OLD First Gundam 1/144 Guntank

Release 1981.5

Price ¥600

BANDAI BANDAI Japan product info

Runners

Parts diagram

Manual

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Underside view

The caterpillar tracks are made of soft material.

A bit on the stiff side for soft material, but it still looks pretty convincing either way.

OLD 1/144 Guntank - The shoulders use a T-shaped peg that slots into the torso, rather than the old ring-and-loop glue method

The shoulders use a T-shaped peg that slots into the torso, rather than the old ring-and-loop glue method — a much more natural assembly approach.

The elbows only bend just a tiny bit, but the shoulders can raise out to the side at quite a decent angle.

The cannon barrels' range of motion is about this much..

OLD 1/144 Guntank - Dual-arm firing action pose (1/3)

Dual-arm firing action pose

Firing to the side pose

OLD 1/144 Guntank - Alongside the HGUC Guntank. There's a big difference in the upper-to-lower body proportions — the old kit

Alongside the HGUC Guntank. There's a big difference in the upper-to-lower body proportions — the old kit's upper body is way chunkier.

1/144 Old Kit Operation V Set — complete!

This kit is the 1/144 Guntank, which is a pretty bulky MS compared to most. Thanks to that, the parts are bigger and there are more of them, so it was released in a larger box than your typical 1/144 Gunpla and at double the price — ¥600.

The star of the Guntank kit is obviously the caterpillar tracks that define it as a tank, and between the multiple rolling wheels and the soft-material tracks, they're reproduced quite convincingly. That said, the soft track parts are on the stiffer side texture-wise, so compared to more recent rubber tracks they do feel a bit rough around the edges.

The shoulders use a T-shaped fixing pin instead of the old ring-and-loop glue method, making assembly a lot easier. Outside of the cannon barrels and shoulders, there's barely any articulation to speak of, but it still manages to pull off some decent poses. The Guntank mech itself isn't exactly built for a wide range of poses to begin with, but it would've been nice if the waist could at least rotate a little.

The upper-to-lower body proportions are noticeably different from the HGUC — the wide, broad shoulders and thick arms are very much an old-kit thing. In some ways it actually looks stronger and more imposing than the HGUC with its much smaller upper body, and overall it's a pretty big and chunky kit for a 1/144.

All things considered, this is a kit that holds up surprisingly well in quality for an early Gunpla release — with that chunky, old-school proportions that'll probably spark the building urge in any old-school fan. :-) [ Updated at 2016.1.24 ]

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.