MGAnno Domini

GN-005 Gundam Virtue

A tank of a Gundam that unzips to reveal an entirely different, lighter suit hiding underneath.

MechaGrade Score

3.9/5

Gundam Virtue · 1/100 · 2021

GradeMG

Scale1/100

Released2021

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is one of the more clever engineering tricks in the whole MG line, and I mean that as a real compliment.

You build a complete, fully proportioned Gundam Nadleeh first, then clip a second suit's worth of heavy armor over it to turn it into Virtue, and both suits pose and stand on their own. The frame underneath is tight enough to hold up a genuinely oversized GN Bazooka without the arms sagging. It just costs you extra plastic and a little frustration when you actually want it to hold the thing properly.

Best for: 00 fans and armor-junkies who want the cast-off gimmick done right, not just a big bulky Gundam to shelve

The full review

What it is

Virtue is really two kits stacked into one. You start by building Nadleeh, a slim, fully proportioned inner suit with its own head, its own detailing, its own presence, and it stands on its own as a real Gundam, not a stripped-down placeholder. Then you clip on Virtue's armor, panel by panel, and watch a completely different silhouette click into place around it. Taking the armor off and putting it back on stops being a gimmick you do once and becomes something you actually want to fiddle with, because every panel is grey inner-frame color separated on the underside too, not just painted plastic on the outside. The GN Cannons, the shoulder blocks, the chest, all of it locks together with a satisfying click rather than a loose friction fit.

The catch

The swappable hand issue that has dogged modern MG kits shows up here too, and it is at its worst with the GN Bazooka. The grip fingers do not clamp hard enough to keep that oversized weapon steady in one hand, so you will find yourself repositioning it or leaning on the second hand for support more than you would like. Elbows and knees are double jointed but get choked down once Virtue's armor is mounted, roughly 110 and 100 degrees respectively, so some of the range you get on bare Nadleeh disappears the moment you armor up. There is also a real sticker load on the GN Condenser windows for the model number markings, and you will want a topcoat if you apply them since they are exposed on the surface.

Who it's for

If you like 00 and want more than a static shelf piece, this is worth the extra step above a plain MG. Getting two distinct builds and two distinct display options out of one box is a real value proposition, especially since neither half feels like an afterthought. Skip it if you specifically want to pose Virtue holding its bazooka one-handed for photos, since the hand grip is the kit's clearest weak point and no amount of patience fully fixes it. If cast-off gimmicks and inner-frame detailing get you excited, this is a genuinely satisfying build and one of the better executions of the concept in the MG catalog.

The build story

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

You effectively build Nadleeh in full first, complete with its own head sculpt and joints, before layering on Virtue's armor sections, so the runners front-load a lot of small careful assembly before the satisfying big-armor payoff arrives. Panel lines and joint covers are plentiful enough that cleanup is the usual MG-level attention, nothing unusual for the grade, and the parts click into place with real intent rather than loose friction.

The stand-out engineering is the cast-off system itself, chest, shoulders, forearms, and leg armor all separate cleanly and reattach with confident clicks rather than wobbling. Weapon loadout covers the twin GN Cannons, the GN Bazooka, and GN beam sabers, giving you a real arsenal to pose with even before you consider swapping down to Nadleeh, and the part count needed to pull off two distinct suit silhouettes makes the price feel earned rather than padded.

Lore & trivia

01Gundam Virtue is piloted by Tieria Erde, an Innovade (artificial human) working for Celestial Being in Mobile Suit Gundam 00's first season.
02Virtue's cast-off armor hides Gundam Nadleeh, a lighter suit built around the Trial System that lets it remote-link and support other Gundam units through Celestial Being's Veda network.
03In-universe, Virtue carries twin 2-barrel GN Cannons, a GN Bazooka, and twin GN beam sabers, making it the heaviest-armed of the four original Gundam 00 machines.
04The MG kit released in November 2021, arriving well after the anime's original run, aimed at the enthusiast market rather than as a tie-in release.