The 'Guncannon' is one of the three Earth Federation Forces mobile suits that were rolled out in order to overwhelm the Zeon mobile suits, the other two being the Guntank and the RX-78-2 Gundam (the original and first of all Gundams).
Piloted by a recruited delinquent Kai Shiden, it proved to be an excellent support unit (the pilot's skills not withstanding) that could overwhelm the enemy with raw amounts of both indirect and direct firepower via its cannons, grenades and beam rifle.
Its ease of use may be its most powerful asset.
Aesthetics:
This solid red looking model kit comes in Red, Grey, Yellow and bluish (pale minty) white, along with a green transparent visor and clear transparent gun lens. Some blue for the jet.
The design is anime accurate and quite bulky, as appropriate for the show it's based on (that being the original Gundam show from 1979).
There are notch marks and large seams (which hide seam lines) for painting or panel lining in black and the internal skeleton is richly detailed. Its exterior belies its clever use of showing the inner frame, such as the pop-up internal knee shields.
The kit comes with one sheet of sticker decals and one sheet of dry transfers, numbers mostly.
Mechanics:
This is a 1.0 Master Grade kit, so it has ball-in-socket joints for the hips, but there are no screws despite being as old and older than some screw kits. That being said, it is littered with polycaps everywhere.
The articulation is somewhat rudementary, but there are moving shoulder and knee panels, but everything that should move, does, including all side skirts, the hatch, the head that moves on a ball joint which is connected to a tilting plate and the shoulder guns move up and down.
Two hatches, one on each calf on the side, open up to reveal grenades.
The main feature of the kit is the core block system also known from its two brother mobile suits.
There is a solid core block with molded details (ripe for painting) and also a core fighter jet which transforms into a block that replaces the solid version.
The jet has internal mechanics to fold the rear fin as the front folds.
The upper half of the model detaches and reveals the core block (the hatch also opens to reveal the cockpit). The core block is then replaceable with the core jet fighter in its block mode.
Ideally you use the static block internally and display the jet on the side with its landing gear attached.
Gear:
The kit comes with:
1 Beam Rifle (the lens swings down)
2 Artillery Cannons
2 Spray Missile launchers (not shown, but they're white missile pods that replace the cannons)
2 pairs of hands, one pair that has an articulated thumb, a turning index finger and the three remaining fingers are one piece that also turn. The other pair are flat palms for the model to lie down on its stomach to fire the cannons from a lying position.
2 grenades
1 solid core block
1 transformable core jet fighter with detachable landing gear
1 standing pilot figure (one in the jet and one in the static core)
Conclusion:
For an early MG kit, it is satisfying to build. The fact that it doesn't come with screws is a relief.
While the "kitchen plastic" red looks cheap, it can be polished up or sprayed in a matte coat, but in all honesty, this kit shines the best when its armor plates are stripped (though the torso relies mostly on them attached), as there's a ton of details hidden underneath.
The design is timeless. It looks like a retro robot, especially with its 'cap' on the forehead, twin antennas and clunky feet and there is nothing overtly that gives it away, from when it was made, apart from maybe the clunky hands.
This is an excellent kit for weathering and some battle damage, for a diorama.
I should note that one thing that is typical for its time, is that it's not undergated. There are a lot of red nubs that need to be cleaned well and the ones on the shins that are in a concave shape are not easily cleaned with a file, so sand paper is needed to deal properly with it.
There are newer kits that do their job worse than this one and while the articulation is nothing to write home about, it does its job well enough.
I'd go so far as to say that this is a classic model kit and well worth the comparatively cheap price of an MG.
