HGUniversal Century

AGX-04 Gerbera Tetra (Roll Out Ver.)

A Zeon-flavored prototype in fresh factory colors, and it still can't lift its arms all the way up.

MechaGrade Score

3.6/5

Gerbera Tetra (Roll Out Ver.) · 1/144 · 2016

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2016

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is a genuinely handsome kit wearing a genuinely limiting design, and I still like it a lot.

The Roll Out Ver. reworks the original HGUC 159 mold in lighter, cleaner factory colors that suit Cima Garahau's prototype better than the standard release did. Snap it together, panel line it, and it holds the shelf on looks alone. The one thing it can't do is fully forgive its own shoulder armor, which was baked into the suit's design decades before this kit existed.

Best for: 0083 fans and colorway collectors who want the Roll Out variant next to their standard Gerbera Tetra, not a first-ever HG build

The full review

What it is

The Gerbera Tetra is one of 0083's best-looking what-if suits, a Zeonic Company black project dressed up as an Anaheim Electronics prototype, and this HGUC mold (recolored here as the Roll Out Ver.) captures that lineage well. Assembly is straightforward and satisfying, the kind of build where nothing fights you and you can just enjoy watching the silhouette come together. The Roll Out palette lightens the frame and brightens the accents compared to the standard release, and it reads better under normal shelf lighting. The detachable backpack, swappable for the huge Sturm Booster, is the highlight of the whole build and the reason I'd point people toward this kit in the first place.

The catch

The shoulder thrusters are oversized and mounted in a way that blocks the arms from raising much past shoulder height, so overhead poses are mostly off the table. Those thruster pods are held on with a flat peg that a few builders have reported popping loose or breaking with repeated repositioning, and the hand parts have the same habit of popping out of their wrist joints during posing. None of this is a build-quality failure, it is a mid-2010s HGUC design choice that this recolor didn't change. At a low price point that's an easy trade, but go in expecting a suit built for dynamic ground poses, not big dramatic reaches.

Who it's for

Buy this if you already like the Gerbera Tetra's design and want it in the Roll Out Ver.'s lighter colors, or if you're building a small 0083 shelf and want a Zeon-adjacent prototype that isn't another Zaku or Gelgoog variant. Skip it if you specifically need full overhead articulation for a diorama or if you already own the standard HGUC 159 and don't care about the recolor, since the frame and joints underneath are identical. First-time Gunpla builders will have a fine time with the assembly itself, the caveats here are about posing range, not build difficulty.

The build story

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

The build itself is low-stress. Gate placement is reasonable, parts click together with confidence, and nothing on the core body demands extra cleanup beyond the usual nub trim and panel lining. It's a kit you can finish in an evening without fighting the instructions.

The standout engineering is the backpack swap between the standard thrusters and the Sturm Booster, which genuinely changes how the suit reads on the shelf. Weapon loadout is simple but on-model for the suit's assault role. Where the design shows its age is articulation: the shoulder armor geometry caps arm height, and the flat-peg thruster mounts and wrist joints are the two points builders most often flag as loose or prone to popping during repositioning.

Lore & trivia

01The Gerbera Tetra was secretly developed by the Zeonic Company division of Anaheim Electronics, which retained loyalty to Zeon and built the suit as a disguised evolution of the RX-78GP04G 'Gerbera' prototype from the Gundam Development Project.
02It was piloted by Cima Garahau, the Delaz Fleet officer and central antagonist of Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory.
03The Roll Out Ver. is a P-Bandai exclusive recolor of the original 2013 HGUC 159 Gerbera Tetra mold, released in May 2016 at 2,160 yen.
04The kit's Sturm Booster backpack option references the suit's role as a high-speed, long-range assault unit designed to replicate Zeon hit-and-run tactics late in the One Year War.