MGUniversal Century

RMS-179 GM II (A.E.U.G. Color Ver.)

The Federation's dependable grunt suit, repainted in AEUG olive and sold to the people who always wanted one in the right colors.

MechaGrade Score

3.6/5

GM II (A.E.U.G. Color Ver.) · 1/100 · 2020

GradeMG

Scale1/100

Released2020

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is a solid, unglamorous MG that does exactly what a mass-production suit kit should do: it builds clean, poses well, and looks the part on a shelf full of protagonists.

It is not a technical showcase and it will not wow anyone with a new engineering trick, because it is not new tooling, it is the existing MG GM II mold recolored into AEUG service colors as a Premium Bandai exclusive. Judged on its own terms, as a grunt suit done right, it earns a genuinely good score. Judged against 2020's best MG releases, it feels a step behind.

Best for: Zeta Gundam fans who want an AEUG-colored grunt suit to stand next to their Mk-II and Rick Dias, not builders chasing the newest inner-frame tech

The full review

What it is

This kit is the familiar MG GM II, Bandai's mass-production follow-up to the original RGM-79 GM, done up in the dark AEUG service colors instead of Federation white and blue. Molded plastic covers most of the color scheme, so it comes together clean without a heavy sticker sheet doing the visual work. The build has that reassuring MG rhythm: frame first, then armor snapping over it panel by panel, and by the time the beam rifle and shield are in hand it reads immediately as a Zeta-era grunt suit, not a Gundam-type hero unit dressed down. I like that Bandai bothered to give this line a proper AEUG release instead of leaving it a white-only suit forever.

The catch

The honest caveat is that this is not new engineering. It is a P-Bandai exclusive rerelease of an older MG GM II mold with a new color plastic run, so anyone hoping for a from-scratch inner frame with the latest articulation tricks will be a little disappointed. Being Premium Bandai only also means it never sat on a normal retail shelf, so it comes and goes with reissue windows and tends to cost more than a standard MG when it is available at all. It shares whatever minor frame looseness and dated joint feel builders have reported on the base GM II mold, since the recolor does not touch the engineering underneath.

Who it's for

Buy this one if you are building out the Gryps Conflict side of your shelf and want the grunt suits to look like they actually belong to AEUG rather than wearing hand-me-down Federation white. It is a satisfying, fairly quick MG build with real molded color separation and good screen accuracy for the anime's mass-production forces. Skip it if you already own a standard-color MG GM II and do not need a second one just for the palette swap, or if you are shopping strictly for cutting-edge MG engineering, because the newest Ver.Ka and Ver.2.0-style kits will out-articulate and out-detail this one.

The build story

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

The build follows a standard MG sequence, inner frame first, then the armor shells clip over it panel by panel. Gate placement is typical Bandai MG era, mostly tucked onto inner faces where cleanup barely shows once the suit is assembled. Because so much of the AEUG color is molded rather than stickered, the panel-line and detail payoff reads well straight off the runners without needing paint to sell the scheme.

Articulation is standard MG-grade: the head, shoulders, elbows and knees all move enough to hit the classic Gundam action poses, and the hip and torso movement is serviceable if not the most generous in the line. The kit comes armed with its beam rifle and shield, which is enough to pose as the mainstay grunt suit it represents, even if the accessory loadout is leaner than a hero-unit MG would offer.

Lore & trivia

01The RMS-179 GM II was the Earth Federation's mainstay mass-production mobile suit starting in UC 0084, succeeding the original RGM-79 GM with stronger vernier thrusters, sub-sensors, and a new 1,500kw generator that let it carry a proper beam rifle instead of a beam spray gun
02GM IIs saw heavy service on both sides of the Gryps Conflict in UC 0087, the war depicted in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, which is why an AEUG-colored release fills a real gap for that side of the conflict
03Anaheim Electronics later developed the GM II lineage into the MSA-003 Nemo, which went on to become AEUG's own mainstay mobile suit
04This A.E.U.G. Color Ver. release is a Premium Bandai exclusive that reuses the existing MG RMS-179 GM II tooling rather than introducing new frame engineering