Kit Review

Straight build + panel lining + partial paint

Size comparison with a cigarette pack — the universal standard size reference.

HG Sword Impulse Gundam - The joints are solid enough to handle that much backpack weight... but I can't help thinking the Sw

The joints are solid enough to handle that much backpack weight...
But I can't help thinking the Sword backpack design sticks out way too far to the rear.

Still a lot of pressure to do partial painting...

The Core Splendor needs painting too.

HG Sword Impulse Gundam - The newly included Core Splendor is also a plain white part;; Paint it up though and it's actually

The newly included Core Splendor is also a plain white part;;
Paint it up though and it's actually pretty cute.

The stickers on the beam swords looked kinda iffy, so I just painted them instead..

The same three-way separation as always

HG Sword Impulse Gundam - The Sword Impulse swaps out the Silhouette Flyer for a Core Splendor... but the stored form and the

The Sword Impulse swaps out the Silhouette Flyer for a Core Splendor...
But the stored form and the flight form look way too different from each other;; Take a look at the size of that cockpit -_-;

Compared to a 100-won coin. It's really tiny.

Adorably, the missiles are removable~♡

Separated/transformed state

Chest Flyer... still striking that awkward pose.

Leg Flyer.

HG Sword Impulse Gundam - The Sword Silhouette, made up of the Silhouette Flyer + Sword Pack. The Silhouette Flyer at the fro

The Sword Silhouette, made up of the Silhouette Flyer + Sword Pack.
The Silhouette Flyer at the front was borrowed from the HG Force Impulse Gundam kit.

Articulation. The legs are great~

Action pose

The Sword's sheer impact is just awesome!

The power of dual-wielding

The V-shaped weapon on the backpack can be held like a boomerang...

HG Sword Impulse Gundam - Or you can split it in half and use it as a beam boomerang. The official name is the Flash Edge Bea

Or you can split it in half and use it as a beam boomerang.
The official name is the Flash Edge Beam Boomerang. Quite a mouthful of a name.

The beam swords can also be combined and used like this.

Just like with the Strike, the Sword pack is still the coolest-looking weapon pack of the bunch!

Together with the HG Force Impulse Gundam.

Straight build photos

Following the Force Pack, the Impulse Gundam with the Sword Pack equipped has been released as an HG. Unlike the Strike, the Impulse has a setting where the PS armor color of the main body changes depending on the weapon pack... and early on, there was a lot of criticism calling it a blatant cash-grab. But when you actually compare it to the Strike situation — where it was the same body with just the weapons swapped — having the body's molded color change along with the weapon pack actually seems better in terms of variety ^^; It gives each version a distinct personality. That said, the main body itself is 100% identical between the Impulse variants — the only difference really is the molded color.

The HG Sword Impulse has a few notable differences from the HG Force Impulse beyond just the weapon pack — specifically, some of the included accessories have changed. The Silhouette Flyer that came with the Force Pack is gone, but in its place you get a Core Splendor that wasn't included with the Force Pack. The original HG Force Impulse only came with the Core Splendor in its folded core block form, whereas the HG Sword Impulse adds a Core Splendor fixed in flight mode. The trade-off is losing the Silhouette Flyer that carries the weapon pack... which feels like it's probably a deliberate move to get you to buy multiple kits;;

On top of that, the action-pose beam saber grip hand that came with the Force Pack is missing here (well, with a big sword included it's not really needed anyway...) and the extended shield part is gone too. So the HG Sword Impulse's shield can only be attached in its folded configuration.

Just like the HG Force Impulse, getting the HG Sword Impulse to look accurate to its design colors requires a fair amount of partial painting. But once you get all the colors sorted out, it ends up looking really cute and pretty. The color scheme is a soft, pastel-ish red...

The newly added Sword Pack turned out reasonably well. The sword detailing is nice, but... the light blue areas handled with seals create a pretty jarring look. And you can't even apply them to match the design colors properly. To get it looking right, partial painting at minimum seems like a must. Also, oddly enough, the verniers on the backpack that hold the swords have decent parts separation... but the molded colors came out completely wrong;; The verniers, which should be some shade of gray, were inexplicably molded in white. It's pretty rare for parts to be separated in a color that's way brighter than the actual design color;; If they were going to bother separating them at all, you'd think they could at least get the color right.

As with the HG Force Impulse before it, the joints are very solid and hold poses well even under the weight of a hefty backpack. The one ongoing issue, though, is that the three-part split body structure makes the waist connection weak, so it keeps popping apart. Pick up the upper body to move it and the lower half just drops right off;; Other than that, the articulation is good and the proportions are nice, so it cuts quite an impressive figure.

When the Impulse design was first revealed, there was a wave of disappointment... but the actual kit turned out sharper-looking than the design suggested, and just like with the Strike back in the day, the Sword Impulse in particular has a really great feel to it. The HG Sword Impulse is a solid kit, but the amount of partial painting required is a bit much... so if you're a snap-fit-only builder, you'd probably be better off going for the 1/100 Sword Impulse, which has much more complete color separation ^^

HG Sword Impulse Gundam | 2005. 2 | ¥1,500

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.