HGUniversal Century

AMX-004-3 Ple Two's Qubeley Mk-II

A funnel-armed psycommu machine in maroon and yellow, built on Bandai's excellent REVIVE Qubeley frame.

MechaGrade Score

3.8/5

Ple Two's Qubeley Mk-II · 1/144 · 2016

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2016

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the REVIVE Qubeley engineering at its best, wearing a paint job most fans never get to own without hunting P-Bandai resale listings.

I like it a lot more than I expected to going in, mostly because the shoulder binders and funnel-equipped back skirt do so much of the visual work for so little part count. The catch is that it is a recolor of a kit Bandai has now released three times, so the novelty is entirely in the maroon and yellow molding and the Ple Two markings, not in any new engineering.

Best for: UC completionists chasing the full Qubeley Mk-II lineup, and ZZ Gundam fans who want Ple Two on the shelf without an MG-sized commitment

The full review

What it is

This is the AMX-004-3, one of the two Qubeley Mk-II units built off Bandai's REVIVE-era Qubeley mold, this time in Ple Two's maroon and yellow scheme instead of Elpeo Ple's black or Puru Two's own colors. The shape is the star: a wide, floating funnel-covered skirt and heavy shoulder binders that read as genuinely alien next to the boxier federation suits on the same shelf. Bandai mounts a set of funnels straight onto the back skirt armor out of the box, so the kit already looks armed and dangerous before you add any separately sold effect parts. Snapping the frame together, I was struck by how much presence this thing has for a 1/144 that goes together in an afternoon.

The catch

This is a recolor, plain and simple, the same REVIVE tooling that has already come out as the plain Qubeley, Elpeo Ple's version, and Puru Two's version, so if you already own one of those you are paying again for a different plastic color rather than new parts. The neck joint moves in a genuinely odd way compared to a normal HG, with a wide range of raise but very little tilt or rotation, which takes some getting used to when posing the head. The elbows only bend to roughly 90 degrees thanks to the shape of the forearm shrouds, and the dark maroon plastic will show scuffed nub marks if you rush the gate cleanup.

Who it's for

Buy this if you already love the Qubeley silhouette and want Ple Two specifically, or if you are building out the ZZ Gundam side cast and want a kit that looks far more expensive than its price band suggests. Skip it if you already own the plain Qubeley or Elpeo Ple's version and are not attached to Ple Two as a character, since you would be buying the same frame a second time for a different maroon and yellow paint job. First-time HG builders should also know the neck and elbow ranges are quirky enough that they are worth reading up on before assembly rather than fighting through blind.

The build story

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

The runners are soft PS plastic despite some oversized gates, so trimming and sanding go quickly even on the darker maroon parts where a rushed cut will show. Assembly is straightforward HG snap-fit throughout, with the shoulder binders as the only part of the build that takes real attention since each binder is built from two halves that move independently of each other.

Articulation is the highlight for the grade: knees bend to roughly 160 degrees and the twin-hinge shoulder binders swing and rotate enough to sell dynamic funnel-attack poses, even though the neck's raise-heavy, tilt-light range and the roughly 90-degree elbow bend are real limits to plan around. The kit ships with Ple Two's maroon and yellow markings, including her personal Qubeley script and the Neo Zeon insignia, and the back-skirt-mounted funnels are compatible with the separately sold Qubeley Funnel Effect Set for a full deployed-funnel display.

Lore & trivia

01The Qubeley Mk-II was built as a mass-production-oriented follow-up to Haman Karn's original Qubeley, detuned but sharing the same miniaturized psycommu system for funnel control.
02Ple Two, a Cyber Newtype clone of the original Elpeo Ple, piloted this specific maroon and yellow AMX-004-3 unit during the First Neo Zeon War depicted in Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ.
03This HGUC release reuses Bandai's REVIVE-era Qubeley frame, the same tooling behind the plain Qubeley and Elpeo Ple's black and navy version, distinguished mainly by its maroon and yellow molded plastic and Ple Two's personal markings.
04The kit's funnels attach directly to the back skirt armor out of the box, and are designed to work with the separately sold Qubeley Funnel Effect Set for a deployed-funnel display.