Review: HGCE Infinite Justice Gundam

With Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE’s Gundam Justice Knight, fans of Gundam SEED Destiny had their hopes up for an update to the 1/144 Infinite Justice Gundam. Thankfully, it seems they didn’t have to wait too long! The HGCE Infinite Justice Gundam was released to celebrate its anime’s 15th anniversary, but does this Gunpla do its anime appearance justice? Contributor Marc Rivera gives his opinion on the model kit that’s Ignited his interest for Gundam SEED.

First Impressions

Though I’ve never watched any Gundam SEED, the mobile suits of Gundam’s Cosmic Era have always been interesting to me. From reimaginings of classics like the Zaku Warrior to the unique Astray Red-Frame, I’ve been tempted to dip my feet into the vast ocean that was Gundam SEED’s plethora of anime, manga, and model kits. With the release of the HGCE Infinite Justice Gundam, I’ve jumped into the deep end!

With the first episode of Gundam SEED playing on my TV and a stack of runners on my table, I was eager to start a new series and a new model. First impressions on both: there were no polycaps in this Gunpla, and I’ll have to keep watching for a long time to see the Infinite Justice, as it is actually in the sequel series Gundam SEED Destiny. While I wasn’t too invested in the anime, the Gunpla had me excited because I’ve had some great experiences with HGs that lacked polycaps.

Color and Design

Probably the most standout aspect of this Gundam is its color scheme. Unlike the Strike, Destiny, and Force Impulse, which each sport very Gundam-esque palettes of whites, blues, and reds, the Infinite Justice comes in its striking set of magenta, white, and silver accents. 

Just as notable as the kit’s colors is its color accuracy! The kit is nearly entirely color accurate, with parts separation all the way from the green stripe on its chest to the multitude of colors on the backpack. It even has color accurate CIWS (vulcan guns) on the head! The only exceptions are the yellow center of its shield, magenta accents on its weapons, and the center of the chest vents. The latter of these issues can be easily fixed with a black marker, and all inaccuracies but the beam sabers can be corrected with stickers. Also, as with any High Grade, the sensors on the head are foil stickers.

Of particular note is the use of metal injection in the silver pieces that make up the Gundam’s frame and accents. Rather than using the standard dark grey found in the joints of nearly all High Grade Gunpla, it uses shimmery plastic akin to that of the Hyaku Shiki Revive or Phenex, giving it a glittery sheen to imitate the look of its Phase Shift Armor. However, unlike those golden Gunpla, the Infinite Justice’s glitter is only surface deep, meaning that nub marks can leave unsightly black spots, which are especially noticeable on the elbow joints. Thankfully, the color of these pieces roughly matches that of a silver Gundam Marker. A few touch-ups and (from a distance) the blemishes are as good as gone!

As for its design, the Infinite Justice certainly stands out from its predecessors, with a lankier frame, complex backpack, and the massive shoulders and head sensor indicative of the machines piloted by Athrun Zala. This model is the same height as any version of the RX-78-2, making it about the average height for most Gundams in the High Grade line, and despite its slim frame, the rest of the kit’s equipment makes it feel nice and bulky.

Like many other mobile suits in Gundam SEED, the Infinite Justice comes with a detachable flight unit—in this case, the Fatum-01. Allowing this Gundam greater mobility in atmospheric combat, it’s used both as a booster and a support craft. Its model equivalent can unfold for flight, detach from the Gunpla’s back, and can be held onto from handles on the underside. In terms of color accuracy and design, it’s 100% spot on, but the high degree of detail and parts separation also means this backpack is very heavy. This model kit cannot stand on its own, and unfolding the backpack for flight mode has caused my display stand to fall over numerous times.

With its color scheme and rather busy design, this kit may put off fans of Universal Century’s more utilitarian mecha design. That said, the Infinite Justice Gundam lands squarely between the basic designs of the original Mobile Suit Gundam and G Gundam and Gundam Wing’s wilder designs.

Difficulty

As with most modern High Grades, the kit can be built straight out of the box with no issue, making it a fine kit for beginners. When it comes to straight assembly, the only challenging part I ran into was the construction of the shield. While fitting the Beam Boomerang into the side of the shield, it never seemed to connect quite right, leaving a noticeable gap between the boomerang and the rest of the shield. Other than this, it’s smooth sailing.

This kit certainly still can provide challenges for more experienced builders who want to do a little extra on top of a straight build. Each piece, while attached to the runner by a thin connection, still requires some nub removal, and the thicker safety nubs on the V-fin will require a bit of patience to shave off. No matter how careful you are with your nub removal, you might want to cover up the black marks left on the silver pieces with a silver Gundam marker. There are also several points where a nub falls right next to a panel line, which can cause the ink to flow into the stress marks if you remove the nubs first. Of course, these steps are all optional. 

With the level of detail and accuracy this kit offers, it’s a marvel of Bandai’s design that it’s still very easy to make.

Articulation

As I said above, this kit has no polycaps. While this is common for Real Grades and Master Grades, the only other HG kit I’ve seen pull this off is the Gundam G40. Of course, the G40 is a redesign that focused on recreating the humanlike poses of the original Gundam’s appearance. The HG Infinite Justice, on the other hand, is meant to be a screen accurate representation first, and a poseable model second, so how well articulated is it?

