Perfect Grade 00 Raiser Impressions

The most expensive Perfect Grade yet, weighing in at a a monster 26,000 Yen has finally arrived.

In one of the most suprising moves of the year, Bandai announced this kit sometime in late June, with the November release date.  Cashing in on the 00 franchise while it’s hot I’m guessing?

Anyway, the first edition of the 00 Raiser comes with a 2 way stand which you can display either just the 00 Raiser, or the 00 Gundam and 0 Raiser seperately.  There was also a special clear parts promotion running, it was to JP addresses only, and you had to go through a proxy service to acquire them.   I passed since it was an extra 5,000 yen, and apparently some of the armours cannot be easily switched out after the model is built, so what’s the point?

The 00 Gundam comes with a few gimmicks, namely the GN drives which glow and spin around.   You might want to note that the GN drives come pre-assembled and as of writing I’m not sure whether they can be taken apart for painting.

As for the actual 00 Gundam itself, the details seem rather lackluster and plain compared to previous PG’s like the Strike.  The internal frame is minimal and doesn’t have the detail which previous PG’s as well.

The 0 Raiser on the other hand, comes with alot of panel lines, which begs the question, why doesn’t the 00 Gundam itself come with more?  The 0 Raiser comes with several weapon attachments like missiles etc which were never used in the anime.

There are some new innovations in what seems like a locking mechanism for the joints, where you can lock/unlock the joint by pressing in the kneecap area where the GN condensors are.  The locking mechanism is quite strong and is shown to be able to hold up a bottle of water.

One of the concerns that some people had before the kit came out was whether the kit could do the ‘full burst’ pose, especially with the wing binders.  The wings binders connect to a circular groove around the GN drives and can rotate around.  I’m not sure how strong these pegs are but I wouldn’t fiddle around with it too much as they look likely to break if you play around too much with them.

In terms of posing, the kit is pretty much standard PG fare (not counting the Astray) and is capable of doing full flexing for both the legs and arms, though the armour parts on the arm does restrict the arm from being all the way.

As for weapons, you get the 2 GN Sword II’s, a GN Sword III and 2 beam sabers, as well as several clear pink saber parts for Raiser Sword etc.

Okay, so what’s the verdict?  Well, for me, Perfect Grades have always been as much about the internals of the kit as well as the outside.  The MkII, GPO1/fb and Strike are great examples of what I think a good Perfect Grade kit are, with extremely detailed internal frames and hatch parts which open up.  Chances are you won’t be opening up these parts, but at least you feel like you are getting your money’s worth.

The PG 00 Raiser doesn’t have this, and it’s kinda disappointing not to even see any pistons in the ankle joints or even a moving kneecap like MG’s have.  There’s not even that many panel lines or surface details.  What’s even more disappointing is the massive price tag.  At 26,000Y, the PG 00 Raiser is the most expensive PG kit so far, yet I feel you get more value out of the 20,000Y PG GP01/fb.  You don’t even get a stand for that price, unless you got the first edition of the kit, which really brings you to wonder what exactly are you paying for.

That’s not to say the kit doesn’t look good.  It’s very grand.  But in my opinion, Bandai have really rushed to push this kit out quickly, and have skimped out on some of the things that have been a staple of the PG series.  You’re essentially paying premium price for gimmicks like the GN drives.   The stand should be a standard inclusion with the kit, and unless you managed to get the first edition, I feel like the 26,000Y is way too expensive for what you’re getting.

Pros

• New technology such as the glowing / spinning GN Drive, and locking mechanisms for arms and legs
• 0 Raiser is well detailed and has plenty of attachments
• Plenty of weapons for the 00 Gundam

Cons

• 00 Gundam is underdetailed
• Wing binder connections look flimsy and easy to break
• Expensive
• Stand isn’t included after the first edition
• Armour parts are apparently not easy to swap out for the clear parts

Images taken from Dalong.net . Full comprehensive review available at his website. Completed PG 00 Raiser picture taken from  Gunpla Policy of Asayume.