OLD First Gundam 1/100 Acguy

Release 1982.9

Price ¥700

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 soles of the feet are flat, as expected.

The multi-jointed arms are built so each segment can extend and retract.

All 6 claws are individually articulated.

OLD 1/100 Acguy - You can also retract the claws inward, but the mechanism is stiff — if you're not careful, the claw gimmick

You can also retract the claws inward, but the mechanism is stiff — if you're not careful, the claw gimmick inside the arm can fall apart.

Variable length of the arm's multi-joint section.

The joints are loose, so if you leave it standing the arms will slowly droop down on their own..

Cross-section of the legs.

Both the arms and legs use T-shaped joints — you just plug them in.

The mono-eye is a separate part, so you can position it wherever you like.

Just like the 1/144, the cockpit hatch can also be attached in the open position.

The range of motion for bending the limbs is very limited.

The limbs can only spread out this much.

OLD 1/100 Acguy - On the plus side, the legs can spread straight forward and back. Arms and claws shown at minimum/maximum ex

On the plus side, the legs can spread straight forward and back. Arms and claws shown at minimum/maximum extension.

Action pose

Action pose 2

Action pose 3 — the joint design isn't great, so there aren't many poses you can pull off..

Together with the 1/144 Acguy.

With the seafood crew — 1/100 Z'Gok and Gogg.

Together with the MG Acguy released in 2005. Quite a big size difference..

This is the old-kit 1/100 Acguy, the designated cute mascot of the Zeon forces in the One Year War (^^;). As you can clearly see from the comparison photos with the MG above, it came out much more compact than the Acguy we know today — and among the old-kit 1/100 "seafood" MS lineup, it's actually the smallest of the bunch.

First off, the multi-joint sections that are a hallmark of the aquatic MS are built the same way as the Gogg and Z'Gok — you have to assemble each segment one by one. Like the 1/100 Gogg, they're designed to extend and retract. However, unlike the Gogg where you just stack single cylindrical parts in order of size, here each cylinder is made from two separate halves glued together, which makes the whole thing feel a bit less durable. The joint strength is also on the loose side — when standing upright, the weight of the hands tends to make the arms droop down on their own. (The 1/100 Gogg has the same issue, though..)

On the other hand, the claw section has a pretty interesting design going for it — the 6 claws are individually articulated units that slide up and down, allowing the claws to be retracted inward. That said, this sliding claw mechanism is quite stiff and you really need to be careful when operating it. If you carelessly push the claws in and out without thinking, the internal claw connection gimmick can come apart and make a mess of things. It happened to me too — when it does, you have to disassemble the entire hand section that you glued together and rebuild it from scratch. (If you read the manual carefully, you should be able to understand how the mechanism works.)

As for other features, the mono-eye is provided as a separate part so you can attach it wherever you want (though you can't move it after that), and just like the 1/144 Acguy, there's an option to attach the belly cockpit hatch in the open position.

The biggest issue with this kit is joint strength. For the arms, which are focused on functionality, loose joints are somewhat understandable — but the legs, which have a limited range of motion for no particular reason and are wobbly on top of that, are a bit of a problem. The overall floppiness of the joints makes it hard to hold poses, so I'd say this is a kit where you really need to carefully analyze the joints before assembly and do some degree of joint reinforcement or even joint modification work.

The ambitious design of the arms and claws does stand out, but the overall size is smaller than you'd expect, and the joint and articulation design is pretty lacking — so this isn't an old kit I'd really recommend unless you're a serious modder. The unusual shape does mean the proportions don't look too bad, which is a plus.. but the MG Acguy from 2005 came out so perfectly that it's hard to find a good reason to build the old kit instead. :-)
[ Updated at 2016.4.11 ]

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.