Oh hey, my first ever review for 2012. This time its something more… “contemporary”.
A wild Gafran appears.
Yes, its the HG AGE 1/144 Gafran, the UE (Unknown Enemy) grunt MS .
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Front profile shot.
The design of the Gafran is somewhat unique and offers some interesting poses.
Side profile shot.
As with any first generation (enemy) grunt designs, the Gafran stays true to this design theme.
Rear profile shot.
Simple as in the weapons, looks and… colour. Or the lack of thereof…
A 3/4 view profile.
The colours are very spartan, with only blues and blacks, with (small) bits of greens.
BD77's of Figure & Plamos 
What’s this? A non UC kit? That’s a first for me as far as my questionable memory can attest to.
Man, the Gafran is nice. I always love it when you get atypical suits such like these on Gundam shows. From the top of my head I can’t remember something like this in another Gundam show before.
The Gafran sure has many interesting designs choices like the tail/beam cannon and palm mounted guns and such.
Still I must say I am disappointed.
When I first heard of the enemies in Age being alien space dragons I do not know what imagine but it surely wasn’t the Gafran and the other variants. They were not dragons, probably not aliens either, at least they did come from space.
Yes, my first non-UC kit for this year. =D
The non-conventional weapons’ design won me, for sure. XD
As for the UE, we will get to know more in season 2. I think…
The flight mode IMO looked better than it’s MS mode, but there’s not really much posing opportunities in that mode.
Well, they took an interesting design for an enemies suit, and while the Gafran turned into nothing but mere fodder, the newer enemy grunts started to look interesting (Dorado & that bright red-yellow one).
And posing in its’ flight mode is a pain… >.<
Well, it is a first generation so it couldn't be too advance or so.
dunno why, the ‘dragon’ mode feel like Dialga from Pokemon Diamond ๐
There is quite lots of Gafran variation already.. so do you plan to get other too?
Never played Pokemon (and never will. lol) so dunno.
Why should I be getting colour variants?
I still can’t bring myself to like many of the Age mech designs. All the protagonist designs are boring homages to past Gundam series and they’ve gone the other extreme with the UE designs. With that said, the Gafran’s dragon mode does look better than the MS mode. Maybe if they abandoned their humanoid forms the designs could look even better.
I just watched AGE as there’s nothing much to watch. lol.
Typically, I just go and get kits with unique designs, and this is one of them. =D
Too bad there’s no beam saber blades for this kit…
I DID try to put on beam saber parts and… the socket is too small for them… OTL
that’s one nice blue dragon there ๐ and surely looks better in MS mode when the wings are made into wings
gonna see how Dorado stacks up on this (or Zeidra. or Kronos)
Yes, the MS looks better with the wings deployed.
Ohhh… The Dorado and Zeidra… Hmmm… Sorta wants… Mmm…
If you paint it metallic blue – it will look like my car ^__^
I wouldn’t do that… as something will happen to it in my future post. ๐
hmmm.. it looks :notbad:.
looks interesting :3
Make up your mind and click the comment button slowly. lol.
sorry.. xD cuz my line was slow.. so i taught it didn’t respond xD. not so sure how to delete my comment from here xD
cool! im going to get some of gundam age kits in the future. ๐
Oho. Make sure you get yourself some proper tools like cutter, hobby knife, fine grit sand paper and modelling cement. =)
Yes I already got the tools and actually am a Gunpla amateur hobbyist myself ๐
Oh and I added you to my blog roll! ๐
Oh~ Thanks. Likewise to your link. =)
Gafran definitely looks much better with the wings span out rather than folded in MS mode; the ‘skirts’ that it turn into when folded made it look less appealing to me, and perhaps also more bulky (but also clumsy in a way).
The dragon MA form is quite intimidating, which makes it seem more ‘alien’ like compared to ordinary designs. Somehow the head in the anime still looks more fearsome than in model form… I wonder whether that is just due to the lighting.
Model-wise I gotta say that there are some interesting designs and also in molding. For some reasons I like the way the tip of the toe flips out becoming the claws of the feet. Overall while this guy may not seem to fit in a Gundam universe, it’s definitely an interesting design. Will he make it to some of your comic-strip style sketches?
Agree on that. The wings folded limits a lot of posing, when opened up it looks more… intimidating. =)
Hence I go for the Gafran, the Zedas’s MA looks… uhh…. weak.
Since it is a 1/144 kit, there’s some limitation on the head’s detailing.
The Gafrans will be feature in my up coming post. =)
The MS design for the Age series is quite unusual indeed. Unique and very refreshing if I must say, but I still prefer the classic MS look ๐
Refreshing yes, as for the classic MS look, I have plenty of those already. =)
I might get the more advance versions of the gafran, probably those that turn up in age 2 and 3 keke. But it is definitely unique compared with previous enemies from other series.
But this kit does make a good candidate for kit bashing like what ZD is currently doing haha….
The future versions of Gafrans… Yes, those are also nice additions.
Ah, ZD is using the Zedas for his. =D
What next? A group of (not) alien grunts?
I might be getting the Zedas R or the Dorado anytime soon, but my priority now is getting the AGE-2 Normal and the RX-78-02 ORIGIN Ver.
To your first post, that might the case. =)
Ah yes the Dorado and the Zweira(sp?) are tempting targets and so does the AGE-2 normal type. =D
Dragon? My first though was “oh hey it transforms into a doggie”. It does have a sort of alien look to it. Can’t say I’m a fan of the Age suits though haha.
I think it looks better with the wings spread.
Doggie… *looks at the Gafran beast mode*
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight~ >.>
I’m simply getting because its very unique looking. =D
And yes, with wings opened, looks more intimidating.
you can use hguc beam sabers ,like the ones that came with GM2
Sadly, I don’t have a GM, GM-II or GM-III. Only their descendants, the Jegan, Jesta and ReZEL.