-- Series Common Notes ---------------------------------
The Gundam SEED Destiny 1/144 No Grade series followed up on the original SEED 1/144 line, with a total of 14 kits released between 2004 and 2005, priced between ¥300 and ¥600 as entry-level Gunpla. The basic construction is similar to the SEED 1/144 series, but you can feel a step up in terms of detail, and they use an evolved dumbbell-shaped ball-joint polycap. Each joint moves on both ends, so articulation has improved — but since the elbows and knees are still fixed, the range of poses you can pull off remains limited.
That said, the proportions are solid and on par with HG, and while color separation is limited, the molded colors are actually pretty decent. Each kit also recreates its own transformation gimmick or key feature. The parts count is more complex than the SEED 1/144 kits, pushing the average price up to ¥500, but overall quality has gone up along with it. As a No Grade kit, it's a good entry-level Gunpla for casual building on a budget or for painting practice.
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<Individual Kit Notes>
This kit is the 8th entry in the series — the 1/144 Blaze Zaku Phantom (Rey Za Burrel Custom). It's essentially the 1/144 Zaku Warrior with a new molded color and the Blaze pack added on, done up in Rey's lighter color scheme. The body colors look fine, but the Blaze pack comes molded in white instead of the gray it should be per the design specs, which is a bit of a disconnect. Looking at how the runners are split, it really seems like they could've easily molded it in gray separately — a missed opportunity for sure.
The Blaze pack does open up with movable parts including the missile pod cover, and even without color separation the sculpt itself is well done and holds up next to HG. All in all, aside from the Blaze pack's molded color, this is a pretty solid No Grade kit overall. :-)
AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.
