HGUniversal Century

RX-78AL Atlas Gundam Bandit Flower Ver.

A gorgeous, weird silhouette let down by an undercolored runner.

MechaGrade Score

3.4/5

Atlas Gundam Bandit Flower Ver. · 1/144 · 2018

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2018

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

I like this kit more for what it dares to look like than for what it is to build.

The Atlas throws out the bulky Thunderbolt armor formula and gives you a lean, almost insectile Gundam riding two huge banana shaped sub legs, and that alone makes it worth a shelf spot. But this is a kit you have to finish yourself with paint or markers, because Bandai left a lot of the yellow, grey, and navy detail off the plastic and expects decals and imagination to do the rest.

Best for: Thunderbolt fans and painters who want a distinctive silhouette and don't mind finishing the color job themselves

The full review

What it is

This is the P-Bandai Bandit Flower reissue of the Atlas Gundam from Gundam Thunderbolt, flown by Io Fleming and Bianca Carlyle, and it swaps the usual Thunderbolt bulk for something genuinely different. Instead of another armored brawler you get a thin, athletic frame strapped to two oversized sub legs that fold down into a flight or submarine configuration and can clip onto the feet or the shield. The double jointed knees and a triple jointed neck give it more range than I expected from a suit this ungainly looking, and once assembled it stands out on a shelf of standard HGs just by silhouette alone.

The catch

The color molding is the real letdown. Bandai left off a huge amount of the small yellow chest and joint accents, the grey vents on the legs, forearms and shoulders, and the navy blue on the sub arms, so out of the box this kit looks flat and incomplete next to the box art. The waterslide decals for the special Bandit Flower markings help but do not fully cover the gap, and this bandai online shop exclusive typically runs at a premium over a standard release HG for what is still a fairly light parts count. The sub leg banana pods also only get a few points of articulation and their movement is limited by how they connect at the waist, so posing them dynamically takes some fighting.

Who it's for

Buy this one if you already have some Gundam markers or panel line paint on hand and you want a Thunderbolt suit that does not look like every other Thunderbolt suit. It rewards a little extra finishing work with a shelf piece that genuinely looks like nothing else in the line. Skip it if you want a clean out of the box color match or if you are hunting for a first kit, since the payoff here depends entirely on how much detailing you are willing to put in, and the sub legs will frustrate anyone chasing dynamic action poses straight from the box.

The build story

What the build is actually like, and the engineering worth knowing about.

The build itself moves quickly and the leg assemblies are the highlight, with a more complete inner frame than you'd expect and well articulated feet and ankles carrying the double jointed knees. Gate placement is typical HG fare and cleanup is painless, but you feel the missing color the moment you start snapping the torso and sub arms together, since so much of the small detailing that should be molded in is just left bare plastic waiting on a marker.

Where the kit earns its keep is the neck and knee articulation and the novelty of the sub legs, which fold flush against the body for a flight mode and a submarine mode, and can also mount to the feet or clip onto the oversized shield for different display configurations. The remolded shield and compact rail cannon in this version add some accessory variety over the standard release, though the sub leg pods themselves only offer a handful of articulation points and their range is capped by their waist connectors.

Lore & trivia

01The RX-78AL Atlas Gundam appears in the manga Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt and its anime adaptation, piloted at different points by Io Fleming and Bianca Carlyle.
02The Bandit Flower Ver. is a Bandai Hobby Online Shop (P-Bandai) exclusive release from 2018 that reworks the standard Atlas Gundam kit with a remodeled shield, a more compact rail cannon, altered verniers, and new waterslide decals for the Bandit Flower unit's markings.
03The suit's most distinctive feature, its pair of huge banana shaped 'sub legs', can fold to attach at the feet or the shield, letting the kit switch between a bipedal stance, a flight mode, and a submarine mode.