A darn good early 2019 kit

I realized that right after I was done with the Megami Device kit last week, that I really haven’t done any proper review on this year gunpla releases. Looking back, the latest gunpla that I’ve worked on was really the HGUC Dijeh, but even then it was a kit that technically released late last year, so it wasn’t really a 2019 kit.

In which it does make me feel really bad because to be really frank with all of you here, there are really alot of very interesting gunpla releases this year and yes I do hope that from this week onwards I would be able to cover all of the ones that I’ve missed.

Which is why when I first started with this kit, I was genuinely happy that I finally catching up to the years Gunpla releases. Especially when I get to take on a kit that was a part of this year’s earlier releases and one that I would find towards the end of the build to be one of the very best kits that I’ve worked on this year…

Oh before I forget, its Kimi here and today I will be doing a review of the HG 1/144 AMX-104 R-Jarja (HGUC).

But before we get to the review, let us first go through some of the awesome histories of this famed Neo-Zeon prototype MS, shall we?

The history and development of the AMX-104 R-Jarja

Model name:

AMX-104

Classification:

Prototype Commander-Use Close Quarters Combat Mobile Suit

Weapon systems:

Beam Saber

Variable Shield

3 Tube Shoulder Missle pods

Beam Rifle w/ Heat Bayonet Attachment

Height:

23.55m

Armour Material:

Gundarium Alloy

Powerplant:

Minovsky Ultracompact Fusion Reactor (2,320 kW)

Total Thrust:

16,200kg

5 x 11,200kg

Effective Sensor Radius:

13,700 m

Crew:

1 pilot

The Gyan was most probably one of the best MS that was developed by the Principality of Zeon during the One Year War conflict. It was one of the only MS that was said to have given the Legendary Gundam, a run for its money.

Although it was one of many Principality of Zeon Prototype MS that failed to overcome the legendary Earth Federation MS. But the fact remains that it was one of the only MS that really managed to hold its ground well against the Gundam. It was something that many in the Principality thought was a step in the right direction in their pursuit of overcoming the Federation MS.

Unfortunately, the end of the One Year war as well marks the end of further development of the Gyan’s design, even the federation looking at the design wasn’t as interested in picking up where the Gyan Design team left off. Well, that is up until the rise of the Neo Zeon. Seeing on how there was a huge demand for a much more specialized Commander unit MS for the Neo Zeon units, they decided to dig up pick up where the Gyan design team left off with the Gyan’s design and decided to further improve the base Gyan design.

In which gives birth to the latest iteration of the Gyan, the Neo-Zeon’s AMX-104 R-Jarja.

The reason why they decided to go down that route is that the Neo Zeon engineers were so impressed with the said data that they decided to continue on with further developing the YMS-15 Gyan’s design. When I say ‘further developing’, What I mean is that they took the Gyan’s existing Base and just refurbish it. They Gave the Gyan some new sensor system which would enable it to house the new panoramic cockpit system, they as well gave the ‘Gundarium Ally’ armor treatment and they as well gave it alot more thrusters over what the original Gyan had.

Which is why the R-Jarja, just like the MS which it was based on was an MS that specializes in close quarters combat. All the upgrades and improvements that were made was to ensure that the R-Jarja is able to compete against newer MS models. Like for an instance, the increase of said thruster was a change to ensure the MS is able to outperform or go head to head with all the current MS at the time or in the near future. Even the panoramic cockpit upgrade is something that was still used as a standard system.

So in a way, from what I’m seeing here it seems to me like the Neo-Zeon learning from their observations of the Federation’s Gundam, looks like they are really trying to future proof the R-Jarja.

Although unlike the Gyan, the R-Jarja isn’t equipped with a mounted shield. Instead, it was equipped with two variable shield unit which is mounted on both sides of the R-Jarja’s shoulder units. The very moveable shoulder attached variable shield unit was said when needed the shield is able to partially cover the important parts on the front and the back of the R-Jarja.

