Bandai Hobby #05 Freedom Gundam 1/144 Real Grade

Bandai's 1/144 RG Freedom Gundam is an excellent kit. It's definitely one of the better and more impressive looking Real Grades I have assembled. Like all RG kits, it possesses an incredible level of detail, more so than the HG and MG, while maintaining a level of articulation that rivals Master Grade. With the wing binders fully deployed and mounted in an action base, this kit has presence.There a couple spots of looseness; the smaller blue wing parts can get loose over time and not stay in place, and the arms can loosen resulting in drooping gun poses.The beam saber blades that it comes with it are rather large as they are the 1/100 scale blades that normally come with Master Grades and when used do end up looking a bit ridiculously long, especially with the combined saber.Getting it into HiMAT mode is not difficult, but posing the upper cannons is tricky as they contact the head's v-fin often. Still it is doable.It comes with the beam rifle, shield, two beam sabers and blades, pair of RG hands, a pair of closed fists, trigger hand for rifle and an open left hand(supposedly to grab the RG Justice Gundam's hand). I would HIGHLY recommend getting an action base as this a very back heavy kit and it only looks natural up in the air.

For those Gundam Seed Saga Lovers, this is the perfect "toy" for you. The detail level is incredible, every tiny piece does not make any sense until you assemble it with other parts of the gundam. I took 2 days to finish assembling the skeleton and exterior details (the armor and wings), you have to be extra careful when extracting the pieces from the box, while some of then are easy, other are simple impossible with bare hands, so a tweezers is highly recommended.PROs- It's a GUNDAM- It's fun to assemble- Detail Level is almost perfect- The material is good, it looks like a hardened plasticCONs- It does not provide the base stand, so you need to find it elsewhere- The decals are so hard to place, you need to use extra glue and have a really high precision with your hands in order to place them "correctly"- The weight of the weapons may affect the pose, you need to distribute the weight correctly if you want to use the gundam in a "stand up position" (I don't have the stand base).- Wings Assembly is far from good. Even if you can assemble the wings and keep them in a cool position, even a soft hit or just by simple folding the wing it may break and you have to reassemble the wing pack again. So be careful.

This was actually my first real grade model, but I found it to be not that complicated. The detail on the Gundam is amazing. The stickers are a bit tedious, but that is definitely not a problem. I think it took me around 10 hours to build and add some of the stickers, but I still haven't finished adding the stickers. The end result is amazing. I would recommend getting a stand for this as it's pretty back heavy, but I just set it against the wall of my desk. It looks amazing if you open up all of the wings. It definitely was worth every penny and made a great addition to my desk. I get compliments all of the time on how cool it looks. I would highly recommend this.

RG Freedom is a fun build. The kit is very detailed and very poseable while having more fragile parts than other grades, as expected of the RG lines. While the kit is good, there isn't a whole lot that makes it stand out from other RGs. If you just love the Freedom, you might as well either get a MG or HG version.The only real problem I have with the kit is the backpack. The individual parts are somewhat loose and sometimes come off while adjusting. This makes changing wing configurations a bit tricky and the kit may look a bit strange in full burst mode.

The Freedom Gundam is one of, if not my favorite Gundam so I wanted a kit that looked cool and this was the one. besides having some features not even the master grade has, like the wing split, and what not even the 1/60 scale had, it was one of the best purchases that I have ever made. The very first Gundam model I purchased was the High Grade, 1/144 scale Freedom Gundam and fell in love with it. Comparing this real grade to the high grade however, there is no competition. It comes with two beam sabers, a rifle, a shield, and different hands. One of the greatest things about the real grade line is the Master Grade type frame that goes into the real grade. It has a lot of articulation, looks awesome with no panel lining, using a marker to line the various little crevices of the model to make it pop more, or painting, and it looks incredible overall. If you want to get a kit but don't know if it is the right one for you, youtube has some good reviews on models to help you make your choice. A few notes: you need a specific action base to attach the Freedom onto; This is a model kit, not a toy so if it falls, it will probably shatter into a million pieces.

I am fairly new to Gunpla and plastic model kits, have just gotten into it about two months ago. Since then I have built 5 kits ranging from Custom HG (Almost non-grade really), to Master Grade equivalent Kotobukiya Armored Core Alicia Fine Scale Model Kit (White Pearl Version)with this kit being my first Real Grade Gunpla. I was quite impressed with the articulation of the frame and the detail involved.The dry transfer decals have been fun, if a little taxing when you can't seem to place it just right. This has been the case especially when decals are square or rectangular shaped and must be applied to areas that are curved, areas that are smaller than the decal (like where the feet bend for example), or are applied over panel lines (I use a hobby knife to remove any excess decal that does not have the design on it along the panel line itself).Fun kit to put together and with more detail than a Master Grade version,I definitely recommend picking this up. I will be getting to the other RGs that have been released once I get through my queue of 9 other kits I have waiting.