Kimi The Builder

Not everything old is gold.

Hello and welcome back to all of you awesome readers here! Hopefully, you all have a great and awesome weekend and day ahead. I’m back once again with a new review of an old school kit the HGUC RGM-79D GM Cold Districts Type.

Once I considered this kit to be one of the best looking, and the best kit I’ve built back in 2003. After 14 years since I last built it, now I’m back once again to re-build this and see does the Cold Districts stand with the test of time, is it a kit that is still as good like the MS-06S Zaku II Char Aznable Custom (MG) Ver.2.0? or is it a kit that is in desperate need for a revive like the RX-78GP02A ‘Physalis’ Gundam (MG)? That’s what we would explore in this review.

But before that, let’s get into some history of this Mobile Suit.

The history and development of the RGM-79D GM Cold Districts Type

Model name: RGM-79D

Classification: Mass Production Cold Climate Mobile Suit

Weapon systems: 60mm Vulcan, beam saber, HWF GMG·MG79-90mm Bullpup Machine Gun, NFHI GMG-TYPE2 90mm Bullpup Machine Gun, Shield

Height : 18.0m

Armour Material: Titanium/ceramic composite

Powerplant: Minovsky Ultracompact Fusion Reactor (1250w total output)

Total Thrust : 4 x 150000 kg

Top Speed : 115km/h

Crew: 1 (pilot only)

The RGM-79 has proven itself to be a vital instrument of war for the Earth Federation when it was first implemented in the middle of One Year War. The Earth Federations Forces as well find the RGM-79 to be a very versatile Mobile suit, there were many versions of the RGM-79 like the sniper, GM Command (the colony and the space type), cannon and much more.

The RGM-79D GM Cold Climate / Cold Districts type was a late war variation of the RGM-79 series, this version was born after the Feds saw the maneuverability and the performance of the MS-09B Dom. The Earth Federation’s saw the MS-09B Dom as a threat to their future plans and decided that they needed to further improve the RGM-79 but without breaking the bank.

Hence the RGM-79D was born.

The RGM-79D doesn’t really get massive improvements on the armor or in terms of weapons equipment’s, but what it has is a massive upgrade to its thrusters that improved the GM’s maneuverability.  As well to compete with the MS-09B Dom the RGM-79D was developed to be able to withstand the harsh climate and for this version, it was developed specially for cold climate. In terms of weaponry as well the RGM-79D wasn’t given any beam-based weaponry, due to its late introduction to the war the RGM-79D was only equipped with projectile based weaponry only and it only saw action with the NFHI GMG-TYPE2 90MM Bullpup Machine Gun equipped.

With its late introduction to the war meant that the RGM-79D seen really little action during its service life but even with that it has proven itself to be a really potent weapon system. During the war, 3 units of the RGM-79D was assigned to Yuu Kajima’s (the blue Destiny) MS combat tasting squad, and with them, he manages to destroy several Zeon Mobile Suits during a defense of a Federation base, including several units of MSM-03 Hyggog and Three Doms. The RGM-79D’s as well was used in defense of the artic base during the transportation of the RX-78NT-1 Alex to outer space. In both occasions, the RGM-79D was proven to be really effective in combat.

With that ends the History lessons, and now let’s get back to the review!

The Review

In my last review I mentioned on how long it has been since I actually built this kit and yes back when this first came out it was brilliant and fun to make, there were a lot of innovations made when this was out but that was 14 years ago.

The same can’t be said now.

I would say this is a kit that I was a bit frustrated with, you will understand why as I go through it piece by piece. Let’s first get into building the kit. There isn’t much I could say about building it, honestly, it’s a simple kit to pick up, as well a very easy kit to get into. If you just do a straight build with this kit you will find yourself finishing this one up fairly quickly. Though if you do you might find it quite frustrating just because of the god awful seem lines, fragile parts, and the frustratingly ugly nub marks.