But even with that said, it is not to say that they completely ditched the Gyan Sheild concept here. Because just like the Gyan’s Shield the Variable shield isn’t just used only for defensive purposes, it was as well used for offensive measures. On top of the R-Jarja shoulder armor, there are three tube missile pods that were outfitted on both sides which had the same functions as the Gyan’s shield missile pod. But unlike the Gyan, the R-jarja is equipped with a proper Beam Rifle for medium to close range engagements.

It wasn’t known on how many AMX-104 R-Jarja’s was developed during the First Neo Zeon war, since there isn’t alot a confirm R-Jarja sightings. However there was one known unit was operating during this time period, the one R-Jarja that was piloted by Chara Soon. The reason why Chara Soon’s unit was the one most well-documented one is because of her exploits against the Gundam Team during the First Neo-Zeon War.

One of the most notable incident during the many confrontations with the A.E.U.G’s Gundam Team, the R-Jarja unit which was piloted by Chara Soon managed to assist the Mashymre Cello’s Hamma Hamma in severely damage the Judau Astha’s Zeta Gundam.

Even though during the incident the Zeta was outnumbered two to one, but the Zeta was known to be one of the most agile and technologically advanced MS even going into the First Neo Zeon conflict. So it was quite impressive that an old refurbished One Year War MS design manage to go par on a par with a new technologically advanced MS.

However, due to Chara Soon’s instability as a pilot. The unit was said to be lost during a confrontation in the Moon Moon colony. Although it was as well said to be rumored to have been spotted right after the Laplace Incident, though this is not confirmed by any official Federation Sources. But it was rumored to have been able to again outclass a Gundam unit. But this time it was said to have all done it by itself without another MS to assist it.

Really, it just proves to show that even well after the end of the Second Neo Zeon War this MS still continues to impress. Though looking at how impressive this design was, it makes me wonder what if Char was to instead pilot the Gyan, would it have made a huge difference during his many confrontations against the Gundam?

Hmm….

With that thought let me end the review section and move on to the review part of this review, shall we?

The Review

I think out of all the 2019 released kit that I haven’t worked on, the HGUC R-Jarja was the one gunpla that I was really glad that I decided on for my first 2019 build. From the point I got this and as well all the way through when I first unboxed it, I really had a feeling back then that I’m onto something that would really end up making me smile to no end.

True enough, this HGUC kit really managed to be one of the best kits that I worked on this year. It was both fun and challenging. But best of all it was really something that even after I complete it, made me think about it constantly.

It’s not often I come across a kit like this, especially with HGUC kits.

Though I do admit that the kit itself is nothing special. When it comes down to design, it feels more like you are building a more traditional HGUC kit. What I mean by traditional is that there is alot of polycaps used here than on all the other modern HG or HGUC kits that I’ve worked on and there is not alot of inner frame system that is used here which would be more quite common to see nowadays on the modern HGUC kit.

Though admittedly, even with that said all the HGUC R-Jarja parts all fit well here and even though there are a few sections in the kit that had some nub issue. But all of them bad nubs are usually hidden away well that one might not even notice it was there in the first place.

Even though it is a more traditionally designed HGUC kit, I do admit that out of all the HGUC kits that I’ve worked on, this was one HGUC kit that I was really had me scratching my head for at first.

The reason being for that is for something that is released in 2019, I really don’t understand why there are alot of uncolored sections on some of the major parts. regardless of how they designed it, it is more common nowadays to see more and more kit that had better color separation in HGUC kits. Although I don’t really expecting all of the R-Jarja individual parts to look on point. But at the very least I was expecting to just do simple touch up work to make all of them look a bit decent at least.

I wasn’t expecting to have whole sections to paint when I got this.

The thing is I understand why I need to do so on certain sections of the kit, but what I don’t get is that there were a few sections where I feel it really didn’t line up with the rest of the kit. Because I feel like they could just have had that section comes with another separate part. Somehow rather it almost feels like I’m working on an old HGUC design more than a new one.

So I decided to do some digging, and sure enough, I found out that this HGUC design isn’t really particularly a new design. As funny as it may sound, I traced the origins of this kit to the HGBF line. More specifically it was from the Gundam Build Fighters TRY HGBF R-Gyaga.

