD 1/144 RX-78 Gundam - Nice touch — part numbers are molded on the inside so you don't mix them up after cutting from the r

Nice touch — part numbers are molded on the inside so you don't mix them up after cutting from the runners~

The inside of the shield has no mechanical detail — just the company logo.

Interestingly, four beam sabers are included..

OLD 1/144 RX-78 Gundam - According to the manual, two of the beam sabers are meant to be cut down to about 1cm and plugged in

According to the manual, two of the beam sabers are meant to be cut down to about 1cm and plugged into the backpack.

OLD 1/144 RX-78 Gundam - That's about the limit of articulation on the very first 1/144 Gundam~ At least the hip joints move,

That's about the limit of articulation on the very first 1/144 Gundam~ At least the hip joints move, so that's something...

The shoulders can be raised about 90 degrees, but the joint strength is too weak to hold the pose.

OLD 1/144 RX-78 Gundam - The beam saber also just loosely plugs into the hole in the hand, so it won't stay aligned with the

The beam saber also just loosely plugs into the hole in the hand, so it won't stay aligned with the forearm. In the end I just glued the rifle in place for a cleaner look.

OLD 1/144 RX-78 Gundam - Shooting poses (1/2)

OLD 1/144 RX-78 Gundam - Shooting poses (2/2)

Firing pose

Shooting pose 2. Looks like that's about as far as the articulation goes..

Beam saber pose

Beam saber pose 2

Alongside the HGUC First Gundam released 21 years later.

Alongside the latest HGUC First Gundam Revive. So much has changed over 35 years.

This is the 1/144 RX-78 Gundam (a.k.a. the First Gundam) — the kit that kicked off Gunpla history back in July 1980. Here I am finally getting around to reviewing the old kit in 2016, over 35 years later. It's gone through so many reprints that the molds are really showing their age, with a lot of the detail worn down and mushy. Kind of sad, honestly. T_T

By today's standards it's hard to even evaluate this kit's quality — it's basically the ancestor of all Gunpla. Personally, I built this thing multiple times as a kid using the Academy bootleg version back in the early '80s. It used to make my heart race back then, but looking at it now... time really does fly..

True to its status as the grandfather of old-school kits, every single part needs to be assembled with cement. There are locating pins of sorts, but they don't actually hold anything — they're really just there to help you line things up before the cement sets. The shoulder articulation mechanism in particular has that authentic old-school charm (^^;) — you slip a ring onto the protruding shoulder armor pin, trap it in place with a hook on the end, then cement the ring to the torso so the shoulder can rotate. I guess that kind of design made sense back then, but if you're not careful to apply cement only to the ring part, you could end up gluing the entire shoulder solid to the body — a bit of a dicey setup.

As you can see in the photos, articulation is basically limited to a slight walking stance, and you're honestly just grateful that the hip joints move at all rather than being fixed. The shoulders can swing out to the side too, but the joint strength is pretty terrible, so you'll need to reinforce the joints if you actually want to hold any poses~

Interestingly, four beam sabers are included — two of them are meant to be cut down to about 1cm and plugged into the backpack. You'd think they'd just mold short pieces from the start, but it seems like there were various reasons they went with this DIY(?) approach. As for the beam rifle, it wobbles around even when plugged into the hand hole, so you'll need to either wrap some tape around it or just glue it in to get it sitting at a proper angle.

True to its old-school roots, the range of poses you can pull off is very limited, so it basically ends up standing at attention. On top of that, the aging molds mean there's a lot of flash and the seam lines are really prominent — but then again, old kits are all about the fun of cleaning things up and fixing them as you go, so it's the kind of kit that naturally makes you want to get your hands on it.

The whole point of reviewing old kits isn't really to judge their quality — it's more about looking back at the original Gunpla lineup and feeling that nostalgia. Back in 1980, just being able to build "Gundam" as a three-dimensional model was genuinely moving. In that sense, this 1/144 First Gundam — the ancestor of all Gunpla — is clearly a landmark kit that will keep getting reprinted forever :-) [ Updated at 2016.1.2 ]

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.