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Gundam Naion

A P-Bandai side story suit that spends its weapon budget on two floating cannons instead of one big gimmick.

MechaGrade Score

3.9/5

Gundam Naion · 1/144 · 2025

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2025

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

I like this kit a lot more than I expected from a manga tie-in most people will never even hold.

The pitch here is the twin Vajra units on the back, each one hinges forward on its own multi-axis joint and each one racks three separable Rinkou GUND-Bits, so you get an armed suit and a six-piece drone swarm out of one box. It reads as fan service for Witch from Mercury completionists, but the engineering under that fan service is legitimately clever.

Best for: Witch from Mercury collectors and P-Bandai hunters who want a display-forward HG built around weapon gimmicks rather than raw poseability

The full review

What it is

Naion is the mystery suit from the Vanadis Heart manga side story, and Bandai built the kit to match that manga-panel presence rather than give it a generic HG loadout. The head, chest, shoulders and legs use clear black shell parts, and foil stickers let you switch those shells between an activated and a deactivated look, which is a neat touch for a suit whose whole identity in the story is still unexplained. The Alterable Bayonetta and the beam sabers both get clear beam effect parts in the box, and the sabers tuck into the clavicle next to the head when not in hand, which is a small detail I appreciate on a suit this busy.

The catch

This is a Premium Bandai exclusive, which means no retail shelf presence, a limited order window, and a real chance you are paying a proxy service markup on top of the 3,300 yen list price just to get one. The signature gimmick, the shell activation look, runs on foil stickers rather than molded color change, so if you are precise with tweezers it looks great and if you rush it you will see it. The Rinkou GUND-Bits also want the separately sold WFM Weapon Display Base to really show off the detached-swarm pose, so budget for that if you want the full effect.

Who it's for

Grab this one if you are already following the Witch from Mercury side story or you collect the HGTWFM line and want a suit that does something different with its accessory set instead of just handing you a rifle and a shield. It rewards patience during the sticker work and pays that patience back with a genuinely fun posing gimmick once the Vajra units are hinged forward and the Rinkou are fanned out. Skip it if P-Bandai's order windows and reseller markups are a dealbreaker for you, or if you want your HG money going toward a suit from the main TV series instead of a manga-only design.

The build story

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

The core assembly follows the same joint logic as the rest of the HGTWFM line, so if you have built Calibarn or Lfrith you already know the hand-swap system and the general frame feel going in. The extra time on this one goes into the foil stickers for the shell activation gimmick and into getting the Vajra hinges seated so they hold their forward-swing pose without drooping.

The standout engineering is the Vajra system itself, a movable grip and deployable barrel on each unit plus the multi-axis back mount, which turns what could have been a static backpack accessory into an actual second weapon set. The six Rinkou GUND-Bits add side-to-side articulation of their own and can be pulled off the Vajra entirely to pose as a floating support squad, which is more play value than most HG accessory packs offer at this price band.

Lore & trivia

01Gundam Naion first appeared in Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury - Vanadis Heart, an official manga side story set in A.S. 106, five years after the events of the Vanadis incident in the main TV series.
02The kit was released as a Premium Bandai exclusive in September 2025 at 3,300 yen, with a reissue order window that ran again in 2026.
03Each of the two Vajra units carries three Rinkou GUND-Bits, giving the suit six total, and each Rinkou can be displayed separately from the Vajra with the WFM Weapon Display Base sold separately.
04As of the manga's serialization to date, Naion's pilot has not been revealed, which was part of the marketing hook for the kit's release.