Original Designer Intentions of the MG GP02A

[BlackOpsElf]

Having just finished putting together my Master Grade GP02A (it's been sitting in my closet at home since 2000, and as I just got back into Gundam a few months ago, I only just got around to having it sent up to me at Grad school), I'm wondering exactly what the designers were thinking in terms of the shield.

I know the old trick of balancing the shield on the foot, as well as the trick of having the bazooka posed at a downward angle in order for the hand and the handle to be aligned, but I'm not quite sure what was going through the designers' heads when they designed an arm joint that is incapable of holding the shield by itself, or a shield too heavy for the weak arm joint to hold. Did the designers intend for us to balance the shield on the foot? (It doesn't appear that they want us to do that in the instructions, but then again, I don't read Japanese.) If they didn't intend for us to do that, why didn't they test the final sculpt to make sure that it could hold the shield before approving it? It would be a pretty major defect of the model if the foot-balancing trick wasn't common knowledge.

[James E. 'ZEE' Doyle]

It's the sort of problem that was fairly common to the more ambitious earlier MGs. At the time, Bandai had far less experience in designing such heavy, complex kits, and I believe the CAD/CAM component of their design and production was not nearly as prevalent or advanced.

The 02A's arm is a fairly boneheaded design, but early MGs are full of bad implementations like that. I think it's only in the last five years or so that the engineering of the line has really matured.

[Deus EpS Machina]

SEED 1/100 kits FTW in this case.

take a hand from any SEED kit of that scale and replace it. The MG GP02's sockets are the right size so there are no major problems.

And since the hand you removed from the SEED kit was a shield hand, you can simply use the GP02's numerous hands.

[James E. 'ZEE' Doyle]

I believe the problem with the kit lies in a weak elbow joint and a bicep joint that likes to pop free of its mount, so replacing the hand is not really going to help matters.

[BlackOpsElf]

Yeah, not only does the shoulder joint constantly pop off, but the bicep assembly splits apart more often than not when the shoulder gives (I'm thinking of just gluing the panels shut). I'll try that SEED idea, though, thanks.

[Deus EpS Machina]

ahh, see, thats the thing. The only problem i had with my GP02 (and GP01Fb for that matter) was the hand not being able to hold the shield. I didnt have much trouble with the bazooka arm either.