G Generation-0 Super Deformed No.202: Gundam RX-78 GP02A "Physalis" Unboxing & Review

Big shield. Big Bazooka. Big thrusters. Big Gundam. (Well, big SD Gundam..) Be afraid.

Review time! This time, it' for SD Gundam Physalis from Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory. Although I haven't watched the Stardust Memory movie, I do remember Gundam Physalis from Gundam Battle Assault 2. It's one of the coolest Gundams I've ever seen. However, it's not one of the Mobile Suits that I'd regularly use in that game...

But we're not here to talk about the game, we're here for the kit! So jump past the break to check the full details on SD Gundam Physalis' unboxing and review.


I. Unboxing

A. Box

Front Cover

First, let's check the box. The front cover displays a CGI of Gundam Physalis. The box is relatively bigger than an average G Generation SD kit. In fact, it's almost as large as a typical High Grade kit's box. The Mobile Suit's name is placed on the left side so that there's more space for Gundam Physalis' picture. The G Generation-0 logo is placed just below Gundam Physalis. The Bandai logo placed on the bottom right side.

This kit was made in the year 2000. 12 years old.

Check the bottom left side of the front cover, we'll see when this Gundam is manufactured. It's pretty old. We'll check the top and bottom covers next.

Top Cover

A few screenshots of Gundam Physalis in "Stardust Memory".

This was sold for ¥800 in Japan.

Since, like a typical HG kit box, the width of the box is longer than it's height, information about the kit is placed at the top and bottom covers. The top cover gives you a some sample screenshots of the GP02A  from the Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory. Next to it, there's a picture of the Master Grade kit, a 1/100 scale model of Gundam Physalis, just in case you'd be interested in that. Then, more Japanese stuff that I can't read, unfortunately.

Bottom Cover

Sample pictures of the kit's front view, "action" pose, and rear view.

Sample pictures of the kit's weapons/accessories and "shooting pose".

The bottom cover gives you sample pictures of the model kit and its accessories after assembly and painting. Looks awesome!

Left Side Cover

Both side covers look similar with one another and just displays again the CGI printed on the front cover. The kit is priced at ₱450 here. The shop forgot to stick the price tag on the box, though. And since both side covers are identical, I'm not going to post the other side since its going to be redundant.

The bottom half of the box is just plain cardboard. So, enough with the box. Let's open it and see the contents!

B. Contents

The runners are contained inside 2 plastic bags.

Runner C doesn't seem to have a plastic bag.

All of the runners and the seals are placed inside 2 plastic bags. What I found strange is that Runner C is not placed inside a plastic bag. Why is that? Well, anyway, let's take those out, open the plastic bags, and count the runners.

Runner A1: 14 Parts

Runner A2: 19 Parts

Runner B1: 19 Parts

Runner B2: 4 Parts

Runner C: 16 Parts

5 runners available, 72 parts in total. There's actually another runner for the the polycap joints.
 

Runner PC-111: 34 Parts

Including the PC-111 polycap parts, there will be 6 available runners and 106 parts in total. Although, not all parts in PC-111 will be used during assembly.

Seals

Of course, there are seals. There's only one pad of seals to decorate your kit with. After taking the runners out of the box, we'll see the Construction Manual at the bottom. Here are pictures for those who are interested to see it.
 

Construction Manual Front Cover

Construction Manual Back Cover

Construction Manual Painting Guide

Construction Manual "Documentary Photograph"

Construction Manual Runner Count & Page 1

Construction Manual Page 2 & 3

Construction Manual Page 4

II. Assembly

Parts are now separated from the runners.

After seperating the parts from the runners and cleaning the nub marks the best that I can, (I still suck, by the way.) time to assemble the kit!

Here's the V and crown-thingy on Physalis' head.

GUNDAM GP02A PIKACHU!... Sorry. Irrelevant. Looks cool, though.

Here's the rest of the head.

Connect the 2 parts...

Here are the arms.

Connect the shoulder pads...

Here are the feet...

Torso and skirt armor...

The thrusters on it's shoulders...

Connect the shoulder thrusters to the rest of its parts.

Almost half of the parts from PC-111 are not used.

Don't forget the accessories!

Done! Now, connect all the parts together.. Then on to the actual review!


III. Review

A. Basic Profile
 
Before we go to articulation and check the unique features of the kit, I bet you'd like to check some basic profile pictures of the kit first! Let's take a look, then.

Front View

Rear View

Side View

Height Measurement

Then, some sample dynamic poses! (The best that I can do with an SD kit. Without an Action Base. Yay. Hold on to your seats. *Sigh*)

GP02A wants to get close and personal with you using its Beam Saber.

You go... KABOOM!