Yes, the first iteration of this design of this kit comes from a kit that was a creation that was made from the back then not yet existed HGUC R-Jarja as a base of it. It was a bit mindblowing when I figure that out if I were, to be frank. But at the same time, it kind of explains why on some sections of this kit feels a bit dated.

But I’m not Implying that the dates bits on this kit are bad, no, because despite the age I would still admit that the ‘old dated’ bits were pretty well molded and honestly it was a good kit to base the HGUC R-Jarja on. It’s just that I wished that they would improve it and make it better for the newer iteration.

But even with that said, it’s not like struggling with it or anything. Because I do feel like all the unpainted sections are pretty easy to work on, the spaces are quite large and spacious which does, in turn, make mistakes or overpainting issues easier to address. Even though I do admit that some sections are tricky for those that are new to the hobby, but I don’t think it’s an impossible task if you do take the time to address them.

Even if you are not planning to paint the kit up. Worry not, because even in its unpainted state the kit still looks darn good. Though yes you might be a bit distracted with the lack of colors at certain sections but overall even without any major work done to them I still do feel like the HGUC R-Jarja looks frickking amazing.

Even the articulation of this kit is amazing. Though I do admit I wasn’t that confident that it would have great articulation at first, because of the variable shield. I thought that the variable Shield would hamper alot of the arms articulations of the R-Jarja, not to mention that It would as well make the kit a bit not too balanced. So imagine my surprise to see that that isn’t really the case.

Because despite its huge nature, the shield doesn’t really hamper much with the arms articulation or messed with the stability of the kit. In fact, I do think as long as the poses that you have in mind is quite reasonable, you can pull it off well even without a stand. The kit was really stable and I was pleasantly surprised that you really ask the kit to do whatever poses that you have in mind without having many issues here.

But that is as long you chose not to use the beam rifle. Because out of all things that I would imagine to hamper the articulation of the arm unit. The beam rifle isn’t one that I imagine that would hurt the articulation the most. Due to its large size, it hampers alot with the articulation of the HGUC R-Jarja’s arms, because it kept bumping the R-Jarja’s shoulders and what made it even worse is that the R-Jarja’s beam rifle shoulder rest forces me to fix the arm to one singular position.

But even with that said, the poses that you can pull off with the beam rifle attached is still really awesome and to be fair, the beam rifle itself does look damn good. So it wasn’t really an issue, to be honest.

Speaking of looks, the HGUC R-Jarja is without a doubt one of the best looking HGUC kits that I have the pleasure of building this year. I just love how menacing and imposing the kit looked. Even though alot of the MS design that I see featured in the ZZ Gundam looked a bit goofy and super robot-ish, the same cannot be said for the R-Jarja because I do feel out of all the MS designs that I see in the series (except for all the hand me downs from the Zeta period) this was probably one of the most ‘conventional’ MS designs out of all.

Overall, the HGUC R-Jarja is an awesome HGUC to get, even though it is a kit with an existing base but it is one that I feel alot of you here would be able to enjoy working on. I highly recommend this to those seeking a bit of challenge to their gunpla building and as well looking to improve on your gunpla painting skills.

Frankly, if this is how good the start of the year releases are..I really can’t wait to see what to come next in my 2019 Gunpla journey.

With that ends the review for the HG 1/144 AMX-104 R-Jarja (HGUC). What do you think of both the kit and the review for this HGUC kit? Do you share the same thoughts with us or do you think that this kit could’ve been better?

Another week, with another awesome kit, I really do hope the good times keep on coming because right now I’m really on a good gunpla roll here. Am really looking forward to more 2019 kits, and looking at how awesome this kit is. I will not be surprised to see more and more awesome kits this year.

I really do hope I would have the time to cover them all, haha….

Anyways, we will be back again this week more Let’s Talk Gunpla Segment on the coming Wednesday and we will be back as well on the coming Sunday with a new unboxing or review! So, do look forward to that!

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We hope by sharing our love and passion for gunplas here, it’ll inspire you to pick up the hobby or reignite your love for gunpla!

Anyways, we shall see all of you again next week, and we hope that you all have an awesome week and weekend ahead! Have an awesome Gunpla building time there as well and until next time!

Ciao!