HGUniversal Century

RX-93-ν2V Hi-ν Gundam Vrabe

A Build Fighters custom of Amuro's iconic Nu, six fin funnels and all, for the price of a movie ticket.

MechaGrade Score

3.7/5

Nu Gundam · 1/144 · 2015

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2015

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the young Tatsuya Yuuki's signature machine before he became Meijin Kawaguchi III, and Bandai packed real personality into a budget-line kit.

It gives you the Hi-nu Gundam silhouette, a bird-shaped Vrabe Booster, and six fin funnels on the backpack for a price that undercuts most HG releases with this much going on. The catch is that only two of those six funnels actually function as separate flight units, the rest are fixed dress-up pieces, so the funnel fantasy is only half real. Still, as a snap-fit tribute to one of the franchise's most beloved Gundams, it punches well above its price.

Best for: Gundam Build Fighters fans and Nu Gundam completionists who want the Vrabe variant without hunting down a pricier release

The full review

What it is

This kit reimagines the RX-93-nu2 Hi-nu Gundam from Char's Counterattack: Beltorchika's Children as Tatsuya Yuuki's personal build in Gundam Build Fighters. What sold me on it is how much silhouette you get for an HG price point. The backpack carries six fin funnel pods, there is a separate detachable Vrabe Booster you build from the shield and backpack parts, and you get a rifle plus two beam sabers in the accessory spread. It is molded in blue, white, and gray, so a huge amount of the color separation happens with plastic instead of stickers, which is rare to see this clean at this price.

The catch

The honest asterisk is the fin funnels. Only the two end pods are actual operable funnels you can pose away from the body, the other four are fixed decorative pieces with no polycaps, so pulling on them risks snapping a peg rather than open uping a transformation. Builders also flag the kit running a little top-heavy once the full backpack array is mounted, and more than one build report mentions the torso joint or the right forearm armor working loose and popping off during posing. None of this is a deal-breaker, but go in knowing the funnel gimmick is mostly cosmetic.

Who it's for

Buy this if you love the Nu Gundam lineage or the Build Fighters storyline and want the Vrabe variant without paying RG or MG money for it. It is also a genuinely good sticker-light build to practice waterslide decals on, since Bandai kept the foil and tetron stickers to a minimum. Skip it if you specifically want fully posable, detachable fin funnels, since only two of the six deliver that. If you already own the standard HGUC Hi-nu Gundam and just want another paint job, this is a worthwhile side-grade rather than a must-have upgrade.

The build story

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

The runners are standard HG-era Bandai, spread across roughly eight sprues with straightforward gate placement that cleans up fast with a basic nipper and a bit of sanding. Nothing here requires anything beyond ordinary snap-fit technique, and the parts fit together tightly enough that most builders report no glue needed anywhere on the frame.

The standout engineering choice is including spare parts shared with the standard HGUC Hi-nu Gundam, so if you snap a small peg during the funnel assembly you likely have a backup in the box. Articulation follows typical HG-era joints rather than an inner frame, so it poses fine for a display stance but will not hold aggressive dynamic poses once the backpack and booster are mounted, given the added weight up top.

Lore & trivia

01The RX-93-nu2V Hi-nu Gundam Vrabe first appears in Gundam Build Fighters Amazing as the personal Gunpla of a young Tatsuya Yuuki, before he took on the persona of Meijin Kawaguchi III.
02The base design is derived from the RX-93-nu2 Hi-nu Gundam that appeared in the Char's Counterattack: Beltorchika's Children novel, itself an upgrade of Amuro Ray's original nu Gundam.
03The kit's Vrabe Booster, a bird-shaped flight unit, is assembled by combining the shield with parts of the backpack rather than being a separate standalone accessory.