EGUniversal Century

RX-78-2 Gundam (Full Weapon Set)

The base Entry Grade Gundam, but somebody emptied the armory into the box.

MechaGrade Score

4.2/5

RX-78-2 Gundam · 1/144 · 2021

GradeEG

Scale1/144

Released2021

Runnersn/a

Check price on Amazon

Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

The verdict

This is the best-value Gunpla box on the market and the loaded weapons make it even easier to recommend.

You get the beam rifle and shield from the standard EG plus a hyper bazooka, beam javelin, twin beam sabers with clear effect parts, and a swinging Gundam hammer, all snapped together with zero tools and zero glue. For roughly the price of a coffee you walk away with a posable, fully color-separated RX-78-2 that looks like it cost three times as much. I did not expect to be this impressed by an entry-level kit.

Best for: first-time builders and anyone who wants a genuinely posable, fully armed RX-78-2 without touching a nipper or a paintbrush

The full review

What it is

This is Bandai's Entry Grade RX-78-2 with the accessory count doubled. The base EG already nailed the hard part, molded color that actually matches the show instead of leaning on stickers, snap-fit joints with real hinges instead of friction pegs, and a shoulder/elbow/knee range that lets the kit hold a rifle in both hands without drooping. The Full Weapon Set adds the hyper bazooka, beam javelin, a second beam saber, clear yellow and pink effect parts, and the Gundam hammer on its chain, so you can build the classic beam-rifle-and-shield pose or go full loadout with a bazooka on the back and a hammer in hand. Building it took me under an hour and every part clicked with real confidence.

The catch

The elbow and knee joints use the same small C-clip hinge Bandai puts in its budget 30MM line, and builders who repose the kit a lot report those joints loosening over time (a couple of thin coats of clear liquid glue on the clip faces is the commonly cited fix, though that is an aftermarket workaround, not a factory guarantee). The waist is snug against the hip skirts, so hip movement is more restricted than the arms and legs suggest it should be. And while the extra weapons are great value, the hammer's chain-link assembly and the javelin are fiddly small parts for a kit otherwise aimed at total beginners, so a first-timer's first EG in the box might still be the standard, non-weapon version.

Who it's for

If you have never built a Gunpla kit and want to see what the hobby actually feels like before spending real money, start here. The no-nipper, no-glue, no-paint promise is real, and the Full Weapon Set means you are not stuck with just a rifle when you are done. It is also a genuinely fun pickup for experienced builders who want a cheap desk-shelf Gundam with a full arsenal to display alongside a pricier MG or RG. Skip it only if you already own the standard EG RX-78-2 and don't care about the extra hardware, or if loose elbows after heavy reposing would bother you more than the price justifies.

The build story

What the build is actually like, and the engineering worth knowing about.

Every part on this kit twists or clicks free of its runner by hand, so there is no nipper cleanup and effectively no nub scars to deal with. Fit is confident rather than loose, parts snap and stay snapped, and the color molding covers the whole suit convincingly enough that I never reached for a paint pen. The whole build, including the extra weapons, took under an hour.

The head sits on a genuine ball joint, the shoulders lift and swing, and the elbows bend past 90 degrees, which is a real jump over older EG-tier kits that just pivoted at single points. The added weapons are the real story here though: a hyper bazooka that mounts on the backpack, a beam javelin, a second beam saber, clear effect parts for both sabers, and a Gundam hammer on a chain give you far more display options than the standard rifle-and-shield EG, and it is a lot of plastic for the price.

Lore & trivia

01This Entry Grade mold first released in 2020 as part of Bandai's 40th-anniversary Gunpla push, aimed at making the RX-78-2 buildable by total first-timers.
02The Full Weapon Set variant released in December 2021 and adds the hyper bazooka, beam javelin, second beam saber, and Gundam hammer on top of the standard EG's rifle and shield.
03The RX-78-2 Gundam hammer is a reference to the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam series, where Amuro Ray used the improvised weapon against Zaku units.