HGUniversal Century

RX-93 ν Gundam Meiji almond chocolate Ver.

The HGUC nu Gundam mold you already love, dipped in a translucent chocolate-brown shell you can only get by winning a raffle.

MechaGrade Score

3.8/5

Nu Gundam · 1/144 · 2021

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2021

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the reliable HGUC nu Gundam kit wearing a candy shell, and I mean that as a compliment.

The engineering underneath is the same well-liked 2008 HGUC mold, so the fun of the build does not change, only the color story does. What changes the calculus is that this is a Meiji almond chocolate promotional prize, not a retail kit, so you are scoring it as an object as much as a build. Judged as a build alone it is a very good HG. Judged as the whole package, rarity included, it earns extra affection from me.

Best for: UC collectors and nu Gundam completionists who already know the standard HGUC build and want the novelty chocolate-colored variant for the shelf

The full review

What it is

Strip away the promo wrapper and this is the same HGUC RX-93 nu Gundam that builders have liked for well over a decade, just molded in a warm translucent amber-brown plastic instead of the usual white, blue, and red, evoking the Meiji almond chocolate branding it was made to celebrate. The feather-motif backpack with its six fin funnels still docks cleanly and still reads as a wing when assembled, which is the single best design idea on this suit. Snapping this together felt exactly like building the familiar retail nu Gundam, easy gate placement, parts that seat with a satisfying click, and a finished pose that genuinely looks like Amuro's mobile suit even though it is the color of a candy bar.

The catch

This is not a retail release, it was distributed through a limited Meiji snack promotion tied to Char's Counterattack, so you are not buying it off a shelf, you are hunting it secondhand at whatever premium collectors are asking. The HGUC engineering underneath is honest 2008-era HG, which means some sticker reliance for finer color separation and a leg articulation range that trails behind a modern HG or an RG of the same suit. The all-over translucent chocolate color also means panel lines and detail lines do not pop the way they would on the standard color scheme, so some of the mold's sculpted detail gets visually flattened.

Who it's for

Buy this one if you already have a soft spot for the RX-93 nu Gundam and want a genuinely unusual variant to sit next to your standard-color build, or if you are chasing every Gundam-branded snack tie-in as a collecting niche. Skip it if you just want the best possible nu Gundam build experience for the money, since the plain HGUC release (or the RG if you want small-scale detail) gives you the same or better articulation and color separation without the raffle-hunting premium. This is a fandom-and-novelty pickup first, a build-quality pickup second.

The build story

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

The build itself is straightforward HGUC-era assembly, snap-fit with light nub cleanup, no runner surprises, and the parts fit with the same confidence-inspiring click that made the original 2008 release a fan favorite. Nothing about the chocolate colorway changes the assembly steps, it is purely a plastic color swap over the existing mold.

The standout engineering is still the feather backpack, six individually removable fin funnels that clip onto a rack and read as an angel wing when docked, exactly matching the suit's design language from Char's Counterattack. Elbows and knees bend a solid 90 degrees, the head has enough double-jointing to look up convincingly, and the peg-mounted hands keep the beam rifle and sabers locked in place through posing, which is more security than a lot of same-era HG kits offer.

Lore & trivia

01The nu Gundam was Amuro Ray's mobile suit in Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, built around an upgraded psycho frame that lets its fin funnels both attack and generate a defensive I-Field.
02The suit's back-mounted fin funnel rack was designed with a feather motif, so the six funnels look like an angel's wing when docked for recharging.
03This colorway was distributed through a limited Bandai and Meiji almond chocolate snack tie-in campaign tied to Char's Counterattack, following an earlier round of the same promotion that gave away a similarly recolored HGUC Zeong.
04In-universe, the fin funnel rack is treated as a rushed, last-minute addition bolted onto Amuro's original design rather than a from-the-ground-up feature.