Nothing denotes power better than showing up out of no where, machine gun blazing and making a bunch of Mocks explode is spectacular fashion. The Gouf R35‘s grand entrance peaked my interest in the Gunpla and after hearing that there is a kit for it, I wasted no time to make it my next acquisition.

Mr. Ral’s Gouf R35 was one of the last newly designed Gunpla to be introduced in the first season of Gundam Build Fighter, appearing in the last episode to help the gang of protagonists from a seemingly infinite amount of Mocks. You get a sense that Mr. Ral’s Gunpla battle abilities are nothing to be trifled with during the series, but it wasn’t until the last episode that you see just how powerful he can be. Oh, and he shows it, annihilating fields of Mocks as the Gouf R35 and a modified Master Gundam perform a combo attack that parts insanity and pure awesomeness.

Mobile Suit Design

The Gouf R35 is based on Ramba Ral‘s Gouf in the original Gundam series. While largely identical, there are some noticeable differences. The R35’s snout is shorter, has different lower leg design and the armaments along with the backpack are of new design as well.

The Gunpla is mostly blue with a clear orange piece for the belly and a pink sticker for the mono eye. Upon close inspection, you’ll notice that there’s actually two shades of blue, with the lighter shades covering the thighs, feet, arms, the piping and part of its shields. Dark and light gray is also used in limited parts of the body.

On paper, the Gouf R35 might look plain and simple, but once build and inspected closely, this kit can offer up some pretty sightly visuals.

Build Process

The building of this kit is run of the mill for the most part. Though it is interesting to note that the front skirt armour is not attached to the crotch piece, but rather to the side skirt armour. This allows the armour to separate as the leg moves upwards.

The most glaring negative about the build process is the unsightly seam line on the pauldrons. Nothing can be done regarding this unless plastic cement and good amount of sanding is applied.

The kit make use of very little stickers, the pink mono eye and the gray section on top of the wrist guns are the only places where stickers are provided for, though one could skip the gray sections since they are covered up by the shields.

Since the kit uses mostly shades of blue, panel lining is recommended to bring out the details that adorn the suit, otherwise be lost in the light colour, especially the piping on the head and waist.

Articulation

Typically, Zeon Mobile Suits and any design derived form it tend to have poor articulation due to its bulky and stocky nature, but the Gouf R35 breaks this mold.

Starting off the the head, a movable mono eye is contained within, allowing it to shift from left to right. The head itself has good up and down tilting, rotate 360 degrees and tilts side to side. The shoulders can also be brought towards the front thanks to the its ball joint socket having a swinging joint. The pauldrons can swivel upwards to avoid colliding with the head as the shoulders move upwards of 90 degrees. The biceps can swivel and elbows are attached with a double joint, allowing them to bend a bit past 90 degrees due to forearm and bicep armour colliding. Lastly, the hands use a ball joint to attach to the arms, so tilting can be done at all angles.

There’s not much of movement available for the waist as the skirt armour restricts rotation. Though some stomach movement can be pulled off, the articulation is minuscule.

The legs of the Gouf R35 offer a hip swivel and since the kit uses a bar that runs across the crotch to attach the legs, one hip can be brought up a bit while the other hip moves in the opposite direction. While the legs can be brought up very high and can do the splits, the skirt armour hinders these movements.

With the skirt armour attached, the Gouf R35 can barely make a 90 degree lift of the legs and splits can only be done up to 45 degrees outward. On the other hand, even though the lower leg section looks bulky, the knees still fully utilize the double joint, giving it a very good bend at the knees.

Lastly, the foot is attached by ball joint inside the heel and a rotating joint inside the legs, giving it a full range of motions. The foot itself also houses a heel joint, allowing it to tilt forwards at an extreme angle. All this means that the kit will have very good stability while posing.

While not possessing the articulation shown in the Star Build Strike, due to armour pieces colliding with each other, the Gouf R35 can still hold its own in terms of pulling off poses.

Accessories

The accessories for this kit is rather sparse but integrate into the Gunpla itself very well. To start off, there are two arm mounted machine gun. Each has five barrels with two of them being able to rotate downwards. Two shields are also provided to attached to the machine guns or, be attached to directly to the arms, if the guns are removed.

For melee options, the Gouf R35 comes with two hilts that can attache clear orange heat blades. When not in use, the blades can be detached and the hilts be stored on the legs, which provides a swing out mechanism to avoid bumping into the body. With the heat sabers held in hand, it’s best to remove the arm machine gun and shield combo to avoid any collisions The other melee weapon is a heat rod that can be help by the right hand only because it needs to be plugged into a slot available in the right forearm. The heat rod itself is malleable, allowing you to bend and shape it as you please.

The last accessory that the Gouf R35 has are two backpack attachments, providing the kit with additional boosters. It also comes with several adapters that allows these attachments to work on other Gunpla kits.

The Gouf R35’s accessories fit well into the Gundam Build Fighter’s design philosophy, taking inspiration from the original Mobile Suit and giving it a cool makeover. They also fit very well into the kit itself, with the hear sabers storing in the legs and the shield/machine gun combo firmly attached to the forearms.

Personal Modifications

Aside from panel lining various parts of the body, my personal Gouf R35 was top coated with Testor’s Dullcote to remove any shine form the kit. While looking great, after playing with the kit for a while and positioning it in different poses, the coat is starting to wear off. I’m planning to fully remove the coat in the future and leave it in its original gloss finish.

Final Verdict

GET IT!! I mean, have you seen how bad ass it was in the final episode of Gundam Build FIghters?!?! But in all seriousness, despite its armour pieces hindering some articulation, this is a great kit. There are no loose parts and holding poses will not be an issue. The subtle colour variation of blue use on the kit looks great up close and from afar, the kit provides a very distinct silhouette. All this packaged in, the Gouf R35 can be a pretty cheap kit to buy if you know where to look. It’s currently priced at around $20 on Amazon.ca. If Gundam Build Fighter kits are not your flavour, you’ll be please to know that a remold of the original Gouf kit is out on store shelves. It uses most of the parts from Gouf R35 so it retains all of its articulations while providing some extra pieces, such as the machine gun hand, to convert it into the original Gouf.

TL;DR

Pros

Different shades of blue.

Good articulation, especially the feet.

Accessories fit well on the kit and are unique looking.

Movable mono eye.

Cons

Armour pieces can hinder articulation.

Arm machine guns need to be removed in order the the heat sabers to be fully utilized.

Seam lines on the pauldrons.