OLD First Gundam 1/100 Dom

Release 1980.11

Price ¥800

BANDAI BANDAI Japan product info

One purple runner comes unpackaged.

Parts diagram

Manual

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Sole mold. The verniers are actually depicted on there.

OLD 1/100 Dom - The heat saber mounting part is way too tight, so it's really hard to push the heat saber all the way in T_T

The heat saber mounting part is way too tight, so it's really hard to push the heat saber all the way in T_T Looks like I'll need to sand it down a bit, but anyway, it's slightly short of fully inserted so the handle is sticking up.

OLD 1/100 Dom - The heat saber was hiding all the way at the end of the runner, so it took me a while to find it... Click the

The heat saber was hiding all the way at the end of the runner, so it took me a while to find it... Click the photo and see if you can spot it yourselves ~ ;;;

The bazooka molded together as one piece with the hand.

Arm articulation is around 90 degrees, while the legs are under 30 degrees.

The shoulder joint uses an octagonal pin that locks into position at set intervals.

The arms raise out to the side about 90 degrees, and the forearm section rotates.

You can actually pull off a heat saber draw pose.

Heat saber action

Two-handed heat saber grip

OLD 1/100 Dom - With the bazooka, the rear magazine gets badly in the way of the arm, so the only way to hold it is to bend t

With the bazooka, the rear magazine gets badly in the way of the arm, so the only way to hold it is to bend the elbow 90 degrees and position the magazine behind it, like shown above.

Two-handed bazooka pose

Bazooka + heat saber action — the elbow still has to stay bent at 90 degrees because of the bazooka.

Together with the 1/100 First Gundam.

Together with the 1/144 Rick Dom.

Together with the MG Dom.

The Dom was released under the Rick Dom name in 1/144, but in 1/100 it came out simply as "Dom" — though the included parts are the same either way. In terms of lore, the Rick Dom is the space-use variant and the Dom is the ground-use variant, with some differences in the back verniers and rear skirt and such, but at the old kit level, the back panel itself looks identical between the 1/144 Rick Dom and the 1/100 Dom.

First off, for a vintage kit from 1980, the color separation is better than you'd expect, so even a straight build alone gives you a pretty sharp-looking model. And maybe because the Dom is such a chunky, beefy mobile suit to begin with, the proportions don't look all that far behind the MG either. If anything, the thicker torso and upper body almost make it look even more imposing than the MG, whose center of gravity sits lower.

Despite its chunky build, the 1/100 Dom has surprisingly better limb articulation than other old 1/100 kits — which is pretty impressive. It can even pull off a draw pose with the heat saber on its back, something that's nearly impossible to achieve with most other old 1/100 kits. On top of that, the joint strength is better than average compared to other vintage kits, making it easy to hold poses and stand it up at various angles.

Of course, the limitations of a vintage kit are still very much there — the bazooka placement in particular is really restrictive. Shoulder-firing poses are obviously out of the question, and you can't hold it straight out front or tuck it under the arm either. The only way to hold the bazooka is to bend the elbow 90 degrees and position the magazine behind the elbow. (See the review photos.) Even then it's a struggle to get it to fit, which I suppose is just unavoidable given that this was an early Gunpla kit from when they were still figuring things out.

One thing — I spent quite a while hunting for the heat saber on the runner. As you can see in the review photos above, the runner frame itself is molded as the heat saber, which is why it was so hard to spot ^^; It seems like old kits were even more aggressive about making use of every bit of runner space like that.

All in all, this is a pretty high-quality kit among old 1/100 releases — it shows off proportions that feel less dated than most vintage kits, solid color separation, above-average articulation, and good joint strength. Honestly, it's several times better in terms of quality than the 1/100 First Gundam. It's easy to recommend to vintage kit fans who want to paint or customize it, and it's also a great pick for old-school fans who just want to build it as a straight build for the nostalgia of it :-)
[ Updated at 2016.3.24 ]

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.