1988 Fin Funnel Nu Gundam Plastic Model Review

It’s about time that I did a toy review and the last time I did one is for a rare Dragon Ball Z model kit from 1996. This time, we’re going to be talking about a plastic model kit from 1988’s Char’s Counterattack series of Gunpla.

Now before we begin, there are two variations of the same Gunpla, one without the fin funnels (or fin fannels if you’re Engrish) and one that includes all six fin funnels. I was lucky to snag the one with fin funnels for Php. 800 (or JPY 1949.71 or USD 15.29) on a local flea market. That luck will soon turn into a curse as we will get into later.

The pieces themselves are not that hard to put together…except for the fact that screws are needed for some parts.

I know that it’s part of the “System Injection IroPla” series and that the plamodel scene building in 1988 is vastly different from the plamodel building scene in 2022 but the screws didn’t add anything to the kit, be it on articulation or functionality.

Speaking of articulation, it’s a 1980s model kit so don’t expect HGUC level of articulation. Arm and leg movement is serviceable and I am not a fan of the joints they used for to connect the ips and the legs.

The fin funnles are a finicky pieces of plastic to handle that I broke one of the parts that I have to use plastic cement just to piece it back together.

Since this is from 1988 and it’s was modeled using the patented System Injection Iropla technology, the pieces are already colored so no need for that much painting except for some parts.

I haven’t mastered yet the art of painting plastic model kits yet but I am getting the hang of it. In fact, it was fun to paint the vents but the eyes are a different story.

The eyes are difficult to paint I ended up making it look like Robert Pattinson’s Batman (cultural reference ah? ah?) but everything else is a fit.

Comparing it with a modern kit (i.e. HGUC Hi-Nu Gundam from 2009), the articulation within the arms and the legs are basically the same.

The skirt on the old model is not that much moveable so you can’t really do high kick poses with this one without detaching one of the skirt pieces.

One thing I noticed though that gives it the upper hand over the HGUC kit is the hand articulation. I have built a lot of HGUC kits and old Gunpla kits (albeit those are re-releases not the original releases) and this is the only time that I saw hand articulation on a 1/144 kit.

It’s not like the articulation that you see on Master Grade kits but take note that this is a kit from 1988. Bandai can take notes on this on their old HG kits in the future. Maybe the Real Grade kits have those, I don’t know.

Apologies for the stains, that’s the residue from the plastic cement.

The HGUC Hi-Nu Gundam in question.

A side-by-side comparison between the 1988 NGCCA kit and the 2009 HGUC Hi-Nu kit

In conclusion, this is not for the beginner Gunpla modeler as the pieces needed screws to put those together and those are easy to lose and that might lead to frustration. If you’re a vintage plastic model kit collector, the fin funnels will give you a hard time and the pieces can easily break under the wrong hands but if you’re up to the challenge, I would recommend this kit for you.

You can get this on eBay or Mandarake if they restock these kits.