HGUniversal Century

FD-03 Gustav Karl (Gihren's Greed Ver.)

A hulking Jegan successor recolored for a strategy game, built from a mold that never quite earns its bulk.

MechaGrade Score

3.2/5

Gustav Karl (Gihren's Greed Ver.) · 1/144 · 2019

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2019

Runnersn/a

Check price on Amazon

Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

The verdict

This is a kit you buy for the silhouette, not the engineering.

The Gihren's Greed molded-color scheme looks genuinely great sitting on a shelf, and I like that Bandai reused the Unicorn Ver. tooling instead of charging full price for a fresh sculpt. But the waist barely turns, the hip and ankle joints run loose out of the bag, and the beam rifle looks like it wandered off a much smaller suit. I still don't regret building it.

Best for: Universal Century completionists and Jegan-lineage collectors who want a big Federation grunt suit in an unusual paint job

The full review

What it is

The Gustav Karl is a mass-produced Earth Federation suit from the Hathaway's Flash timeline, a heavily reworked RGM-89 Jegan built to escort the Penelope and carry the fight during the Mafty Uprising. This particular release recolors the 2019 HGUC Unicorn Ver. mold into the darker blue and grey scheme it wears in the Gihren's Greed game, and the plastic does the work, no paint needed to get that game-accurate look. Popping the runners and watching that color show up pre-molded rather than stickered on is satisfying in a way that a lot of budget HG kits still don't manage. The new commander antenna and the shoulder-mounted flexible shield give it a bulkier, more purposeful silhouette than the standard Jegan.

The catch

The waist joint is the real letdown. It only swivels, and shifting the rear skirt too far will pop the torso clean off the frame, so dynamic poses are mostly off the table. Hip and ankle polycaps run loose on a lot of copies straight from the bag, even with careful assembly, and the front skirt armor blocks any real kneeling pose. There's also some noticeable flash on parts and a couple of spots where panels don't sit fully flush. The beam rifle is a straight Jegan carryover, which looks undersized against a suit this broad-shouldered. Because it was a Premium Bandai exclusive, secondhand prices run well above the original 2,640 yen tag.

Who it's for

Grab this one if you already like the Jegan-family suits and want a UC oddity with a color scheme you won't find anywhere else, or if you're building a Hathaway's Flash-adjacent display and don't mind the suit standing mostly still. Skip it if posability and tight joints matter to you, or if this would be your first HG, there are cheaper kits in the line that pose far better for less money. I'd also skip it if you're chasing accessories, the grenade launcher gimmick is fun for about thirty seconds and then you're back to a beam rifle and a shield.

The build story

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

Runners go together fast since this shares its layout with the 2019 Unicorn Ver. release, but expect some visible flash on a few parts and the odd panel that doesn't sit fully flush no matter how much you clean the nub. Stickers are limited to small details like the calf strips and the tiny camera lenses scattered over the body, everything else comes molded in the game-accurate blue and grey.

The shoulders use a removable butterfly joint that should add range but ends up feeling floppy rather than locked in. Double-jointed elbows and an extending leg section give the limbs decent reach, but that's fighting against loose hip and ankle polycaps that won't hold a pose under the suit's own weight. Accessories are a beam rifle, a beam saber that tucks into the side skirt, a grenade launcher with a hatch that flips open, and a shield on a flexible shoulder mount, a reasonable loadout for the price but nothing that shows off the tooling.

Lore & trivia

01The Gustav Karl is a ground-combat redesign of the RGM-89 Jegan built by the Earth Federation Forces and depicted in the Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash novels and film.
02In the story, Gustav Karl units serve as escorts for the RX-104FF Penelope and make up the bulk of Federation strength during the Mafty Uprising.
03This Gihren's Greed Ver. reuses the 2019 HGUC Gustav Karl (Unicorn Ver.) mold in new molded colors matching its appearance in the Mobile Suit Gundam: Gihren's Greed video game, and was sold as a Premium Bandai exclusive around 2,640 yen.