NG 1/100 Dynames Gundam

My comrade, who himself was a Gundam this past year at Anime Expo 2013, was introduced to Gunpla and to most of the Gundam metaverse by yours truly. I’ve taught him as my apprentice, and started him off on ‘pla with HG or NG 1/100 kits. He’s taken after my policy of avoiding 1/144 kits, though of course I wouldn’t advise Master Grade kits when he just started getting into ‘pla.

He’s already built his fair number of 1/100 kits and has since then moved onto his first two Master Grades. This is one of his latest works, half of which can be considered mine. Right before rushing into a certain MG Wing Zero Custom, he had built a NG 1/100 Virtue and a NG 1/100 Dynames, the latter of which will be the subject of this review.

I don’t always photoshoot and review NG 1/100 kits, but when I do, they’re not my kits.

Being that this is my comrade’s kit, he built it of course, but I went ahead and added most of the fine paint details afterwards. Some things to note are that it’s missing one beam saber (he lost it) and the left ankle flap (he lost it). Talk about clumsy. See why I tried to steer him clear of Master Grades eh?

Bare bones armament; full shield off.

My compatriot did the panel lining, I did most of the little gray details in the legs and arms, as well as painted the head unit for him with the eyes, v-fin, and targeting camera. Also cleaned it up considerably from where he left off…I swear when he paints, it gets everywhere. The brush will hit the torso but somehow paint will get on the feet. I don’t even.

Another little thing to note is that Dynames’ shields have been sprayed down with a test coat of matte clear coat. My colleague gave me the go-ahead to test it on his Dynames before I practically applied it to my upcoming MG Sinanju. Of this I was particularly grateful, as the flat coat didn’t turn out as well as I had expected.

Let it be known now that NG 1/100 kits generally do not have very impressive articulation or joint systems compared to Master Grades. While this may seem like a no-brainer that should really hit anyone who knows anything about Gunpla over the head, I never realized just how large the gap was.

Dynames’ most prominent issue is its lack of stability. The joints are all stupidly weak, and the kit itself feels extremely lightweight and flimsy. It lacks the usual solidness that I’m used to in most MG kits. I know there are some solid and stable 1/100 kits out there, but from what I’ve seen so far, the 00 kits do a poor job in that department. Dynames can barely stand or hold up its arms for a decent pose half the time.

FULL SHIELD ON~!!!

You can see some of that flat topcoat gone wrong and turning into this funky gloss coat on the top left. The texture’s more noticeable in person.

SHIELD OPEN.

*PEW PEW PEW*

I should note now that the shields came all in dark green; the gray detail was added by my comrade and touched up by yours truly.

Man I remember back when I was into High Grade kits, thinking it was a shame that the HG 1/144 kit never came with these little pistols. They seemed so cool, the way they came out of the neat little holsters at the legs. Not like a Gundam has never wielded weapons like these before, but Dynames sure can rock ’em.

One of the easiest accessories you’ll ever find to pose with for a model kit. I have a thing for more compact weapons; the outlandish, massive accessories are nice in that they stand out, but they’re so hard to pose with and handle.

Yeah, Dynames is a long-range sniper unit and Lockon always feels insulted when he has to use a saber in combat, but it’s there. There’s only one handle left on the kit after all.

Slash. Swoosh. Swish.

Locked and loaded.

Ironically, Dynames’ main weapon of choice is its worst, at least in terms of handling. The hands don’t exactly do a stellar job of holding the thing in place, and the little section that’s theoretically supposed to peg into the wrist doesn’t actually work…at least not all the way.

The molding is off in the form of the big butt of the rifle; it hits the top of the forearm, and isn’t actually small enough to go into the plug that keeps the weapon in place. Quite the annoying glitch, and with the saggy arms you can’t really get anything good out of it.

Next to the little pistols, another one of Dynames’ features that I found really neat ever since seeing it in the show. The v-fin doesn’t actually slide down, per se; it sort of hinges down out of the forehead and covers the eyes. The forehead camera comes in clear; painted in the same metallic blue as the regular eyes.

Orbital firing.

Dynames does surprisingly well kneeling. Sure as heck makes it much more stable than standing on two feet.

The sniper rifle itself is actually pretty complex; the second handle can slide forwards and backwards for that lock ‘n load motion and the bi-pod underneath swings out on its own hinges.

You get two sets for the bi-pod, one extended (and painted silver as shown above) and the standard retracted version in all gray.

Overall, all I gotta say is…I avoid NG and HG 1/100 kits for a reason. Granted, there are some jewels out there, but from what I’ve seen of the 00 kits, especially Dynames, they’re generally not that impressive. Though I suppose it’s the best Dynames we’re ever gonna get until 00’s 10 year anniversary and the MG gets released.