HGUniversal Century

RX-79[G] Gundam Ground Type (Parachute Pack)

The same excellent Ground Type Revive mold, except now it comes with a spare GM head and enough gear to arm a whole platoon.

MechaGrade Score

4.2/5

[G] Gundam Ground Type (Parachute Pack) · 1/144 · 2018

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2018

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is one of the best-value HG kits Bandai has put out, full stop.

You are not just getting the Ground Type Gundam with a parachute pack bolted on, you are getting the entire Ground Type Revive kit plus the GM Ground Type's weapon loadout and a second head, all in one box. I went in expecting a gimmick reissue and came out with a small armory. The only reason this isn't higher is that it was a Premium Bandai exclusive, so getting one at all is the real challenge now.

Best for: 08th MS Team fans who want the complete Ground Type loadout, backpack swaps and all, in one kit

The full review

What it is

This kit is built on the 2018 HGUC Ground Type Revive frame, which already fixed the proportions and articulation problems of the old 2007 mold, and then it throws in everything else. You get the 180mm cannon, the beam saber, the 100mm machine gun, the shield, the missile launcher, the net gun, interchangeable hands, a weapon container, a GM head with corrected visor proportions, and the parachute pack itself. Building it feels less like assembling one Gundam and more like unpacking an entire mission loadout. The parachute pack swaps onto the backpack mounting points in place of the normal thrusters, and it genuinely changes the silhouette in a way that photographs well next to the standard loadout.

The catch

The parachute pack is large and back-heavy, and more than one builder has noted it throws the kit's balance off when posed standing without the display stand or a wide stance. Because this kit reuses the same backpack mounting points for the cannon, the container, and the parachute pack, you cannot mount all of the accessories at once, so you are choosing a loadout every time you set it up rather than displaying everything simultaneously. It was also a Bandai webshop exclusive, which means the biggest catch has nothing to do with the plastic: if you don't already own one, you are hunting the secondary market and paying well above the original price.

Who it's for

Grab this one if you already like the Ground Type Revive kit and want the deluxe version with the full 08th MS Team arsenal, or if the parachute-drop scene from the intro is the specific image you want on your shelf. It is also a genuinely good weathering and panel-line practice kit thanks to how much surface detail is packed into a 1/144 body. Skip it if you just want a basic Ground Type Gundam, since the plain HGUC Revive release gets you the core suit and main weapons for a fraction of the hunting effort and cost.

The build story

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

The frame underneath is the same one from the 2018 Ground Type Revive, so the build itself is straightforward HG-level assembly with clean gate placement and molded color doing most of the heavy lifting. The parachute pack attaches through a minor parts swap on the backpack rather than a separate runner, so there is no extra fiddly engineering there, just a quick reconfiguration once the main body is done.

Where this kit earns its keep is part count and accessory value. Between the two heads, the shield, the two cannons of ammunition options, the machine gun, the beam saber, the net gun, and the weapon container, you are working through a genuinely large sprue of gear for an HG price point. Articulation carries over the Revive kit's improved knee and shoulder pull-out joints, so it holds the two-handed cannon pose and kneeling stances that the old mold couldn't manage.

Lore & trivia

01This release includes a redesigned GM head with more anime-accurate visor proportions, added specifically in response to fan criticism of an earlier GM head sculpt.
02The parachute pack is based on gear seen in Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, appearing mainly in the opening animation and one episode rather than throughout the series.
03The kit shares its core frame with the 2018 HGUC Ground Type Revive release, which itself was a major articulation and proportion upgrade over the original 2007 Ground Type kit.
04It was distributed as a Premium Bandai webshop exclusive, so unlike the standard Ground Type Revive it was never given a general retail run.