1/144 RG Unicorn Gundam 02 Banshee Norn Review

1/144 RG UNICORN GUNDAM 02 BANSHEE NORN Review

This is the review of one of the most popular and best selling Gunpla models since its release last year.

It's been a few years since I have seen Gundam Unicorn, one of my top 3 favorite Gundam series of all time, up there with Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team and Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 Stardust Memory which both also takes place in the UC timeline, and I feel the art work, and general Gundam design is more refined and detailed compared to the other timeline series.

If you haven’t seen the OVA Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn series, you should do that today.

The RG Unicorn Gundam 02 Banshee Norn takes the stage late in the series and is essentially the 'Bad Gundam' and with looks this sleek, quite rightly so.

This is a Real Grade (RG) kit and for the price and detail it's astounding.

This is my first RG kit and I was surprised at just how many parts and layers there are, this kit boasts the 'Full Psycho-Frame Prototype Mobile Suit', meaning articulation of parts is huge, as big and clunky as it looks, this thing can move like a ballet dancer.

The RG Unicorn Gundam 02 Banshee Norn has the same functionality as the  Bandai RG-30 Full Armor Unicorn Gundam 1/144

Some of the arm parts are quite stiff to turn, but keeps them in place when you get a good position, there are so many transformable parts turning it into Destroy mode, you might forget to do some!

                                     

The default colour scheme has 2 shades of blue for the upper and legs, the difference is so minute it takes some scrutiny to see, the gold and transparent orange parts give nice contrast to the deep cobalt blues in Destroy mode,

I'm sure with some LED lights and glitter it would look just as good as the particle effects in the anime.

The figure stands 17~20cm tall depending on whether you have the parts in Unicorn or Destroy mode

The RG Unicorn Gundam 02 Banshee Norn comes with an arsenal of weaponry, the crown jewel being the 'Armed Armour DE'. This thing has as many parts as a regular HG kit!

It just looks amazing in both forms and is truly a marvelous piece of craftsmanship that faithfully re-creates the blue prints as expected or a RG kit.

There are beam blade holders stashed away in each arm compartment, a nice touch indeed.

The Beam Magnum has a detachable magazine so you can simulate dropping the 100 tonne clip when it's empty.

Attached on the Beam Magnum barrel is the Revolving Launcher, there's a hole you can place the new blue beam particle effect in or use it as a stand alone beam saber

Of course 2 pink standard Beam Sabers located in the 'Armed Armour XC' Backpack unit are also included, so you will never be short of battle options with this kit.

A whole slew of spare parts come with the kit, hands, head parts, inter changeable Unicorn/ Destroy mode parts, weapons and stand adapters, you’re sure to have hours of fun with this kit.

Literally over 100 decal stickers come with this, giving you multiple options for the face, arms, leg joints and basically any panel you can think of.

Overall a really good solid kit, well designed and just simply beautiful, I prefer the colour scheme of the RG Unicorn Gundam 02 Banshee Norn compared to the RG-30 Full Armor Unicorn Gundam, there is just something about it that makes Gundam cool and is sure to rekindle your love if you haven't built a Gunpla in a while!

I'd rate this kit 95/100.

The pros being it's simply awesome, beautiful, intricate and very worthy of a Gunpla Real Grade.

The  RG Unicorn Gundam 02 Banshee Norn 1/144 is on sale right now at Plaza Japan HERE

Or for the full on  Perfect Grade experience, you can grab the 1/60 scale version here, which at double the scale is twice as beautiful. 

I highly recommend you check out these kits! 

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