The Real Grade Flaws Finally Manifest

02 Nov 2024 - Clint Fandango

Tags: Bandai Gundam Gunpla RG Unicorn_Gundam Gold_Plated

I got way too used to how smooth this model was going. I couldn’t believe it, a Real Grade model that didn’t want to fall apart if you looked at it wrong? Where the pieces actually stayed together?!

Alas, the dream is over. The Real Grade just couldn’t hold out any longer and finally revealed its weaknesses.

If there was any portion of the model where I thought I’d encounter any major issues, it was going to be the waist. After I completed it without too much trouble, I thought I was home free.

I started on the torso (or Chest Unit, as Bandai calls it) for the Unicorn Gundam, which also includes the internal frame pieces for both arms.

I completed the first arm without incident and I was humming happily along and listening to something from Bach on KUSC when it finally happened: the other arm had an issue with two of the pieces staying together.

Those two pieces you see in the picture, G6 & G7, would not stay together. At first I thought that maybe I’d left some excess sprue material on one or both, or on the piece they connect through, but I disassembled everything and didn’t see anything after inspecting them.

I decided to put those two pieces together on their own to see how they’d fit without the other pieces, but right after squeezing them together, they began pushing each other apart.

At last, the model couldn’t take it any longer and finally admitted it was a true Real Grade after all.

I shook my head, but any disappointment I may have felt immediately faded away as Howard Shore’s Concerning Hobbits came on the radio. It’s always a pleasant surprise when the classical station plays something from a movie score, and KUSC these days is especially fond of Howard Shore’s The Lord of the Rings music. I’m not complaining.

It was quickly followed-up by Holst’s Mercury, The Winged Messenger, and I was in a great mood as I pressed on, hoping that the arm piece was the only flaw in what up to this point had been an exceptional model building experience.

Luckily, all the other pieces fit together fine and stayed together, but the moment I tried to manipulate that one arm, the affected piece fell out.

The rest of the torso went by without incident as KUSC played it’s “Saturday Morning Cartoons” program. This episode focused on the pipe organ and its versatility across all genres of music. It’s fantastic at establishing ominous moods, but just as easily occupies the opposite end of the spectrum as playful music at amusement parks and in cartoons. And of course, who can forget its inextricable link to baseball.

As I was wrapping up for the day, I attached the torso to the rest of the body and discovered that the Real Grade wasn’t finished coming into its own.

I was trying to get it to stand straight and get its picture taken, but I just could not get the waist piece to appear straight. It was tilted to the side. I made some minor adjustments to the legs and one of the gold pieces fell off.

I was putting that back on and straightening everything out when one of the skirt pieces on the waist fell off. It took forever to get that back on without anything else falling off, and now the model was even more off kilter than it was when I started.

After 10 minutes into something that should’ve taken a few seconds, I got it into good enough shape, snapped the pics, and quickly put it back in its box.

It’s safe to say the seal has been broken on this one. I was walking on cloud nine, but I quickly fell back down to earth and realized that no matter what, a Real Grade is gonna Real Grade.

It’s a shame because I was always looking forward to my next session, but after today I’m wondering what other issues are going to arise and what compromises I’ll need to make with it when it’s finally completed.

I’ve all but given up on getting nice action poses with Real Grades and I don’t even buy stands for them anymore – it’s not worth the trouble, especially as pieces continually fall off as you try to move joints to get it to look just right. You kind of just get it to standup straight and maybe hold a weapon without it falling out of the hand and call it a success.

I had high hopes for this one, and maybe it will prove that its issues are minor, but I’m not holding out any great hopes.

RG Unicorn Gundam (Gundam Base Gold Plated)