HGPost Disaster

STH-05R Rouei

The Turbines' decoy suit that turned out to be one of the best-detailed HGs in the whole IBO lineup.

MechaGrade Score

3.8/5

Rouei · 1/144 · 2017

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2017

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

I came into this expecting a filler HG and walked away impressed by how much Bandai packed into a suit that only exists in the show as a cover story.

The Teiwaz frame underneath the armor is doing real work here, not just filling space, and the proportions read exactly like Azee and Lafter's rides from the episode 19 reveal. It is not flashy, there is no gimmick weapon or transforming gadget, but as a straight build it rewards patience with real detail payoff. For an HG built around a mass production grunt suit, that is a genuine win.

Best for: IBO completionists and HG builders who want a genuinely detailed grunt-suit kit rather than a hero unit

The full review

What it is

The Rouei is Bandai's HG take on the mass production suit the Turbines used to disguise their real Hyakurens while keeping Teiwaz's involvement quiet. Underneath the armor sits the Teiwaz frame, a proper inner structure with polycap joints rather than the barebones peg-and-socket setup a lot of HGs from this era leaned on. Building it feels more substantial than I expected from a suit this far down the cast list. The parts are molded in accurate colors straight off the runners, the proportions are lean and mean in the way IBO suits are supposed to look, and by the time the heavy club and handgun accessories are in its hands it genuinely looks like it walked off the screen from that mid-season Turbines arc.

The catch

This is a 2017 HG at a budget price point, so do not expect MG-level fit precision. A few of the smaller armor plates have visible seam lines that molded color alone cannot hide, and the connection points on the limbs can feel a touch loose out of the bag, especially at the hip and shoulder before you have posed it a few times. It is a small kit at 1/144, so nub marks on white and light gray parts show more than they would on a bigger suit if you rush the cleanup. None of this is unusual for a mid-tier HG, but if you are coming from RG or MG kits, temper your expectations on tightness of fit.

Who it's for

If you are building your way through the IBO cast, or you just like the low profile, mass produced aesthetic of Teiwaz suits over the flashier custom units, this one is worth the shelf space. It is also a solid pick for someone who wants an HG that still has real inner frame engineering to fiddle with, rather than a kit that is all outer shell. Skip it if you are only after the show's marquee suits or if you need rock solid, no wobble joints straight out of the box, since this kit wants a little post build tightening to really hold a pose.

The build story

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

The build itself moves along quickly across its runners, and cleanup is straightforward as long as you take your time with the smaller white and gray parts where nub marks are most visible. Fit on the main body and limb shells is generally good for the price point, though a couple of the thinner armor plates want a firm press to seat fully and can show a seam line afterward.

The Teiwaz frame is the real story here, giving the Rouei double jointed limbs and swiveling thighs that open up a wider range of motion than you would guess from the outside. Combined with the handgun and heavy club accessories, it holds a decent variety of dynamic poses once the joints have loosened up through a few rounds of posing, and the color separation on the armor means the suit looks screen accurate without needing to reach for paint.

Lore & trivia

01The Rouei first appeared in Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans episode 19, where the Turbines disguised two of their Hyakuren mobile suits as Roueis to keep Teiwaz's backing of the group secret
02It was piloted in that arc by Azee Gurumin and Lafter Frankland at Naze Turbine's request
03The suit was conceived as an alternate equipment configuration of the STH-05 Hyakuren before being adopted as its own lighter, high mobility mass production model based on combat data from that deployment
04The HG 1/144 kit released in Japan on January 26, 2017 as HGIBO number 032, priced at 1,200 yen, and includes an 80mm handgun and a heavy club as accessories