HGUniversal Century

MSF-007TE Gundam Tertium

A humble Mk-III chassis wearing a much bigger suit of armor, and it mostly earns it.

MechaGrade Score

3.4/5

Gundam Tertium · 1/144 · 2020

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2020

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is a solid, unglamorous HG that punches a little above its price tag once you get past the plain gray plastic.

I like what Bandai did with the added armor plates over the Mk-III frame, it actually reads as a heavier, tougher unit on the shelf without needing a size bump. It is not a showpiece and does not try to be one. It is a cheap, snappy build for a niche Build Divers character that rewards you more once you pick up the paint markers.

Best for: Build Divers fans and Mk-III lineage collectors who don't mind supplementing color with markers

The full review

What it is

The Tertium is basically a tricked-out MSF-007 Gundam Mk-III, and that Z-MSV lineage shows in the proportions, a slightly stocky, no-nonsense UC-adjacent frame under a layer of extra armor plating. Putting it together took me an evening, no surprises, no weird sub-assemblies. The double-jointed elbows and knees plus the double ball-joint neck give it more range than I expected out of a budget HG, and the twin beam rifles that clip to the hips for storage are a nice small touch I didn't know I wanted until I had it. For a kit that runs around 2,090 yen at Japanese retail, it earns its keep.

The catch

Color separation is the weak point here. A lot of the panel definition and the deeper trim colors are meant to be applied with Gundam Markers or Mr. Color rather than molded in, so straight out of the box it looks flatter and grayer than the box art promises. I've also seen a build report call the arm joints flimsy, specifically that they struggle to keep a beam saber locked in a raised pose, which lines up with a common HG-tier complaint about hand and wrist tension loosening over time. Budget the extra hour for markers and don't expect the swords to stay up in every pose without help.

Who it's for

Grab this one if you are working through the Build Divers Re:RISE roster, you like Mk-III based UC-adjacent designs, or you just want a cheap, quick weeknight build with better-than-average articulation. Skip it if you want a kit that looks finished and bright straight off the runners, because this one needs a marker pass to really pop, and skip it if a rock-solid saber grip matters more to you than price. As an unpainted shelf piece it is fine but forgettable; as a 90-minute paint-up project it's genuinely worth the small spend.

The build story

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

Assembly is standard HG snap-fit with the usual gate cleanup on the runners, nothing tricky and nothing that trips up a first-time builder. The armor add-on pieces clip over the Mk-III style frame cleanly and the whole thing goes together in an evening without needing cement or filler.

The articulation is the pleasant surprise for the grade: double-jointed elbows and knees and a double ball-joint neck give this more range of motion than a typical budget HG. The loadout of two rifles (hip-mountable) and two beam sabers covers the character's kit well, and the design supports the Tertium Arms and Seltsam Arms expansion kits (Shield Binder, Hyper Burst Lance) if you want to chase the bigger accessory set later.

Lore & trivia

01The Tertium is a heavily customized MSF-007 Gundam Mk-III, tying it back to the Zeta-era Z-MSV design lineage even though the character himself is from Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE.
02It's the signature Gunpla of Masaki Shido, known in-game as the S-Rank Diver Sid, a top-ranked GBN builder who never officially joined any in-game force.
03After Masaki is captured and brainwashed by Alus in the show's story, the Tertium itself is converted into the demonic-looking MSF-007SS Gundam Seltsam, equipped with the oversized Seltsam Arm.
04The kit's optional Hyper Burst Lance, sold separately in the Tertium Arms expansion, is a giant melee lance with four built-in beam guns and a telescoping handle, sized for a suit that's supposed to be too big for standard units to wield.