OLD Z Gundam 1/144 Gabthley

Release 1985.12

Price ¥700

BANDAI BANDAI Japan product info

OLD 1/144 Gabthley - Box side view (1/3)

Box side view

Runners

Parts diagram

Manual

Straight build + waterslide decals

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

An extra right hand is included.

The hip joints barely move, making for extremely frustrating articulation.

Action pose

Fedain Rifle action

OLD 1/144 Gabthley - Shooting poses (1/2)

OLD 1/144 Gabthley - Shooting poses (2/2)

Firing pose

With the 1/144 Gundam Mk-II

With the 1/144 Gaplant.

With the HGUC Gabthley released in 2005.

This is the old-style Z Gundam 1/144 Gabthley, and it's actually one of those kits that pulls off surprisingly good color separation using just two molded colors, getting pretty close to the official color scheme. The molded colors themselves look great too, so it honestly holds up pretty well even compared to the HGUC.

The proportions with that distinctive bumpy armor look quite different from the HGUC, but there's a certain chunky old-kit charm to it that's actually part of the appeal. It feels like it came out slightly smaller than the official specs, and sure enough, when you put it next to the HGUC it does look noticeably smaller.

So while the color separation and molded colors are on the better end for an old-style kit, the articulation is pretty much the worst you'll find. The leg movement in particular is incredibly stiff and makes posing a real struggle — the hip joints are basically fixed in place, so even spreading the legs forward and back just a little is a real fight.

The Fedain Rifle that's so characteristic of the Gabthley doesn't stay in the hand well and wobbles around, and the two shoulder stocks interfere badly with the body, making it hard to position them properly. For all these reasons, it looks fine just sitting there on display, but once you actually start handling it the structural limitations are pretty frustrating — joint modifications seem like a must.

I was hoping against hope, but unlike the Gaplant, there's no transformation into Mobile Armor mode. I suppose back then it would've been pretty tough to engineer a transformation kit at 1/144 scale for something with such a complex three-dimensional shape.

Anyway, if you can live with the old-school proportions, the straight build looks quite nice, and this is definitely a kit where you're better off not expecting any articulation without joint modifications. So rather than recommending it for painting, I'd say this one's for the heavy modelers who enjoy doing modification work. :-)
[ Updated at 2017.3.25 ]

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.