MGUniversal Century

RX-0 Unicorn Gundam Green Frame/Color Clear

The same great Ver.Ka engineering, but this time you get to see straight through the frame that makes it work.

MechaGrade Score

4.2/5

Unicorn Gundam · 1/100 · 2015

GradeMG

Scale1/100

Released2015

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the standard MG Unicorn Ver.Ka mold recast in translucent green and clear plastic for The Art of Gundam Exhibition, and it earns its exhibition-piece status honestly.

The Ver.Ka engineering underneath, the slide-out shield, the internal frame reveal on transformation, the light-catching psycho frame resin, is genuinely clever seven-plus years after its original release, and the clear treatment actually adds something rather than just being a gimmick recolor. It costs more than the standard release and it is harder to find, but if you can get one, the build experience is the same excellent kit with a finish that makes the transformation gimmick hit even harder.

Best for: Ver.Ka fans and Unicorn collectors who want the transformation gimmick shown off rather than hidden, and don't mind paying exhibition-exclusive prices for it

The full review

What it is

At the core this is the 2007 Ver.Ka engineering that made the MG Unicorn Gundam famous, molded in clear resin and green-tinted plastic instead of the usual solid white and red. You build Unicorn Mode first, all clean white-look panels over a barely-visible frame, then unfold the whole thing into Destroy Mode and the psycho frame lights up green through every seam and gap. I found that reveal every bit as satisfying as it was on my first standard-color Ver.Ka build, maybe more, because now you can actually watch the frame doing its job instead of taking it on faith. The slide-and-flip shield mechanism and the extending v-fin still feel like real engineering, not just posing gimmicks.

The catch

This is an event-exclusive variant, originally sold at The Art of Gundam Exhibition in Roppongi in 2015, so it runs well above standard MG pricing and secondhand listings vary wildly. Builders of the base Ver.Ka mold have flagged real issues that carry over here: the forearms limit wrist rotation, the knees are a genuine articulation ceiling and won't bend as far back as you want for dynamic poses, and the ball-and-socket shoulder and skirt joints can work loose with repeated transformation and posing. Clear plastic also shows glue smears and fingerprints more than solid colors, so cleanup and handling matter more on this one than on a standard-finish kit.

Who it's for

Get this if you already love the Ver.Ka Unicorn and want the definitive version for a display shelf where the transformation gimmick is the whole point, or if you collect exhibition-exclusive Gunpla and don't mind hunting secondary markets. Skip it if you just want an affordable first Unicorn kit, the standard-color MG Ver.Ka or an HG Unicorn will get you the same core experience for far less money and far less scarcity anxiety. Skip it too if loose ball joints after repeated posing would bother you, because that's a real characteristic of this frame, not a rumor.

The build story

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

The build itself follows the standard Ver.Ka sequence, so if you've built the mold before there are no surprises in assembly order. Clear and translucent green runners need a little more care during gate cleanup since scuffs and nub marks show more than they would on solid white or red plastic, and glue or cement marks are much less forgiving here too. Panel lines and separate armor plates go together the way they always have on this mold, cleanly, with good part fit that doesn't fight you.

The standout engineering is still the internal frame and the Unicorn-to-Destroy Mode transformation, where armor plates split and slide to expose the psycho frame lattice underneath, here rendered in glowing green resin instead of the usual red or pink. The beam magnum, twin beam sabers, and hyper bazooka round out the loadout and the shield's slide-open mechanism remains one of the more mechanically satisfying gimmicks in the whole Unicorn line. Articulation is decent for the era of the mold: 360-degree shoulders with some fore-aft swing, working double knees, and skirt armor on ball joints for wide leg movement, hemmed in mainly by the wrist and knee limits noted above.

Lore & trivia

01This clear/green variant was an exclusive release for The Art of Gundam Exhibition, held at Roppongi Hills Mori Arts Center Gallery in Tokyo, using clear and green-tinted plastic instead of the standard color scheme.
02The psycho frame on the Ver.Ka mold is built from a light-collecting resin designed to visually mimic illumination without any actual LED electronics.
03In the source material, the Unicorn Gundam was the Earth Federation's flagship of the UC Project and the first mobile suit built with a full psycho-frame structure, piloted by Banagher Links during the Laplace Incident.
04The NT-D (New Type Destroyer) system that triggers the Unicorn-to-Destroy Mode transformation is an anti-Newtype combat AI installed in the suit's operating system, distinct from the Vist Foundation's separate La+ Program used to locate Laplace's Box.