Kit Review

Straight build + Panel lining + Decals

The universal standard for size comparison — next to a cigarette pack.

It's a little back-heavy, but it doesn't droop down.

Upper body close-up. The eyes are done in soft clear plastic.

The Rick-Dias's signature dual-pistol (?) backpack.

The neck looks like it shouldn't move, but if you pull it out slightly, it can rotate.

MG Rick Dias - The cockpit is located in the head unit (more precisely, around the neck area) — lift the head off and you can

The cockpit is located in the head unit (more precisely, around the neck area) — lift the head off and you can see it.

The round cockpit can also be pulled out. (This is starting to feel like something out of a horror movie...)

The vulcans on the head's top hatch are implemented as an opening/closing mechanism...

The signature layered armor design is faithfully reproduced.

Sole detail and layered armor reproduction.

The molding on the inside of the skirt armor is also faithfully reproduced...

The weapons are pretty simple, just as per the design specs;

The clay bazooka even has the magazine reproduced.

Outer armor removed

MG Rick Dias - The internal mechanical frame. (The color is dark, so I cranked up the brightness quite a bit so you can see the

The internal mechanical frame.
(The color is dark, so I cranked up the brightness quite a bit so you can see the detail ^^)

The mechanical frame for the upper torso and shoulders.

The mechanical frame for the lower leg area.

The backpack's mechanical frame.

The molding goes all the way to the inside of the outer armor.

MG Rick Dias - But here's the annoying part — the shoulder strap sections pop off way too easily. They barely stay on at all.

But here's the annoying part — the shoulder strap sections pop off way too easily. They barely stay on at all.
Looks like there's no choice but to glue them

The articulation is... actually pretty good for how the kit looks.

The shoulder armor lifts up 90 degrees, allowing the arms to raise quite high. (Same goes for the HGUC.)

The shoulder joint can swing forward about 30 degrees and fold in.

MG Rick Dias - The fingers use the same double-jointed knuckle design as the Dom and Sazabi, allowing for a variety of natura

The fingers use the same double-jointed knuckle design as the Dom and Sazabi, allowing for a variety of natural poses.

The thigh joints protrude outward quite a bit, which gives the hip articulation a good range of motion.

MG Rick Dias - The double-jointed ankles in action — they bend this way and that, side to side and front to back, showing off

The double-jointed ankles in action — they bend this way and that, side to side and front to back, showing off a wide range of motion.

MG Rick Dias - With the outer armor removed, the articulation gets you about this far. (Whoa, what a weird pose~) You can rea

With the outer armor removed, the articulation gets you about this far. (Whoa, what a weird pose~)
You can really see the power of those double-jointed ankles — though putting all the armor back on does limit things a bit.

MG Rick Dias - When holding weapons, there are two pegs on the weapon's grip and two corresponding holes in the palm, so you

When holding weapons, there are two pegs on the weapon's grip and two corresponding holes in the palm,
so you slot them together to lock the weapon in place.

Chow Yun-fat action pose —

Bazooka action pose.

Somehow it feels like it looks even cooler from the back...

Beam saber action pose.

MG Rick Dias - Comparison with the MG Dom, which has a similar vibe. Height-wise they're pretty much the same, nothing specia

Comparison with the MG Dom, which has a similar vibe. Height-wise they're pretty much the same, nothing special — but they've both got great volume.

MG Rick Dias - Comparison shot with the HGUC Rick-Dias. The proportions are quite different. The HGUC goes for a chunky, stub

Comparison shot with the HGUC Rick-Dias. The proportions are quite different.
The HGUC goes for a chunky, stubby style closer to the original design, while the MG has a more modern, slender look.
Also, the dark reddish-brown molded color sections on the HGUC are rendered in black on the MG.

A shot with the MG Zeta family.

Straight build photos before panel lining and decal work.

Perhaps timed to coincide with the Zeta theatrical release in 2005, the MG lineup for the Zeta series suddenly picked back up. The first release of 2004 was the Rick-Dias — the one so many people had been waiting and waiting for!!! Honestly, it feels like it took a while to get a kit considering how popular the unit is.

