OLD First Gundam 1/100 Char's Gelgoog

Release 1981.3

Price ¥800

BANDAI BANDAI Japan product info

Note that some runners are not individually bagged in plastic.

Parts diagram

Manual

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

The head molding looks kind of mushed and soft... and good luck finding the mono-eye ;;

The round section on the abdomen is handled with a sticker.

The sole molding is actually better than expected.

Rear view with the shield removed

You can attach the shield to the back by adding a separate fixing pin to the shield mount.

The other hole lets you plug in the beam naginata's handle for storage.

Weapons include a rifle, beam naginata, and shield.

The rifle comes as a separate piece molded together with the hand.

The bend articulation on the arms and legs looks to be only about 15 degrees.

OLD 1/100 Char's Gelgoog - Cross-section of the arms and legs. As you can see, there simply isn't enough room for proper

Cross-section of the arms and legs. As you can see, there simply isn't enough room for proper movement.

OLD 1/100 Char's Gelgoog - The shoulders are glued directly onto the torso as fixed parts, which kills the range of moti

The shoulders are glued directly onto the torso as fixed parts, which kills the range of motion just like the 1/144 where the shoulders and torso were one single piece ;;

OLD 1/100 Char's Gelgoog - The shoulder joint has an octagonal pin inside that lets you lock it at various angles, but s

The shoulder joint has an octagonal pin inside that lets you lock it at various angles, but since the shoulder armor is fixed in place anyway, the range of motion is so limited that it's completely pointless T_T

Still, the legs and arms can spread out sideways to that extent at least.

It's also one of the rare old 1/100 kits that actually has a rotating waist.

Action pose

Twisting the waist can give you some interesting poses.

OLD 1/100 Char's Gelgoog - Beam naginata action (1/3)

Beam naginata action

Together with the 1/144 Char's Gelgoog.

Together with the MG Char's Gelgoog v1.0 released in 1996.

Together with the MG Char's Gelgoog v2.0 released in 2007.

The evolution of the 1/100 Char's Gelgoog. It keeps getting bigger with each upgrade ^^;

Interestingly, in the old 1/100 lineup, the Gelgoog was released before the Zaku, and even then Char's custom version came out first. It only has two molded colors, but the torso and shield are color separated in a deep crimson, which does give it a noticeably different feel compared to the 1/144.

Starting with the head, the molding is soft and mushy — I'd say it's less about the mold being old and more about the limitations of the sculpting at the time. Interestingly, the cockpit hatch on the abdomen is covered with a separate pink sticker, and like the 1/144, this old kit also features a rotating waist.

While it's bigger than the 1/144, the joint design didn't really improve much, making this a pretty frustrating kit in terms of articulation. The 1/144 Gelgoog had the shoulders and torso as a single piece, which severely limited shoulder movement — and in the 1/100, while the parts are separate, you still have to glue the shoulders to the torso, so you end up in exactly the same situation. They even went to the trouble of making the inner shoulder pin octagonal so it locks in 8 positions when rotated, but bizarrely, the shoulder armor blocks the arm from rotating in the first place.. ;;

It seems like the developer's ambition and the technical limitations of the time just couldn't meet in the middle, which is how you end up with a joint gimmick that serves absolutely no purpose. On top of that, the elbows and knees only move within a measly 15-degree range. Bottom line — if you want to get any decent poses out of this thing, modifying the joints is a must. The one saving grace is that the joint strength itself isn't too bad.

Weapons include a rifle, shield, and beam naginata. For the beam naginata, both the storage handle (for mounting on the back) and the grip handle (for holding in the hand) are included. The shield and beam naginata can be stored by plugging them into the holes on the back, but the fit between the holes and the fixing pins is pretty loose so they tend to fall out easily — a little bit of rework seems necessary there.

Overall, this sits in the lower-mid tier among old 1/100 kits. To be blunt, it's really just a slightly better color separated version of the 1/144 Gelgoog — it feels like a straight-up enlargement of the 1/144, which is a bit disappointing. At 1/100 scale, you'd hope for at least one clear point of difference that sets it apart.

That said, just being a Char's Gelgoog gives this kit plenty of significance on its own, so if you enjoy tackling ambitious modifications, this old kit could make for a pretty rewarding project :-)
[ Updated at 2016.3.30 ]

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.