HG 1/144 RGM-79 Jim (Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt)

At a first glance, you might not consider the Thunderbolt line of HG kits to be part of the same line as the others due to its unique styled boxart- but down in the plastic runners this is a modern HGUC through and through!Gundam Thunderbolt was a Gundam side story manga that featured some pretty radical redesigns of classic Gundam MS. Its an interesting read, and, as mentioned before, has pretty rad mechanical designs in comparison to their "classic" counterparts.The "Thunderbolt" GM is- as usual- the Federation's standard production suit and features an additional shield and a double barreled beam gun on its left arm. The NASA spacesuit inspired backpack has "arms" to hold the shields, and have a decent range of movement, although you'll need to be pretty creative to make some of the poses featured in the manual. As its primarily molded in a single thin piece, I try to be as delicate with it as possible- often finding how I'm going to pose it BEFORE I attach it.The rest of the model is molded in the colors you see in the picture- white, yellow, dark grey, a greenish grey, a darker bluish grey, a unique brown for the joints, and lastly a clear green piece for the visor. The part separation for the most part is pretty good, but the yellow markings on the skirt armor are actually stickers. The sticker sheet is fairly large, but if you're willing to do some paintwork, most are unnecessary. It also comes with a decal sheet with some "EFSF" seals, as well as some smaller decals for additional (and optional) detail. A nice touch in my honest opinion. Is poseability is fairly standard for modern kits, with a ball jointed neck, ball jointed elbows, ball jointed waist, hips that can move the legs 90 degrees forward and to the sides (but very limited backwards,) elbow and knee bends just shy of 180 degrees, and excellent ankle tilts.It comes with a beam rifle, double barreled beam gun, two shields, two additional "mounting" arms for the shields, and two sets of manipulators- closed fists and trigger finger hands for the weaponry. It also comes with "standard" shield mounts so that you can mount the shields on the forearms like "standard" GM and Gundam units. Unlike most HGUC Gundam esque units, it lacks beam sabers- but its understandable considering they were never used in the source manga.Overall, I think its a really nice model- even without the stickers and additional decals. Its a pretty unique design, and I had a blast building it.Pros-+ Standard HGUC Color separation+ Excellent mobility and poseability+ Plethora of weapon and accessory options+ Additional marking decals for extra detail+ Unique, if somewhat unorthodox design for a GM+ Freaking awesome BoxartCons-- Backpack sub-arms can be finicky, and are a bit fragile and awkward to work with- No beam sabers or saber holding hands- some decals can be a tad tricky to apply- notably the yellow skirt stickers- some of the small yellow thrusters pop off pretty easy- I'd recommend gluing them in place.

I've bought most of the available models of GM as they are by far my favorite line of units in the Gundam universe. Out of them all, the quality of the Thunderbolt model is uncontested, at least amongst the GMs. Kit's pieces were incredibly detailed and the stickers, much to my surprise, actually did wonders for the kit. For $21 (At time of purchase) this is one of the best kits I have had the pleasure of constructing, and I highly recommend it.

its fairly good it was my first good looking one but it doesn't have the same joints and sizes as most hguc models

While this is hardly my first mobile suit model, it is actually my first of the HGUC line so far, so some of this review may apply to many more in the line as well.In comparison to almost all of the mobile suit models I've built in the past, this one basically blows them away, even in comparison to 1/100 HG kits. Articulation is excellent (coming from someone who started with the 1/144 Gundam Wing models, mind you), and the fact that so many individual parts are molded in different colors is wonderful. I actually much prefer the smaller 1/144 scale, as it is much easier to handle, store, display, etc.The suit itself is an awesome design. I've never actually read the source manga, and am not sure I ever will, but the design choices chosen for this GM make it stand out among the rest. It really feels like it belongs in space, when compared to many other mobile suits. Perhaps that's the cues taken from real space suits, and I know it was mostly chosen by the artists who drew the manga, but it's reacreated so well in plastic. The texture for the suit's joints in particular are a great touch.The only issue I have is that I don't really like the single-purpose gun hand. I know that's a feature of the HGUC line for the most part, but I really wish accessories were made to easily fit in a single hand design, so they could be easily swapped between models.

Don't order thru bandai hobby, I never recieved this model and they never answered my emails

Finally received product, but I can’t remove my one star review so 5 stars on this one

Very flexible, very nicely detailed (looks better with a gundam marker), moveable arms on the backpack, all in all it's worth the price

Beefy cool looking model one of my final HGs that have been laying around before I jump into MG territory. It was a harder HG build, tough to balance because of his accessories. I have him kneeling down in a "line up" of all my HG sets and it's pretty stable that way.