GNY-004 Gundam Plutone
So I stopped half-way through my photo shoot to read all of Gundam 00F since I pulled it off the shelf. I didn’t even mean to; I was just thumbing through looking for good poses for the Plutone, and I ended up reading it all. I forgot how much I like Fon Spaak. A seemingly insane criminal who also happens to be possibly the smartest person on Earth? That’s a fun character idea.
The Good: This is definitely an odd beast. The general parts-layout and polycap use feels like it’s trying to emulate the older 00 kits, but then there’s a bunch of modern parts layering and color separation. Considering how long it’s been since a new HG00 kit was released, and despite the attempts to copy the older kits, this definitely looks newer. And that makes sense, as technology has improved. That does mean it looks a little strange next to the older kits because it has a ton more surface detail.
It has good posability. Those attempts to make this more like the older style impacts the ankles a bit, and the shoulders are a little blocky, but everything else is good. The shield can rotate 180°, all the rubber parts are fairly thick and stay in place, and it has a detachable Core Fighter that utilizes its chest cockpit and GN Drive.
The Bad: It does have those minor posability issues, and the slight discrepancy between kits, but if you pick up a few spare decals it should look great next to an RG. All my longer Beam Saber blades were crazy bent out of the box, but that’s probably just a personal issue.
Honestly, the biggest issue with this kit is it’s P-Bandai. While the kit wasn’t that much more expensive than a normal kit, going through import shipping and middle men brought it up to around $70, which is not something a lot of people are going to pay.
The Details: While most of the panel lining was typical black, those areas near the GN Drive and GN Field ports are done in metallic green. I did a ton of black fill on this kit, from all over the legs, inside the shoulders, in the chest, and the separation between the collar and the shoulder spikes. Any black you see was hand painted. There are a few tiny drops of yellow and red here and there, the most prominent of which being the red on the horns and shield.
Overall, this is a good kit. I’m a big fan of the Plutone’s design, and am very happy with the final product. However, it is P-Bandai and might cost a bit extra because of it, so only go for it if you have an attachment to 00′s side stories.
