MGUniversal Century

MS-14A Anavel Gato's Gelgoog Ver.2.0

The Nightmare of Solomon's personal ride, rebuilt on a frame that finally does the silhouette justice.

MechaGrade Score

3.9/5

Anavel Gato's Gelgoog · 1/100 · 2018

GradeMG

Scale1/100

Released2018

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is a great looking kit that asks you to make peace with a mobile suit that was never built to kneel.

The Ver.2.0 inner frame gives Gato's Gelgoog real shoulder and hip range and a chest and waist that twist convincingly, and the blue and green molded plastic plus the water slide decal sheet nail his personal color scheme without heavy painting. Where it stumbles is the knees and ankles, both boxed in by the Gelgoog's own armor design. I still think it is one of the better P-Bandai UC releases of its era.

Best for: 0083 fans and UC Zeon collectors who want the definitive Gato Gelgoog and don't mind a suit that poses better standing tall than crouching low

The full review

What it is

I went into this expecting a straight recolor of the standard MG Gelgoog Ver.2.0 and got something with a bit more care put into it than that. The molded blue and green plastic is genuinely close to Gato's screen colors, so a huge amount of the look comes together before you ever touch a panel liner. The frame underneath is the reworked Ver.2.0 skeleton, and it shows in the shoulders and torso, which swing and twist with real confidence for a kit this age. Snapping the shield, beam naginata, and that oversized prototype beam rifle into place and getting the silhouette to click into that iconic 0083 pose was the moment this kit won me over.

The catch

The Gelgoog was designed as a space ace's mount, not a ground fighter, and the kit is honest about that. Knee bend is genuinely limited, ankles are boxed in by the leg armor, and getting a convincing kneel or low crouch takes real effort or just isn't happening. Builders have flagged seam lines on the high mobility backpack and skirt armor that can sit slightly proud until the outer armor clicks fully home, and the big forearm armor gets in the way when you try to two-hand a weapon with a shoulder stock. As a P-Bandai release, pricing and availability run higher than a retail MG, so shop around before committing.

Who it's for

If you already love Universal Century Zeon suits or grew up on 0083, this is worth tracking down. The color separation alone saves you a repaint job that would otherwise be brutal to match, and the accessory loadout (beam rifle, prototype beam rifle, shield, beam naginata) gives you plenty to work with on a shelf display. Skip it if dynamic low poses and full leg articulation are dealbusters for you, or if paying P-Bandai premiums for a suit you can't get elsewhere is a hard no. For anyone building a Zeon ace lineup or just chasing that Solomon nightmare in plastic, it earns its spot.

The build story

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

Runner cleanup is standard MG fare, nothing unusually fiddly, though the skirt armor pieces can need a firm seat to sit flush before the seams disappear. The backpack in particular has a few spots where careful clipping and dry fitting pays off, since the high mobility thrusters are made of several stacked parts.

The Ver.2.0 frame is where the kit earns its keep: shoulders rotate and lift well, the waist twists further than you'd expect from a suit this bulky, and the thumbs and fingers hold weapons securely enough for dynamic beam saber poses. The tradeoff is down at the knees and ankles, which stay locked close to a standing pose. The weapon loadout is generous for the price point, giving you four distinct armaments to pose with straight out of the box.

Lore & trivia

01Anavel Gato earned the nickname 'Nightmare of Solomon' for his exploits piloting a customized Gelgoog during the One Year War, reportedly downing large numbers of Federation mobile suits.
02In Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, Gato steals the nuclear-armed RX-78GP02A Gundam 'Physalis' and uses it to destroy a large portion of the Federation fleet, the event that sets the whole OVA in motion.
03This Ver.2.0 release rebuilds the original MG Gelgoog onto the newer, more mobile Ver.2.0 inner frame introduced for the standard Char's Gelgoog kit, then reworks the molded colors and decals specifically for Gato's personal unit.
04The kit was released through Bandai's P-Bandai (Premium Bandai) online storefront rather than general retail, which is why pricing and stock run higher than a standard MG.