HGBF Lightning Gundam Full Burnern

I'll start this small gallery off by saying I have an extreme love-hate relationship with this kit.  On one hand; I like the aesthetics and overall look that this ReGZ/Zeta Gundam variant offers, on the other hand; it's a floppy mess and even after doing some severe joint tightening surgery this thing was still a pain to pose.  I'm honestly a little disappointed that this kit was the one I chose to start this blog up again with.  But, I'm just going through the kits I've done in the past couple months in chronological order of when I got them.  By the end of taking photos this HG was ready to fall apart so I didn't even bother with posing it with its beam sabers.  Melee isn't really what this thing is known for anyway.

The Good:
-Nice looks and decent shelf presence because of its size.

-Not many color apps missing out of the box and the stickers they do give you are decent.

The Bad:

-LOOSE joints.  Particularly the waist joint.  It barely holds up the huge backpack.  Furthermore, when transformed the kit just wants to fall in half because of this joint.

WIP Notes:

-Used Gundam Markers for every paint app on this guy, ie. the yellow throughout the kit, gray in various places, gun-metal (not sure of the actual Gundam Marker name of this color) for the rail gun and cannons.

-I did keep the original eye stickers, sensor stickers (minus the main camera on the gun, there wasn't one), and the light blue-gray around the feet.

Size comparison next to a standard size HGUC Zaku II

Final Thoughts:

Well, like I said at the beginning, this kit looks nice but is a pain to do pretty much anything with.  The base Lightning Gundam itself is OK for holding together.  It still feels kinda loose in your hands.  Then you add the Lightning Back Weapon System Mk. II to the back to make the Full Burnern and you run into heaps and heaps of weight issues.  On a side note I feel like the proportions of the LBWS Mk. II are a bit on the large side compared to the anime.  Also, its quite heavy.  About as heavy as some smaller HG's actually.  Throw this on a tall kit with a weak waist joint and its not surprising it has problems holding together.  The large rail gun attachment for the beam rifle is pretty heavy as well.  Truth is I have problems getting this thing to even stand.  Putting it on a display base fixes all of the top heavy balance issues, but two major issues remain.  The weak waist joint, which means the dynamic waist poses modern HG's are known for is not happening.  The wrist joint.  That rail gun is pretty cool, but the wrist has some serious issues holding it most of the time.

All that aside.  Joint tightening with super glue and tape solved most of the issues on my kit.  It is still very top heavy and the balance on the ground is garbage.  The kit looks great if you can get it in a good pose, if.  If you like the design or the anime then I can recommend it to you.  The aesthetics keep the Lightning Gundam Full Burnern from being just a big, floppy kit.  Its one of the few Gundam Build Fighters designs that feel could be canon for its respected base series.  Universal Century in this case.  Keep in mind that either 'version' of the Lightning Gundam requires a separate kit purchase for the backpack.  As for regular collectors I cannot recommend this kit(s).  You'll just be disappointed at having another unbalanced floppy kit on your shelf.  

If you like the Lightning itself or the pilot/builder Yuuma Kousaka, or even Gundam Build Fighters Try then you may want to pick up the HGBF Lightning Gundam and the HG Lightning Back Weapon System Mk. II to make the Lightning Gundam Full Burnern.  Otherwise feel free to pass on this kit, or at least this version of it.