Kit Review

Straight build + panel lining + partial paint

Size comparison with a cigarette pack — the universal standard. Small and compact..

HG Force Impulse Gundam - It's got a big load on its back, but it's light and the joints are solid, so it stands up nice and

It's got a big load on its back, but it's light and the joints are solid, so it stands up nice and straight.

Rear shot with the Force Pack removed. You can see the Core Splendor.

~
Partial paint ~

Due to the limitations of the scale, there are a ton of spots that need partial painting to match the official colors.

Before and after partial painting. Quite a difference, right?

The Core Splendor is a non-transforming block form — just molded entirely in white.

I did some partial painting, but you can really tell it was a rush job. T_T

The shield is a swap-out type, not a fold-up type. The molded color is terrible

HG Force Impulse Gundam - You only need to partially paint the outer face of the shield... but it's the most annoying and tri

You only need to partially paint the outer face of the shield... but it's the most annoying and tricky part to paint.

The rifle got a bit of partial painting too.

The Silhouette Flyer also got partial painting on the wing sections and a few other spots.

HG Force Impulse Gundam - The verniers on the Force Pack's wing sections were just plain white, so I partially painted those

The verniers on the Force Pack's wing sections were just plain white, so I partially painted those too.

~
Separation & transformation ~

First, it splits into 3 sections..

HG Force Impulse Gundam - That's roughly how the separation and transformation is pulled off. The Core Splendor doesn't unfol

That's roughly how the separation and transformation is pulled off.
The Core Splendor doesn't unfold — it's just a block sitting there in its folded shape. It's just too small for anything more..

The only special mechanism for transformation. The shoulders extend out in two stages.

HG Force Impulse Gundam - The infamous Chest Flyer in its groveling, begging, or face-down-sleeping pose. No matter how many

The infamous Chest Flyer in its groveling, begging, or face-down-sleeping pose.
No matter how many times I see it, it's just ridiculous;;;;

View from below..

The back is even weirder...

Leg Flyer

Just bend the knees a bit and fold the ankles and you're basically done.

Apparently the trick with the Leg Flyer is raising the front skirt 45 degrees.. hmm..

Leg Flyer rear view.

HG Force Impulse Gundam - The Force Silhouette, combining the Silhouette Flyer and the Force Pack. It's probably the most con

The Force Silhouette, combining the Silhouette Flyer and the Force Pack. It's probably the most convincing-looking flight form of the bunch.
Those shiny stickers still look cheap though..

Rear view

Underside

~ Action ~

HG Force Impulse Gundam - Arm articulation is just 90 degrees, but the legs fold quite a bit — probably thanks to the transfo

Arm articulation is just 90 degrees, but the legs fold quite a bit — probably thanks to the transformation mechanism.

Posing

There's also an action-pose fixed beam saber hand included. Skipping the paint on that one.. ^^;;

Beam saber action pose

Together with Strike Gundam, the main unit from the previous series.

Straight build (with seals applied) — front and rear

Right alongside the launch of Gundam SEED Destiny, the sequel to Gundam SEED, the main unit Force Impulse Gundam was released as a 1/144 HG kit. The design took a ton of heat when the early illustrations first went public, but sure enough, as expected, the kit ended up with better proportions and overall feel compared to the original concept art. It's still not universally loved, but it does get its fair share of praise..

Just like the previous SEED HG series showed off some seriously impressive quality, the HG Force Impulse came out at a comparably high standard. The molding quality, joint strength, and articulation all feel like they pushed as far as they could go at 1/144 scale. The leg and ankle articulation is pretty flexible, so you can get a lot of natural-looking action poses out of it, and the joints are stiff enough that nothing feels loose — everything holds its position well. That said, the rifle doesn't lock into the hand completely, so it feels a bit wobbly, and the shield attachment to the arm is on the weak side and tends to fall off.

The Force Impulse's even more complex color scheme compared to Strike Gundam inevitably runs into the limitations of the scale. As you can see in the partial painting photos above, you'd need to touch up dozens of spots — the torso, shoulders, backpack, shield, and more — to properly match the official colors. Of course, that's down to the design itself using such a complicated color combination, not any issue with the kit's quality. Still, even though the color separation is doing its best at the 1/144 HG level, the snap-fit look just doesn't quite sit right with me. -.-

Even at 1/144 scale, the basic three-way separation and transformation is implemented to a reasonable degree. It splits into three parts — the Chest Flyer up top, the Core Splendor which serves as the core fighter equivalent, and the Leg Flyer for the lower body... though the Core Splendor can't transform into flight mode and is just included as a plain core block. Calling it a "transformation" is honestly a bit of a stretch for all three of them.

The Chest Flyer's face-down pose — like someone sleeping at a library desk — is something pretty much any Gundam could replicate just by bending forward. This bizarre (?) transformation pose got a lot of flak, with people calling it the "begging Gundam" or the "groveling Gundam"... and honestly, every time I see it, it's just awkward. -_;; I'm starting to develop a grudging fondness for it the more I look at it, but still — if it's going to strike a pose, did it really have to be *that* pose? The Leg Flyer is similarly underwhelming — it's basically just the knees and ankles bent slightly, so it barely feels like a transformation at all.

Ultimately, the awkwardness of the transformation is a problem with the original design, not the kit itself — but either way, you could say the kit does manage to pull off the source material's transformation gimmick well enough.

Overall it's a clean, good-quality kit, but the color accuracy falls quite short, so I wouldn't really recommend it to snap-fit-only builders. If you're not specifically after 1/144, you'd probably be much better off spending a little more and building the 1/100 Force Impulse instead — it's a much cleaner result. ^^;

HG Force Impulse Gundam | 2004. 11 | ¥1,500

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.