OLD First Gundam 1/1200 White Base

Release 1980.12

Price ¥1,000

BANDAI BANDAI Japan product info

Runners

Parts diagram

Manual

Size comparison with a cigarette pack. It's noticeably bigger than other warship kits.

Underside view

OLD 1/1200 White Base - Detail shots (1/3)

Detail shots

Size comparison with a standard 1/1200 warship kit box. The box alone is already huge.

A printed card sheet featuring the White Base crew is included.

This is roughly how you'd display it~

Remove the cover on the upper front section to expose the main cannon.

OLD 1/1200 White Base - The hatch in the center front section opens and closes as a working feature, while the hatch on the f

The hatch in the center front section opens and closes as a working feature, while the hatch on the front legs can be removed and reattached.

This kit includes 4 accessory mecha.

OLD 1/1200 White Base - 1/1200 RX-78 First Gundam, Guncannon, and Guntank. At only about 1.5cm tall they're so tiny that a lo

1/1200 RX-78 First Gundam, Guncannon, and Guntank. At only about 1.5cm tall they're so tiny that a lot of the detail gets lost, but they've got their own charming, quirky character.

The 1/1200 Gunperry has folding wings for storage.

Placed on the open hatch.

All 4 placed on top of the hull.

Together with the earlier 1/1200 Musai. It's got a much more imposing presence than the Musai.

Together with the 1/144 and 1/100 First Gundam.

Together with the 1/1700 EX White Base released in 2006.

This kit is the 1/1200 White Base, the iconic warship of the One Year War. It's priced at ¥1000, which is on the pricier side compared to other warship kits, and it comes in a noticeably larger box to match its bigger volume. Unusually for an old-release kit, it even features color separation in three colors.

If you don't have a good sense of how big the White Base actually is, this kit will feel pretty sizeable. The 2006 EX White Base was in 1/1700 scale, which made for a nicely manageable size, but the 1/1200 White Base is bigger than you'd expect. And thanks to that larger size, there's actually more molded detail than you might think — it's just a shame that in the review photos everything comes out so washed out and white that it's hard to see.

The biggest strength of this kit is how faithfully it captures the White Base as a three-dimensional model. Once you take care of the seam lines and add some paint, it's hard to believe this kit was released in 1980 — the proportions and overall construction are that good. The more recent 1/1700 EX White Base actually has an overabundance of molded detail, and the overall sense of depth feels even flatter than this older 1/1200 kit. The fact that all the parts are glued together is a bit of a hassle, as you'd expect from an old-school kit, but at least the finished look is spot-on — it feels like it jumped straight out of the anime, and it's a kit I'd happily give high marks to.

Feature-wise, the main cannon cover on the front can be removed, the center hatch opens and closes as a working feature, and the front leg hatches can be detached. On top of that, 1/1200 versions of the First Gundam, Guncannon, Guntank, and Gunperry are included, so you can store and display them inside the hull. The tiny 1/1200 MS figures at 1.5cm are pretty rough in terms of detail and have some wonky proportions, but they've got their own old-school charm.

All in all, this is a kit that holds up even today and belongs in the ranks of classic old-release kits worth owning. With its big, commanding presence, it's a great kit I'd recommend to both straight builders and painters alike. :-)
[ Updated at 2016.2.20 ]

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.