HGUniversal Century

RGM-79SP Lydo Wolf's GM Sniper II

The same great GM Sniper II bones, just dressed in an ace pilot's black and grey.

MechaGrade Score

3.7/5

Lydo Wolf's GM Sniper II · 1/144 · 2016

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2016

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the reliable HGUC GM Sniper II mold wearing a genuinely striking new paint job, and I think that combination works better than it has any right to.

It is not a reinvention, it is a repaint P-Bandai release of a kit that was already good in 2012, so my expectations were calibrated going in. What I got was a GM that poses better than most GMs have any business posing, wrapped in a dark grey and black scheme that actually earns the Lydo Wolf name.

Best for: UC completionists and ace-custom collectors who already like the base GM Sniper II and want the Dancing Black Grim Reaper on the shelf

The full review

What it is

This is the RGM-79SP GM Sniper II, the same 1/144 HGUC mold from 2012, reissued through P-Bandai in the personal colors of ace pilot Lydo Wolf, the Earth Federation's third highest scorer of the One Year War behind Amuro Ray. The molded plastic carries the dark grey and black scheme instead of stickers doing the heavy lifting, which matters more than I expected once it was built. Snapping this together felt familiar in the good way, a GM-family kit that knows exactly what it is and executes cleanly. The double-jointed elbows and knees are still the star of the show, and seeing them wearing Lydo Wolf's colors instead of federation white made we want to pose it more than I usually bother with a GM variant.

The catch

This is a P-Bandai exclusive, so pricing runs higher than a retail HGUC and availability comes and goes with restocks, which is the biggest practical hurdle. The mold itself is over a decade old at this point, so panel lines and detail are good but not RG-tier crisp, and a few reviewers of the base kit flag the shoulder joints popping loose during dynamic poses and a wrist PC joint that is a little soft for holding the long sniper rifle steady. There is also nothing new mechanically here versus the standard GM Sniper II, this is a color variant, so if you already built the vanilla version you are paying for the paint job and the character tie-in, not new engineering.

Who it's for

I would point this at builders who already have a soft spot for the GM Sniper line or for Gundam Thunderbolt-adjacent side stories and want an ace custom on the shelf next to their RX-78s and Zakus. It also works well for anyone who wants proof that a well-designed 2012 HGUC mold still holds up in 2026, because the frame does the work here more than any gimmick. Skip it if you are hunting for cutting-edge engineering or inner-frame complexity, or if paying P-Bandai exclusive pricing for a repaint does not appeal to you. Grab the standard retail GM Sniper II instead if the colors do not matter to you.

What works

Double-jointed elbows and knees let it hold the sniper rifle in a genuine kneeling firing pose without fighting the plastic
Molded color scheme in Lydo Wolf's dark grey and black looks sharp finished and needs minimal panel lining to read well
Full accessory loadout including the beam sniper rifle, 90mm GM rifle, shield, beam sabers, and a Draken E mini support suit

Worth knowing

P-Bandai exclusive pricing and limited restocks make it a harder buy than a shelf-stock HGUC
Shoulder joints can pop loose during more dynamic poses, and the wrist PC joint is soft for a kit built around holding a long rifle steady
Mechanically identical to the decade-old base GM Sniper II mold, so you are paying for the paint scheme and character license, not new design

Sold? Grab it.

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The build story

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

The build itself moves fast and cleanly, the kind of GM-family assembly where the runners make sense and gate placement stays out of visible surfaces for the most part. Nub cleanup is minor and the parts fit snugly without the looseness that plagues some older HG molds, so this went together in an evening without any real snags.

The engineering payoff is in the leg and arm joints. Double-jointed elbows mean the rifle actually sits against the shoulder properly instead of floating, and double-jointed knees paired with a thigh swivel let it drop into a kneeling snipe stance that a lot of GM kits simply cannot manage. Molded color on the Lydo Wolf scheme covers most of what would otherwise need stickers, which is the real upgrade over a plain retail reissue, and the accessory spread (sniper rifle, machine gun, shield, sabers, visor, plus the Draken E) gives real part-count value for an HG price point even accounting for P-Bandai markup.

Lore & trivia

01Lydo Wolf, nicknamed the Dancing Black Grim Reaper, was credited with 68 enemy mobile suit kills and 4 ship kills, making him the third highest scoring Earth Federation ace of the One Year War behind Amuro Ray.
02This release carries Lydo Wolf's personal dark grey and black color scheme over the standard RGM-79SP GM Sniper II mold that Bandai first released as a retail HGUC kit in 2012.
03Bandai also released this same Lydo Wolf paint scheme as a P-Bandai exclusive Master Grade 1/100 kit in 2019, giving the character custom both HG and MG treatments.
04The GM Sniper II's beam sniper rifle is written as a refined, lower-power-draw evolution of the original GM Sniper's beam rifle, small enough to be handled by a standard GM-frame suit.