The arms are on swiveling ball joints, which can swing up, down, and forward. To achieve this, it uses a set of two pegs that end with a ball joint, in lieu of the simple swiveling socket polycap. The arms themselves are double-jointed and swivel at the shoulder. Those shoulder pauldrons are also articulated, moving independently from the shoulder underneath.

As you move lower down the kit, the articulation still stays high, with a rather impressive ab crunch. At the skirt armor, you’ll find an assortment of moving parts, the greatest of which being the leg connections. Like with most HGs, this Gunpla can swivel the piece connecting its legs separately from the skirt to make the model look like it’s leaning to the side. Unlike most HGs, both legs can swivel in either direction at the same time! This means that it can do the splits very easily, and it makes posing each leg a lot easier.

The legs themselves are of the quality I’ve come to expect from the newest HGs, which is to say that they’re great! This Gundam’s got double-jointed knees, a ball joint at the ankle, swiveling ankle armor, and articulation in the front of each foot.

The Fatum-01 is also fully articulated, which means it is able to transform between backpack, horizontal flight pack, and support craft. The massive backpack can swivel up horizontally when attached to the back of the Gundam and its wings can extend and swivel up and down. Along with this, the beam cannons can swivel in either axis, and the nose of the support craft mode can swing forward when detached from the machine.

While polycaps may have initially been designed to give Gunpla an increase in articulation from No Grade to High Grade, it’s their absence that now seems to be the key to greater poseability. With some excellent articulation that holds much better than soft polycaps ever could, the Infinite Justice is hopefully followed by more Gunpla that leave the PC runner behind.

Extras (Weapons, Effect Parts)

While the Infinite Justice Gundam only has two hands, it certainly isn’t lacking in extras. In its arsenal it has:

• 1 Beam Rifle
• 2 “Super Lacerta” Beam Sabers
  • 1 “Ambidextrous Halberd” Beam Saber
• 1 “Carrier” Beam Shield containing:
  • 1 Grapple Stinger
  • 1 “Shining Edge” Beam Boomerang
• 1 Fatum-01 Support Unit

For its effect parts it has:

• 2 Beam Saber Effects
• 2 “Griffon” Leg Beam Blades
• 2 “Griffon 2” Wing Beam Blades
• 1 Beam Shield Effect
• 1 Beam Boomerang Effect

The Beam Rifle is quite nice, with part separation giving it some white to break up the dark grey. It has a swiveling targeting lens, and just like the HGGO Gundam RX-78-02, it can be mounted to the back skirt armor. The top of the barrel is magenta in the anime (like the rest of the mobile suit) and comes with two color-correcting stickers to make it match. Still, I personally think it looks great without the stickers.

The two “Super Lacerta” beam sabers mounted to the skirt armor are longer than the beam sabers of most other Gundams, but otherwise look the same. While in the anime, they would combine to form the double-ended “Ambidextrous Halberd”, this weapon instead comes as a separate part entirely. The beam effect parts for the Infinite Justice are actually slightly larger than regular beam sabers, which means that most other effect parts won’t fit.

The Beam Shield contains two weapons and can similarly hold two beam effect parts. The Grapple Stinger is an anchor claw mounted to a wire, similar to the Crossbone Gundam’s. Unlike the Crossbone’s anchor, this wire is just very thin, so both ends are very likely to slide out. Also housed in the shield is the Beam Boomerang, which unfolds from the inside edge and can hold a short beam effect. This effect part can also be attached while the boomerang is held in the shield, giving the shield a little dagger at the tip. While both the claw and boomerang are held in the shield, a wide beam shield effect part can be placed over them.

The Fatum-01, as previously mentioned, is a support craft/backpack for the Infinite Justice Gundam. On each wing you can attach the “Griffon 2” Beam Blades. Mounted to the front are two “Hyper Fortis” Beam Cannons, which are able to swivel for both posing to avoid blocking the Gundam’s V-fin when moved to and from its horizontal position. In the anime, these cannons can be removed and held as the “Preface Lacerta” Beam Sabers, but there is no beam effect part for it and it is not meant to be removed!

While functioning as a support unit, the Fatum-01 also has two handles underneath, which can allow the Gundam to hang on while the support unit is attached to an Action Base.

The last two beam effect parts, the “Griffon” Beam Blades, attach to two slots on the feet and knees. These blades are most famously used in the scene where Athrun kicks the left leg and arms off the Destiny Gundam. I’ve never seen this scene myself, it looks really cool the way it is depicted on the front of the box!

Final Verdict

I’ve been reviewing and building HG Gunpla for a while now, and the Infinite Justice Gundam encapsulates all the best aspects of recent releases. With a solid frame, wonderful articulation, superb color separation, the HGCE Infinite Justice Gundam is an amazing High Grade for anyone interested in Gunpla!

Marc first got into Gunpla with the HG Zaku II, which he thought had a really cool looking box. He knew nothing about Gundam back then, but since that kit, he’s gotten very familiar with the series. You can find him posting pictures of Gunpla and games on Twitter @official_marc_r.