HGGundam Build Divers (Option Parts Set line)

Build Hands Edge (S,M,L)

Thirty-six hands and not one of them wasted.

MechaGrade Score

4.1/5

Build Hands Edge (S,M,L) · 1/144 · 2018

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2018

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

I'll say it plainly, this is the single best five dollars I've spent in the hobby.

It's not a mobile suit, it's a parts set, and once you dump the runners out you realize how much posing potential you just bought. The square, Jigen Knuckle style fingers give every HG and RG in my case a meaner, more mechanical grip than its stock hands ever managed.

Best for: anyone with a shelf of 1/144 kits whose stock hands are too soft, too small, or already snapped off

The full review

What it is

This is an option parts set, not a mobile suit, and I think that distinction matters because it changes what you're grading. You get two pairs each of fists, open palms, and weapon grips, repeated across small, medium, and large sizes, for 36 hands total. The square edged, angular knuckle design is lifted from the Jigen Haoh's signature look, so even a plain fist reads as more deliberate and mechanical than the rounded stock hands most HG kits ship with. Once I had the full runner laid out I understood why builders say the pile looks bigger than the price tag suggests.

The catch

Gate placement is tight on parts this small, so cleanup takes patience and a sharp blade if you don't want visible nub marks on a hand you're about to put front and center in a pose. Sizing across kits and even across manufacturers is not guaranteed, so you're test fitting rather than assuming a universal snap. The weapon grip hands only accommodate a 4mm x 2mm or 3mm saber peg, which covers most Bandai grips but not everything on your shelf. And a few buyers have noted there's no trigger finger or splayed pointing hand in the lineup, which is a real gap if that's the pose you're after.

Who it's for

If you build HG or RG kits regularly and you're tired of stock hands that look flat or that have already cracked at the wrist peg, buy this without hesitation, it pays for itself the first time you swap a fist onto a kit that needed one. If you're a PG or MG collector who rarely poses your kits or you only own one or two suits, skip it, you won't burn through 36 hands and the size run won't matter to you. It's a shelf-wide upgrade, not a single-kit purchase, so the value scales with how many kits you actually pose.

The build story

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

There's no assembly in the traditional sense since these are option parts, just clean nipping off the runner and a wrist peg swap into your existing kit. The parts are small enough that gate marks show if you're not careful, and a few builders recommend a hobby knife pass after the nippers rather than trusting the nip alone. No glue, no paint, no stickers, just a nipper and a steady hand.

The real engineering story here is the knuckle geometry itself, the squared off, blocky finger joints give a harder, more articulated looking grip than the rounded stock hands on most HG kits, and the open palm hands articulate at the wrist for extra pose range. Splitting the set across small, medium, and large sizes is what makes it work across a mixed collection instead of fitting just one grade, and at 36 parts for the price, builders consistently call it a bigger haul than they expected once it's laid out in front of them.

Lore & trivia

01The square edged knuckle design is based on the Jigen Haoh, the Gunpla-battling mobile suit from Gundam Build Divers piloted by Yukio Hidaka.
02The original Build Hands Edge (S,M,L) released in August 2018 under Bandai's Gundam Build Divers option parts line, kit number 0230832.
03Bandai reissued the same hand geometry in 2024 as Option Parts Set Gunpla 03, sometimes labeled Build Hands Rectangular Shape, extending the line's life six years after the original release.
04The set's weapon grip hands are cut to fit Bandai's standard 4mm x 2mm and 3mm saber peg sizes, the same grips used across most HG and RG weapon accessories.