OLD Gundam F91 1/60 Gundam F91

Release 1991.8

Price ¥6,000

BANDAI BANDAI Japan product info

Box rear view

It's awkwardly a bit larger than a standard oversized MG box.

Runners

The inside is made up of two boxes — one containing runners and one containing pre-assembled parts.

The head, limbs, and part of the torso come pre-assembled inside a styrofoam box.

OLD 1/60 Gundam F91 - Front and back of the elaborate system insert runners (1/4)

OLD 1/60 Gundam F91 - Front and back of the elaborate system insert runners (2/4)

Front and back of the elaborate system insert runners

There are vinyl seals included, but the quality isn't great.

OLD 1/60 Gundam F91 - Since the pre-assembled parts were stored without any plastic wrapping, they've yellowed pretty badly o

Since the pre-assembled parts were stored without any plastic wrapping, they've yellowed pretty badly over the years. T_T

OLD 1/60 Gundam F91 - I removed all the white armor from the pre-assembled parts and soaked them in hydrogen peroxide for abo

I removed all the white armor from the pre-assembled parts and soaked them in hydrogen peroxide for about 3 days to restore the yellowing as much as possible.

OLD 1/60 Gundam F91 - Parts diagram (1/3)

Parts diagram

Manual

Straight build + waterslide decals

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Pre-assembled parts stored in the styrofoam box

The head and torso are frame-only, while the legs come fully assembled.

OLD 1/60 Gundam F91 - Looking at the pre-assembled parts, the gate marks are still there as-is. -_-;; I had no choice but to

Looking at the pre-assembled parts, the gate marks are still there as-is. -_-;; I had no choice but to take them apart and clean up the gates — which makes you wonder why they bothered pre-assembling them in the first place.

Torso frame shots

Remove the leg armor and you'll find some frame underneath there too.

Even the vulcans are reproduced inside the head armor.

Cockpit hatch open

OLD 1/60 Gundam F91 - The shoulder heat radiator fins can be pulled out via a sliding mechanism, but they're stiff and a bit

The shoulder heat radiator fins can be pulled out via a sliding mechanism, but they're stiff and a bit of a pain to extend.

OLD 1/60 Gundam F91 - There's a special gimmick built into the leg thruster covers — press the leg downward and all three cov

There's a special gimmick built into the leg thruster covers — press the leg downward and all three covers automatically spring open with a snap.

OLD 1/60 Gundam F91 - A diagram of the leg's internal structure. There's a coil spring below the knee and a spring in the ank

A diagram of the leg's internal structure. There's a coil spring below the knee and a spring in the ankle. When the ankle is pushed upward, it releases the latch holding the top cover, which then snaps open by spring force, and the remaining two covers below open in sequence as well.

Weapons loadout

Gimmick for storing the beam saber and beam shield in the side skirts

The beam shield generator mounted on the forearm also extends outward.

A joint part for mounting the bazooka can be attached to the rear skirt.

VSBR articulation and hand-gripping poses.

1/60 scale Seabook and Cecily figures are included.

Average limb articulation

Articulated fingers

OLD 1/60 Gundam F91 - Rifle shooting pose (1/3)

OLD 1/60 Gundam F91 - Rifle shooting pose (2/3)

OLD 1/60 Gundam F91 - Rifle shooting pose (3/3)

Rifle firing pose

Bazooka mounted pose

Bazooka action

Beam saber + beam shield action

VSBR action

Together with the 1/100 Gundam F91.

Together with the 1/60 First Gundam.

This kit is the 1/60 Gundam F91 released as part of the old-school Gundam F91 series. Back when it came out in 1991, it got quite a bit of attention for its unique concept — more than half of the body comes pre-assembled in a styrofoam box, and you only build a portion of the parts yourself, making it a semi-assembled kit.

First off, the majority of the parts are ABS, which gives the whole thing a pretty stiff feel overall — though on the flip side, it does look quite durable. As you'd expect from a big-scale kit, system inserts are used to achieve solid color separation, and above all, the proportions are surprisingly good for a kit from 1991. It's in a completely different league compared to the 1/60 First Gundam that came out ten years earlier, and honestly it doesn't feel outclassed even next to 21st-century MG kits.

The articulation on the arms and legs is pretty average, so pulling off really dynamic poses is tough — but the joint strength is sturdier than you'd expect, so it holds its poses well. Being ABS joints, everything moves with a kind of stiff, creaky feel. As you bend the limbs, you keep hearing this grinding, creaky friction sound throughout.

As befitting a 1/60 kit, the gimmick recreation from the source material really stands out, with storage/deployment gimmicks for all sorts of weapons faithfully included. The legs in particular feature a unique thruster cover linked gimmick. If you grab the leg and push it downward, a spring mechanism causes all three thruster covers on the back to pop open simultaneously with a satisfying "twang" of a spring sound. As you can see in the internal gimmick photos above, it's a pretty intricate piece of engineering.

Personally, I've built this kit twice in total. When I built it back at release in 1991, it felt like a genuinely fresh, high-quality kit. But building it again in 2018 for this review, there were quite a few things that left me wanting more. The joints creak, some parts need glue because they don't hold securely, and since it's a semi-assembled product with unfinished gate marks, it can feel a bit toy-like at times.

The biggest issue of all is that the pre-assembled parts sit in the styrofoam box exposed to air with no plastic wrapping, so on older kits, yellowing can be severe — the color difference between the white parts that came in bags and the pre-assembled white parts is often quite dramatic. (See the runner section at the top of the review.) I dug through Akihabara and hunted down domestic listings trying to find a kit in decent condition over the years, but every single one had yellowing on the pre-assembled parts. I eventually gave up on finding a good-condition kit and soaked the yellowed parts in hydrogen peroxide for several days to restore them to a reasonable state — but if you're looking to get this kit, you should definitely keep this yellowing issue in mind beforehand.

Either way, as an unprecedented semi-assembled big-scale kit, this is a genuinely unique piece of Bandai Gunpla history in more ways than one. It has its shortcomings when viewed from today's standards, but considering it's a 1991 kit, it's actually pretty solid. If you're a fan of F91, it's definitely worth taking on at least once — just make sure you check the yellowing situation carefully before you dive in. :-)
[ Updated at 2018.6.6]

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.