HGUniversal Century

RCX-76-02 Guncannon First Type (Iron Cavalry Squadron)

The Federation's first real mobile suit, built with claws instead of hands and more pose range than any early-UC kit has a right to have.

MechaGrade Score

3.9/5

Guncannon First Type (Iron Cavalry Squadron) · 1/144 · 2016

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2016

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is one of the best-designed early-UC HGs Bandai has put out, and it earns that reputation honestly.

The claw-hand manipulators are the star of the show, they look genuinely prototype-era weird and still hold weapons fine. It sacrifices head rotation for its shoulder-mounted arsenal, which is the one real design compromise, but everything else about the engineering punches above its 2016 HG release date.

Best for: UC completionists and Origin fans who want the pre-Gundam mobile suit lineage done right, not just a filler HG

The full review

What it is

This kit depicts the Guncannon before it was really the Guncannon, the Von Braun-plant prototype that became the Federation's first mass-adopted humanoid mobile weapon, painted up in the distinctive scheme of the Iron Cavalry Squadron. Building it, the thing that got me first was the hands. Instead of the five-fingered manipulators you expect, this suit has claw-like prototype hands, and Bandai reproduced them faithfully at 1/144 without making them useless for holding gear. The kit comes with both a missile launcher and a cannon attachment for the left shoulder plus a gatling gun on the right, so you get to choose your loadout, and it ships with its own display stand built around showing off just how far the articulation goes for a suit this old in continuity.

The catch

The head cannot turn side to side at all. The shoulder-mounted weapons physically block the swivel, so straight-on shots are the only shots you get unless you turn the whole torso. It is also a sticker-reliant kit, the panel markings and cavalry squadron unit numbers you see in finished builds are almost entirely decal work, and skipping them leaves the suit looking noticeably plainer than the box art promises. A few builders also flag that the small hand and forearm armor pieces on the claw units can pop loose if they are not seated fully during assembly, so test-fit those joints before you call it done.

Who it's for

If you care about Universal Century history and want the machine that came before the RX-78-2 in spirit, not just another repaint, this is worth the shelf space, and it holds dynamic poses better than most HGs from its era thanks to the frame work under that prototype shell. It is not the kit for someone who wants a plug-and-play weekend build with no decal work, budget real time for the stickers if you want it to look right. Skip it if head articulation is a dealbreaker for your poses, but if you want the definitive small-scale take on the Iron Cavalry Squadron's signature suit, buy it.

The build story

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

The claw-hand assemblies take a little extra care during construction since they are a different shape from standard Gunpla hands, and the small armor shells around them need to be pressed fully home or they will pop off later. Outside of that, the frame goes together the way a well-tooled 2016 HG should, no unusual force-fitting, and the shoulder weapon mounts are solid once clipped in.

Where this kit earns its reputation is engineering under the prototype skin, the joints give it far more dynamic range than you'd expect from an early-UC suit, and Bandai clearly built this to be posed with its included stand rather than just stood on a shelf. The dual shoulder loadout (missile launcher or cannon, plus the gatling gun) means you can build the Iron Cavalry Squadron's exact combat configuration or the alternate one, which is a nice bit of value for a mid-tier HG price point.

Lore & trivia

01The RCX-76-02 Guncannon First Type was developed at Anaheim Electronics' Von Braun plant and was the first humanoid mobile weapon formally adopted by the Earth Federation Space Force.
02The Iron Cavalry Squadron consisted of four teams of three machines each, twelve units total numbered 101 to 112, with unit 101 carrying a distinct color scheme for its commander, Lieutenant Junior Grade Erdush.
03This kit's manual was the first in the HG Gundam The Origin line to include an official English translation.