HGMobile Suit Gundam: The Origin (MSD, Mobile Suit Discovery)

Light Liner

A P-Bandai booster pack that takes its one job seriously.

MechaGrade Score

3.3/5

Light Liner · 1/144 · 2021

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2021

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This one is a specialty accessory, not a mobile suit, and once I stopped judging it like one it clicked into place.

The Light Liner is a flight support unit built to strap onto GM Intercept, GM Guard, and GM Sniper Custom kits from the same MSD line, and the wing and thruster tooling is sharper than a support piece has any business being. I would not recommend it as a first purchase, but as a second kit for someone who already owns a compatible GM, it earns its shelf space.

Best for: The ORIGIN MSD collector who already owns a GM Intercept or Sniper Custom and wants a flight pose

The full review

What it is

Light Liner is a P-Bandai exclusive support unit representing the first fully three dimensional flight booster to show up in the THE ORIGIN MSD storyline, and Bandai built the kit like they meant it. The big wing panel is molded in one clean sweep with almost no visible seam line, the panel lines are cut with real confidence, and the grip arm and leg clamp that hold it to a host mobile suit move enough to get a convincing flight lean. It comes with a clear display stand made for posing the unit banking through the air on its own, which is a nice touch for a piece this small. Nothing about it feels like an afterthought accessory.

The catch

The catch is right there in the name of the kit. This is not a mobile suit, so there is no articulation to speak of beyond the grip arm and wing hinge, and the whole thing is worthless without a compatible GM already on your shelf. Bandai's own instructions admit that fit varies by host kit and that some GM variants need their factory backpack pulled off first to clock the connector properly, which is an annoying extra step for something billed as a bolt on. It was also a Premium Bandai online exclusive, so tracking one down secondhand now usually means paying more than the original 1,430 yen price.

Who it's for

Buy this if you already have a GM Intercept, GM Guard, or GM Sniper Custom from the THE ORIGIN MSD line and want to give it a flight pose without kitbashing your own thrusters. Skip it if you are new to Gunpla, want a kit that stands on its own, or do not already own one of the specific host suits, because outside that lane it is a wing and a display stand with nowhere to go. It is a smart pickup for a completionist, not a starting point for anyone.

The build story

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

The build itself is short, snap fit, and glue free, which fits the accessory scale of the kit. Nub placement on the wing shell is considerate enough that cleanup marks stay hidden once the two halves close, and the connector arms snap together with a positive click rather than the loose fit you sometimes get on add on pieces. There is not much here to frustrate a builder, the whole thing goes together in well under an hour.

Where the kit earns its keep is the tooling on that wing. The panel line work and the layered surface detail read as a proper THE ORIGIN MSD design piece rather than a filler part, and the grip arm plus leg clamp genuinely hold a host suit at a believable flight angle instead of just resting against it. The included display stand is the other standout, since it lets the unit pose mid flight on its own, something most support accessories never bother to include.

Lore & trivia

01Light Liner is described by Bandai as the first fully three dimensional flight support mechanism to appear in the Mobile Suit Gundam: THE ORIGIN MSD spinoff story.
02The kit is a modular add on designed specifically for GM Intercept, GM Guard Custom, and GM Sniper Custom kits from the same MSD product line, not for general use with other Gunpla.
03It shipped as a Premium Bandai online exclusive in February 2021 at 1,430 yen, and Bandai's own documentation warns that combining it with some host kits may require removing that kit's stock backpack first.