MGUniversal Century

Metal In Frame 945SH G Ver.GP30th RX-78-2 Gundam

A 30th anniversary MG with real metal in its bones, and a price tag to match its rarity.

MechaGrade Score

3.7/5

RX-78-2 Gundam · 1/100 · 2010

GradeMG

Scale1/100

Released2010

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

I'll say this straight away, this isn't a kit you build so much as a kit you hunt down.

It's a Master Grade RX-78-2 that swaps key inner frame parts for actual cast metal, and it was never sold on a shelf, only bundled with SoftBank's Gundam branded 945SH phone in September 2010 for Gundam's 30th anniversary. As a piece of Gunpla history it's genuinely fascinating. As a build to recommend to someone shopping today, it barely qualifies, because you almost certainly can't buy one without paying collector prices.

Best for: RX-78-2 completionists and Gunpla history collectors chasing a genuinely rare promotional variant

The full review

What it is

This is a Master Grade RX-78-2 at heart, sharing the proportions and general engineering of its era's MG line, but with select inner frame components cast in real metal instead of the usual ABS or PS plastic. It shipped only with the purchase of SoftBank's Gundam themed 945SH mobile phone, tying into the 30th anniversary of the original 1979 anime. Picking one up, the weight difference is the first thing you notice. It sits heavier in the hand than a standard MG, and the metal joints have a firmness that plastic just doesn't replicate. It feels less like a toy and more like a small piece of hardware.

The catch

Here's the honest problem: this kit was never a retail product. It came free with a phone contract in Japan in 2010, and today it shows up almost exclusively on eBay and collector sites at prices far above what a normal MG costs, when it shows up at all. There's very little build documentation out there because so few people actually assembled and reviewed one at the time, so a lot of the fine detail on gate placement and fit tolerances just isn't public. Builders who've handled metal framed Gunpla generally note the metal parts are less forgiving of forceful assembly and can scuff or mark more easily than plastic, since there's no touching up a scratch on cast metal the way you'd hit plastic with a panel liner.

Who it's for

Buy this if you're already deep into RX-78-2 variant collecting or you specifically want a piece of the 945SH promotional history, and you're prepared to pay a real premium and accept thin documentation on the actual build. Skip it if you just want a great RX-78-2 build experience. The standard retail MG RX-78-2 lines give you the same core suit, better parts availability, and actual community build knowledge, without the scavenger hunt. This one is a display case curiosity first and a build second.

The build story

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

Much of the kit follows standard MG-era construction, with the usual runners and the usual Bandai fit of that period, but the swapped in metal frame components change the feel of assembly noticeably. Joints seat with more resistance and the extra weight makes handling feel deliberate rather than casual, though the tradeoff is that mistakes on the metal surfaces don't sand or panel-line away like plastic does.

The standout here is simply the technique itself, real cast metal standing in for frame components in a Gunpla release years before Bandai's later Metal Build collaborations made that idea mainstream. Color separation and proportions track with the RX-78-2 sculpt of that MG generation, and the typical loadout of beam rifle, beam saber, and shield rides along, but the real draw is holding a Master Grade that's part plastic kit and part small metal object.

Lore & trivia

01The 945SH in the name refers to SoftBank's Gundam branded mobile phone, and this MG was given exclusively to customers who purchased that specific handset in September 2010.
02GP30th marks the 30th anniversary of the original Mobile Suit Gundam anime, which premiered in 1979.
03This release used Bandai's Metal In Frame technique, building real metal into select inner frame parts, an approach that predates the company's later Metal Build collaborative lines.
04Because it was never sold through normal retail channels, it has become one of the harder to find RX-78-2 Master Grade variants on the secondary collector market.