Kit Review

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack.
It's quite a bit bigger than you'd expect.

Hexa Gear Hightrager - Polypod Crawler mode from various angles (1/7)

Hexa Gear Hightrager - Polypod Crawler mode from various angles (2/7)

Hexa Gear Hightrager - Polypod Crawler mode from various angles (3/7)

Hexa Gear Hightrager - Polypod Crawler mode from various angles (4/7)

Hexa Gear Hightrager - Polypod Crawler mode from various angles (5/7)

Polypod Crawler mode from various angles

Hexa Gear Hightrager - Detail shots of each section (1/4)

Hexa Gear Hightrager - Detail shots of each section (2/4)

Detail shots of each section

You can open the hatch on the front leg block and pull out the sub-arm.

Opening the hatch on the rear leg block reveals a bunch of weapon parts stored inside.

Combine the stored parts together and you can build the Multi Material Rifle.

Early Governor Vol.1 seated inside.
It's a bit easier to get them in compared to other Hexa Gear mecha.

You can fold the cockpit down to put it in unmanned mode like this.

Hexa Gear Hightrager - There's something to watch out for when assembling the left and right sides of the seat hinge — make s

There's something to watch out for when assembling the left and right sides of the seat hinge — make sure you don't swap the two parts.
Since they both fit in either side, it's easy to mix them up.
If you put them in wrong, the seat and backrest will interfere badly with each other like in the photo above, making assembly a real pain. (That's exactly what happened to me at first.. T_T)

Rotate the wheels and caterpillar tracks 180 degrees to extend the feet and you've got Polypod mode.

Leftover parts

Leg and arm articulation

Hexa Gear Hightrager - Action poses in Polypod Crawler mode with Early Governor Vol.1 seated (1/4)

Hexa Gear Hightrager - Action poses in Polypod Crawler mode with Early Governor Vol.1 seated (2/4)

Action poses in Polypod Crawler mode with Early Governor Vol.1 seated

Action poses in Polypod mode with unmanned mode active

Transforming into Flat mode

You detach each leg, fold it, then reattach it.

Hexa Gear Hightrager - The connection pins between the legs and body are hexagonal, so they can't rotate freely, but the angl

The connection pins between the legs and body are hexagonal, so they can't rotate freely, but the angle locks in nice and solid.

Flat mode

Underside

Action poses in Flat mode

Hexa Gear Hightrager - Together with Hexa Gear Steelrain. I already thought Steelrain was big, but the Hightrager is even big

Together with Hexa Gear Steelrain.
I already thought Steelrain was big, but the Hightrager is even bigger.

To combine them, you need to apply 2 additional parts to the unmanned mode configuration.

For Steelrain, you spread the wings and weapons apart slightly like this to make room.

Hexa Gear Hightrager - Steelrain + Hightrager combined (1/4)

Hexa Gear Hightrager - Steelrain + Hightrager combined (2/4)

Steelrain + Hightrager combined

The Hightrager has been released as part of Kotobukiya's Hexa Gear series. It shares a similar color scheme and concept with the previously released Steelrain, but this time it's a quadruped walking robot rather than a helicopter. It's a big kit — the finished model comes in at close to 40cm.

At the center is a cockpit that can seat a Hexa Gear humanoid kit, with four legs extending out in all directions from there. The joint strength on the legs is solid enough that they hold their position well no matter what angle or pose you put them in. The rear leg hatches store weapon parts inside, and you can combine them all to build the Multi Material Rifle and mount it on the sub-arm behind the cockpit. There's also another sub-arm built into the front legs, which you can expose and pose by opening the hatch.

The feet can be configured in two ways — standard Polypod form or Polypod Crawler form with a wheel and caterpillar track combo. You can also shorten the legs and straighten them out to transform into Flat mode. At that point you can fold the cockpit down into unmanned mode and combine it with Steelrain.

That said, when switching to unmanned mode you need to fold the cockpit backrest forward, and the design of that section is a bit off — it's hard to assemble and stiff to fold. I tried going through the manual carefully and testing it every which way, but it seems like a mold design error. There's not enough clearance when connecting the backrest to the lower seat, so getting it to fit properly is a real struggle. Hopefully the mold gets corrected if there's a reissue.

Also, with multi-legged kits the leg joints can loosen up over time, but on the Hightrager the legs attach to the body via hexagonal pins, so that particular connection point has zero play at all. Instead, you adjust the angle by pulling the legs out and reinserting them — it's less flexible in terms of positioning freedom, but the upside is that it locks in extremely securely.

Anyway, aside from the seat assembly issue, this is a quality kit overall, and it should make for a fun addition if you collect Hexa Gear humanoid kits or already own the Steelrain. :-)

Hexa Gear Hightrager | 2020.10 | ¥7,800

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.