HGUniversal Century

RX-78-2 Gundam Ver. Hiroko Moriguchi

The same trustworthy HGUC frame wearing a pastel macaron dress designed by the woman who sang the songs.

MechaGrade Score

3.5/5

RX-78-2 Gundam · 1/144 · 2021

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2021

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

I think this kit is a fun pickup for the story behind it more than for anything new happening in the box.

The engineering underneath is the familiar, dependable HGUC RX-78-2 sculpt, just run in a soft pastel colorway that singer Hiroko Moriguchi hand picked herself. If you already like that base kit, the color swap is a nice change of scenery. If you have never built an HGUC RX-78-2 before, buy the standard version first and treat this one as a collector's second copy.

Best for: HGUC RX-78-2 fans and Gundam Song Covers collectors who want the novelty pastel colorway, not first time builders looking for their only Gundam

The full review

What it is

This is the HGUC RX-78-2 Gundam recolored in the soft pastel palette that Hiroko Moriguchi, the singer behind the Gundam Song Covers albums, picked out herself for a fan vote project she ran in 2021. The frame, the proportions, the accessory loadout, all of it is the same trusted RX-78-2 sculpt Bandai has been refining for years. What changes is the plastic. Instead of the usual primary red, blue, and yellow, you get muted macaron tones that genuinely read differently on the shelf. I found the build itself relaxed and familiar in the best way, snap fit, sensible part breakdown, no surprises, just a Gundam that looks like it walked out of a bakery display case instead of a battlefield.

The catch

There is no new engineering here, so if you already own an HGUC RX-78-2 in the standard colors, you are paying again for plastic color and packaging, not a better kit. This was a limited promotional run tied to Moriguchi's album project, so stock has always been thin and secondary market prices run well above a normal HG. Like the rest of this kit family, color separation still leans on a sticker sheet for some of the smaller trim details, and the vents and small greebles need careful nub cleanup if you want a clean pastel finish, since light colors show sanding marks and stress marks more readily than the standard release.

Who it's for

Grab this one if you collect Gundam Song Covers merchandise, like unusual official colorways, or just think the macaron palette looks great next to a normal red and blue RX-78-2 on the same shelf. It is a genuinely charming display piece and a fun conversation starter about one of Gunpla's stranger crossover promotions. Skip it if you are building your first Gundam kit ever, since a standard HGUC RX-78-2 or the newer Ver. 2.0 release gets you the same build experience for less money and without the collector markup, and skip it if you specifically want new articulation or parts, because you will not find any here.

The build story

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

The assembly itself is straightforward HGUC RX-78-2 territory, snap together joints, no inner frame, and part fit that goes together cleanly if you take your time on gate cleanup. Because the plastic runs in pale pastel tones rather than the usual saturated primaries, nub marks and any sanding marks show up more than they would on a standard release, so I slowed down and used a sharp side cutter plus a light sanding pass on visible surfaces rather than rushing through it.

Articulation matches the familiar HGUC RX-78-2 range, which is decent for the price point but not in the same league as a Revive or RG kit if you want deep knee bends or wide shoulder rotation. The accessory loadout is the expected beam rifle, beam saber, and shield, all recolored to match the pastel scheme, and that consistency across the whole kit is what sells the novelty, the palette carries all the way through instead of feeling like a partial repaint.

Lore & trivia

01Hiroko Moriguchi is the singer behind the theme song for Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (1991) and has built a second career as a visible, enthusiastic Gunpla builder within the franchise's fandom.
02This colorway came out of the #Moriguchi Gunpla Grand Vote (#森口ガンプラ大投票), a 2021 project where Moriguchi personally color coordinated three kits, RX-78-2, Zeta Gundam, and Gundam F91, in her own choice of soft pastel tones and asked fans to vote for their favorite.
03Zeta Gundam won that fan vote and was bundled as a limited kit with Moriguchi's Gundam Song Covers 3 album in March 2022, with this RX-78-2 version released around the same project as a companion piece to her ongoing Gundam Song Covers album series.