Going from ZERO

Hello again!

Welcome to another review of Gunpla and this time, we step into the world of Master Grade!!!

Exciting! I know right? This review will be about my first ever Master Grade and how much I fell in love with the 1/100 scale and grade.

Background

When I was visiting a friend's home, I've noticed that he had a kit that was crimson red with dragon like wings on its back with a thick wicked beam saber and it was big compared to the other kits he had. I realised that he had the Gundam Epyon from the series Mobile Suit Gundam Wing! I thought to myself "hmm......I've only built High Grade and Real Grades....perhaps its time I've stepped into the Master Grade world" and since I was a fan of the Gundams from the Gundam Wing series, I had chosen the Master Grade XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Proto Zero to be my first.

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing is what many western fans consider their first interaction with Gundam and many of them would have seen it first on the Televsion Cartoon network known as "Toonami". The Proto Zero is essentially a minor redesign (by Hajime Katoki) from the one seen in the show and it was featured in a manga retelling of the anime show known as Mobile Suit "Gundam Wing Endless Waltz: Glory of the Losers".

The Proto Zero was the ancestor of the five Gundams that first appeared in the show and it's destructive capabilities far outclassed any other suit in the show with its rival Epyon only able to match it in power. The iconic weapon of the Proto Zero, the Twin Buster Rifle able to destroy a space colony in one blast along with its ZERO (Zoning & Emotional Range Ommited) System allowing the pilot to achieve total victory over its enemies. In the show, it has been piloted by many but most famously piloted by Heero Yuy.

This kit was what pushed me into acquiring more Master Grades and I will always cherish it for being the one to do so....but for now, lets move onto to what this kit offers.

What you get in the box

For this kit, you get a manual, 13 sets of runners, 3 sets of stickers and an action base for you to display your kit on. Its a nice addition as this kit should be display up in the air. Overall, pretty solid amount for this kit and my build time for it was around a week.

Box Art

Manual

Details of Runners

Overall Look

3 point perspective view: 1

3 point perspective view: 2

Front View

Side View

Back View

At first glance, the Proto Zero looks largely unchanged from the original one in show. When compared next to each other, the Proto Zero version has a more sleeker looking design with some changes on the green area of the chest in terms of size and some slight changes on the booster wings on its back.

Overall, I love the minor redesign and appreciate the more modern updated look to it. Whilst the original design was cool and awesome, I much prefer the sleeker looking proportions as it hits that nice balance on all parts.

Weapons & Accessories

The Proto Zero comes with a quite a number of accessories. It has 2 beam saber effect parts, 2 hilts for the beam saber effects, the Twin Buster Rifle , a shield and 4 sets of hands with each one designed swap out and to hold a specific weapon.

Twin Buster Rifle, Shield, Beam Saber and Hands

The beam saber on this kit is quite unique. Standard beam sabers traditionally had the long straight rapier look to it whereas the Proto Zero's ones is in a more curved bladed shape with a handle that seems to be one handed. The handles have a peg that goes into the open fist hands.

Beam sabers

Hilt stored inside shoulders

Beam saber in hand

The shield is pretty cool, kind of looks like in the shape of fighter jet (at least the front and cockpit area) and it has a peg on the back that connects to the hole on the underside of the arms. Also, at the near the sharper end of the shield, there is a moving mechanism that brings out two yellow bits.

Shield

Shield on Hand

Now comes the iconic Twin Buster Rifle and this is my favourite accessory of the bunch!! Essentially its rifle that can split into two or combined again into one through the use of pegs on the inner side of the rifles. I love the blackish grey with yellow accents on it, something about those two colours just complement each other. Do bear in mind that the rifle combined is a little heavy for one hand so you may need to rest it on the wrist area for balance.

Twin Buster Rifle - Combined

Twin Buster Rifle - Seperated

Combined in Action

Separated in the air

Articulation

The articulation on this kit is pretty good with a few minor bits that could be better but overall, not bad. On the ground, posing is quite limited but I'm sure you'll be able to find some pose that suits it. As said before, this kit is meant to be in the air when posing is much more free.

The Head

The head can look up, down, side to side and can rotate a full 360 degrees

Looking Up

Looking Down

Good luck attempting this in real life

The Arms

The arms are quite good with it able to bend nearly all the way up and the whole arm can rotate 360 degrees but only if you move the booster wings out the way. Additionally the shoulders can also move up, down, forwards and backwards too.

Right angle bend

Nearly all the way up

Straight

Backwards

The Waist

The waist can swivel well from left to right and has a quite good ab crunch forward and back. However, the waist connection point is quite weak on its own when doing crunches with the booster wings on its back. It would help if you applied some glue to make it more solid!

Crunching Upwards

Crunching Downwards

The Legs

The legs on the Proto Zero are pretty excellent with good range of movement on all directions. The skirt armour though may get in the way with some poses and thus require them to be move aside for the legs to have full motion. The feet have some good range of movement too.

Forwards

90 degree bend

Double Jointed Knee

Backwards - slightly hindered by the back skirt armour

Swivel inwards

Swivel outwards

Pointing Up

Pointing Down

The Booster (Backpack)

The booster wings have pretty solid movement with it being able to swing forwards and backwards and the wings them are able to collapse inwards or open outwards.

Spread out

45 degree

Straight

Opened up

Final Thoughts

When I first saw this mobile suit the first time on the show and saw it destroying its enemies with its Twin Buster Rifle, I was in awe, I was like......"YOOO THIS THING IS SO OVERPOWERED!!". I love the way it flew in space, the flash of the eyes during a close up and the final battle dueling the Epyon. Everything screamed epic and I wanted one.....on my shelf, don't worry, I'm no a sociopath with a love for giant robots and rifles.

The model kit itself is overall positive in my eyes, it's sleeker looking redesign captured my eyes and the colour separation was nice too. Articulation was good too and whilst it was hindered at some points during posing, it managed to pull off the iconic poses without much hassle and when it was in the air, it looks beautiful. The building process was fun and it was not too difficult so if you're wanting to start a Master Grade, this is a good kit to start - not too easy but not too difficult.

Extras

Oh....I forgot to mention. The Wing Gundam Proto Zero.....can TRANSFORM!!

It changes into a sort of high speed flight mode dubbed "Neo-Bird Mode"

The transformation is not too difficult to do but the removal and reattaching of weapons & accessories made a bit of a hassle.

One more thing to add......this kit GLOWS in UV light.....well some parts of it.

Normal Light

Under UV light

Welp, that is all have to say for this great Gunpla Kit. I'll leave you with some more cool shots of the Wing Gundam Proto Zero with a small cameo of my friend's Gundam Epyon.