OLD First Gundam 1/144 Guncannon

Release 1981.5

Price ¥300

BANDAI BANDAI Japan product info

Runners

Parts diagram

Manual

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

The leg angles aren't great, so it's hard to get both feet flat on the ground.

Interestingly, there are internal skeleton joint parts inside the limbs.

OLD 1/144 Guncannon - The shoulders use a slightly improved ring-glue method. Like the 1/144 Zeong, the ring section that glu

The shoulders use a slightly improved ring-and-peg attachment method.
Like the 1/144 Gyan, the ring part that attaches to the body is made longer and thicker,
so the structure helps reduce mistakes like accidentally gluing the ring all the way to the shoulder joint.

The hands are designed to be removable.

OLD 1/144 Guncannon - For the right hand, you get two options — one that's integrated with the rifle and one open palm — so y

For the right hand, you get two options — one that's integrated with the rifle and one open palm — so you can swap them out as needed.

OLD 1/144 Guncannon - The joints are stiff, but the internal skeleton parts aren't very durable, so if you force the elbow to

The joints are pretty stiff, and the frame parts for the joints don't have great durability,
so if you bend the elbow too hard, it snaps easily like this ㅠ_ㅠ

As you'd expect from an old-school kit, limb articulation isn't great...

That said, the shoulders can raise up to the angle shown above.

The cannons move within a range of about 90 degrees.

OLD 1/144 Guncannon - Rifle firing pose (1/3)

Rifle firing pose

The Guncannon's signature prone firing pose is pulled off, albeit a bit awkwardly.

Together with the 1/144 First Gundam.

Together with the sausage-like 1/144 Char's Zaku.

Together with the HGUC Guncannon released 18 years later.

OLD 1/144 Guncannon - And with the latest HGUC Revive version Guncannon (right) in the mix too. You can really see how the pr

Here it is alongside the latest HGUC Revive version Guncannon (on the right).
You can see how the proportions evolved between 1981 - 1999 - 2015.

The Guncannon was kit number 1 in the HGUC lineup, but in the old 1/144 series it was released as the 9th kit. The molded color is a single shade of red — it's got that classic candy toy plastic feel to it, which actually gives it a kind of charming, old-school vibe.

From a proportions standpoint, the massively wide shoulders are very much old-school, as you'd expect. The leg joints are so stiff that the feet don't sit flat on the ground, leaving the whole body wobbling from side to side. At least other kits manage to stand upright rigidly in a fixed pose, but with the 1/144 Guncannon, the unstable footing alone makes you want to start modding it right away.

Structurally, a new internal skeleton was used here. The legs in particular use a single skeleton piece running from the knee all the way down to the ankle, which is pretty unique. That said, the skeleton doesn't actually improve articulation or durability in practice — in fact, you can end up snapping the skeleton parts when trying to bend the stiff elbow joints. T_T It's not exactly an effective design, but given how early in Gunpla's history this kit is, I'd say it's evidence that the developers were experimenting with all kinds of ideas.

On the other hand, the shoulder joints use the same glue-and-ring system as the 1/144 First Gundam — though an improved version like the one seen on the 1/144 Zeong has been applied here. The ring part that slots into the shoulder joint and locks in place is made a bit longer, which should help reduce the chance of excess glue seeping out and accidentally bonding the entire shoulder joint solid. It's still the same clunky hook-and-ring glued shoulder joint that was only used briefly in the early days, but at least it was evolving.

Despite the new internal skeleton structure, the articulation is still pretty frustrating and there aren't many poses you can really pull off. That said, the kit does include a hand-swapping gimmick — a weapon-gripping hand and a regular open hand — which at least lets you recreate the Guncannon's signature prone firing pose, even if it looks a little rough.

The 1/144 Guncannon ambitiously tried out some new ideas, but the articulation didn't improve at all, and the durability issues actually make it a bit of a pain to handle as a poseable action figure. At this point in time though, the fun of old-school kits is really in the modding and customizing, so in that sense, a kit like this that throws all kinds of challenges at you might actually be more fun for it. :-) [ Updated at 2016.1.23 ]

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.