HGPG Panda'gguy Review

I never really got into the whole "Petit'gguys are the best" thing. I didn't like the idea of the Beargguy and it's variants that much to begin with, and it's pretty much the same story for the Petit'gguys, but I always felt a bit tempted to buy one and check out how good they were due to all the love they got on the sub. But when someone recommended it to me, while the new Panda'gguy was just released, I just decided "screw it, lets see how great they really are".

Box:

Boxart is your average Build Fighters small box. You get a very cute and simple art of the Panda'gguy holding his little bamboo stick. You also get pictures of the various expressions you can give him with stickers.

Parts:

For parts, it's actually not a complete copy of the older Petit'gguys. This kit gets completely new runners unique to him. You first get a white one...

...a black one...

...and finally a green one.

You also get a very simply ball polycap sheet in translucent white plastic.

You also get a sticker sheet completely in white. All the stickers are therefore...white, and you get one pait of each expression, meaning you can only pick one expression for each build.

Manual:

The manual is a very simple foldout manual. You get instructions, part count, compatibility gimmicks, and color guide. The color guide is more simple in the way that you don't get any images of how the colors actually are, and the only source of colors is in Japanese. A bit unfortunate if you don't read Japanese, then again most of the kit is white/black. All you really need to worry about is the green.

Completed Product:

The completed product is great for what it is. You won't need much work to make a good straightbuild as the kit is quite simple. If anything, panel lining the stomach is all you'll need. Most stickers on this kit are optional, and it all really depends on what expression you want to give the kit. By default, the kit only requires it's two beady eyes for stickers, everything else are just expressions. If you want a more expressive expression, you got squint eyes, angry eyes, a forehead vein sticker, and a sweat drop sticker.

Articulation:

His head moves to the side quite decently.

The ears on his head are on pegs, so you can turn those if you wanted to.

Despite how it may look, his head movement is quite limited in the forward/backward department. That's all you can get for both forward and backward.

His shoulder joint doesn't go up a lot, and it's not because of the giant head but instead due to how the joints are designed.

His arm is just one solid piece so the shoulder is the only part of the arm that moves.

His legs can move up at the thigh, but they can only come up at an angle as shown in this picture, they are unable to go up straight. There is no knee joint or thigh swivel here.

The only other point of articulation in the legs are it's little feet that can pivot very slightly.

Accessories:

He honestly doesn't come with a lot, but it's an improvement over the normal Petit'gguy.

First of his two accessories is his bamboo stick.

It simply plugs into the hole in his hand, and there you go. I like to assume it's some sort of stick weapon.

The other thing you get is his green puzzle piece stand.

Unlike normal kits, the Petit'gguys do not have a butt-plug, and have their stand holes in their back, meaning that this stand is essentially non-compatible with other kits. You can plug it into the butt if an HG, but it's too low to the ground for any real dynamic posing.

It works fine for him though.

Gimmicks:

The main gimmick of the Petit'gguy line is compatibility with most things from the HGBC line. Using adaptors and the universal 3mm peg holes in his back and hands, you can give him a lot of customisation options. As an example, i'll be using parts from my HGBC Portent Flyer, the only kit I have from that line.

This specific use is one shown on the box. I'm using one of the t-adaptors to plug two smaller wings into the backpack, all which use the 3mm peg connection.

To put things on his back, take off the little bow on his back to reveal his 3mm hole before plugging in the wings.

Now he can fly!

Verdict:

It's definitely a more unique HG kit. It's small, cheap, and has SD-like proportions. Yet, despite the cheap price, i'd say that SD's are more worth your money than this. Sure, the Panda'gguy doesn't have hollow parts, but it's got a very small amount of articulation, articulation that the Ex-Standard line definitely trumps, and while it's got a lot of compatibility with the HGBC line, it's not got a lot of stuff on it's own, and not many people buy kits from the HGBC line in the first place. However, that's also where it's strength lies: customisability. It's quite a blank canvas compared to most other HG's, cheap, hollow in most areas, and therefore easy to customise. You can scribe it, line it, give it pla-plate and with the uses of the HGBC line, you can give it tones of other accessories to make it even better. Hell, you can buy an army of these guys and using the HGBC line, you can give them each their own unique get-up with weapons. However, if you want to buy this alone, i'd pass on it unless you are a huge fan of these little unique guys. Normal SD kits are quite a bit better in my opinion, you get more accessories, more articulation (despite barely having any), and they are more closer to your classic Gundam. I'd recommend this only to people who want a blank canvas to start customising techniques, people who want to army build this kit while using their extra parts from previous HGBC purchases, really small children learning to build Gunpla, and people want something a little more unique ob their shelf.

Pros:

- Has compatibility with the HGBC line for many possible customs.

- Blank canvas for practicing techniques.

Cons:

- Barely any articulation.

- Not many accessories.

- Not a lot of bang for the buck, despite the low price.