by Loran
The Gundam video games, while seldom important to the “big picture” of the Gundam Universe, often give us nice little side-stories or chances to blow stuff up with our favorite mobile suits. But once in awhile, a game will come around that adds new mobile suits or teams that become really popular parts to the Universal Century, and one of the most famous is the Blue Destiny: a trilogy of first-person shooter games on the Sega Saturn that also spawned a manga retelling, and gave us one of the coolest trios of Gundam/GM-based suits ever-the Blue Destiny units. These were created using some crazy technology stolen from some Zeon scientist that had a Newtype girl trapped inside the-you know, I might as well not bother explaining it. It makes no sense. Anyway, it was called the EXAM system, and it’s a crazy berserker system sort of like the ZERO system from Gundam Wing.
Strangely enough, BD-1, the only Blue Destiny based on a GM, was actually the second BD unit to come out of the HGUC line, coming after the Blue Destiny Unit 2. All three BDs are pretty much the same, aside from the head and backpack in the GM’s case, and the weapons/shields in the case of all three. I own Blue 1 and Blue 2, but Blue 1 is probably my favorite, just because of how nasty its face looks.
This kit has a nice head-as I mentioned before, it’s pretty mean for “just a GM”. You get a clear visor with extra machinery underneath, adding more depth to the head. However, I’ve got one gripe-the visor is molded in clear plastic, so you have the option of painting it green (standard mode) or red (EXAM activated). Personally, I think Bandai should’ve given us two visors-one red, and one green, so you could swap them out if you wished.
The torso is nice and substantial-it doesn’t feel at all “hollow”. In place of the traditional vents, you get these awesome machine guys/missile launchers on the, uh, nipples. It also comes with an extra joint at the shoulder, giving the arms more poseability. The backpack on Blue-1 is pretty simple, but Blues 2 and 3 both have one similar to the Ground Gundam.
The skirt armor, while it comes in one piece, was designed to be split, as it has two ball joints attached to each other, which gives much more mobility than it would with a straight joint. The waistpiece is molded out of ABS plastic, so you’ll never have to worry about breaking the hips. It also has another little piece under this, which can be removed to allow a stand to be added.
The arms, too, are pretty damn good, because they have that one thing I just love seeing-double joints at the elbows!! Yep, just like the GM Quel. It was nice to see Bandai giving attention to this detail at the time, on GMs no less. Other than that, you get a selection of three hands-trigger finger right hand, right fist, and a sort-of open palm for the left hand, allowing it to hold the gun in both hands.
The legs are damn nice, too, feeling flexible but sturdy at the same time. All the joints function really well thanks to the ABS pieces, and the feet even have an extra joint. But one of the best parts has to be in the calves-yes, the beam sabers can be stored in them! An awesome little touch.
The weapons are nothing special-machine gun, shield, and the two sabers. Nothing really wrong with any of it, since it’s all the suit really used. The shield has the modern shield system that allows you to mount the shield on the front or side of the arm. The ammo clips from the machine gun can actually be switched with the ones from the hip armor, and that’s pretty damn awesome.
After all its video game appearances, the Blue Destinies deserved a great kit, and boy did they get one. They’re highly poseable, nicely detailed, and represent one of the coolest designs in the One Year War. Love it or hate it, it’s a great kit and a fun build. While we don’t carry any of the three Blue Destiny units, we have the Gundam Ground Type, which uses the same frame-another great suit and a staple of any collection.
Now if only they’d make an HGUC Efreet…
