Kit Review

Straight build + Panel lining + Decals

ID Photo

The universal standard — size comparison with a cigarette pack

MG Wing Gundam Ver. Ka (early type) (1/5)

MG Wing Gundam Ver. Ka (early type) (2/5)

MG Wing Gundam Ver. Ka (early type) (3/5)

MG Wing Gundam Ver. Ka (early type) (4/5)

MG Wing Gundam Ver. Ka (early type) (5/5)

With the Buster Rifle attached. It's so long that taking photos was a bit of a pain..

Displaying it held upright like this seems like it'd save some space.

2.
Internal Frame (straight build)

A near full-body internal frame is implemented.

Leg internal frame

MG Wing Gundam Ver. Ka (early type) - Hmm.. it's not a slide-type like the Strike, but the double joint lets it bend as far a

Hmm.. it's not a slide-type like the Strike, but the double joint lets it bend as far as you'd want.

The arms can bend 180 degrees too, but there's barely any internal frame there.

Interestingly, the waist uses a double joint.

MG Wing Gundam Ver. Ka (early type) - The power of a double-jointed waist! In practice, once you put all the armor on, it can

The power of a double-jointed waist! In practice, once you put all the armor on, it can't move sideways nearly that much..

Articulation: good..

3.
Joint Articulation

MG Wing Gundam Ver. Ka (early type) - Adorable~ Great articulation, but... the ankles are a bit iffy. They bend backward as f

Adorable~ Great articulation, but... the ankles are a bit iffy.
They bend backward as far as the right foot shows, but because of the ankle guard, the ankle barely bends forward at all.
The amount you see on the left foot in the photo is the maximum forward bend (-.,-)

MG Wing Gundam Ver. Ka (early type) - Hmm.. but in compensation, the waist uses a double ball joint, so it leans forward quit

Hmm.. but in compensation, the waist uses a double ball joint, so it leans forward quite a bit and rotates pretty well to both sides too.

The shoulders also swing forward about 30 degrees.

MG Wing Gundam Ver. Ka (early type) - The joints are on the stiff side. Even with the wings spread out that far, as long as y

The joints are on the stiff side. Even with the wings spread out that far, as long as you get the center of gravity right, it holds its pose just fine.

4.
Detail Shots

Close-up of the upper torso. The face looks pretty handsome, I'd say.

Lower body. Nice and slender~

The wings.. the color separation is quite something. ^^;

The vulcan pod on the shoulder opens with a sliding mechanism.

Cockpit hatch open.. (pretty bare-bones pilot.. -..-;)

MG Wing Gundam Ver. Ka (early type) - The shield attachment is a bit unusual. You wrap it inward, slide it onto the arm, and

The shield attachment is a bit unusual. You wrap it inward, slide it onto the arm, and fold it in place..
Probably implemented that way because of the transformation.

The Buster Rifle. Pretty long, isn't it. Over 20cm..

Shield detail. Perfect color separation as expected.

MG Wing Gundam Ver. Ka (early type) - Wing Early showing off its insane over-decaling sensibilities.. just one shoulder has a

Wing Early showing off its insane over-decaling sensibilities.. just one shoulder has a total of 14 stickers on the front and back combined.
And since all the stickers are small, if you don't trim all four corners like in the photo above, it ends up looking even weirder..

5.
Action Poses

Buster Rifle action pose. It's so long you can't hold it up with one hand T_T

There's a beam saber hidden inside the shield. Truly a kit with exceptional proportions..

With the energy packs mounted on both arms

Wings spread out.

MG Wing Gundam Ver. Ka (early type) - Rather than having it grip the Buster Rifle, it looks way better just resting it like t

Rather than having it grip the Buster Rifle, it looks way better just resting it like that..

MG Wing Gundam Ver. Ka (early type) - Comparison shot with the RX-78 Ver. Ka. Looking at the photo, Wing Early is standing a

Comparison shot with the RX-78 Ver. Ka. Looking at the photo, Wing Early is standing a bit slouched -_-;
Wing Early is canonically smaller in size. The head size difference is especially huge.. (the RX-78 looks like it has a big head, doesn't it?)

MG Wing Gundam Ver. Ka (early type) - It's even a bit smaller than the MG Aile, which is already considered small. Articulati

It's even a bit smaller than the MG Aile, which is already considered small. Articulation-wise, the MG Aile still has the edge..

6.
Bird Mode Transformation

MG Wing Gundam Ver. Ka (early type) - The transformation itself isn't anything particularly special — it's basically just fli

The transformation itself isn't anything particularly special — it's basically just flipping it over and attaching the weapons. ^^;
But the sheer size of it is massive, coming in at over 35cm..

Bird mode underside. The energy packs on both arms become like landing gear.

The face is nicely hidden behind the shield..

Hyped as the most anticipated release of the first half of 2004, Wing Gundam Ver. Ka (early type) launched and promptly sold out everywhere. This is the second entry in the Ver. Ka series — refined by Hajime Katoki, the greatest mecha designer working today who has redesigned most MG/HGUC/PG kits.

