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XVX-016 Gundam Aerial [Permet Score Six]

The same great Aerial mold dressed in its brightest, most dramatic moment, and worth the Premium Bandai hunt.

MechaGrade Score

4.1/5

Aerial · 1/144 · 2023

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2023

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the base HG Gundam Aerial at its best, recolored to match the glowing blue GUND reawakening from episode 9, and that base kit was already one of the strongest HGs of its era.

I built this expecting a simple repaint-in-plastic-form and came away impressed by how much the color split actually does for the model. The shield-into-funnel gimmick and the translucent shell parts still carry the whole kit. My only real hesitation is that you're paying Premium Bandai money for a suit you can already own for HG Aerial money.

Best for: Witch from Mercury fans who want the episode 9 GUND reawakening moment sitting on a shelf, not just the default colorway

The full review

What it is

This is the XVX-016 Gundam Aerial retooled in the coloring it wears during its Permet Score Six activation, the moment in episode 9 where Suletta stops leaning on Aerial and the suit answers back with a full blue reawakening. Bandai took the same excellent HG Aerial engineering and reran it with a moodier color story and the glowing shell effect front and center. Building it felt familiar in the best way. The parts fit crisply, the silhouette reads instantly as Aerial, and the shield still splits down into eleven pieces to recreate the bit-funnel spread if you pick up the separate display stand. For a suit this recognizable, seeing it in its most dramatic anime colorway on the shelf next to the standard release is a genuinely fun contrast.

The catch

This was a Bandai Hobby Online Shop exclusive, so you are hunting secondary market or import pricing rather than grabbing it off a shelf, and that pushes it well past what the standard HG Aerial costs for what is, underneath, the same mold. The kit also carries over the base Aerial's known quirks: a few visible seams on the legs and shoulder armor, and no undergate technology on the nubs, so you will still want a nipper and some cleanup time on visible surfaces. The central shell effect still relies on stickers behind clear parts rather than paint, which works but rewards anyone willing to swap in decals.

Who it's for

Buy this if you already love the Aerial sculpt and want the Permet Score Six moment specifically, or if you are chasing a complete Witch from Mercury shelf and the premium colorway matters to you. Skip it if you just want a good HG Aerial to build and pose, since the standard release gives you the same articulation and gimmicks for a fraction of the hunt and the cost. This is a collector's variant of an already-great kit, not a reason on its own to get into the line.

The build story

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

The build itself is straightforward HG assembly, snap-fit with no glue needed, and most of it goes together cleanly. The legs and shoulder armor are where the seams show up, and since this kit skips the undergate nub placement found on newer Real Grades, you will want to clip and sand the usual visible spots rather than rely on hidden gates. None of it is fiddly in a frustrating way, it is just the standard cleanup pass any HG from this era asks for.

Where the kit earns its keep is articulation and presentation for the size. The head runs on a ball-and-socket hinge neck, shoulders swing forward with a separate upward-raising arm joint, elbows bend past 130 degrees, and the waist rotates a full 360 degrees, which is well above what most HGs offer. The shield remains the standout accessory, breaking into eleven parts to recreate the deployed bit-funnel spread if you add the separately sold Witch from Mercury display stand, and the translucent shell components under the Permet Score Six stickers give the glow effect real depth rather than a flat paint job.

Lore & trivia

01The Permet Score Six colorway recreates Aerial's appearance during its GUND reawakening in episode 9 of The Witch from Mercury, 'If I Could Take One More Step Toward You,' when Suletta stops relying on the suit and it answers with a full blue-lit override.
02The Permet Score measures the depth of the neural link between pilot and the GUND-format system. Higher scores open up more of Aerial's performance but come at a physical cost to the pilot.
03Aerial's operating system carries the integrated consciousness data of Ericht Samaya, daughter of the suit's original developer Elnora Samaya, which is why the suit behaves almost like it has its own will at higher Permet Scores.
04This kit was released as a Bandai Hobby Online Shop (Premium Bandai) exclusive in 2023, making it a recolor variant of the mainline HG Gundam Aerial rather than a separate retool.