Kit Review

Straight build + Panel lining

For a 1/144 scale kit, it's incredibly wide.

HGUC Qubeley - Detail on the inner shoulder. Pretty decent I guess.. The shoulder armor moves pretty freely thanks to the dou

Detail on the inner shoulder. Pretty decent I guess.. The shoulder armor moves pretty freely thanks to the double joint.

HGUC Qubeley - Flying pose. Since the upper body needs to be tilted up a bit, I had no choice but to use a cigarette box as a

Flying pose. Since the upper body needs to be tilted up a bit, I had no choice but to use a cigarette box as a stand..

The arms tuck inside the shoulder armor.. and the panels inside the rear skirt are reproduced fairly well.

The neck tilts way back for the flying pose.

Action pose (and I use that term loosely)

HGUC Qubeley - Size comparison with the existing HGUC lineup. It's not particularly tall, but it's wide by nature of the desi

Size comparison with the existing HGUC lineup. It's not particularly tall, but it's wide by nature of the design.

HGUC Qubeley - A shot with the MG Qubeley big brother. The MG Qubeley has a pearlescent molded color, while the HGUC is pure

A shot with the MG Qubeley big brother. The MG Qubeley has a pearlescent molded color, while the HGUC is pure white.

Straight build photos before panel lining

When the MG Qubeley came out, a lot of people called it just an enlarged copy of the HGUC. Which basically means the HGUC Qubeley was so well done that the MG version didn't really seem to bring anything new to the table.

The 4th HGUC release is the Qubeley — a large-volume mobile suit by any measure. There hadn't been a kit that really did justice to this design's charismatic, standout look, but the HGUC Qubeley captures the feel and presence of the original really well. It's a quality kit.

First, the molded colors — the white is a clean, pure white and it came out really nicely. The other molded colors match up well too, and while all the pink markings on the exterior are handled with stickers, they blend in surprisingly naturally. If anything, they actually feel more visually striking than the MG, which uses color separation to replicate the markings in plastic. (Though some people do say the stickers look cheap..)

The overall proportions capture the Qubeley's look really well. The articulation range on the arms and legs is quite generous, and the shoulders in particular use a double joint, so you can get a decent pose out of just about any angle.

That said, maybe because of the bulk, the joints are a bit loose — that's the downside. Since so much of the weight is concentrated in the upper body, the lower half struggles to hold it and the whole thing ends up flopping forward or backward.. The polycap on the large shoulder armor in particular was a bit loose, causing the shoulders to droop on their own. I ended up tracking down a stiffer polycap, shaving it down slightly, and forcing it in as a replacement — that helped the poses hold a lot better. It's not like the joints are completely floppy or anything, just a bit disappointing. ^^;

Being so wide, it takes up about three times the display space of other kits — a minor downside, but a downside nonetheless. The MG Qubeley is a pretty solid kit too, but it's just so ridiculously big that it's even more of a hassle to deal with. Personally, I find myself more attached to the HGUC Qubeley — it's a smaller scale but the detail holds its own against the MG. Anyway, aside from the somewhat loose joints, it's a really impressive kit in terms of detail, proportions, and molded color. ^^

HGUC Qubeley | 1999.9 | ¥1,500

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.