First off, the kit quality is top-notch, exactly as expected. Katoki's influence is definitely felt, but every single part is of the highest quality. The color separation is almost bewilderingly perfect, the articulation is top-tier with joints that are stiff rather than loose, the proportions look like they've been refined multiple times, the decals are brutal, and the detail work is delicate in every corner.. there's really not much more to say. A lot of longtime(?) Gunpla fans tend to skip Wing Gundam kits, and I was the same way — but I have to say, this Ver. Ka is genuinely an incredible design.

The articulation is undeniably impressive, but... there's one critical flaw: the ankles barely bend forward at all. That does put a real limit on the poses you can pull off, which is a shame. It'll inevitably get compared to the MG Strike in terms of articulation, and yeah — Wing Early still can't match the Strike's insane range of motion. The Strike is just absurdly exceptional in the shoulders and ankles in particular.. ^^; Also, it doesn't hold the long Buster Rifle very well. The hands aren't loose per se, but the way the Buster Rifle's grip is designed, it doesn't lock in securely — you basically just have to rest it in the hand.

I was worried the big wings would make it hard to keep standing.. but the joints are so stiff that it doesn't just topple over. In fact, because the wings are so huge, you can actually get some really nice stable poses by resting the wing tips on the ground. If you look at the photos above, you'll notice at least one wing tip is touching the ground.. given how long they are, that works out just fine ^^;

It's hard to call it a flaw exactly, but the insane over-decaling on this Wing Early Ver. Ka is something else entirely. (-o-;) The previous RX-78 Ver. Ka already had a pretty intense amount of stickers and decals, but Wing Early is on a whole other level. At first, looking at the hundreds of stickers and decals, I thought "wow, they really included a lot of extras"... but after following the manual and applying every single one, it turned out there wasn't a single one left over -.-; The stickers in particular.. every last one is tiny, and the areas you're applying them to are narrow too. In my case, I think I spent about 7 hours just trimming and applying the stickers and decals...

Like a lot of people, I tend to trim all four corners of stickers with a knife to get rid of the messy edges and apply them cleanly.. on other kits this is optional, but with Wing Early, you pretty much *have* to trim those corners on basically every sticker. (See photos.) If you don't, the surfaces are so curved and narrow that the excess sticker edges spill out everywhere and actually make it look messier. Just cleanly trimming all those sticker corners alone takes 1–2 hours.

The decals are brutal too — I genuinely can't understand why they made tiny text into dry-transfer decals instead of just regular stickers, given how hard they are to apply. The only way to manage them is to carefully peel each one, apply a piece of scotch tape to the top surface, position it where you want it, then burnish it down. Do it any other way and it's incredibly difficult. And the large wing decals... the surface is so curved that if you don't slowly and carefully tape them down and secure them as you go before burnishing, nine times out of ten they'll tear in the middle (T_T)

With the sticker and decal work being this difficult, getting through it without a single mistake is no easy feat.. I personally lost a few decals (they were just too small) and there are a couple I applied slightly off. T_T Once it's done, the impact from the proportions and detail is genuinely impressive — but this is definitely one of those kits I'd hate to build a second time, purely because of the exhausting stickers and decals. (^^;) Out of all Gunpla — PG included — this requires the most painstaking and grueling sticker/decal work...

Gorgeous box art... a premium-quality, elaborate manual.. (though as with Ver. Ka in general, there's no photo insert when you open the box) Top-tier quality.. it's undeniably the finest quality of any MG to date. Even people like me who never really cared for Wing Gundam will find this a masterpiece worth building. That said, some people might personally take issue with the style — it's on the small side and came out very slender. The proportions are so slim it almost looks fragile. If you're after something with more bulk, this probably isn't for you — but if you love a sleek, slender look, this is the ultimate kit..^^;

MG XXXG-01W Wing Gundam Ver. Ka (early type)
Category	Rating	Analysis
Seam Lines	★★★★★	Almost no seam lines to deal with. The rifle, maybe?
Molding Color / Color Separation	★★★★★	Molded colors are excellent. Color separation: Perfect.
Proportions	★★★★★	Excellent!
Articulation	★★★★☆	Arms and legs are great, but the limited ankle articulation is a bit disappointing.
Joint Strength	★★★★★	Plenty stiff.
Internal Frame	★★★★★	Near full-body frame with deep panel lines and delicate detail. Top-tier.
Detail	★★★★★	Top-tier.
Weapons / Accessories	★★★★☆	Accessories are on the sparse side, but the wings make up for it and the rifle is great too.
Parts Count / Price	★★★★	305 parts total. Parts per ¥1,000: 87.5. Price feels slightly high for the volume.
Uniqueness	★★★★	The start of the Wing series. The second Ver. Ka. The kit that caused a massive sell-out frenzy.
Dalong's Point : 94 pts.

MG Wing Gundam Ver. Ka (early type) | 2004. 3 | ¥3,900

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.