Hey-ho boys and girls! Before we get started this week I would like to direct your attention to your URL bar. That’s right – Hobby Hovel now has its own domain! Nifty ain’t it? Unfortunately as a result of a bug within Blogger, all the comments from my older reviews (before I switched to IntenseDebate) were knocked out. Hopefully they’ll resolve this soon… Anyhow, on with the rant!
Back in summer 2008 when I first laid my eyes on the MS designs for the second season, I was sorely disappointed. Rather than taking a step forward, these four new suits seemed to be a stumble backwards. Gone were the distinctive orb-centred designs of the first season, and in its place I saw a bunch of simple and blocky designs that seemed to be the work of amateurs. The 00 Gundam was the least offensive out of the bunch, yet I still thought the GN drives hanging over its shoulders were ridiculously goofy. Assuming the reason for these simple designs was merchandise marketing, I thought to myself: “The models coming out this season had better be fucking amazing.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E1Rbc1AwpM
Well, lo and behold a few months later I find myself waiting for the HG 00 Gundam and 0-Raiser to arrive in the mail. Not only did I learn to warm up to the second season’s designs somewhat, web previews of the HG models for the second season had all the innovation the mechanical designs lacked. My expectations, which were heightened greatly by these previews, were not betrayed when the models finally arrived. Simply put, the 00 Gundam is in a league of its own when it comes to articulation on HG models, and as long as you are willing to put a little work on painting some omitted details, these kits are must-haves.