HGUniversal Century

MSN-00100 Hyaku Shiki (Revive Ver.)

Anaheim's gold flex, reissued with joints that finally match the paint job.

MechaGrade Score

4.2/5

Hyaku Shiki · 1/144 · 2016

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2016

Runnersn/a

Check price on Amazon

Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

The verdict

This is one of the best HG Revive kits Bandai has put out and I say that without hedging.

Quattro's mobile suit already had presence just from the molded gold plastic, but the Revive treatment gave it double jointed knees and elbows plus a proper swiveling torso, so now it can actually hold the poses that gold paint job deserves. I built mine in an evening and grinned through most of it. For a suit whose whole identity is a taunt aimed at the Titans, this kit finally has the range of motion to sell the attitude.

Best for: HG collectors and Zeta Gundam fans who want the definitive small scale Hyaku Shiki without hunting down an old 2009 mold

The full review

What it is

The Hyaku Shiki is Quattro Bajeena's mobile suit from Zeta Gundam, and this Revive version rebuilds a kit that first came out back in 2009 with modern HG engineering underneath. The gold armor is molded in color, not painted on, so straight out of the runners it already looks like a finished model from a few feet away. The parts separation on the chest vents and shoulder binders is genuinely good for the price point. Snapping the torso in and getting that 360 degree twist plus the double jointed legs moving for the first time is the moment this kit sells itself. It feels like a kit that respects what made the original suit special instead of just reskinning a generic frame.

The catch

The beam saber holsters are a simple clip design and a few builders online worry they will wear loose with repeated removal, so treat them gently. There are real reports of the legs not staying seated firmly at the hip and the backpack binders ride on a polycap ball joint that gets knocked out of place if you handle the kit roughly. The included stickers are basically optional since the gold shows through where the red accent stickers would go, but the camera eye foil stickers are worth using since there is no other way to get that detail without paint. None of this is severe, it just means this is a kit to display more than to wrestle into new poses every week.

Who it's for

Buy this if you want a Zeta era suit that looks like a display piece before you even reach for a topcoat, or if you are building a Gryps Conflict lineup and need a Hyaku Shiki that will not look stiff next to newer HG releases. It is also a nice one for builders who like painting metallics, since the molded gold is a great base for a clear yellow or clear orange glaze if you want to push the finish further. Skip it only if you specifically want the Mega Bazooka Launcher in box, since that is still a separate release, or if loose feeling hip joints are a dealbreaker for you.

The build story

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

This is a quick, friendly build, the kind of HG you can finish in a single sitting without fighting the runners. Gate placement is clean and cleanup is minimal, and because the gold is molded in you are not chasing panel lines to hide seams the way you would on a painted gold finish. The only stickers you really need are the camera eye foils since the rest of the red accents peek through the gold plastic well enough to skip.

The engineering upgrade over the original 2009 kit is the whole story here. The torso now twists a full 360 degrees with roughly 30 degrees of lean, the elbows and knees are double jointed, and the head sits on a ball joint neck, all of which lets the Hyaku Shiki hit the sweeping, arms out poses it is known for in the show. Weapon loadout covers the beam rifle, clay bazooka, and two beam sabers, which is a solid set for an HG even without the Mega Bazooka Launcher.

Lore & trivia

01The Hyaku Shiki's name means Type 100, chosen by its designer to reflect a hope the design could stay relevant for a hundred years of mobile suit development
02Its gold finish is not just cosmetic in the show's lore, it represents a beam resistant coating over Gundarium gamma alloy that ablates to dissipate beam energy, though the protection is sacrificial and needs reapplication
03Quattro Bajeena, the suit's main pilot in Zeta Gundam, is later revealed to be Char Aznable operating under an alias
04This Revive version updates a mold that originally released in 2009, bringing it in line with the double jointed articulation standard of later HGUC kits