HGUniversal Century

MS-08TX/N Efreet Nacht

A ninja in Zeon green and black, built for the shadows instead of the spotlight.

MechaGrade Score

3.4/5

Efreet Nacht · 1/144 · 2018

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2018

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

I like this kit for exactly what it is: a moody, weapon-focused reskin of the Efreet line that trades range and articulation for pure atmosphere.

It will not out-pose anything in your case, and it was a Premium Bandai release so it is not always easy to just walk into a store and grab, but once it is built and posed with that cold sword drawn, it earns its keep on the shelf. This is a kit you buy for presence, not for flexibility.

Best for: One Year War completionists and Zeon fans who want the stealthy, sword-and-kunai variant of the Efreet on their shelf

The full review

What it is

The Efreet Nacht is the night-ops, radar-jamming cousin of the standard Efreet, and Bandai leaned all the way into that idea with the kit. It comes in a much darker green-black color scheme than its siblings, with extra armor plating bolted onto the shoulders, arms, and thighs, plus added thrusters on the outer legs. Instead of the usual beam weapon loadout, you get four throwable kunai and a single cold sword, which is a genuinely fun departure from the standard HGUC arsenal. The mono-eye is movable, which is a small detail but it changes the read of the head on a shelf. Building it feels like assembling a suit designed to disappear at night, and the design commits to that idea in a way I respect.

The catch

The extra armor that gives this kit its silhouette is also what limits it. Thigh and shoulder articulation take a real hit compared to a plain Efreet, so deep dynamic poses are mostly off the table. It also has no polycaps in the arm joints, which means the hands can pop loose after a handful of pose changes, an annoyance you will notice the first time you try to hand it a weapon. Bandai bundled in some spare parts from the earlier Efreet Custom kit, including a missile launcher, but that launcher is missing its back-side pieces, so treat it as a partial bonus rather than a complete accessory. Decoration is thin too: only two stickers in the whole kit, for the mono-eye and the tops of the feet, no dry-transfer markings at all.

Who it's for

Buy this if you already like the Efreet family or you want a stealth-themed One Year War suit that looks different from every other green Zeon mobile suit on the shelf. The kunai and cold sword loadout is worth the price of admission on its own for anyone who likes weapon variety over beam rifles. Skip it if you want a kit you can pose aggressively, since the added armor fights you on range of motion, or if loose hand joints are a dealbreaker for you. It is also a Premium Bandai item, so budget extra time and money to actually track one down instead of assuming it will be sitting on a shelf.

The build story

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

Assembly follows the familiar Efreet HGUC skeleton, so the actual build goes together cleanly, but you are constantly aware you are stacking extra armor plates onto an already-set frame rather than building something with an integrated inner structure. Gate placement is standard HGUC fare and cleanup is easy, but because there is so little sticker or marking work to break up the process, the build reads more as an assembly exercise than a detailing project.

The best engineering choice here is restraint on the color separation: the molded plastic already carries the dark scheme so you are not fighting stickers to sell the stealth look. The weapon set is the standout, four kunai plus the cold sword give you more to actually pose the kit doing something. Articulation is the clear weak point since the bulked-up shoulder and thigh armor caps the range you would expect from the base Efreet, and the lack of polycaps in the arms is a real durability compromise for a kit at this price point.

Lore & trivia

01The Efreet Nacht was one of eight Efreet units transferred to Odessa and modified under Colonel M'Quve's orders to become a dedicated stealth and night-combat variant.
02Its jamming system was built to disrupt radar, heat signature, and sound detection at once, and it deliberately carries physical blades and kunai instead of heat-based weapons so it would not give off a detectable heat signal.
03After Zeon's defeat at Odessa, the Earth Federation captured an Efreet Nacht and used the stealth technology it recovered in developing the RX-79BD-1ST Blue Destiny Unit 1 (Stealth).
04The kit was released in April 2018 as a Premium Bandai exclusive, which is part of why it can be harder to find than a standard retail HGUC.