This kit celebrates the 40th anniversary of Gundam and is designed with the purpose of creating a gunpla with human-like articulation, as an homage to the original Gundam, by Ken Okuyama.
First of all, this is expensive (even on the box listed Yen price), you get a small and sparse 1/144th kit for the same price as an RG and even some MG's. Other HG's in the same price range are either stacked with equipment, are large or Premium Bandai kits.
Aesthetics:
Parts come in warm white, almost baby blue, bright yellow and blueish gray. The color accuracy is for the most part right, but there's no black on it like the pictures and some yellows aren't on the kit either.
The point of gunpla has long been to mimic 20 meter tall piloted mecha, but this kit looks like a toy, not a representative model. If someone not familiar with the franchise were to look at this, they'd think of a human sized robot.
Quality:
For the most part it's on par with an HG, but with some flimsy parts, such as the connections inside the feet, the hands themselves and especially the midsection.
Due to multiple joints inside the torso/midsection, you are meant to pull, twist and push it in order to extend or compress the "spine", which causes the midsection to split and fall apart. In order to fit it back inside, you need to "reset" the spine to its full length.
The two halves barely stick together and so it's required to glue them together. They don't assemble onto anything else, it's just one part that fits loosely in between the waist and chest section.
This is not a broken or mishandled part, the design just isn't well made and remember, this is designed by a world famous designer and industrial engineer who's done commission work for Ferrari.
Articulation:
The G40 articulate more and better than an average HG kit.
It does not surpass human movement in any meaningful way. I can't swivel my head 360 degrees, but no one poses their gunpla with the head backwards.
The skirt is one assembled solid piece (with seam lines) which limits articulation. It's a compromise as an homage to the original Gundam show, but out of the over 50 kits I own, there isn't a single one that can't lift or move some of their skirts and enable the legs to lift up.
The world famous designer circumvents the solid skirt by making the thighs have an additional double joint so the leg lengthens and swivels itself down and out. Keep in mind they wanted to mimic a human skeleton...
Good:
1. The neck is double jointed (the head tilts side to side) and the whole plate that the head is stuck on to, dips up and down, giving it a better range of movement than a simple ball joint.
2. The shoulder joints are open and able to swing up quite far and have an extra bit of back/forwards swing, which adds a little.
3. The forearms and calves rotate left right on a diagonal which makes the arms/legs less rigid, but it's so little that this is barely a benefit.
4. The upper thighs, double jointed thighs, the double jointed knees, ankles and segmented feet are excellent (despite the odd extention that is distinctly inhuman, it does help the kit pose a lot).
Bad:
1. The elbow is single jointed, which isn't unusual for a High Grade kit, but for what is meant to be a stellar example of articulation, this is frankly pathetic. Keep in mind the cost of the kit and how it touts who made it and what their goal was.
In effect this means the arm can't bend very much.
The Ugly:
The spine can twist sideways and diagonally. It's made of a "T" on the top and bottom, with two "8" shaped double rings that fits onto the ball joints of the "T" parts. On the top "T" there is a cup meant to fit the ball joint sat on the bottom of the torso.
The result is a mess of tolerances where the midsection rattles around revealing the innards (sometimes falls out of place and blocks the spine) and the chest pops off easily. Good idea, poor execution.
You also get a beam rifle, a well designed (albeit plain) shield and two beam sabers/beams. Also included is a booklet
Is this "an industrial realistic design"? No, it looks like a toy (ironically there are far more interesting scrapped designs in the booklet). Is it unique? Yes. Does it articulate/pose well? Better than most kits by a decent margin.
In order to really appreciate their choices, you need to watch the 10 min cartoon and read the included booklet. To be fair, most gunpla relies on you knowing the shows or stories, to have seen them in action and it's no different for this one.
"Concept" means what the word means, it's an idea where they tried something different. For me, on its own it looks okay, but at the end of the day if I place it next to my 30th anniversary RG RX-78-2, the G40 looks cheap.
In my opinion as a *Gunpla*, they overestimated their ideas and process. The product MUST speak for itself and frankly it doesn't, not compared to what Bandai has made.
As a fun celebration piece, it's...