B. Articulation, Detail & Gimmicks

Now, let's take a closer look at the SD kit itself, while checking articulation and the kit's gimmicks as well. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves and just type in some captions here and there. I was planning on converting the pictures into animated GIFs but, unfortunately, Google Drive doesn't give unlimited space to animated GIFs.. Bummer. But I guess it's ok, since it also shrinks the picture, taking away some of the detail. So, let's stick with good ol' static pictures. Yay!

Due to the bazooka part attached to the back of its right shoulder, SD Gundam Physalis tilts slightly to its right.

Let's take a closer look at it's head. It has a unique design when compared to others with "generic" Gundam faces.

The head can rotate 360°. "Hello, backpack!"

The head can tilt VERY slightly upward...

...and down. BARELY noticable.

Feet can only go sideways. Using its left foot as reference, it can go this far to its left...

Then this far inwards.

The bottom of the feet are detailed as well, just in case you'd like to display this mounted on an Action Base. Neat!

Now, to the more articulated parts of the kit, the arms. Of course, it can rotate from the shoulder at 360°. But you'll have a hard time rotating it due to the thrusters attached to the shoulder pads. Let's remove that for a moment.

The arm (from the shoulders) can move this far forward...

This far backwards...

This far upwards...

And this far downward.

Now, the arms' articulation from the shoulder pads. Very limited, mind you.

It can go this far outwards...

Then this far forward. Again, barely noticable.

The wrist doesn't rotate. However...

You can tilt it slightly downward. This is specifically made so that it can hold the bazooka properly.

You can also tilt the bazooka part's holder at the back of Physalis' right shoulder. But only upward and downward.

Slowly move it upward...

Done. Then, attach the other half of the bazooka... But we'll get to that later.

The actual bazooka, however, can rotate 360°from where it's attached.

Moving forward to the most articulated part of the kit, its shoulder thruster thingamajig. It's attached to the shoulder pad via pegs and it can rotate 360° from there.

Let's move it towards the camera...

Continue to move it upward...

Continue to move it downward until you reach its initial position. 360°!

The left shoulder thrusters on my kit are somewhat loose.. So let's switch shoulders. You can tilt the thrusters upward. You can also tilt towards yourself after tilting it upward.

It can go this far using just one of the pegs. It has double pegs, by the way.

Looking at the back side, there's a seperate outside thruster.

Attached to a peg, you can also rotate it up to 360° from where it's attached.

Looking at the bottom part of the shoulder thrusters, you'll notice that there is a hidden thruster in there.

This is actually the gimmick of the kit. Now, using the thruster at the bottom...

...you can tilt them both...

...this far.

And, look. The hidden thruster is tilted as well! Neat!

C. Accessories

Accessories makes the kit look cooler! This kit has 3 accessories. A giant bazooka, a giant shield (a REALLY giant shield) and a... not so giant beam saber, just in case its bazooka runs out of ammo. Ha!

First, the shield! The GIANT SHIELD! It actually has a sort of gimmick, as well.

This is where the other half of the bazooka is stored. Let's remove that for a moment.. (It's hard to remove, by the way.)

Done! Then, all you have to do is...

...close it back down.

Getting back to that bazooka, let's attach it to the other half that's attached to Gundam Physalis' back.

Looking at the bottom part, we can see how it's attached to the peg at the back of Gundam Physalis' right shoulder.

This is how the complete bazooka attaches. Notice how wrists tilt to make it look like it's holding the bazooka, when it's placed on top of the wrist.

Now, for the Beam Saber, we need to get it from its hip.

Here's the Beam Saber and its blade. They don't give you a clear piece for the blade, unfortunately.

Then, this is what it looks like when connected together. Note that you have to insert the Beam Saber first to the kit's wrist from the bottom before connecting the actual blade in order for you to get Gundam Physalis to hold this.

IV. Final Thoughts

SD Gundam Physalis is one of the coolest SDs that I've bought! The first Gundam with cool gimmicks that I've bought is my SD Wing Gundam Zero. And although I don't think the gimmicks and the quality of this SD kit is superior to my SD Wing Gundam Zero from before, that doesn't mean that this is crap. The shoulder thrusters are definitely the most interesting part of the kit. Although the kit's overall articulation is pretty much standard compared to other average SD kits from it's time (and even today), You can place it in more dynamic poses due to the great articulation of the shoulder thruster thingamajigs. However, since the bottom part of the bazooka is attached to SD Gundam Physalis' right shoulder, positioning of the weapon is very limited. There are other things that make the kit very interesting as well. I love the Gundam's unique, bulky and tank-like mecha design, and other subtle details like being able to store the other half of the bazooka at the back of the shield.

No doubt about it. This kit is great! Especially when you think about how cheap this kit is.

SD Gundam Physalis doesn't need to do a dynamic pose! It'll let its weapons do the talking.

Thank you for reading another one of my Gunpla reviews! There will be more in the future, so stay tuned! That took me longer than I thought.. Whew!
...and I'll see you in the next post!