By Christopher Troy
Running a little late, what with the Iron Man 2 release and Mother’s Day (don’t even ask me about my progress in Final Fantasy 13) , but here’s the 2nd installment of the 00 Gunpla series, which I know all 5 of you still reading this are excited about.
Today’s article is about the GN-000 OO Gundam, which is piloted by Sestsuna F. Seiei in the 2nd season of the Gundam OO series. SEED aside, I generally stay away from building the lead character Gundam (I tend to find side character/villains mecha designs more interesting, at least in the case of Gundam, but I much prefer this Gundam to the Exia from the first season. Chalk it up to the huge, Airman-esque shoulder pads.
What, I can’t be the only one who sees this? Sigh, moving along….
This is the completed OO Gundam on the 1/144th scale. Much like the Cherudim from a few weeks before, it’s fairly top heavy in design, especially given the Twin Drive System on it’s shoulders (aka the Twim Airman System in my opinion). However, unlike the Dynames, the OO Gundam is extremely well made and surprisingly sturdy. This is nice, given the fact that I like to display my Gundam around my apartment, and don’t have to worry about them tipping over when cleaning/walking/ tossing controllers after losing 5 straight fight online in Super Street Fighter 4.
Do you see it now? No? Maybe I’m thinking of the wrong Mega Man boss. Fair enough. Anywho, this is a better the Twin Engine Drive, which can moved to face the front of the Gundam OO. While this feature isn’t exactly the most exciting thing in the world when it comes to Gunpla, I do want to point out that moving the shoulder pads is super easy, versus the near impossible job of doing such action with the Dynames. I also appreciate the fact that they don’t pop out of their respected pegs when moved, something I’ve had problems with said Dynames, as well as a few other kits in the past.
Above is a picture of the pair of transforming weapons that come with the Gundam OO. The GN Sword II.For those unfamiliar with Gundam OO , Setsuna’s Gundams are both heavily focused on hand to hand combat, meaning you won’t find it armed with various guns and rifles like you would with the Gundams that Lockon pilot. In the photo above, the weapons are shown in their sword mode.
Action photo! Also worth nothing is that the OO Gundam comes with a pair of opened hands, used for such poses. However, what the kit lacks is a pair of hands that can gripe weapons properly. The weapon tends to slip out of the Gundam OO’s hand a bit, which is annoying as hell, and requires some trickery in the angles to hold it properly.
This in the weapon in it’s GM Beam Saber mode. It’s ridiculously easy to get said weapons into that mode, only requiring a flip of the hilt and a turning of the blade. It isn’t any easier to hold the weapon, which is a shame, but hey, at least it’s a cool feature.
Despite the weapon holding flaw, the Gundam OO is a great kit on the 1/144th scale. It’s simple enough to assemble, and cool to pose. I recommend it for starters, although experience Gunpla builders may find it boring to construct (Which is why perfect and master grade kits exist.)
I still stand by my Airman comment by the way.
