A few years ago, if you told me we were getting an HGUC GM Custom, I would’ve said you were nuts. If you told me we’d be getting a GM Cannon II just a few months later, well, I wouldn’t believe you. Why it keeps taking so long for Bandai to give us stuff that should have had kits when the line first started, I’ll never know, but hey, the wait’s been worth it. Sometimes it’s better when kits come out later rather than sooner, as it assures that we’ll get much better engineering.
The GM Cannon II is basically what happens when you take the GM Custom, the Mass Production Type Guncannon, and the Gundam Alex’s Chobham Armor and threw it into a blender. Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I LOVE this design. Not as much as the GM Custom, but as far as “tubby support units” go, it’s up there with the Mass Production Type Guncannon. It’s just so cute. It’s like, “Hey guys, don’t worry, I’m coming! I can beat them!” before falling over or getting sniped by a Zaku.
Like every other 0083 GM (that was released as a 0083 GM, anyway), the GM Cannon II uses the same universal joint system but with a few augmentations to compensate for the suit’s larger frame. In spite of the heavy armor, it retains quite a bit of articulation, namely in the arms. The legs are a bit more restricted. It seems like Bandai still hasn’t quite gotten the hang of articulating heavily armored legs. Even some Master Grades still have this problem.
Since there’s so little merchandise of this suit, I was never really able to get a good look at the suit’s color scheme. The shade of green is so nice I almost feel sad that I have to paint it. What am I going for? Well, AEUG colors! My AEUG ranks are really thin, and I like the idea of them using leftover Federation suits… this one is the perfect candidate!
The only molded details that really need paint to begin with are all the red circles. Wonderful. I hate using red for stuff like that.
Like all too many High Grade kits, the skirt armor needs to be split. However! This is one of those rare kits with articulating skirt armor on BOTH sides! Articulated rear skirt armor doesn’t add too much, but it doesn’t take anything away. If anything, it makes movement seem a lot more realistic.
The only pieces of equipment the kit includes are the GM rifle, shield, and a beam saber in the left arm. The shield has two spare ammo clips, but they’re really just there for show. The suit didn’t use anything else in the OVA, so it gets a pass, especially since mid-range suits like these rarely get much in terms of sidearms.
The GM Cannon II has one innovation—a hand rack! Yes, Bandai reused some plastic from the C runner to fashion a hand rack for all of the kit’s spare hands. Brilliant.
Surprise, surprise; the GM Cannon II HGUC is pretty good, like just about every other HGUC GM released within the past five years. It’s been needing a kit for some time now, especially considering how few resin kits this suit has, to my knowledge. Get yours at FPNYC!
Now Bandai… where’s that GM Sniper II…
