HGFuture Century

JDG-009X (JDG-OOX) Death Army

A cheap, goofy mono-eyed grunt that finally lets G Gundam fans army-build the Devil Gundam's footsoldiers.

MechaGrade Score

3.4/5

(JDG-OOX) Death Army · 1/144 · 2019

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2019

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

I like this kit a lot more than its price tag suggests I should.

It was released for G Gundam's 25th anniversary as the first-ever kit version of the Devil Gundam's rank-and-file troops, and it nails the weird, menacing silhouette of the anime grunt without asking much of your wallet or your patience. It will not wow you with engineering, but it was never trying to.

Best for: G Gundam fans who want cheap, quick, poseable grunts to build in numbers

The full review

What it is

This is Bandai's first kit take on the Death Army, the mass-produced mono-eyed mobile suit the Devil Gundam spawns to protect itself while it heals up in Shinjuku. Bandai used its Fine Build Technology approach here, which basically means keeping the part count low while still hitting decent color separation, and it shows. Assembly is fast and low-stress, the mono-eye head swaps between two looks with a simple parts swap, and the club-shaped beam rifle can be held either as a gun or swung like an actual club thanks to a dedicated grip hand. There is even a folded-leg transformation gimmick shared across the Death Army family. For a background-mob kit, it is more thoughtfully put together than it needs to be.

The catch

The trade-offs are exactly what you would expect from a budget HG. The hip has no swivel and the knees are single-hinge, so deep dynamic poses are out of reach, and the torso only tilts and twists in a limited range. A good amount of the surface detail and color work leans on stickers rather than molded plastic, and builders report the stickers are thin and prone to tearing or stripping if you are not careful applying them, so a topcoat afterward is worth doing if you plan to handle it. None of this is a scandal for the price point, but do not expect MG-level color separation or RG-level articulation out of this one.

Who it's for

Buy this if you are a G Gundam fan who wants the Devil Gundam's mooks on your shelf, especially if you want to build two or three and pose them as a squad since the price and simplicity make that realistic. It also works as a low-pressure weekend build for anyone who wants something fun and fast between bigger kits. Skip it if articulation range or panel-line-ready molded detail is what you are chasing, or if you have never heard of G Gundam and just want a striking standalone display piece, since a lot of this kit's charm depends on knowing what a Death Army actually is.

The build story

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

This is a snap-together HG in the truest sense of low effort per step. Parts count is kept small, gates are easy to clean up, and nothing in the frame fights you during assembly. The mono-eye swap and the leg-fold transformation gimmick are the only steps that ask for any real attention, and neither is difficult, just fiddly in the way small HG parts always are.

Where it earns its keep is the character-accurate silhouette on a mass-market grunt that most companies would never bother tooling at all. The club-rifle's dedicated holding hand is a nice touch that sells the melee angle from the show, and the shoulder joint's extra articulation point helps rough out decent action poses despite the stiffer hips and knees. It will not out-pose an RG, but it holds a believable combat stance for shelf display, which is really all a background-army kit needs to do.

Lore & trivia

01The Death Army is created by the Devil Gundam's DG cells, which self-replicate the mobile suit while piloted by soldiers fully overtaken by the same nanotechnology.
02Known Death Army variants seen in Mobile Fighter G Gundam include the four-legged Death Beast, the flying Death Birdie, and the aquatic Death Navy, plus disguised versions built to impersonate specific Gundam Fighters.
03This HGFC kit was released in November 2019 to mark G Gundam's 25th anniversary, giving the Devil Gundam's mass-produced troops their first-ever model kit form.