HGUC Powered GM review

God I love GMs.

No matter how you dress them up, they’re still Gundam’s equivalent of Star Trek’s “redshirt”, but hey, they sure as hell look cool. I always feel like they get passed by in the HGUC line, but really, Bandai’s close to having all of the animated versions in HGUC form; even the GM Sniper II. But of course, they announced that right after I dropped a ton of money on conversion parts for one. What a bunch of jerks. But hey, I’m still going to buy like five even though it looks like it’s on the old GM Command frame and not this one…

…the Powered GM. Yeah, I’ve reviewed several other kits based on this frame but I never went for the first kit that used it. Go me.

The Powered GM is an odd unit. Basically, it’s nothing more than a GM Kai with all sorts of other crap slapped on it. It doesn’t even have its own model number, and the one it does have never stays the same. It’s either RGM-79 like the classic GM, or RGM-79C like the GM Kai. Of course, Bandai has never been known for their consistency in this regard.

See all of those “Katoki Squares”? Yeah, those are supposed to house extra equipment somehow. I don’t exactly get why this thing needs 8 or 10 of them.

This suit is kind of an odd design, all things considered. The extra equipment does make its “Powered” title feel deserved. It feels hulking and powerful, but not in the GM Cannon II or Guncannon way. More like, “when this thing takes off, it takes OFF”. Really powerful jet-assisted jumps and stuff. I like it.

Like its compatriots, this kit has a crystal visor and a “mechanical” piece behind it to give it more depth. Once again, this will end up silver. Since I haven’t mentioned it before, I like the head on this GM. It’s much… meaner than the original one, but it’s not my favorite. That honor still goes to the GM Command.

Naturally, the articulation on this kit is pretty good, especially in the arms. I actually think the knees have better articulation than the later versions of the kit, probably because they were actually designed for this one. The double joint feels more… functional, I guess.

The suit’s weapon complement consists of a machine gun, Zeta-style bazooka, beam saber, and shield. There’s nothing worth nothing about anything except for the shield. This was the first kit to have the classic Gundam/GM shield but without the cross, and since it uses the modern latch style, it can be given to any other suit with it.

One detraction of this kit is the hands. The other kits that use this frame get all sorts of hands, but this one… only gets three: trigger finger, saber hand, and hinged left palm that lets it do all sorts of sassy poses.

Like the other kits built on this frame, I have to recommend it. It’s nice-looking and a lot of fun. The only strikes against it in my opinion are the hands and the lack of any stickers. They could have at least thrown in some Torrington Base decals. Oh well, those are easy enough to get. As always, stop by FPNYC for all of your HGUC needs!