HGBuild Fighters

PF-78-3A Gundam Amazing Red Warrior Full Color Plated Ver.

A cheap event-exclusive HG that swings for flash and mostly lands it, articulation be damned.

MechaGrade Score

3.4/5

Gundam Amazing Red Warrior Full Color Plated Ver. · 1/144 · 2015

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2015

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is a fun, fast, forgiving build that trades pose range for pure shelf theater, and for the price I think that trade is worth it.

The full color plating means you get a genuinely finished-looking Meijin Kawaguchi machine with almost no paint work, which is rare at this price point. Where it falls down is the joints, the shoulders and hip skirts are stingy enough that some of the character's signature dynamic poses just are not there. I still like it, I just know exactly what I am getting.

Best for: Build Fighters fans who want a shelf-ready Amazing Red Warrior fast, without painting a single part

The full review

What it is

The Amazing Red Warrior is Meijin Kawaguchi's homage build in Build Fighters Try, a tribute to the old Perfect Gundam III from the Plamo Kyoshiro manga, and this Full Color Plated version is Bandai's way of letting you skip the paint booth entirely. Every runner comes pre-plated in its finished color, red, grey, dark red, yellow, white, so the kit reads as a complete, glossy-look Gundam the moment you snap the last part on. I went in expecting a quick weekend build and got exactly that, a couple of hours, minimal fuss, and a genuinely striking result sitting on the shelf when I was done.

The catch

The plating is the whole appeal and also the build's biggest headache. Because the color coat runs over the sprue gates and there are no undergates to hide the cuts, nub marks show up more visibly than on a normal HG, and you will want a sharp side cutter plus some patience to keep the red parts clean. Fit is tight in spots too, some tabs need light scraping to seat right. Articulation is the other real caveat: shoulder movement is choked by the armor, the front skirts barely lift, and ankle movement is shallow, so several of the suit's signature battle poses are just out of reach.

Who it's for

This is for Build Fighters fans and Meijin Kawaguchi fans who want the Amazing Red Warrior on the shelf without picking up an airbrush, and for anyone who likes the novelty of a fully plated HG straight out of the box. If you want a kit you can actually pose through a real fight sequence, look at the MG version instead, it fixes the shoulder and skirt limits with genuinely better articulation. Skip this one if seam lines and gate marks on a glossy finish will bother you more than they'll charm you, that tradeoff is baked into the whole concept here.

The build story

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

The build itself moves quickly, this is still an HG snap-fit at heart, but the full color plating changes the cleanup calculus. Because there is no undergate design and the plating coats right over the sprue connection points, every nub needs a careful, patient cut or you will see a mark on a finished red or white part. A few tabs and joints are snug enough that light scraping helps them seat without stress-whitening the plastic. None of this is difficult, it just asks for a slower hand than a typical HG.

Where it earns its keep is the gimmicks and the loadout. The double-jointed elbows and knees give a decent bend even though the shoulders and skirts hold the rest of the pose back, and the ball-jointed manipulators let the hands grip weapons naturally. The chest and front armor open up to reveal the auxiliary missile pods, a small but well-executed touch I did not expect from a kit at this price. Between the hyper bazooka, beam gatling, both gunblade configurations, dual beam rifles, and beam saber, this is one of the better-armed HGs I have built, and the full color plating means every one of those weapons already matches the suit without a drop of paint.

Lore & trivia

01The Amazing Red Warrior first appeared in Gundam Build Fighters Try episode 11, built by Meijin Kawaguchi as his personal fighting suit.
02The design is a direct homage to the PF-78-3 Perfect Gundam III "Red Warrior" from the Plamo Kyoshiro manga, and by extension a tribute to that suit's original pilot, Takeshi Iori.
03This Full Color Plated Ver. released as an HGBF event-exclusive kit in 2015, using plated runners to reproduce the suit's finished look straight out of the box with no painting.
04Bandai later released an MG 1/100 version of the same suit with double-jointed elbows and knees plus 3+1+1 articulated fingers, addressing most of the HG's articulation limits.