OLD Gundam Sentinel 1/144 S-Gundam

Release 1988.9

Price ¥1,000

BANDAI BANDAI Japan product info

OLD 1/144 S-Gundam - Box side view (1/3)

Box side view

Runners

System injection runners are used.

Seals

OLD 1/144 S-Gundam - Parts diagram (1/4)

OLD 1/144 S-Gundam - Parts diagram (2/4)

Parts diagram

Manual

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Getting the pose right is a bit of a struggle, but you can still hold the Beam Smart Gun with both hands.

The Beam Smart Gun mounted on the side can be swapped out for a Beam Cannon.

With the Beam Cannon mounted on the side instead of the Beam Smart Gun

Limb articulation isn't great.

The stabilizers and the wings on the shoulders are also articulated.

OLD 1/144 S-Gundam - Beam Smart Gun pose (1/3)

Beam Smart Gun pose

Beam saber action

Together with the HGUC S-Gundam released in 2001.

Together with the predecessor 1/144 Full Armor ZZ and Zeta Plus.

The third kit in the old Gundam Sentinel line is the main protagonist, the 1/144 S-Gundam. Like the previous Zeta Plus, it's originally a transformable mobile suit, but due to scale limitations the transformation gimmick wasn't reproduced here. Still, this kit holds a number of significant places in Gunpla history.

First of all, this is a proper 1/144 kit released as 100% snap-fit with no glue or screws required. Some of the old 1/220 Z Gundam kits were also snap-fit, but those were mini kits with only a handful of parts. This 1/144 S-Gundam, on the other hand, can be considered the first fully snap-fit kit in a regular scale lineup with a substantial part count. The earlier Char's Counterattack old kits also don't require glue, but they combine snap-fit and screw connections, so they don't qualify as fully snap-fit.

So its significance in Gunpla history lies in being the first "proper" snap-fit kit built without any glue or screws. It also marked the full introduction of system injection runners — where multiple molded colors are shot into a single runner — following the Char's Counterattack series. The combination of system injection and seals meant that even a straight straight build could reproduce a pretty solid level of the official color scheme, making it noticeably more colorful than the previous Full Armor ZZ and Zeta Plus kits.

The articulation is pretty limited as you'd expect from an old-style kit, so there aren't many poses you can pull off — which is a shame. At least the joint strength is decent enough, so that's a relief. S-Gundam's signature oversized Beam Smart Gun can be connected to the side via a sub-arm for a stable hold, but getting a good two-handed grip pose is quite a struggle since the angles just don't work out that well.

Anyway, when it came out in '89, this kit was something of a culture shock — even a straight straight build looked great without any glue. These days the HGUC S-Gundam is obviously the better kit, so it's hard to recommend this one outright, but its place in history as the first 1/144 fully snap-fit Gunpla is something that'll never be taken away. :-)
[ Updated at 2017.8.3 ]

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.