MGBuild Fighters

PF-78-3A Gundam Amazing Red Warrior

An RX-78-2 frame in a fighter's red coat, built to play hard rather than pose pretty on a shelf.

MechaGrade Score

3.8/5

Gundam Amazing Red Warrior · 1/100 · 2015

GradeMG

Scale1/100

Released2015

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This kit earns its keep on the frame, not the color scheme.

Bandai bolted the Amazing Red Warrior's new torso, shoulders, and feet onto the proven RX-78-2 Ver. 2.0 inner skeleton, so I got championship-grade articulation and a weapons loadout that actually gives me something to do with all that range of motion. It is not the kit I would pick to just sit and admire straight from the runners, but it is one of the more fun MGs I have put through a full pose test.

Best for: Builders who want a genuinely poseable, gimmick-loaded MG and do not mind doing a little extra legwork on the finish

The full review

What it is

The Amazing Red Warrior is Lady Kawaguchi's tournament machine from Build Fighters Try, and Bandai built the kit around the RX-78-2 2.0 inner frame with new external parts for the torso, shoulders, and feet. I felt that lineage the moment I started posing it. The hips and shoulders move the way a veteran-fighter's Gundam should, the boosters on the back swing through a wide arc, and the mini missile bays hidden in the chest and front skirts are a genuinely fun surprise the first time you notice them. Between the beam rifle, beam gatling gun, bazooka, handgun, and beam saber, I never ran out of ways to pose this thing mid-battle. Two pilot figures round it out.

The catch

The elephant in the room is the color. Amazing Red Warrior is molded almost entirely in two shades of red plus white, dark gray, and yellow, which is anime-accurate but leaves the kit looking flat and a little boring straight off the runners. Builders consistently point to the same fix, aftermarket waterslide decals (Daling makes the main option, and even fans admit that set is only middling), which takes the kit from good to great but is an extra purchase and extra effort. The other real annoyance is the deep red plastic itself: nub and gate marks show up more readily on it than on lighter colors, so cleanup takes more patience and a sharper blade than usual for an MG.

Who it's for

I would point this kit at builders who already have a couple of MGs under their belt and want a genuinely playable one, someone who enjoys mini gimmicks, a big weapon loadout, and a frame that holds dynamic poses without drooping. It is also a nice pickup for Build Fighters Try fans who want Lady Kawaguchi's machine specifically. I would steer away anyone chasing a display piece that looks striking straight out of the box with zero extra work, or anyone who does not want to source or apply decals, because the flat red-on-red finish needs that extra step to really pop.

The build story

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

Assembly across the roughly 18 runners is closer to easygoing than fiddly for an MG. The instructions are clear, the inner frame goes together the same way RX-78-2 2.0 builders will already recognize, and nothing about the shell fit fought me. The one real build-time hurdle is the red plastic itself, since gate marks and nub scars show up more than they would on lighter molded colors, so I slowed down and used a sharp side cutter plus a bit of sanding rather than rushing the cleanup.

Where this kit shines is in what the frame lets you do once it is built. The articulation carried over from the 2.0 base means deep knee bends, wide shoulder rotation, and hip joints that hold a dynamic pose without sagging. The backpack boosters swing through a genuinely wide range, and the mini missile bays tucked into the chest and front skirts are a small but satisfying detail most photos of the kit do not even show off. With the full weapon set in hand, from beam rifle to gatling gun to bazooka, I found myself building out battle poses more than I do with most MGs, which is really the whole point of a Build Fighters kit.

Lore & trivia

01The Amazing Red Warrior first appeared in Gundam Build Fighters Try, piloted in the story by Lady Kawaguchi, a champion Gunpla fighter idolized by protagonist Fumina Hoshino.
02The MG kit reuses the inner frame architecture from the MG RX-78-2 Gundam Ver. 2.0, giving it that kit's well-regarded articulation as its structural base.
03It was released in August 2015 and comes on roughly 18 runners molded in red, dark red, white, yellow, and dark gray, plus a foil sticker sheet and a Tetron sticker sheet.
04The kit includes two pilot figures, one standing and one seated, for the cockpit.