As you'd expect from a highly anticipated kit and one of Bandai's latest releases with ever-improving technology, the quality is quite impressive. The Rick-Dias's design inherently limits articulation quite a bit — the HGUC version was basically stuck in an attention stance most of the time — but the MG Rick-Dias has a much wider range of motion thanks to double joints throughout. (It wouldn't be an MG for nothing, right~?) The double-jointed ankles in particular, which move forward, backward, and side to side, have greatly improved ground contact. With a solid build and much better articulation, you can pull off some really cool poses. The joints are stiff enough too, so nothing feels loose.

The color separation through parts division is nearly perfect, and you can really see the effort put into hiding seam lines. On the arms and legs, instead of splitting parts down the center, they're split asymmetrically along panel lines — so seam lines on the body itself are almost nowhere to be found. The molded color has also changed from the HGUC's dark reddish-brown to a much nicer black on the MG. The cockpit reproduction is also excellent — pop the head hatch open and there's a round cockpit section inside, just like the PG Mk-II, and you can even detach it. The fingers use the same double-jointed design as the Dom and Sazabi, giving them quite natural movement.

The proportions in particular feel quite refreshed — unlike the HGUC, which faithfully captured the original's stocky image, the MG Rick-Dias goes for a noticeably slender look. A big part of that was probably to improve articulation, but overall it gives off that well-put-together feeling you'd expect from a larger 1/100 scale kit. Of course, this could be a sticking point for purists who want something closer to the source material, but just judging the kit on its own merits, the style has definitely improved. This is very much a matter of personal taste.

It looks like a flawless modern MG at first glance, but there are a few minor gripes. First, the parts that look like magazines on the shoulders don't lock in very well and pop off pretty easily. Sure, you can just glue them and it's not a huge deal, but having parts that barely stay on at all is definitely a downside. The front and rear armor pieces that cover the shoulder inner frame also fall off way too easily. The inner frame also feels a bit sparse — it's only on the shoulders and lower legs — and the thighs, which could have had an inner frame, end up being basically the same construction as the HGUC.

Another annoying bit is the weapon-holding setup. With most MGs, the grip strength is often too weak to hold weapons securely. To address this, the Rick-Dias has pegs on the weapon grips and corresponding slots in the hands, which sounds like it should lock things in really well. But in practice, there's so much stuff hanging off the back of the weapons that when you try to slot them in properly, the angle just doesn't work out. Both the beam pistol and the bazooka have this problem — they just won't sit at a natural angle, so getting them to lock flush into the palm is a real struggle. Some people have gone as far as calling the whole system pretty much useless...

That said, those complaints feel pretty minor compared to the overall impression of the kit. When you consider the beautifully reproduced layered armor, the sleek proportions, the solid joints, and the sheer presence of the build, this is easily a kit that scores 90 or above. If you're a fan of the Rick-Dias, there's really nothing here that should leave you with serious regrets. It's a satisfying build. And honestly, the volume is such that nobody would've complained if it were priced at around ¥4,000 — so releasing it at ¥3,500 was a really good call.

That said, given the unit's popularity, plenty of people are probably waiting for the red Quattro version to come out rather than this one ^^; (Bandai obviously knows that, which is exactly why they always release the standard version first...) Either way, as part of the Zeta lineup set to heat up the summer of 2004, this is without a doubt a very impressive kit with some noticeably refined modern engineering applied throughout. ^^

MG RMS-099 Rick Dias
Category	Rating	Analysis
Seam Lines	★★★★★	Almost no seam lines to deal with.
Molding Color / Color Separation	★★★★★	The molded colors are a bit dark per the design specs. Color separation is perfect.
Proportions	★★★★★	Slender yet still carries a sense of weight.
Articulation	★★★★	Articulation is relatively decent for the kit's volume.
Joint Strength	★★★★☆	The joints themselves are very solid, but the shoulder armor falls off easily.
Internal Frame	★★★★	Frame only on the upper torso, shoulders, lower legs, and backpack.
Detail	★★★★★	At this level of quality, there's nothing more to ask for.
Weapons / Accessories	★★★★	All the necessary weapons are included. Bonus points for the unique cockpit reproduction!
Parts Count / Price	★★★★	245 parts total. Parts per ¥1,000: 70. Seems like a reasonable volume.
Uniqueness	★★★★☆	The long-awaited Rick-Dias is finally here. Sleek, solid, and a high-quality kit!
Dalong's Point : 90 pts.

MG Rick Dias | 2004. 5 | ¥3,900

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.