First Impressions

Look. Let’s be honest with ourselves. Gundam Build Fighters (and subsequent Build series) exists for one reason - to drive Gunpla sales.

I mean, if we want to really get into it and really be cynical honest with ourselves, that’s why all of Gundam exists. But maybe this isn’t the time or place for that discussion.

Anyway, if Gundam Build Fighters exists to drive Gunpla sales, it worked on me to perfection. I don’t remember exactly when I bought this kit, but it was 100% because of Gundam Build Fighters. It drew my attention on-screen primarily due to the color scheme and the arm-mounted Beam Rifle Mk-II.

I’m a simple man. I see blue and big guns on a Gunpla, I buy it.

As far as the kit itself goes, it’s certainly a return to “normal” from my last build (the HGAC Leo), with a solid number of polycaps and stickers. The larger yellow stickers are especially disappointing, because it seems like it would have been trivial to mold those pieces in yellow.

Body Building

While it wasn’t necessarily the first thing I noticed, the elephant in the room with this kit is the extremely oversized hands. Maybe I just haven’t built enough kits to come across this, but they seem… huge? One of my pictures below shows a comparison between the HGBF Build Gundam Mk-II hands and the hands of the HGUC Hi-Nu Gundam, and the Mk-II look enormous. I know that not all HGs are created equal, and this kit is basically just a re-mold of the HGUC Gundam Mk-II… but still, this seems ridiculous.

There are also some extremely loose parts (front skirt and parts of the Moveable Shields) but some equally stiff joints. I haven’t built many “old” kits (and again, this is apparently a re-mold) but I get the sense that this wasn’t particularly common and this might just be a “bad” kit.

It did finally come together though, giant hands and all.

Get Equipped

An absolute plethora of accessories and weapons on this one! I like that the kit includes both the weapons set for the original Mk-II as well as the Build Mk-II. I decided very early on that I wouldn’t waste time on building the cockpit block of the Build Booster Mk-II, because what’s the point of an absurdly large backpack without having it on the back all the time?

Well… it’d be a great idea if the backpack didn’t throw off the balance of the kit. And also if it didn’t kinda get in the way of the “stock” Mk-II backpack with the Beam Saber mounts. And also also if parts weren’t prone to falling off because they just don’t fit tight enough.

This whole set could really use some painting and detailing because otherwise they’re just extremely plain. I like the look of the combination Moveable Shield and Beam Rifle Mk-II, to the point where I don’t know why you’d ever separate them.

I decided to do a few poses of the Build Mk-II with the original Mk-II weapons, but compared to the Build Mk-II weapons they feel… boring. Very classic, sure, but lacking the “cool” factor of the big giant guns. The Vulcan Pod would be a way cooler accessory if it didn’t limit the motion of the head as much as it seems to.

Finally, I took the opportunity to break out one of my GP Bases for a quick pose. I had to grab a different adapter for the base though, because apparently this model doesn’t use the peg-type adapter, which is all that the GP Base comes with.

Mission Complete

I think overall there were more negatives to this kit than positives. Even though I ended up having a fun time playing with poses and such, the kit itself was still a pain. I love the combination of the Moveable Shields and Beam Rifle Mk-IIs, and maybe those could somehow be used in a future custom/kitbash project.

But I can’t overlook the really loose pieces and the high sticker count, which lead to less-than-impressive color separation. Also, I’m glad I didn’t spend the time building the cockpit block of the Build Booster, because I don’t think I’ll ever display it independently.

Maybe my “buy all the blue-ish kits with big guns” method needs a re-think after this one…