Rg Gundam Shining 1/144

let me start this off by saying this is the best iteration of the shining gundam avalable from bandai, it is all you could want. but there are a few small issues i have with it. although they are nitpicks, they are worth noting. A) the leg thrusters can be hard to put together, i had to spend a solid 10 minuetes figuring it out personally, and i had to even cut a bit off the piece to make it fit, B) The shoulder guns are very annoying to put together with the chest plate and back plate. and C is the fact that if you dont push the headcannons really really hard into the head, you will not be able to fully close the faceplate, this is something i didnt know before building this and now if i want to fix it i have to pull it apart to do so. But overall this kit is awesome outside of these nitpicks! the articulation is second to none like the corresponding god gundam. And it looks great!

"This hand of mine glows with an awesome power! Its burning grip tells me to defeat you! Here I go! Shining Finger!" - Domon Kasshu

The Shining Gundam is the original protagonist suit of the Mobile Fighter G Gundam anime, known for having the most romantic and badass theme song 'Shining Finger'. In the most 'out-there' show in the franchise, the Gundams are all stereotypical representations of their home countries, such as the Neo Danish Mermaid, the Neo Dutch Windmill Gundam and the fan favorite Neo Mexico 'Tequila Gundam'.
True to form, Neo Japan's Shining Gundam is a 'kabuto' helmet wearing samurai with the classic 'daisho' katana and wakizashi, though it's mainly a hand-to-hand martial arts mobile suit, mimicking Domon Kasshu, its pilot's movements directly, rather than being controlled with a normal cockpit.

Aesthetics:
Overall the RG is a little lankier and taller than the HG/MG and anime proportions, with a lot more color separation, though keeping the shades of blue and red the same, this time with actual gold plastic inside the shoulders, forearms and calves, rather than yellow plastic or gold stickers. Everything is in crisp RG detail, as expected. The metal injection gold seems a lot nicer than usual, which is a great thing.
The usual RG sticker with foil stickers sheet is included. A fun extra is the 'G Gundam' logo sticker which fits onto one of the beam sabers, to mimic the anime intro.

Mechanics:
No parts-swapping needed, the super-mode 'transformation' is on the fly and even the head transforms, though the opening mask does have a significant seam line down the middle of the face. Unlike a few other recent RG kits, it does have an opening cockpit, which is nice. The articulation is on par with the RG God Gundam, so it's superb (and also reuses the shoulders/arms from it and also the same pre-molded parts, unfortunately). Put simply, like the God Gundam, it's a 1/144 scale kung-fu posing gunpla, featuring a core lander.

Equipment:
1 Transforming Core Lander (very simple but nice)
2 beam saber hilts, one short and one long
2 straight beam saber effects, one short and one long (not curved like katana)
11 hands, mostly the same as the God Gundam, in various kung-fu poses as well as holding hands.
Most notably is not what's included, but what's missing - There's only one 'shining finger' right hand which isn't transparent, but is the same as the God Gundam's orange pearlescent plastic, just in green instead. There's no 'mega hand' and there's no green energy sword either, so it's worth considering getting the 2011 HG version that has these parts. Disappointing.

Conclusion:
I appreciate that Bandai made a nostalgic callback to Domon Kasshu's first mobile suit, when the successor 'God Gundam' completely outshines it and they could've left it at that. It is surprising, however, that they did not make an RG Master Gundam, which is one of the franchise's most memorable antagonist mobile suits.
It's always been Domon Kasshu himself, the pilot and protagonist, who steals the show with his passionately delivered lines, that put him on the same sort of level as DBZ's Goku, while the Shining Gundam was always just an extension of him - Literally.
As a product, there's not much I can fault. It's a little finicky to assemble with very small parts, the pre-molded shoulder joints are still awkward, the lander fins are a little loose and while there are a ton of hand options, it's missing the most important parts, which is really sad considering this thing doesn't have any sort of real weaponry outside of its swords, and even then it's missing its most powerful weapon, for an already bare-bones equipment pool.

Since the model re-uses a runner from the God Gundam (for hands mostly), there are a lot of spare parts.

The build experience is phenomenal, I loved every second of building this kit. The thigh thrusters were a bit finicky but the end result speaks for itself.