HGAGE AGE-2 Double Bullet Review

Not much story about this guy, there was a question on r/Gunpla about your favorite HG kit from each subline, and through this I revealed that I had not built an HGAGE kit yet. Because of this, a friend on r/Gunpla said that I was missing out a bit as HGAGE kits are really good, I knew this for a long time but for some reason, felt more compelled to get one. So I just went to my local hobby store, picked this guy up because he had my most interest, and began to build.

Box:

The boxart is your standard HGAGE boxart, you get the white background, with a shot of the AGE-2 Double Bullet wielding his Twin DODS cannons with his large beam sabers in action on the right, and info of the kit on the left. You also see the AGE-2 Double Bullet in his transformed mode on the top left corner.

Parts:

You get a decent amount of plastic in this kit. First is a multi-colored runner...

...two grey runners...

...a small red runner, and a white runner.

You also get beam saber effect parts and polycaps. I would've liked another larger set of beam effect parts for the Large Beam sabers on the shoulders like on the MG, but whatever.

You also get a sticker sheet, quite simple if you asked me.

Manual:

The manual shows information of the pilot and the MS in Japanese and the fact that it transform. Besides that, it's just your average manual that has instructions, part count, and the all useful color guide.

Completed Product:

OOB, the kit doesn't miss much in terms of colors. The only thing i'd recommend is panel lining the forehead before you add the stickers, the kit's head will look a bit bland and anime inaccurate without that. Besides that, an OOB build is pretty much perfect.

Articulation:

Head articulation is on a standard double ball-jointed neck.

Arms will get limited by the DODs Cannons on his shoulderpads, but you can just swing them to the side like I did for this image. After that, it's pretty decent.

Arm can swivel at the bicep and elbow joint is about a 150˚, not bad, I think it's good.

Waist does have a bit of side movement, and if you pull his torso up like how you do for transformation, he has an abcrunch.

His ankle rockers are Barbatos-level good, and the side skirts move out of the way easily, only real thing that will prevent a full split is the giant back skirt. Besides that, no thigh issues whatsoever.

Backskirt does move back a little bit, which is definitely something that more kits should do but sadly don't.

Thighs have a swivel and knees are double jointed and are only hindered by the armor. Although, a 170˚ bend is great enough in my book.

The toe also moves a bit due to transformation, but it's a bit useless in terms of articulation. XP

Accessories:

He's got a nice amount of accessories, although the fact that you only get one open hand for the left hand is a bit disappointing.

I would've traded the closed vists for an open hand any way, It's also worthy to note that the open hand is at an angle for some reason.

The best accessory is the stand, you can turn it around 360˚ like I did in this picture. Unfortunately, the image of the stand in it's normal state got corrupted.

You can even store the extra hands under it, how convenient!

The AGE-2 does have a little piece of plastic covering the hole. If you want to pop the kit on the stand, there is a little groove when you remove the part from the waist to remove it.

After that, we have liftoff.

He gets a cool pair of flat beam sabers, however the hilts don't store anywhere on the MS.

You can also take the Twin DODs cannons off the binders to wield in the hand.

Just flip down the handle and put them in his hands.

You can even put the beam saber effect parts inside the binders for the "Large Beam Sabers", however since the effect part is a re-used one, it just looks like a pair of normal beam sabers. It's disappointing, but I can live with it.

His final accessory is the transformation block that allows him to transform into his Flight Mode.

Transformation:

First, you take off the legs and the part that connects the legs to the waist from each other.

If you take the little part that covers the hole, you can store these two parts on the stand as well! Very good stand if I do say so myself!

After that, you flip the arms back, pull out the torso, and flip that to the back too. This allows the head to sink down into the chest a bit more.

After you do that, the top half should look like this.

Then, you bend the legs backwards and flip the toes down before connecting it to the transformation block.

You then attach it to the bottom of the top part, and align the hands with the legs.

After that, flip out the small missiles on the back of the legs.

Finally, flip down the sideskirt fins, and turn the DODs Cannons to face the front. Congratulations, it's in Flight Mode now!

You can also plug it into the stand with the standard little peghole.

Here we go. A lot of people don't really like the look of this alt mode and I can completely understand why, it doesn't look sleek or stylish in any way. However, i'm personally fine with it, because Gundam Mobile suits are usually designed with the MS modes in mind, transforming or not. Plus, logically, it doesn't need to look good to be useful. It's a mobile suit that can transform to move and high speeds, it does it's job, and that's all that really matters in the end.

You should also note that when displayed on this stand, it is a bit slanted.

Verdict:

The HGAGE AGE-2 Double Bullet is a great HG kit. It honestly doesn't have many weaknesses, sure the Giant Beam Saber effect parts would've been nice, and the Flight Mode definitely isn't for everyone. Yet, that's all the real negatives I can think of this guy. Articulation is great, it'a a nice build and it looks very good OOB. Even for an HG, it barely misses any color apps save for the black on his forehead, and even that's fixable with some panel lining. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who is interested, fans of transforming kits, fans of AGE (as sparce as they are), and fans of the MS. Even if you're just interested in this kit, pick this one up, from what i'm seeing, HGAGE kits really are that good.

Pros:

- Transformation is very smooth and simple to do, not a lot of partsforming as well. (!)

- Comes with a stand that can store extra hands and left out parts when transformed. (!)

- Great articulation.
- Very sturdy kit, lots of fun posing with the stand and poseability. 

Cons:

- Could've come with effect parts for the Giant Beam Sabers.

- Alt mode isn't for everyone.