The Providence Gundam is the final antagonist mobile suit of the Gundam SEED show, piloted by Rau Le Creuset.
Providence is defined as being prepared for a future eventuality. Also known as a solution to a problem you know is coming.
This is a 2017 Master Grade.
Aesthetics:
Plastic comes in light grey, dark grey (gun), desaturated grey-brown, navy blue, maroon and an almost neon yellow. The prominent cables below the chest are in a very soft rubber and must not be painted (though arguably can be top coated).
The model is overwhelmingly light grey and to make up for it, there's a lot of panel lines for you to fill in, which does break up the detail. You can see the difference between the third and fourth images to the left.
The design is a 180 from the other SEED designs which are often quite colorful and the Providence has a resemblance to 80's corporate designs, of grey no-nonsense machinery. In the franchise it is a particularly menacing looking mobile suit.
There are a lot of nubmarks, exacerbated by the amount of funnels on the model. At this time I have not built the Freedom 2.0 (a very popular and highly praised kit) which came out the year before, but I doubt it has the same lack of undergating that this kit has.
The kit comes with decal stickers, foil stickers and dry transfers, no color correction. The 'premium' version of this kit comes with waterslide decals. I recommend you get aftermarket waterslides and avoid the decal stickers.
Build/Mechanics:
It's a labor intensive kit, lots of nubmarks to handle and has a big break risk.
This is an in-the-air on a stand model that has some bordering on serious weight issues. It has multijoint hips that allow for a large range of expressive poses with the legs, but they're so heavy that they droop and worse still, SEED kits (this one included) have notoriously fragile hip pegs that snap easily, so you don't want to mess with them too much, especially not as it ages.
In theory this kit has a large range of motion, but in practice is bogged down by the weight and limitations of the bulky armor, such as the massive shoulder pauldrons.
There are sliding thigh panels, but they don't slide by themselves, you have to bend the leg and then push down on it yourself, though they do go back in place when you straighten out the leg. The arms extend to accomodate the bulky weapons. The large backpack can tilt forwards.
There are weird double jointed wrists (useless) but no rotating forearms, which would've made the kit easier to pose.
A very nice feature are the skirt funnels which add a lot of expression when you pose them.
None of it is catastrophic, but it's not good.
Equipment:
Out of 90+ kits, this is the first time I've had to glue a hand to a weapon.
1. The gun doesn't stay in the hand, the slot isn't good enough and there's no additional support to lock it into the forearm
2. It's a heavy, unwieldy gun that is fiddly to pose in addition to the shoulder getting in the way
3. You don't use the hand for anything else and you can't store the gun anyway
1 Massive Beam Rifle with a front handle
1 Massive "shield" that envelopes the arm it is attached to
1 Massive Beam Saber effect part for the shield that is as tall as the model itself (foot to head)
11 Funnels of various types on the skirts and the backpack
5 clear pegs for the funnels
7 Hands - 2 fists, 2 holding hands, 2 spread open hands and 1 rifle trigger-finger-holding hand
1 simple action base stand and an adaptor
1 Pilot Figure
Conclusion:
It's a good kit, but not a great one. This is something you put on a shelf for how it looks and then forget about it as it's annoying to pose and has that annoying break risk in an already over-complicated hip joint assembly.
Panel lining is pretty much mandatory, as the details are in the surfaces, not part separation.
The reason you get this is because it looks great, but as a build it feels like they forgot to finish the design as evidenced by the non-sliding-sliding thigh plate and the lack of undergating - it feels like a 2007 kit, not a 2017 one!
The lack of waterslides when they include them in the P-Bandai version is just pathetic.
4/5 - Not bad, has its issues, not for a beginner.
