HGUniversal Century

RMS-099 Rick Dias (Quattro Bajeena Custom)

An old mold's shell wearing a modern skeleton, and it actually works.

MechaGrade Score

3.7/5

Rick Dias (Quattro Bajeena Custom) · 1/144 · 2020

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2020

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This kit is a sleeper because Bandai quietly swapped in the joint architecture from the Build Gamma Gundam and it changes everything about how this suit moves.

I went in expecting the stiff, sticker-heavy HGUC 033 from 2000 and got something that bends its knees double-jointed and holds a crouch. It is still a P-Bandai HG at heart, so the accessory list and detail depth do not match a current mainline release, but as a red Rick Dias for the shelf it earns its price.

Best for: Zeta Gundam fans who want Quattro's red Rick Dias posing properly instead of settling for the stiff original mold

The full review

What it is

This is the Quattro Bajeena colorway of the Rick Dias, the red AEUG suit Char wore under his alias during the Gryps Conflict raid to steal the Gundam Mk-II. What got me is that this is not a straight rerelease of the 2000-era HGUC 033 shell. Bandai pulled the updated joint parts from the Build Gamma Gundam kit and dropped them into the arms, legs, and crotch, so the range of motion is genuinely better than the base mold's age would suggest. The knees in particular use double joints now, and I could get it into the crouching, gun-raised poses from the show that the original kit simply could not do.

The catch

The bones are new but the skin is old. Exterior parts are still the 2000-era shapes, so panel line detail is soft compared to a current-year HG, and the red armor plus the grey and yellow accents lean on stickers and painted details rather than full molded color separation. Being a P-Bandai exclusive means it comes and goes from availability and usually costs more than a standard retail HG for what is, underneath the new joints, still a two-decade-old suit shape. The mono-eye and beam saber effect parts are molded clear, which helps, but everything else benefits from a marker pass if you want it looking sharp.

Who it's for

Buy this if you want the red Quattro Bajeena Rick Dias specifically and care more about posing it well than about cutting-edge panel lines, or if you already have the AEUG lineup going and this is the piece that completes it. Skip it if you want top-tier detail out of the box with no touch-up work, or if you are not attached to this particular suit and color scheme, since there are newer HG molds elsewhere that do more for the same shelf space. For the Zeta Gundam crowd building out Titans versus AEUG, though, this is the version to chase.

The build story

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

Assembly is straightforward snap-fit with no glue needed, and gate placement on the newer joint runners is clean since they are shared with a more recent kit. The older exterior armor runners show their age a bit more, with slightly heavier nub scars in visible spots, so I took my time with the side cutters on the shoulder and shin armor.

The standout here is entirely the articulation upgrade. The double-jointed knees and the reworked hip and shoulder peg setup let the suit hold dynamic bent-leg poses that the vanilla HGUC 033 could only fake. Weapon selection covers the show's loadout well for an HG price point, and the swappable hands are a nice touch that a lot of kits this old skip entirely.

Lore & trivia

01The Rick Dias was developed by Anaheim Electronics using Gundarium gamma, a lighter alloy with strength comparable to standard Gundarium, and many of its engineers were former Principality of Zeon personnel, which is why it carries a mono-eye sensor like a Zeon suit.
02Quattro Bajeena is the alias Char Aznable uses during the Gryps Conflict in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, and the red Rick Dias colorway originates from his personally customized unit.
03The suit's most famous appearance is the AEUG raid on Gryps to steal the Titans' new RX-178 Gundam Mk-II, led by Quattro in this red Rick Dias alongside two standard-colored units.
04This kit reuses the improved joint parts first introduced in the Build Gamma Gundam kit, making it an unofficial partial update to the original HGUC 033 Rick Dias mold from 2000.