God damn the nub marks. The placing of the nubs is really making it hard to make sure the kit has a clean look. Unlike how it was with my past experiences with the newer Force Impulse Gundam (2016 released HG kit) or even with a slightly older EX-S Gundam (2002 release HG kit) where the nub marks weren’t as prominent, this one was placed at some very obvious places and getting rid of it its almost close to impossible if you choose not to paint it over. That’s why for me I do have to take my time with this because I was finding myself frustrated looking at them ugly nub marks. I could deal with the seam lines, but not the nub marks. That I can’t deal.

The articulation of this kit is……. quite mixed, I am not sure how to really touch on this because generally, the articulation is quite ok but due to certain limitations (mostly to the limited tech at the time) kind of ruins the whole experience for me. The problems this kit has is really on the fragility of some of the parts, loose joints, and the machine gun’s design. The machine gun was really what gets me, there was no issue on the look of it, but this was really a case of form over function. What do I mean by that?

Oh, let me show you what I mean

You see now? God, with how fragile everything here is, this is looking to be really worrisome. It really puts some real stress on the manipulator’s joints. The real problem with this machine Gun was really on that useless buttstock of the gun if only Bandai would put in an extra effort in giving it an ability to have it to be pulled in and out this wouldn’t be an issue. With it being fixed, you really can’t do much with the poses for this kit, you might be asking, why don’t you pose it with the beam saber? Oh don’t get me started on the beam saber, that thing is an ass to paint and ugly to pose with if you didn’t paint it. Maybe in the future, but not for this review.

Though I was understandably frustrated with this kit (Yes, mainly because I feel that I have been pampered of the awesome newer HG kits, haha.), I do still find myself having fun building this kit. Why you may ask?

The reason being is that with this kit, I was taking time to learn new techniques and relearn some old ones sharpening it so in the next build it would be better implemented. I still managed to have fun with it even when it was for a different reason altogether and when all been said and done the final result (though still crap looking) is something that I was really happy about. It’s all because I’ve learned and improved myself by building this (I hope).

As well, like I said in my unboxing post, this is by far the best-looking GM variants to date. Completed, this is still an impressive kit to look at tbh. Even after fourteen years this kit still looked so good. I really wish that Bandai would have plans to turn this variant into an MG, though by looking how it was with the GM Command Space-Variant I have a feeling that this might turn into P-Bandai item. Well unless the GM Command sells well, unless. Haha

Overall as I was reflecting back on this built, I could say that it still gives me the same excitements. The same excitements that I felt back when I first build this kit back in 2003, a kit that was new and full of the promise of what to come only now the excitements was on seeing my building Gunpla techniques improved and as well seeing the new techniques working well in making the kit look awesome.

As for how it was in 2003, after building this, it made me look forward to the future and it is looking better indeed.

Plus, this was a cheap kit to experiment with, haha.

Would I recommend it though? The answer is both yes and no. Yes, to those that are looking for cheap quick gunpla fix and to those wanting to test concepts, ideas or techniques. It is a definite no for new beginners unless you don’t mind a kit that is full of ugly nubs this is not a kit to start your Gunpla adventure with, even though it’s a cheap kit. Get the latest HG kit you would have a better experience with them.

Except for Alex ver2.0 Tristan, that one is an old kit with some new shoes but the worse bits of the new shoe, you’d might as well just stay away from that one.

Well, it shows to prove that not all new kit is good, haha.

With that ends Kimi’s review of this HGUC kit! What do you guys think of the kit and the review? Do let us know your experiences with the kit and what do you guys think of it overall? We do look forward to reading your thoughts in the comment section here, fb, Instagram or our Reddit account! Do write right away and we will do our best to respond to ya’ll as quickly as we could! Do comment and leave a like if you enjoyed this post and do let us know your thoughts here! We do appreciate it lots!

We will be back this Wednesday with new Let’s Talk Gunpla Segment and on the next coming Sunday with a new and exciting Unboxing and first impressions segment! Do look forward to that! We hope you all have an awesome weekend and week ahead! We do hope as well you guys have a fun Gunpla building time there! Until next time!

Ciao!