HGBuild Fighters

PF-73-3BL Gundam Lightning Black Warrior

The Amazing Red Warrior's black-and-gold cousin, now dragging an extra cannon into the fight.

MechaGrade Score

3.8/5

Gundam Lightning Black Warrior · 1/144 · 2017

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2017

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 a repaint that earns its own shelf spot.

It reuses the excellent Amazing Red Warrior frame, so you already know the articulation is strong, but the black-and-gold scheme and the new Long Barrel Rifle give it a different personality entirely. I went in expecting a lazy recolor and came out impressed by how much weapon variety Bandai crammed into a kit this size. The rough gate placement from the original mold is still here, so it's not a flawless build, but the finished suit poses better and looks meaner than the price tag suggests.

Best for: HG builders who want a weapons-locker mecha with real pose range and don't mind a little extra cleanup work for it

The full review

What it is

The Lightning Black Warrior is Yuuma Kousaka's black-and-gold reskin of the Amazing Red Warrior, built on the same 1/144 frame but shipping with an extra Long Barrel Rifle alongside the handgun, short and long gunblades, two beam rifles, a hyper bazooka, and a shield. Building it, what struck me first was just how much gear I was holding by the end. There's a real toy-box quality to laying every weapon out next to the finished figure. The gold trim over black plastic reads sharp on the shelf, and it doesn't feel like a reskin so much as its own kit that happens to share bones with a fan favorite.

The catch

The frame underneath is a few years old at this point and it shows in a couple of spots. Builders of the original Amazing Red Warrior have flagged rough nub marks on thicker parts and occasional runner gashes in visible areas like the front of the arms, and that carries over here since it's the same tooling. Markings come on a foil sticker sheet rather than molded color, so you're applying stickers if you want the emblems. None of this is a dealbreaker at HG prices, but go in expecting a bit more trimming and sanding than a fresh-tooled kit, and set aside patience for sticker placement.

Who it's for

Grab this one if you like a mecha that can actually hold its whole arsenal in a photo without looking stiff, or if the black-and-gold Build Fighters aesthetic just does it for you over the original red. It's also a fine pickup for anyone who already owns the Amazing Red Warrior and wants a second build with a different attitude and one more gun to play with. Skip it if pristine, gash-free gate lines matter to you more than pose range, since this tooling has known rough spots that a full re-engineer would fix but this release doesn't.

The build story

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

The kit comes on 12 runners plus one foil sticker sheet with no glue required, which is standard HG snap-fit territory. Where it gets fiddly is gate placement on some of the smaller and thicker parts inherited from the Amazing Red Warrior mold, so slow, careful nipper work pays off more here than on a newer-tooled kit. Budget extra time for cleanup around the arms if you want the seams to disappear.

Where it earns its keep is articulation and loadout. The double-sided ball-jointed neck, ball-and-socket shoulders and wrists, double-jointed elbows and knees, and rotating waist and thighs all add up to a kit that holds dynamic poses without fighting you. Pair that with a weapons set that runs from a handgun up through a hyper bazooka and the new Long Barrel Rifle, and you get more play value and pose variety than the part count alone would suggest.

Lore & trivia

01The Lightning Black Warrior is a black-and-gold recolor of the PF-78-3A Gundam Amazing Red Warrior, built and piloted by Yuuma Kousaka rather than the original's builder, Mejin Kawaguchi.
02It debuted in Gundam Build Fighters: Battlogue, in the episode 'Smash the Enemy's Secret Factory!', a follow-up web series to Gundam Build Fighters Try where the Amazing Red Warrior first appeared.
03Beyond the recolor, the kit adds a new Long Barrel Rifle to the Amazing Red Warrior's existing arsenal of gunblades, beam rifles, a hyper bazooka, and a shield.