HGBuild Fighters

Neon Beargguy 3000

China Kousaka's teddy bear tank, dipped in glow-stick plastic and handed out as a prize.

MechaGrade Score

3.6/5

Neon Beargguy 3000 · 1/144 · 2016

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2016

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the Beargguy III (San) mold I already love, just recolored in eye-searing neon pink, green and orange for a 2016 Gundam.Info giveaway campaign.

If you can find one, it builds exactly like the retail Beargguy III, which means it is one of the friendliest, funniest kits Bandai has ever put out. It is not chasing MG-level engineering and it does not need to. It is chasing a laugh, and it gets one.

Best for: Gunpla collectors and Build Fighters fans hunting the neon campaign exclusive, or anyone who wants Beargguy III without the standard colorway

The full review

What it is

Underneath the neon paint job this is the same KUMA-03 Beargguy III (San) that China Kousaka piloted, a bear-shaped tank suit with a cannon in its mouth and two more hidden in extendable arm segments. The neon 3000 version swaps the usual white and blue for hot pink, lime and orange plastic, which sounds like a gag and mostly is, but it is a genuinely charming one. Snapping the head together and watching the face parts click into that round, doe-eyed expression got a real smile out of me. This is a kit that knows exactly what it is and commits to the bit completely.

The catch

It was a 2016 Gundam.Info campaign prize limited to 790 units worldwide, never sold at retail, so pricing on the secondary market runs well above what a normal HGBF costs and availability is genuinely scarce. The extendable arm gimmick, where the forearm segments telescope out to reveal the beam cannons, is fun in concept but the segments can be stiff to pull and a little loose once extended repeatedly. Articulation outside the arms and head is limited: the legs move, but this is a stout, low-slung tank body, not a suit built for dynamic action poses.

Who it's for

If you collect Build Fighters kits or just want a genuinely odd, funny piece on the shelf, hunting down a Neon Beargguy 3000 is worth the effort and the extra cost over a standard Beargguy III. Skip it if you are chasing serious posability or inner-frame engineering, this kit was never built for that fight. It also is not a great first kit purely because of how hard it is to source, a fresh-to-the-hobby builder is better served finding the standard-colored HGBF Beargguy III first and treating this neon version as the collector's upgrade later.

The build story

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

The build follows the standard Beargguy III (San) runners, so expect an easy, glue-free snap-fit assembly with a surprising number of small interior parts for the head mechanism and extendable arms. None of it is fiddly in a frustrating way, it is just more parts than you would expect from something this small and round, mostly there to make the face and arm gimmicks work.

The standout engineering is the face, which swaps between expressions using interchangeable parts, and the arm cannons, which telescope out from the forearms to reveal the beam weapons China used to fire in show. Accessories are lean by design (mouth cannon, twin beam cannon arms, the Ribbon Striker backpack) but that fits the character. For a giveaway-exclusive HG, the color separation on the neon plastic is clean enough that you will not miss stickers much.

Lore & trivia

01The Neon Beargguy 3000 (San-Zen) was a prize-only HGBF release for the 2016 Gundam.Info Mid Year Campaign celebrating the 5th anniversary of Gundam.Info Overseas, limited to 790 units worldwide and never sold at retail.
02The base mold, KUMA-03 Beargguy III (San), was built and piloted by China Kousaka in Gundam Build Fighters, where it fought using a mouth-mounted beam cannon and two more concealed in its extendable forearms.
03In the show, Beargguy III's face includes an LCD-style display that lets its eye expression change mid-battle, a gimmick the kit recreates with swappable face parts.