MGCosmic Era

MBF-02VV Gundam Astray Turn Red

The Red Frame's color-inverted twin shows up with two buster swords and dares you to find a bad angle.

MechaGrade Score

4.1/5

Gundam Astray Turn Red · 1/100 · 2018

GradeMG

Scale1/100

Released2018

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the Astray Red Frame idea taken to its logical extreme, and I mean that as a compliment.

Bandai kept the proportions and articulation that made the original Astray kits so much fun to pose, then piled on a chin guard, a huge V-fin, and a pair of Tactical Arms that swap between buster swords and chain guns. It is not a cheap or quick build, but every hour I put into it paid off on the shelf.

Best for: Astray fans and MG collectors who want a big, weapon-heavy display piece and don't mind a longer build session

The full review

What it is

The Turn Red is basically what happens when someone takes the MBF-P02 Red Frame's silhouette and flips its color scheme, then hands it two collapsible buster swords instead of one. Under the surface it uses the same inner frame logic as the earlier Astray line, so the hips, knees, and shoulders all articulate the way you'd hope from an MG in this family. What sets it apart is the backpack, a set of suspension arms carrying the Tactical Arms units that convert between a stationary chain gun mode and a genuinely massive sword mode. Building it, I kept finding new little touches, the chin guard, the layered V-fin, the hip-mounted Armor Schneider knives, that make this feel like a suit somebody actually designed rather than a recolor exercise.

The catch

The Tactical Arms are the best part of the kit and also the part that will test your patience. They are heavy relative to the wrist joints, and holding both of them out in a dynamic sword pose puts real strain on the shoulders, which is exactly why Bandai includes a display base to help carry the weight. Color separation on the body is very good but the kit leans on water slide decals for some of the finer surface accents rather than doing it all in plastic, so budget time for that step if you want the clean look. This was also a Premium Bandai release that later found its way to regular retail, so pricing and availability move around more than a mainline MG.

Who it's for

If you already like the Astray Red Frame family and want a version that goes bigger on weapons and silhouette without changing scale or losing the articulation you'd expect from an MG, this is worth the search. It rewards patience, the Tactical Arms conversion and the base assembly take real time, and it is not the kit I'd hand someone building their first MG. But if you've done a few MGs already and want something with real shelf presence and two convertible buster swords in your hands, it delivers.

The build story

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

This is not a kit to rush. The advice I'd echo from other builders is to work through it one subassembly at a time, the Tactical Arms backpack especially, because the suspension arms and swappable weapon heads have enough small parts that going in without a plan leads to confusion. Gate placement is typical MG-grade, manageable with a sprue cutter and a bit of cleanup, nothing that felt hidden or awkward on the runners I worked through.

The standout engineering is the backpack. Those suspension arms let the Tactical Arms rotate out to full sword length or fold back for a compact chain gun stance, and getting both to lock cleanly took a little fiddling but never felt fragile once seated. Articulation-wise this suit poses as well as any Red Frame variant, deep hip rotation, good knee bend, shoulders that keep up with the added weapon weight most of the time. Accessory count is generous for the price point, two Tactical Arms units, a beam rifle, a shield, and a pair of Armor Schneider knives, which makes the loadout feel like a real arsenal rather than an afterthought.

Lore & trivia

01The Gundam Astray Turn Red first appeared in the photo-novel Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny Astray R, built by the character Valerio Valeri using spare parts from the MBF-P0X Gundam Astray Noir.
02Its name comes from its color scheme being a near-total inversion of the MBF-P02 Gundam Astray Red Frame's red-and-white look.
03In the story the suit is piloted almost entirely by the combat AI '80', a system developed by Valerio Valeri, with the human pilot largely along for the ride.
04The MG kit originally released in February 2018 as a Premium Bandai item before later becoming available through standard retail channels.