HGUC 1/144 Nu Gundam HWS (FA-93HWS)

Spent most of my time last Sunday (25 October 2009) working on this kit and here it is now...

HGUC 1/144 Nu Gundam HWS Shewsbury Custom.

For 2,800 yen (about SGD 43.00) before shipment charges, this is indeed a great value for money because eventually you will get the Nu Gundam part and weapons plus those extra heavy armor and heavy weapon parts of the HWS.

Now would this affect the sales of the original HGUC 1/144 Nu Gundam kit which was released in June 2008 - That is indeed an interesting question...

The HGUC 1/144 Nu Gundam is at 2,500 yen (about SGD 39.00) and if you add a little bit more you will get this bigger box of HGUC 1/144 Nu Gundam HWS...

In my opinion, maybe it could but maybe also not... This is probably because there are still many people out there who never like or never wanted the HWS... though many also would love to get the HWS... a matter of preferences really and for Bandai, which ever model you prefer, it doesn't really matter coz they basically use the same runners of Nu Gundam and just a add little bit of the so called full armor and heavy weapon stuff and that's about it... what ever choose Bandai is happy.

As for me, I already have the HGUC Nu Gundam but I still don't mind to get this HWS set because I have some great idea to make the variation looks more interesting and a little bit different then the normal Nu Gundam...

The box...


Quite a lot of runners for a HG kit... a lazy man like me feels a little intimidated by just looking at all the runners...


This is how it should look like...


And this is how the Shewsbury Custom look like...


No Fin Funnel? Where is the Fin Funnel?




And now it has 2 beam saber at the back... that means this Nu Gundam will have 3 beam saber including the one hidden on the left arm...





Let's throw away all the weapons and look at the body first...









Articulation wise... well, after you put all those additional armors not much to talk about anymore...


Obstruction from the rear skirt/armor....


Though you can still perform some other simple articulation test...




The leg's extra armor parts...



Front skirt armor parts...


With that 2 thing on the shoulder (its a small missile launcher actually)... eventually that prevent the head from turning left and right.... andother articulation point is lost there...


The rear skirt armor


As for the weapons... you still get the same Hyper Bazooka and Beam Rifle while the new addition is the Hyper Mega Rifles (the one in the middle) ...


And of coz you will get the additional Hi-Mega Shield together with the standard shield of the Nu Gundam.



I'm not sure if this is a bazooka or a speed booster...



Such a simple attachment method to combine both of the shield...



And you will get the large beam saber plus 1 small beam saber and since this is a Shewsbury Custom I give the Nu Gundam 1 more extra unit of large beam saber...


This thing only looks cool when you pose him standing firm with all those heavy stuff... when it comes to action pose, not much to do really...



At this stage, I'm glad that I don't attached any Fin Funnels on him... at least I managed to minimize or reduce some of the obstructions...






The Shewsbury Custom... he now have 2 large beam saber to use...












So if you want to know what happen with the Fin Funnels... this is it;


My other unit of Nu Gundam now become "Nu Gundam Full Set Funnels Shewsbury Custom" or something like that...


With 6 Fin Funnels, the Nu Gundam is already a superior battle machine and if you have 12 Fin Funnels on him - that means "over kill"...


So now do you think you still want the Hi Nu Gundam?


This kind of low level modification idea of mine, actually nothing great about it... with this modification now this Nu Gundam only have 1 beam saber (on his left arm) and at the same time those Fin Funnels are quite heavy and you really need to adjust the leg angle properly if you want to make him standing firm showing off all those Fin Funnels at the back...


And just like Strike Freedom or Freedom Gundam or even Wing Gundam... once you have something at the back... the best way to display them is on the action base...


So there you are now... 2 units of Nu Gundam with different customization....


Another option for the Nu Gundam HWS is that you can remove the extra armors parts and just use the normal Nu Gundam body while still retaining the Hyper Mega Rifle and Hi-Mega Shield...


At the end... it's a matter of personal taste... can you imagine how annoying it would be with that huge size Hi-Mega Shield and Fin Funnels on the left of the Nu Gundam body ?




Overall, this is indeed a nice HGUC kit from Bandai... in my opinion, Nu Gundam kit is quite advance if compared to other older HGUC kit though it's not quite fair to compare them directly due to the magnificent creativity and technological improvement within Bandai GunPlaMo divisions since the last 8 or 9 years ago. When I work with this kit (and the previous unit of Nu Gundam kit) I always feel amaze at the details and the improvement that I can see. It is really a great experience working with the modern HGUC kits.

So back to the question;

HGUC Nu Gundam HWS or HGUC Nu Gundam

Which one should you buy?

I would say, buy both of them and then buy the Hi Nu Gundam as well.

You can also read about out HGUC Nu Gundam in here and also in here.