Kit Review

Straight build + Stickers

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Various angles

Detail shots

There's a partial internal skeleton frame.

HG Gundvolva - The forehead and chest shell units are covered with clear parts over seals to give them a beautiful, luminous

The forehead and chest shell units are covered with clear parts over seals to give them a beautiful, luminous look.

The inner seal for the forehead comes in two options: red or silver stripe.

Weapons loadout.

The shield mount can be repositioned up or down.

The beam cabin can be stored on the side of the right calf.

HG Gundvolva - Something you absolutely need to know when building this kit — the articulation joint on the black B2 24/25 an

Something you absolutely need to know when building this kit —
The articulation joint on the black B2 24/25 ankle parts breaks easily.

HG Gundvolva - And I mean like this... T_T It's not that you're forcing it and it snaps — even just moving it properly once c

And I mean like this... T_T
It's not that you're forcing it and it snaps — even just moving it properly once causes stress whitening.
The joint is way too stiff, but the black parts themselves are too soft, which is what causes the problem.
When I realized something was wrong and tried to pull the part back out, it snapped just like you see above.
It really feels like they shipped this without doing any mold tolerance adjustment during development.

HG Gundvolva - In this case, lightly sanding each of the three joints just once around with fine 1000-grit or higher sandpape

In this case, lightly sanding each of the three joints just once around with fine 1000-grit or higher sandpaper
will let you move them without any breakage.

Both skirts can swing wide open upward, and can also be swung out to the side.

HG Gundvolva - Articulation before and after swinging the skirts out to the side. Swinging them all the way out lets you rais

Articulation before and after swinging the skirts out to the side.
Swinging them all the way out lets you raise the hip joint higher, as shown on the right.

Forward/backward shoulder articulation

HG Gundvolva - The ankles also bend sideways quite a bit, but as mentioned above, if you don't fix the parts before assembly,

The ankles also bend sideways quite a bit, but
if you don't fix the parts before assembly, rotation is completely impossible. (Instant snap...)

Kneeling pose.
This is only possible because the skirts can be swung out to the side.

HG Gundvolva - Beam cabin firing pose (1/3)

Beam cabin firing pose

Beam saber pose

Together with the HG Gundam Lfrith.

Together with the HG Gundam Lfrith Ur/Thorn.

This kit is the HG Gundvolva, released as part of the Mobile Suit Gundam "The Witch from Mercury" series. In terms of lore, it's based on the mass production prototype of the Gundam Lfrith. You could consider it in the same family as the HG Lfrith Ur/Thorn, but the styling came out quite different.

First off, the look is sharp and clean with angular, edgy design. Overall it's a fairly straightforward kit with great articulation and joints that are on the stiff side. In terms of poseability, the skirts on both sides can swing out wide, so they're well-designed to barely get in the way of hip joint movement.

That said, there's one serious problem with this kit — the ankle joint parts are way too stiff. In my case, after assembling one foot and test-moving it just once (!), stress whitening appeared and it eventually snapped T_T (see photos). Luckily the other foot hadn't been assembled yet, so I lightly sanded each joint before putting it together, and both movement and hold turned out fine. But with stiff joints and soft parts, it seems like breakage during articulation is basically unavoidable. In cases like this, lightly running 1000-grit or so fine sandpaper around the joint once or twice does fix it... (just be careful not to sand too much or it'll get loose)

If you've seen Bandai's Gunpla manufacturing videos, you'll know there are mold craftsmen who fine-tune the subtle tolerances in the final stage of mold development. They're the ones who fix molds that are too stiff or too loose — and this kit feels like that step was skipped entirely. At this point, it makes you wonder if they even made a test build... it's hard to understand how they shipped the product in this condition.

The old Club G release, MG Dwadge,and the general release based on it, MG Dom,had the same kind of issue with their hip joints. And yet, even those kits — not to mention the infamous MG Freedom Gundam 2.0 hip joint — were still sturdier than this one. Either way, it's hard to avoid the criticism that the product development wasn't finished properly.

Since this is something that really needs to be flagged repeatedly, I've gone on about it at length — but aside from this issue, the kit itself is reasonably priced and has a sleek style. Whether the ankle mold gets fixed in a future reissue, I'm not sure, but looking at the MG Dwadge/Dom situation, it probably won't be. Anyway, if you like the look and want to build it, I strongly recommend lightly sanding the ankle parts before assembly. Modeling sandpaper is cheap, so if you don't have any, I'd suggest ordering some along with the kit~ :-)

HG Gundvolva | 2023.6 | ¥1,400

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.