HGAnno Domini

GN-001REII Gundam Exia Repair II

Setsuna's comeback suit, cleaned up and finally worth the sticker sheet.

MechaGrade Score

3.7/5

Exia · 1/144 · 2009

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2009

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the HG that fixes what bugged me about the original Exia kit.

Trading the seven-sword gimmick and the goofy lavender GN Strips for a tighter twin-saber loadout and the GN Sword Kai makes the whole silhouette read cleaner on the shelf. It builds fast, poses well through the shoulders and hips, and the box art color match is close enough that you are not fighting the kit to get it looking right. It is not without stiff spots, but for an HG from this era it holds up.

Best for: Gundam 00 season 2 fans who want Setsuna's Ptolemaios 2 look without jumping to RG or MG

The full review

What it is

This kit is Celestial Being's patch job on Exia turned into a proper release, the suit Ian Vashti's crew rebuilt after Setsuna limped back aboard the Ptolemaios 2. Building it, I liked how much more focused it feels than the original Exia. Instead of seven swords rattling around, you get two beam sabers and the GN Sword Kai, and the shoulder assembly is genuinely fun to fiddle with, the chest vents and shoulder armor shift together as the arm swings so the whole upper body feels alive instead of just the joint moving in isolation. The color match to the show is close right out of the box, which for an HG from this generation is a pleasant surprise.

The catch

The elbows are single jointed, so deep bends and two-handed sword poses get compromised fast, and the back skirt armor is molded as one solid piece that just does not move, unlike the front skirt which swings free. There is also a real gap in the sticker sheet, Bandai gave you plenty of stickers for the shield and torso but nothing, not a decal or a molded piece, for the yellow face vents, which is a strange thing to skip on a kit that otherwise nails the color scheme. Budget some time for gate cleanup like any kit from this run, nothing dramatic, just the usual nub trimming.

Who it's for

If you are working through Gundam 00 kits in release order, or you specifically want the season 2 Ptolemaios 2 version of Exia rather than the battle damaged original, this is worth grabbing over the RG if you want a quick weekend build instead of a fiddly small scale project. Skip it if elbow articulation is a dealbreaker for your poses, the MG version gives you more range there. For the price point and the fifteen minute face-vent paint fix, I think most Exia fans come away happy.

The build story

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

Assembly is straightforward HG fare from this era, standard gate cleanup on the runners with nothing unusually fiddly. The frame goes together quickly and the sticker application for the shield and body markings is where most of the build time goes, since Bandai leaned on stickers rather than molded color for a lot of the panel detail.

The standout engineering is the shoulder to chest vent linkage, moving the arm shifts the side armor and vents together in a way that makes the pose feel more dynamic than the joint count would suggest. Double jointed knees and ankles give the legs solid range, though the front ankle armor caps how far you can push a low stance. Weapon loadout of two beam sabers plus the GN Sword Kai (which splits into sword and rifle configurations) is a good value bump over the base Exia kit for a similar price point.

Lore & trivia

01Exia Repair II is Setsuna F. Seiei's mobile suit rebuilt by chief mechanic Ian Vashti after the original Gundam Exia was heavily damaged fighting the United Nations Forces in A.D. 2308.
02The rebuild reduced Exia's original seven-sword GN weapon set down to a simpler two beam saber loadout paired with the upgraded GN Sword Kai, reworking the particle pathways and adding new thrusters in the process.
03The suit debuted aboard Celestial Being's rebuilt flagship, the CBS-74 Ptolemaios 2, marking Setsuna's return to the organization in Mobile Suit Gundam 00 season 2.