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MD-0021 Desulator

A retired Jeturk workhorse that turns out to be one of the most configurable HG kits on the shelf.

MechaGrade Score

3.7/5

Desulator · 1/144 · 2025

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2025

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This kit surprised me.

It is technically an old, retired mobile suit in its own story, but Bandai built it like a toolbox, and that is exactly what makes it fun. You are not building one Desultor, you are building the parts to make three or four different loadouts depending on the day. The catch is that this is a P-Bandai exclusive, so the price and the paint expectations are both a notch above a regular retail HG.

Best for: Witch from Mercury fans who want a background suit with more play value than most of the show's headline HGs

The full review

What it is

The Desultor is the predecessor to the Dilanza, and Bandai leaned hard into that lineage by giving it a genuinely deep equipment set. You get swappable A, B, and C equipment configurations, a drone-container backpack and a troop-carrier backpack, each with an opening hatch, three assault rifles, a detachable-magazine rifle with a movable foregrip, the Bertabrad R3 recoilless cannon, and a 3-tube missile launcher that mounts to the right shoulder. Both hands can hold any weapon in the set, so you are never fighting the kit to get a pose you want. Building it feels less like assembling a Gundam and more like assembling an actual arsenal.

The catch

This is a P-Bandai exclusive at roughly 2,860 yen, so you are paying HG-plus money and dealing with online-shop-only availability rather than picking it up at a hobby shop. A chunk of the surface detail, particularly around the head visor's mechanical inner detail and some of the panel markings, is meant to be finished with Gundam Markers or paint rather than molded color, and Bandai's own notes recommend topcoating the stickers and decals if you want them to hold up. If you are strictly a no-paint, snap-and-done builder, some of this kit's best detail will pass you by.

Who it's for

I would point this at builders who already like the Witch from Mercury lineup and want something with more mission variety than the average side-character HG, and at anyone who enjoys the loadout-swap side of Gunpla as much as the building itself. If you want a one-and-done shelf piece straight out of the box with zero markers involved, this will feel like homework. If you are willing to spend twenty minutes with a gray or silver marker and a bottle of topcoat, the payoff in equipment variety is well above what a standard-price HG gives you.

The build story

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

The build itself moves quickly for an HG with this much gear, since most of the complexity is in the accessory runners rather than the frame. Gate placement is standard HG fare, nothing that demands more than a basic nipper and a little sanding. The head visor is a clear part with visible mechanical detail behind it, which is a nice touch for a kit this size, but it means you will want to be careful not to scuff it during assembly.

Articulation covers the HG basics well: ball-jointed shoulders, a swivel waist, and ankle rockers, and the kit is Action Base compatible for both flight poses and grounded dynamic poses. The real engineering win here is the equipment swapping, three assault rifles, a detachable-magazine rifle with a movable foregrip, the Bertabrad R3 recoilless cannon, a shoulder-mounted missile launcher, and two backpack options, all sharing the same universal hand parts. For an HG-tier price point, that part count and configuration range is genuinely strong value.

Lore & trivia

01The Desultor was developed by Jeturk Heavy Machinery as the direct predecessor to their current mainline suit, the Dilanza, built around a design philosophy of practical combat performance that did not demand elite pilot skill.
02Despite being retired from front-line service by the time of the series, Desultors remained active due to their high expandability, which is why the kit ships with so many interchangeable configurations.
03In the story, Shaddiq Zenelli illegally supplied six Desultors to the anti-Spacian terrorist group Dawn of Fold for the A.S. 122 raid on Plant Quetta, specifically to cast suspicion on Jeturk Heavy Machinery.
04The kit was a Premium Bandai (P-Bandai) exclusive released in February 2025 at roughly 2,860 yen, part of the HGTWFM (High Grade The Witch from Mercury) line.