FMAd Stella

XVX-016 Gundam Aerial (Permet Score 6)

The Aerial you already know, rebuilt bigger with a blue glow it earned in the story.

MechaGrade Score

3.8/5

Aerial · 1/100 · 2024

GradeFM

Scale1/100

Released2024

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the Full Mechanics line doing exactly what it does best, take a suit you already like at HG scale and give it a proper 1/100 skeleton without asking Master Grade money for it.

The Permet Score 6 colorway is the reason to buy this specific version over the standard FM Aerial, and it earns that reason with genuinely different blue plating and blue stickers instead of a lazy recolor. I came away impressed with how much pose range you get for a P-Bandai exclusive. It is not a showpiece on the level of an MG, but it never tries to be one.

Best for: Witch from Mercury fans who want the Permet Score 6 look specifically and are fine building around stickers to get there

The full review

What it is

The Aerial at 1/100 is a different animal than the HG version most people met first. Full Mechanics gives it an actual frame under the armor, and you feel that the moment you start articulating the legs, the hip swing and the double-jointed knees let it crouch and lunge in a way the smaller kits cannot fake. The Permet Score 6 edition layers clear blue shell pieces over that frame so the glowing wing-unit look from the anime's climactic fight actually reads on the shelf. Building it felt less like assembling a toy and more like assembling a small machine, snap, click, done, with enough part count to keep your hands busy for an evening without wearing you out.

The catch

The elephant in the room is stickers. Bandai leans on blue foil stickers to sell the Permet Score 6 palette rather than molding every piece in that color, so if you want a clean build you are either living with sticker seams or reaching for paint. It is also a P-Bandai exclusive, which means aftermarket pricing well above a standard retail kit if you missed the window, and the joints, while good, are plastic-on-plastic like most FM kits so they will loosen faster than an MG's metal-reinforced frame after repeated heavy posing. Nothing here is broken, it is just the honest tradeoff of the price point and the exclusive status.

Who it's for

Buy this if you specifically want the Permet Score 6 look and are willing to either accept the stickers or spend an afternoon with paint to make them disappear. It is also a solid pickup for anyone who liked the HG Aerial and wants the same silhouette with real engineering under it, without stepping up to MG cost. Skip it if you already own the standard Full Mechanics Aerial and don't care about the story-specific colorway, the frame and proportions are the same suit underneath. Skip it too if loose P-Bandai stock and secondary market pricing are dealbreakers for you.

What works

Double-jointed knees and elbows plus a 360-degree waist give it real dynamic pose range for a 1/100 at this price
The clear blue shell pieces and blue-tinted stickers make the Permet Score 6 state look distinct on the shelf, not just a reskin
Split toe sections and a hip joint that swings forward give it stable footing in low, wide stances that a lot of 1/100 kits fumble

Worth knowing

Heavy reliance on stickers for the blue accent color means visible seams unless you paint or use a topcoat
P-Bandai exclusivity pushes it into scalper pricing once the release window closes
Plastic joints loosen with repeated posing the way most non-MG frames do, this is not built for constant reposing over years

Sold? Grab it.

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The build story

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

Gate placement is typical modern Bandai, mostly on flat or hidden surfaces, and the runners snap together with satisfying confidence rather than the loose fit you sometimes get on older 1/100 tooling. The frame goes together first and it is obvious within a few steps that this kit was engineered to move, not just to look good standing straight. Nub cleanup is manageable in an evening, nothing that demands a hobby knife beyond the usual touch-ups.

The standout is the leg engineering, the sliding thigh-to-knee mechanism lets the leg compress under a bent pose instead of gapping at the joint, which is the kind of detail you normally only see explained in MG instruction sheets. Weapon loadout covers the beam rifle, a beam saber, and the shield, plus the effect parts for the beam rifle, so display options are decent even though the accessory count trails what an MG in this price range would offer. Color separation on the frame itself is proper Full Mechanics molding, it is only the outer Permet Score 6 shell where stickers do the heavy lifting.

Lore & trivia

01The Gundam Aerial's Permet Score is a plot device from Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury representing the GUND-ARM system open uping deeper levels of synchronization with its pilot, with Score 6 marking one of its most dangerous, override-level states.
02This kit was released as a Premium Bandai exclusive in 2024, following the standard Full Mechanics Aerial kit, specifically to let builders recreate the suit's blue-tinted appearance from its Score 6 moments in the show.
03The kit swaps the usual red accent stickers for blue-toned marking stickers and includes clear blue-plated shell pieces, a direct callback to the visual effect used on screen when the Aerial pushes into that higher Permet state.