Kit Review
Straight build
+ panel lining + decals
Size comparison with a cigarette pack
Upper body
Head
Shoulders, arms, and shield.
Those red clear parts are pretty unique.
The backpack with its nice color separation.
Legs
Leg detail.
The pipes on the back of the legs are nicely rendered in 3D.
The beam rifle is just a straight rod type —
unlike the Zeta Gundam, it doesn't have a variable length.
The palm pegs grip the weapons really securely, so there are absolutely no issues with holding them.
You can store 2 rifle magazines inside the shield.
Cockpit hatch open
The storage compartments in the forearms can each hold either 2 beam sabers or 2 grenades.
Two 1/100 figures of pilot Riddhe Marcenas are included — one in casual clothes and one in a spacesuit — along with a display stand.
The detail is pretty good for the size.
Two parts are included for stand attachment in both MS mode and Waverider mode.
There are a ton of leftover polycaps ;;
The polycap sheet included is a big one, but the actual amount used is very small.
That's because the joints are mainly built using a slightly soft ABS frame, similar to the Zaku 2.0 —
and even without polycaps, the joint strength is excellent.
Outer armor removed.
There aren't that many armor pieces for the size, so it's pretty easy to take off.
Internal frame.
Despite being a transforming unit, it has a full-body frame!
Upper body
A pretty detailed head frame compared to other MGs.
Shoulder and arm frame.
The back has almost no detail.
The leg frame with great depth and dimension.
Thigh frame.
The leg frame looks simple at first, but somehow has a real sense of volume.
The mechanical frame in Waverider mode.
Frame action pose
Some parts of the inner skirt are reproduced with separate molded parts.
Most of the inner surfaces of the arm and leg armor have molded detail, but...
The inner surfaces of the torso armor have no molding at all.
Articulation.
How do I put it... it's exactly what you'd expect from a transforming unit.
Despite the transformation gimmick, the forward and backward range of motion on the shoulders is pretty decent.
Two-handed firing pose.
One-handed shooting pose.
Beam saber action
Transformation
First, release the folded shoulder connection gimmick
and pull the arms outward.
Lift the front of the upper body upward while tucking the head inside...
Once the front of the upper body is fully raised, move the stabilizers on the back forward
to lock the head snugly in place.
The transformation gimmick inside the body, visible mid-transformation.
Just like the Zeta Gundam, press both sides of the torso inward to narrow it toward the center.
It works the same way as the MG Zeta v2.0, but
the extension gimmick is a bit more user-friendly, making it easier to push in and pull out.
The Zeta 2.0's side torso gimmick is a bit... rough to deal with. T_T
Interestingly, you can slide the hip joint outward.
Temporarily pull the rear skirt back to release the hip joint lock, then...
Just like the Zeta Gundam, rotate the hip joint locking plate around and slot it into the groove on the back to lock it flat.
Like the Zeta 2.0, you do lock the hip joint plate to the back of the upper body...
but the fit isn't tight at all, so it barely stays in place and just wobbles around on its own.
You need to secure it with another external gimmick afterward, and until you do, it just flops around in a really frustrating way. T_T
Rotate the shoulder gimmick up and down,
then lower the entire shoulder and arm downward so the arms can fit into the center of the torso.
Just like the Zeta Gundam, bring the arms together toward the inside of the body.
At this point, you need to spread both sides of the backpack apart and slide them downward (toward the legs).
You'll need to align the small pin on the outer shoulder with the recessed groove on the backpack slide section.
This pin only defines the position — it doesn't actually lock anything in place to prevent movement.
Extend the side skirts upward, then...
Press the rear skirt firmly against the body,
and properly connect the hip joint locking plate.
The key here is to fully lower the backpack so the legs fit neatly inside it.
Now fold the knees 180 degrees, then...
fold the feet and tuck them inward.
Combine the beam rifle and shield, then plug them into the underside of the body.
At this point, you need to connect the shield's pin into the slot at the bottom of the cockpit section on the torso.
The hold is solid once it's in, but getting it in is really stiff and takes quite a bit of effort.
These two pieces need to be connected for everything to lock together, but for some reason lining up the pin with the hole is incredibly difficult. T_T
Sometimes it goes in fine, other times it just refuses no matter what you do — there seems to be something inherently tricky about the design.
The biggest issue is that during transformation, the hip joint locking plate doesn't hold well and keeps popping out,
which can get really frustrating...
After locking the hip joint plate to the back,
you need to fully lower the rear skirt as shown to secure it in place.
A lot of people will probably be baffled by the hip joint plate flopping around —
the key is getting the rear skirt locked down properly, so make sure to handle that part carefully.
Also, don't forget — you need to fully slide both backpack sections down toward the legs to lock them in place!
The Waverider, finally completed after all that struggle.
It's way harder to transform than the MG Zeta 2.0. T_T
Plug the stand connector piece into the shield-rifle joint on the underside, and...
you can mount it on a stand like the Action Base 1.
It's pretty heavy, so you'll need to balance the center of gravity carefully.
ReZEL Waverider from various angles.
From the front, you can just barely see the face peeking through the gaps.
The transformation gimmicks are somehow bizarre and just plain hard to deal with.
Once you get everything locked into place, it does hold together — but when you actually handle it, the whole locking mechanism feels a bit nerve-wracking;
The handle section for carrying other MS units is also articulated.
With the HGUC ReZEL.
With the HGUC ReZEL Waverider.
With its predecessor, the Re-GZ.
With the massively built Sinanju.
Thanks to the stabilizers, the ReZEL actually looks taller overall.
The MG UC series trio.
The Unicorn is no small unit either, but standing next to the ReZEL, it looks tiny.
Straight build.