HGBuild Divers

HER-SELF Mobile Doll Sarah

A gijinka kit that trades weapons and gimmicks for pure, surprisingly deep pose range.

MechaGrade Score

3.7/5

HER-SELF Mobile Doll Sarah · 1/144 · 2018

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2018

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is one of the friendliest, most rewarding oddball kits in the HG lineup and I mean that as high praise, not a backhanded one.

Sarah isn't here to fight, she's here to move, and the double jointed arms and legs let her hold poses I don't get out of kits twice her price. The catch is she needs a little TLC in the loose joints department before she'll hold those poses reliably.

Best for: builders who want an expressive, no-tool, no-glue display piece rather than another gun-toting mobile suit

The full review

What it is

Sarah is the HGBD entry built around Gundam Build Divers' EL-Diver character rather than a combat mobile suit, and Bandai clearly designed her for posing over punching. You get two complete looks in one box: a softer Real Mode face and hairstyle, and a more mechanical MS Mode with a swapped head and shoulder joints, so she reads as either a person or a machine depending on how you build her. Assembly is genuinely beginner friendly, no cutters or glue required, parts pull off the runners by hand, and I had her together in under an hour. The double jointed elbows, knees, and rotating rear skirt plates give her a pose range that punches well above what I expect from a kit this size and price.

The catch

The elbows, and especially the skirt armor pieces, are loose out of the box. Builders who've spent real time with her consistently recommend a thin bead of plastic cement on those joints if you want poses to hold rather than slowly droop over a day on the shelf. She also can't stand unassisted, and the display stand attaches through an awkward mounting point on the underside of her dress that takes some fiddling to seat correctly. Accessory count is thin, essentially just the two head/hair options and the stand, since Sarah's role in the show never called for a weapon loadout, so don't go in expecting an arsenal.

Who it's for

If you want a kit that lets you build a genuinely expressive, dynamic display piece without touching a hobby knife or paint, Sarah is a fantastic pick, and she's approachable enough that I've seen her recommended as a first build for kids and beginners. She's also a smart choice for anyone bored of the usual gun-and-shield HG formula who wants something that poses more like a figure than a robot. Skip her if you want a kit you can pose hard and walk away from without a drop of glue, or if accessories and weapons are the reason you buy Gunpla in the first place.

The build story

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

The build itself is about as low friction as Gunpla gets. Every part pulls off the runners by hand, there's no nub cleanup to speak of, and stickers handle her eyes and a few accent details instead of waterslide decals, so you're done in under an hour with nothing but your fingers. It's a build I'd hand to someone who has never touched a model kit before and expect them to finish it without frustration.

Where Sarah earns her keep is articulation. Points at the hips, knees, ankles, elbows, shoulders, neck, hair, and both rear skirt plates add up to a pose range that rivals kits built around a full inner frame, and the skirt gimmick specifically was engineered so the armor gets out of the way of leg movement instead of blocking it. The Real Mode to MS Mode swap is a nice piece of part-count efficiency too, since Bandai gave you two distinct display looks off one runner set rather than padding the box with a single static build.

Lore & trivia

01Sarah is an EL-Diver, an electronic lifeform that was accidentally created inside the GBN system in Gundam Build Divers, and the Mobile Doll body was built by Koichi Nanase and Tsukasa Shiba specifically to help her exist outside the network.
02The kit can be assembled in either Real Mode (a more human, softer look) or MS Mode (a more mechanical look) by swapping the included alternate head and shoulder joint parts.
03She was released in December 2018 as part of the HGBD (High Grade Build Divers) line, numbered HGBD #23.