HGGundam Build Fighters

LR-01 Mrs. Loheng-rinko

A grown woman's battleship cosplay, built as a love letter, and it still makes me grin every time I look at it.

MechaGrade Score

3.4/5

Mrs. Loheng-rinko · 1/144 · 2018

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2018

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the joke kit that actually earns its punchline.

It is Rinko Iori, the hero's mother, kitted out as a walking Archangel from Gundam SEED, right down to the same voice actress gag, and Bandai committed to the bit with real transformation gimmicks instead of a paint job and a shrug. I like it more for what it dares to be than for how cleanly it goes together. It is a novelty piece first and a well engineered kit second, but the novelty is genuinely clever.

Best for: Build Fighters fans and gag-kit collectors who want a conversation piece, not a technical showcase

The full review

What it is

Mrs. Loheng-rinko is built around one good idea done well: she folds from a standing human silhouette into a seated pose that reads unmistakably as the Archangel, just by tipping from vertical to seated with the same parts doing double duty. The heels split open into Lohengrin cannon housings, a direct pun on her own name, and she carries fixed Gottfried Mk.71 cannons on the knees plus a pair of beam rifles so she is not just standing there looking cute. It was the first spouse-themed release in the Build Fighters HG line and the first transforming entry, and building it you can feel Bandai's designers having genuine fun rather than phoning in a reskin.

The catch

The back skirt is the real weak point. It sits loose on the standing pose and does not lock down the way you want, so it tends to droop or pop free during posing rather than staying put. The face and eye stickers are also a step down from the rest of the kit, thin decals that do not want to settle flush and read noticeably worse than molded color would, so if you care about the front-facing detail you are looking at a repaint or a switch to better decal stock. At 2,700 yen and HG-level part count, this was never going to compete with a mainline HG on engineering polish, and it does not.

Who it's for

Buy this if you already know the joke, if Gundam Build Fighters means something to you, or if you collect the oddball entries in a grade line rather than just the flagship suits. The transformation gimmick and the in-universe pun reward people who get the reference, and builders willing to touch up the face stickers or panel-line the skirt joint will end up with a genuinely fun shelf piece. Skip it if you want a straightforward, tightly engineered HG experience or you have zero context for who Rinko Iori is, because without that anchor this is just an odd little battleship lady with a floppy skirt.

The build story

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

This is a straightforward HG snap-together build, no inner frame drama, but the back skirt assembly is where you will slow down. It is meant to swing and reposition for the transformation, and that same flexibility is exactly why it does not lock firmly when she is standing upright. Expect to test-fit and possibly add a touch of friction or a small shim if you want her to hold a standing pose for display without the skirt sagging. The face stickers are worth handling carefully during application since they do not want to seat flush against the curved head part.

The transformation is the headline feature and it works: tip her from standing to seated and the whole silhouette reads as the Archangel, no part-swapping required. The heel-mounted Lohengrin cannons and the fixed knee Gottfried cannons give her real weapon presence rather than leaving her as a static cosplay figure, and the two included beam rifles mean she can be posed mid-action instead of just standing at attention. For an HG price point built around one specific gag, the part count and accessory loadout deliver more than you would expect from a novelty release.

Lore & trivia

01Mrs. Loheng-rinko depicts Rinko Iori, mother of protagonist Sei Iori, styled after the Archangel from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED.
02The design is a deliberate in-joke: Rinko Iori and Archangel captain Murrue Ramius are voiced by the same actress in the Japanese cast.
03It was the first spouse-themed model, the first battleship-motif model, and the first transforming model in the Gunpla'Cos Heroine sub-line built by the Hobby Hobby Imaging Builders, released as HGBF #67 in March 2018 for 2,700 yen.
04The kit's heel-mounted cannons are named Lohengrin cannons, a direct pun combining the Archangel's Lohengrin weapon system with Rinko's own name.