HGRegild Century

CAMS-03P Elf Bullock Mass Production Type

A P-Bandai recolor of one of the strangest, most memorable HG shapes Bandai ever tooled, minus the ace pilot's paint job.

MechaGrade Score

3.6/5

Elf Bullock Mass Production Type · 1/144 · 2015

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2015

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the plain-clothes version of a genuinely weird and wonderful kit, and I like it more than I expected to.

Losing Captain Mask's signature colors and personal head sculpt takes away some of the personality, but the CAMS-03 shape underneath, the flight mode swap, the finger-mounted beam guns, is still every bit as strange and fun to assemble. It's a kit that rewards people who already know they want the Elf Bullock silhouette on their shelf without paying Mask Custom prices or hunting a sold-out variant.

Best for: Reconguista in G fans who want the mass-production Capital Army look, or anyone who wants the Elf Bullock shape without chasing the pricier Mask Custom version

The full review

What it is

The Elf Bullock is one of the odder designs to come out of Reconguista in G, a big, insect-limbed Capital Army suit that swaps parts to shift between mobile suit mode and a flight configuration, with beam cannons built into its fingers instead of hand-held guns. This mass production release is a P-Bandai exclusive recolor of the original HGRC-08 kit with new head parts, dropping Captain Mask's personal color scheme for the plainer grunt look the suit was originally designed around. Building it, I kept smiling at how uncompromisingly odd the silhouette is. Nothing about this suit reads as generic anime robot, and that alone makes the build worth doing.

The catch

The part swapping for flight mode is genuinely fiddly, you are pulling shin and antenna parts on and off rather than folding hinges, and more than one builder has flagged the antennas as loose enough to pop off and get lost during handling. The flight mode itself, once assembled, looks a little flimsy compared to the mobile suit mode, it is a nice bonus rather than a display centerpiece. Because this is a P-Bandai mass production recolor, you are also paying secondary market prices for what is fundamentally the same plastic as the retail Mask Custom kit, just in different colors with a different head. Articulation is workable but the leg and torso construction limits how far you can push some poses.

Who it's for

Buy this if you already love the Reconguista in G aesthetic and specifically want the Capital Army grunt colors on your shelf, or if the retail Mask Custom kit is out of reach and this is the version you can actually find. It also makes sense if you want a display piece that stands out from the usual Gundam-shaped crowd, the size and stance alone earn it real presence next to more conventional HGs. Skip it if you want Captain Mask's actual colors and personal head sculpt, or if you are new to the franchise and would rather start with a suit that has a more typical humanoid HG build experience.

The build story

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

The build itself moves at a normal HG pace with straightforward gate placement, but the part-swap engineering for flight mode asks more attention than a typical snap-together HG. You are pulling shin covers and antenna pieces on and off rather than relying on built-in hinges, so test-fitting before final assembly saves you from stressing the small connector nubs.

The standout engineering is the finger-mounted beam guns and the overall insectoid frame, which give the suit real distinctiveness once posed. Articulation covers the basics well enough for dynamic shots, though the torso and leg joints do cap how extreme you can push a pose. For the price and part count, the transformation gimmick and the sheer size of the finished kit make it feel like a fair amount of kit for an HG.

Lore & trivia

01The Elf Bullock is piloted by Captain Mask, one of Reconguista in G's ace Capital Army pilots, and its main armament is a pair of beam cannons built directly into its fingers rather than hand-held weapons.
02This CAMS-03P Mass Production Type is a P-Bandai exclusive recolor of the original retail HGRC-08 Elf Bullock kit, released with new head parts to differentiate it from Captain Mask's personal machine.
03The kit includes swappable parts that let builders reconfigure the Elf Bullock between its standard mobile suit mode and its long-range flight mode, mirroring the transformation seen in the anime.