1/144 HG GN-002 Gundam Dynames

It used to be that you couldn’t have a nice little Gunpla collection on a budget. While it’s true that a perfect grade costs half of an average car payment, the lesser expensive kits have become far more impressive over the years. While I still consider the 1/144 no grade and 1/200 first grade kits to be toys more than static display pieces, I now have an entire shelf of 1/144 high grade kits. These little HGs are very impressive when you consider the size of the mobile suit and small price.

This is the 1/144 GN-002 Gundam Dynames from the Gundam 00 series. This little kit has but 3 full color parts trees, a soft rubber tree for the flexible shoulder GN strips, and a tree of the usual poly caps. The construction is as you would expect. The instructions, while all Japanese, are easy to follow. The normal module construction is utilized. The quality of the plastic is what you would expect from any Bandai kit below a Master Grade. There is some minor swirling in the color of the larger flat pieces, such as the armor plates on the shoulders, but it isn’t bad. To obtain the detail that places this kit on par with the 1/100 No Grade and High Grade kits some of the parts are very small. Fortunately, this kit relies on plastic molding color rather than stickers for most of the details. This allows for a much better end result than even some of the No Grade 1/100 kits that I have assembled.

I assembled this just calling out the panel lines and details with a fine black and fine grey Gundam Marker. I used the black on all color parts and the grey on all the white parts. The assembly was easy and didn’t take more than an hour or so. This kit is a great way to get started in the hobby or an inexpensive way to add to your collection.

Over all, for the value and finished product I don’t have any real issues with this kit. The small things that caught my attention escaped harsh criticism solely due to it being a 1/144 HG kit. If some of the same eccentricities were found on a Master Grade I would have an entire paragraph of fit and finish or detail issues, but this is not a Master Grade. In fact this kit was less than 1/3 the price of the average Master Grade. It is ¾ the size and ½ as impressive. All this adds up to being an excellent value. These newer HG kits have opened my collection to a much lower priced segment. These are welcome in my collection any time.