MGUniversal Century

Mission Pack W-Type for Gundam F90

A small box that turns the F90 into a wave rider, and does it without a single headache.

MechaGrade Score

3.8/5

Mission Pack W-Type for Gundam F90 · 1/100 · 2021

GradeMG

Scale1/100

Released2021

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is an accessory kit doing exactly what an accessory kit should do: it takes a mobile suit you already love and gives it a genuinely new trick, not a reshuffled parts bag.

The Warbird transformation is the whole pitch here, and it delivers. I will say up front this only makes sense if you already own the base MG F90, since the body isn't included, but for what it is, the engineering is sharper than I expected from a 2,200 yen add-on.

Best for: F90 owners who want the Warbird flight mode and are fine buying a base-less expansion pack

The full review

What it is

The W-Type is one of the mission packs from the F90 A to Z Project, a set of newly designed loadouts Kunio Okawara drew up long after the original kit shipped, and this one is built around speed and firepower together. You raise the cockpit piece, reposition the Minovsky Drive on the back, and fold out landing gear from the arms and crotch, and the F90 goes from standing gundam to a wave rider silhouette that actually looks like it belongs in flight. It comes with clip-on beam effect parts for the drive unit, which is a nice touch for a pack this size. Popping it onto a built F90 for the first time and running the transformation start to finish was a genuinely satisfying five minutes.

The catch

This is not a standalone mobile suit kit, it is a hardpoint swap for the MG F90 you have to already own, so factor in you're paying MG accessory prices for parts that do nothing on their own. Builders note some seam lines on the red parts and a bit of sticker reliance for color separation rather than molded color throughout. There is also a tight fit between the nose and antenna that can bump into the shoulder units once they're extended in flight mode, so test that clearance before you force anything. None of it is a dealbreaker, but it is not a flawless fit either.

Who it's for

If you already have the base F90 on your shelf and you liked the idea of Mission Packs when you first read about the concept, this is the pack that shows off why they exist. It is a small, focused upgrade, not a big kit, so go in expecting an afternoon project rather than a weekend one. Skip it if you don't own the base F90 yet, or if you want a pack that changes the F90's whole silhouette on the ground rather than in the air. For F90 completionists working through the mission pack line, this is one of the more mechanically interesting ones to grab.

The build story

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

Assembly is a straightforward hardpoint swap: pop off the stock back covers, click the new drive and shoulder units into place, no fiddly multi-step subassemblies to fight through. One reviewer building it called out no particularly troublesome areas in the whole process, which tracks with it being a pack rather than a full suit.

The standout is the transformation gimmick itself. Raising the cockpit, swinging the Minovsky Drive, and folding out the arm and crotch landing gear is a real sequence with a payoff, not a reposition-and-hope situation, and the shoulder armor's minor head interference when raised is the only articulation snag worth flagging. For a pack this size the part count buys you a legitimate second display mode for the F90 rather than just a new gun.

Lore & trivia

01The Mission Pack system was designed for the F90 by the Strategic Naval Research Institute, giving the suit swappable hardpoints for over two dozen specialized loadouts instead of building separate mobile suits for each mission type.
02The W-Type (Warbird) was one of the packs newly designed by original F90 creator Kunio Okawara specifically for the later F90 A to Z Project, long after the character's original 1990 debut.
03The base MG F90 stands 14.8 meters tall, notably smaller than the 18 meter RX-78-2 Gundam, a size reduction the in-universe fiction attributes to lighter micro-honeycomb armor and frame construction.
04This particular pack was a limited Premium Bandai release in October 2021, priced at 2,200 yen and sold strictly as an expansion for the standalone MG F90 kit.