For a certain generation of Cartoon Network fans growing up in the 2000s, Gundam Wing was a hugely influential show and can easily be said to have spawned innumerable anime fandoms. Originally airing in Japan in 1995, Cartoon Network brought the show stateside five years later, and for a time, it was the most readily available Gundam property in the States.
One of the Gundam franchise’s ‘alternate universes’, Wing is a self-contained story taking place outside of the ‘mainline’ Universal Century timeline, which began with 1979’s Mobile Suit Gundam. That meant that Wing received a whole new slew of mobile suit designs from mecha designers Hajime Katoi and Junya Ishigaki, who produced six distinctive, singular Gundams and a handful of mass-produced units that stood as cannon fodder before them.
The Wing Gundam Zero, ostensibly the ‘main character’ suit, was piloted by ostensible main character and noted sociopath Heero Yuy. Alongside gimmicky suits like Deathsycthe and Heavyarms, Wing Gundam Zero is “the one that could fly”.
Absolutely none of this is essential knowledge before picking up the new Real Grade model kit from Bandai; one of the joys of building Gunpla is that you can pick kits off vibes alone. If the Wing Gundam Zero looks cool enough, then you should by all means build it.
Real Grade kits are designed to be as “real” as a 1/144 scale model of a Gundam can be, details-wise. They vastly outstrip their similarly sized compatriots, the High Grade line of models, in terms of the number of parts and flashy design elements. That means they’ll take longer to build – a boon for those looking to maximize their hobby time, a curse for those looking to bust out a cool robot action figure as fast as possible.
Opening the box, you’re confronted with four bags of plastic, a total of 12 runners of parts. That’s three times the amount you’d find in your standard Gunpla kit of this scale, and looking over the sheer amount of parts, you’ll instantly see a handful that seem so tragically small you might wince at the thought of losing them mid-build.
Like most Bandai kits, you’ll need a pair of nippers to clip the parts from their runners, but the kits are designed to be glue-free; due to the excellent color-separation (the use of multi-colored plastic to ensure anime-accurate color schemes), you can completely forgo painting the kit. Additional tools – files, sandpaper, special ‘panel line’ products to make the details pop – are completely optional depending on the level of obsessive perfectionism you might suffer from.
You build the kit from the ground up (literally, the instructions start you with the feet), building an elaborate inner frame for each piece before layering on detailed plates of the outer armor. Bandai’s engineering miracles are on full display here, and every piece fits perfectly together with its companions. It’s intricate work, and those small pieces are sometimes maddening, but the end result is undeniable. There’s a heft to the finished kit, a feeling of fine construction, and it leaves the builder feeling rightly accomplished.
The wing backpack does weigh nearly as much as the rest of the kit, so you’ll need a stand to appreciate any of the more fantastic poses the kit can achieve with its incredible articulation; it’s a shame, but par for the course for a Mobile Suit meant to fly. The posability is second to none on the market, whether it’s a model kit or an action figure; its gimmicks are numerous, from hidden beam sabers to an opening cockpit.
The most recent of the Real Grades, the kit suffers none of the problems that faced the line in its infancy, fifteen years ago. This is the most detailed, intricate, and gimmick-packed a model kit of this scale can be, and it looks flawless as soon as it’s snapped together. The price of a couple of the most recent Marvel Legends from Hasbro, the exceptional end result feels like twice the product as that august action figure brand. The experience of building alone feels like a steal, let alone the work of beauty that is the kit’s end result.
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